Paper Given Before Oswego County Historical Society at Oswego December 33, 1949 by Kermit Kuntz of the History Faculty of Oswego State Teachers College
No the least of the difficulties in writing local political history is the assessment of the forces which contribute to the end result of political action. It would appear, for example that local issues could be solved in the area of their origin and relevance and without reference to factors lying wholly outside of that area, but politics have frequently a logic of their own. National issues may, and often do, cut across and be cloud the settlement of local problems. Just as common, however, is the tendency to permit circumstances of local interest and significance to color, confuse, and even defeat the solution of problems of national importance. Old political feuds on the local scene, their origins long forgotten, if not forgiven, effect political alignments on the larger scene. Intense loyalties to local or state political chieftains or favorite sons may influence national policy. Traditional adherence to party, regardless of party principles, may result in parties without principles, or soul-less party machines which exist only to win elections and to enjoy the fruits or spoils of victory. These and other factors were certainly of the very stuff of the politics of the Civil War era. They force themselves upon the student’s attention, but they defy evaluation.
American historians are in general agreement that the Civil War forged a nation out of what had been merely a federation of states, that the issues of war put an end once and for all time to the doctrine that the federal government was only the creature of the states. The war was a test of the validity of that doctrine and destroyed it. But in the generation before the war states rights were more than theory. They were a way of political life. The really vital decisions of social existence were made on the state level, and practical politics accommodated themselves to this fact. If it follows that political movements within the states must be seen as the factors which shaped the destiny of the early republic it is equally true that they were the determinants of local politics. The political climate of Oswego was determined by the winds that blew across New York State.
Hardshells vs. Softshells
The political alignments in New York State in the decade before the Civil War were confused. Divisions in the Democratic Party dated back to 1838 when the issue of the disposition of the surplus revenues of the Erie Canal had created disagreements so
deep as to divide the party. The national agitation of the Wilmot Proviso question and the Freesoil movement of 1848 had aggravated Democratic differences of opinion. The conservative element, the so-called “Hunkers”, came to be known in the ‘Fifties’ as the “Hardshells” for their tough resistance to new ideas; the radicals of the party, or the “Barnburners”, were called by their opponents the “Softshells”.
The Hardshell Democrats were generally prosouthern in sympathy, even if not wholly proslavery, and they resented and opposed abolitionism as a dangerously divisive movement. The “Softshells” more amenable to what was becoming the northern point of view on the slavery question, included in their leadership and rank-and-file many men of the free-soil persuasion.
Whether loyalties to distinct sets of principles were stronger than devotion to the respective leaders of the factions is a debatable question. The leaders were able men, but too many in number. The “Hards” followed Daniel S. Dickinson of Binghamton, a man of courage and ability, but lacking in tact. His political strength lay in his influence with the federal administrations of Presidents Pierce and Buchanan. The result was that the “Hards” regularly received most of the federal offices in the state.
The “Softs” were led by Horatio Seymour, Samuel J. Tilden, John A. Dix, Erastus Corning, William Cassidy, Dean Richmond, and Peter Cagger. Of these, Cagger, Corning, and Richmond represented powerful business and railroad interests which recognized the advantages of association with the faction most frequently in control at Albany. Indeed, the “Soft” leadership had inherited from the era of Martin Van Buren the title of the “Albany Regency” and the occasionally doubtful services of Van Buren’s son, “Prince John”.
Rise Of Republican Party
Democratic confusion was worse confounded by the nature of the party split in New York City, where factional differences were likely to cut across the Hard-Soft division. The interests of Tammany Hall were the interests of Tammany Hall, not of the Party, nor of the nation. Its purposes were served by siding now with the “Hards,” again with the “Softs.” Tammany could make and break politicians; when the organization tried to rid itself of the able, ambitious, but erratic Fernando Wood in 1858, he established “Mozart Hall” as a counterweight in the Party. This faction was as unpredictable as its founder. In theory it should have thrown its weight on the “Hard” side of an issue when Tammany went “Soft,” and vice-versa, but in practice Mozart Hall went where Wood took it.
If the Democratic Party in the state represented a once-powerful unity going rapidly to pieces, the Republican Party exhibited the contrasting picture of a union emerging from the most oddly assorted elements. It was a union of expediency, and its common denominator was opposition to the Democratic party. In it were regular Whigs, Silver-Gray Whigs, a goodly number of Free-Soil Democrats, and the Americans or “Know-Nothings”. Here were dissensions galore, and it required the most astute leadership to manage a united front in the face of the enemy. Among the leaders of this complex union were names like William H. Seward, Edwin D. Morgan, Preston King, Roscoe Conkling, George William Curtis, William M. Evarts, Horace Greeley, and Henry J. Raymond. Their abilities were unquestionable, but so was their individuality. It was well that the party found a manager in a pre-eminent politician, Thurlow Weed, the Albany editor and former Auburn printer. Even so, Horace Greeley of the “New York Tribune” proved troublesome; his detestation of Seward may account for the latter’s failure to win the Republican nomination for the Presidency in 1860.
Oswegonian Nominated
The first national testing of Republican strength had come in 1856, when the party’s candidate for the Presidency, John C. Fremont, lost to James Buchanan of Pennsylvania, but Fremont carried New York and by a majority of 80,000. At the same time the state elected its first Republican administration, headed by Governor John A. King*. The result was the more remarkable in that the “old-line”, or conservative Whigs and the “Know-Nothings” had not yet been fully absorbed into the new party. These elements had supported their own candidates for President and Governor (Millard Fillmore and Erastus Brooks) and had polled nearly 130,000 votes in the state.
Two years later, in 1858, the Republicans again elected the Governor, Edwin D. Morgan, but this time by the greatly reduced majority of 17,440, evidence that the Democrats were still alive and doing business. The “Americans” divided their vote about equally between the Democratic candidate, Amasa Parker, and their own, Lorenzo Burrows. Running on the Democratic ticket for Lt. Governor was John J. Taylor, of Oswego, who had served one term in Congress where he had voted for the Kansas-Nebraska bill and had thus rendered himself unacceptable to his constituents for a second term.
* Some historians credit Governor Clarke of Canandaigua, elected governor in 1854, with this distinction. Clarke was elected by several groups of citizens, each with distinct principles, united only in their support of him. He did not have the designation of “Republican” upon the ballot; however. In later years he considered himself as having been the first Republican governor elected in New York.
Seward’s “Irrepressible Conflict”
It was during this campaign that William H. Seward of Auburn gave the Republicans and the nation the thrilling phrase, “irrepressible conflict”, in a speech on the heightening tension between North and South. Even Greeley, forgetting for the moment his antipathy for Seward, praised the speech, although he was later to assert that it had lost the Republicans some votes. However that may be, Seward came more and more into serious consideration for the Republican nomination for the Presidency in 1860, a fact not incompatible with his ambition. It was with Seward’s brightening prospects in mind that Thurlow Weed gave direction to the state Republican convention in 1859. The various elements of the party must be appeased. Candidates for the state offices were selected in equal numbers from among the “regulars,” the Whigs, and the former Free-Soil Democrats.
Daniel Dickinson, the Democratic leader of the state, was ambitious too, and for the same high place. Although Dickinson was the “Hardshell” boss he negotiated with the “Softs” of Tammany Hall for their support, seeking in this alliance the assurance of a united Democratic delegation to the national convention of 1860 to endorse his name for the Presidency. Unfortunately, Fernando Wood and his “Mozart Hall” following arrived at Syracuse and took over the meeting place an hour before the time set for the opening of the convention. They organized, and when Dickinson and the other Democratic delegates appeared on the scene guns were flourished and men were knocked down. In the confusion the Dickinson men withdrew from the Hall. The Wood delegation renominated the same ticket they had nominated and elected in 1857. They left the Hall, and the Dickinson delegation held its own convention, but nominated the same slate approved by Wood. Dickinson made a graceful speech, pleading for harmony; delegates to the national convention were chosen and instructed to vote as a unit, and Seward’s “irrepressible conflict” speech was roundly condemned as revolutionary.
“Know-Nothings” Disappear
The remnants of the Know Nothing party also held a convention and for no apparent reason, unless to embarrass the Seward for President movement, endorsed five of the Republican and four of the Democratic candidates for the state offices. This action confused the results at the polls. The Democrats with “K-N” help elected the Secretary of State by the very slim margin of 1450 votes; they carried two other offices. The Republicans elected the Comptroller with “K-N” assistance by a majority of more than 48,000. In addition, they won four other offices and an overwhelming majority in both houses of the Legislature. The over-all result was a Republican victory and the death of “K-Nism”, for the latter were never to reappear in New York politics.
Oswego County gave an average majority of over 1600 votes out of a total of 11,800 to both the state and the county Republican slates. The first Assembly District, which included the city of Oswego, re-elected Dewitt C. Littlejohn, who had already served several terms in the Legislature both as a Whig and a Republican. (Several times he was elected speaker of the Assembly.)
Seward’s Star Rises
The Republicans had reason, therefore, to look forward to 1860, with confidence. There was little of cheer in the Democratic ranks; their dissensions had made possible a series of Republican triumphs in the state. The factionalism into which the Democrats had fallen, particularly in New York City, was symptomatic of graver divisions in the nation. Moreover, it was felt that the importance of the state’s electoral vote in the coming contest was bound to enhance the attractiveness of Seward as the Presidential candidate. Oswego Republicans preferred him; indeed, since no other New Yorker had been seriously considered for the honor, there was scarcely any mention in the press of such hopefuls as Lincoln of Illinois, Cameron of Pennsylvania, Bates of Missouri, Chase of Ohio, or Dayton of New Jersey. Not only were the claims of these outlanders disregarded, but there was also a tendency to overlook the fact that Seward was viewed with distrust in certain quarters outside of the state. The “irrepressible conflict” speech had alienated many conservative Republicans who feared the consequences of putting into the Presidency a man who took for granted the inevitability of a sectional clash. On the other hand, there were radical abolitionist Republicans who doubted the sincerity of Seward’s antislavery pronouncements. Finally, there were a number of New York Republicans, who, for reasons of their own, were not kindly disposed towards Seward.
Greeley Opposed Seward
Horace Greeley had at one time been ambitious for the Governorship, at another for a seat in the United States Senate. His hopes had been thwarted by Seward and Weed, and now he used his newspaper, the “New York Tribune”, to good effect against the realization of their hopes. William Cullen Bryant of the “New York Evening Post” was also cold to Seward’s political charms, and supported Lincoln to whom he was won by Lincoln’s Cooper Union speech in New York City. These men wielded a damaging influence on Seward’s prospects through the press. Another New York Republican, David Dudley Field, was at the convention in Chicago and sowed seeds of the suspicion that Seward, if nominated, could not carry his own state. Greeley came to the convention as a delegate from Oregon and with his knife whetted for Seward. It is interesting, if idle, to speculate on what would have been the result at Chicago if the New York delegation had stood solidly behind Seward, or on the puzzlement with which the faithful Seward men of Oswego read in the same issue of the “Oswego Commercial Times” (that of May 18, 1860) two headlines: “Mr. Seward’s Prospects Brightening” and “Hurrah For the Next President Of the United States, the Honorable Abraham Lincoln Of Illinois”. The first was a dispatch reprinted from the “New York Tribune” of two days earlier, the second was the later news from Chicago.
Democrats Hopelessly Split
When Lincoln was nominated at Chicago, the Democratic Party, North and South, had already come to the parting of the ways. Unable to nominate a candidate at Charleston the convention reassembled at Baltimore, but without the delegations of eight Southern states. The Baltimore convention nominated Stephen A. Douglas, former Canandaiguan, who received the solid support of the New York delegation.
The southern Democrats held their own convention at Richmond, Va., and agreed on John C. Breckinridge as their candidate. No New York man enjoyed much chance of nomination, either at Charleston or Baltimore, although Daniel S. Dickinson of Binghamton received 16 votes at Charleston. Horatio Seymour of New York was mentioned as a possible compromise candidate, but his name was not placed in nomination. The solidarity of the New York delegation was more apparent than real; its solid front in the conventions was due to the commitment to the unit rule adopted at the time the delegation was chosen at Syracuse a year earlier.
The voter shopping for a President in 1860 had still another candidate to consider. This was John C. Bell, nominated by the Constitutional Union party, which hoped to settle the sectional question by ignoring it.
Democratic Split In State
The hopelessness of the Democratic cause was signalized by the failure to achieve harmony on a state ticket, Dickinson refused to honor the party’s obligation to support its nominee, Douglas. Instead, he and his followers engineered their own state convention and nominated a slate of electors to support the southern Democratic choice, Breckinridge. In a second state Democratic convention the “Softs” approved Douglas and combined with the Bell Constitutional Union adherents on the electoral ticket which gave the Douglas men 25 places with ten for the Bell forces. The Republicans endorsed Lincoln, and renominated Edwin D. Morgan for Governor.
The stage was set for a bitter and hard fought campaign, and colorful. In every part of the state, in every center of population that had a place-name, mass meetings, torch-light processions, and perfervid oratory were wellnigh continuous. The best speakers of each party were forever on the road. Out-of-state orators were imported. Eminent New Yorkers appeared on platforms in all of the Northern states. Much money was spent—too much if one were to believe the tales told by one side of how the other spent its money. Each party had its press, and slanted news was by no means confined to the editorial columns. Fantastic rumors were given wide currency, such (as that the Democratic financial tycoons planned to create a panic in the event of Lincoln’s election. )
Spirited Campaign Of 1860
The Republican campaign in Oswego County got under way very shortly after the Chicago convention. A ratification meeting was held on June 6th at Fulton. A specially chartered train from Oswego carried, free of charge, more than 600 of Oswego’s Lincoln supporters. Great pride was taken in the orderly conduct of the affair. The Oswego contingent paraded from the Fulton station to the meeting place according to a previously planned order of march: First, the Marshal, Colonel Jonathan Tarbell*, and his assistants, followed by the bearers of a banner from the Oswego Starch Factory with the names “Lincoln and Hamlin” surmounted by “a large and beautiful bouquet.” Then, a wooden rail, carried by two men, having on either end a small banner with “Lincoln and Hamlin” printed thereon, and a larger flag in the middle on which were the words, “Times Office, Oswego.” Next in line was the Mechanics’ Sax Horn Band of Oswego, followed by a man bearing aloft the inscription “Honest Old Abe and The Printer Boy.” Having thus unmistakably established the identity of its idols, the rest of the 600 followed in double file. The procession was officially welcomed to Fulton by the Volney Republican Club “while the cannon announced that the war had actually begun in Oswego County.”
* Tarbell was publisher and editor of the “Oswego Times” at the time. He later commanded a regiment during- the Civil War. He settled in Mississippi after the war and became a member of its highest court.
Overflow Crowd at Fulton
The crowd overflowed Fulton’s big Empire Hall, with more outside than in. In the hall and behind the platform was a “Lincoln and Hamlin” banner; across the desk in front of the stage the rail carried in the procession, and “above it the Star Spangled Banner.” The meeting began at eight o’clock with an address by the president of the Volney Club, J. J. Wolcott. Letters from those who had been invited, but had found it impossible to attend, were read. A committee on resolutions was appointed. Then came the speeches, one by Assemblyman Littlejohn, others by Mayor Fitzhugh, Cheney Ames, and County Judge John C. Churchill, all of Oswego. After the adoption of appropriate resolutions, and a display of fireworks and the firing of a cannon at regular intervals outside the hall, the procession reformed, marched to the depot, saw another display of pyrotechnics, and boarded the train. “It sped away with its load of live Republicans, and reached Oswego about 12 o’clock.”
Oswego’s Ratification Meet
Two weeks later, Oswego held its own Republican ratification meeting at Doolittle Hall. The call for the meeting assured the public that seats would be reserved for the ladies and that they were cordially invited to attend. This rally introduced a number of features not a part of the Fulton meeting. A salute was fired—one gun for each state and a presidential salute for Lincoln. The Oswego “Wide Awakes”, an organization of colorfully uniformed young men, assembled at 7 p.m. and headed by the aforementioned Sax Horn Band proceeded to the Starch Factory where a Liberty Pole, 140 feet high, had been raised. A flag and a 40-foot “Lincoln and Hamlin” banner were run to the top. The band played “Hail Columbia.” Three cheers were given and the “Wide Awakes” marched to the depot to receive the Fulton delegation which arrived by a special eightcar train carrying also delegations from Phoenix and Minetto. The Honorable Cheney Ames received the delegation in the name of the Oswego Lincoln and Hamlin Club and the Wide Awakes. The procession marched down West First Street to Seneca and “on nearing the hall the Wide Awakes opened to the right and left, lighted scores of Roman candles, and stood fast till the whole procession had passed into the hall, and filled it to its utmost capacity.” General Bruce of Madison spoke for an hour and a quarter. There were the usual resolutions, more speeches, and a procession back to the depot to the accompaniment of Roman candles and rockets, making the “streets light as day.” The Republican “Commercial Times” hailed the meeting as one of the most enthusiastic and brilliant political displays ever witnessed in Northwestern New York.”
Another rally in early August was attended by an audience so large that it was held in Washington Square, rather than in Doolittle Hall as scheduled. The orators on this occasion were the chief attraction: Senator Henry Wilson of Massachusetts, and Congressman J. E. Vinton of Wisconsin. The “Times” estimated the size of the audience at about 5,000, including delegations from New Haven, Scriba, Hannibal, and Oswego Town.
Hannibal Pole-Raising
An equally large assemblage turned out to witness a pole-raising at Hannibal in September. The “Times” described an interesting tableau: “One of the most interesting features of the occasion was the presence of some 42 young ladies, representing the several states and territories. We were informed that they were all from the town of Hannibal. They were attired in white dresses with wreaths of myrtle around their fair foreheads, and a blue scarf across the shoulders upon which was printed the name of the state or territory which each represented. We have said that they were all in white, but that requires qualification. The young lady representing Kansas was dressed in black, and she wore a banner upon which were these words: ‘I have 100,000. Why can’t I come in?”’
In October the tempo of the campaign quickened. Mass meetings and rallies held by the parties were weekly affairs. A rally to end all rallies was called by the Republicans for October 12. Despite a hailstorm in the eastern end of the county, and threatening weather locally, fifteen to twenty thousand people, by Republican count, assembled to hear the great abolitionist orator, Joshua Giddings, and Lieutenant-Governor Noble of Wisconsin speak simultaneously, although at opposite ends of West Park. These men were spelled by other orators of the day. And still the subject had not been adequately covered, for there was an evening meeting at Doolittle Hall. The rains fell and Cobleigh Hall was opened for the many ladies in attendance. They were addressed by Speaker Littlejohn of the Assembly and by Cheney Ames. The local Democratic paper, the “Palladium,” took a rather dismal view of the whole affair, called it a fizzle, and estimated the attendance at not more than 3,000. This attempt minimize the volume of Republican enthusiasm resulted in a minor controversy between the “Times” and the “Palladium” with reference to the number of wagonloads of Republicans that had come from Hannibal for the rally. The “Palladium” said 108, the “Times” 518.
Enthusiasm For Littlejohn
A week later, the Republicans met again in Doolittle Hall to hear Henry J. Raymond, editor of the “New York Times.” After an hour and a half, there were loud cries for Littlejohn. “Just at this moment,” according to the “Times” story, “the Wide Awakes broke into the rear door of the Hall bearing a beautiful banner upon which was a very correct portrait of Speaker Littlejohn, and under which were these words: ‘Oswego’s True Friend.’ The appearance of the banner was hailed with loud and prolonged applause. Nine loud and hearty cheers were given for Oswego’s representative, which fairly shook the building to its foundations.” The enthusiasm for Littlejohn is explained by the fact that he had been under heavy attack by the Democrats for his vote in the Assembly to override the Governor’s veto of a railroad franchise bill for New York City. Moreover, he had been re-nominated by the First Assembly District for his seventh term in the Legislature, and the contest represented the most important of the purely local issues of 1860.
Democrats Were Active
The Democrats of Oswego were by no means inactive. They observed with fidelity the injunction of their state convention to sink their differences in the common cause. They supported loyally the plan of fusion with the Bell, or Constitutional Union, ticket. But the sense of defeatism in the ranks was evident in the generally poor attendance at their meetings and rallies. The stigma of political relationship to the bitter-end conservative Dickinson clique, the very small minority of the party which supported the proslavery candidate, Breckenridge, alienated the unattached voter. He was sensitive to the charge of disloyalty, and the fulminations of the “Times” against disloyalty must be assumed to have reference to pro-southern sentiment elsewhere than in Oswego, for there is little evidence of existence of such sentiment in the city or county. The “Times” descriptions of Democratic or “Fusion” rallies evidence Republican confidence and glee over the Democrats’ puny efforts. A Fusion parade in Hannibal consisted, according to the “Time” of “183 torches upheld by staggering Democrats, many of whom were laboring under the influence of fusion with strong waters, and including about 60 boys, too small to vote.” The favorite local orator of the Fusion party, Congressman William Duer, of Oswego, was generally referred to as the “renegade” for his desertion of the Whigs in the early ‘Fifties. A Republican meeting and a Fusion rally on the eve of the election, November 5, were compared: “The orderly proceedings (of the Republicans) contrasted wonderfully with the noise and confusion of the rabble gathered on the corner of First and Bridge streets. The Fusion party drummed up a crowd that never was surpassed in any land—it greatly resembled a caravan of the Arabs; but the exhibition was a splendid illustration of ‘fusion’.” The “Palladium,” on the other hand, spoke of the Fusion show as “an immense line of torches and banners borne by enthusiastic men got together at the very tap of the drum with no seeming effort and at no extravagant calls.”
Editorial Feuds
An interesting, and sometimes amusing, side issue of the campaign was the feuding between the editors of the respective party organs. It began with reasonably polite exchanges of views on national issues and then ran the gamut of name-calling, personal slurs, insults, and defamation of character. Nor was there a moment’s break in the feud even when the “Times” changed both in ownership and in editors. The new incumbents took up where the old left off. When the Congressional investigation into the patronage practices of the Buchanan administration revealed grave evidences of corruption in the Philadelphia Customs House and in every federal of office in the North, the “Times” conducted its own survey of conditions in the Oswego Customs House and published a list of the subordinate officers on its payroll. Said the “Times”: “It will not a little astonish the friends of the persons in this list to learn that they are officers of the government. Dudley Farling, editor of the “Palladium,” who does not go near the Customs House once a month, is a ‘Clerk,’ and draws $2 per day! Our friend T. P. Ottaway, publisher of the “Palladium”, figures as a ‘night watchman’ at a salary of $1 per night!” Such charges can have had little effect on the election result; it was common knowledge that the local patronage of the government was dispensed with an eye to political advantage, that the recipients of federal appointments generally turned over their wages to hired substitutes, that a new administration at Washington would put the local shoe on the other foot, and that friendly editors should be kept friendly.
Tuesday, November 6, 1860, was a fateful day for the nation. The issues were clear. A vote for Lincoln was a vote against the extension of slavery; a vote for Douglas indicated support of the doctrine of popular sovereignty which insisted that the people of the western territories should decide for themselves the question of freedom of slavery; a vote for Breckenridge expressed approval of slavery by denying the existence of authority anywhere to interfere with it; a vote for Bell was a vote for the Constitution, the Union, and the enforcement of law. The election of Lincoln, it was also clear, would almost surely mean a southern challenge to the union of the states; the election of Douglas might provide loopholes for compromise; the election of Breckenridge would mean the domination of the Union by the slave-planter interest; the election of Bell could be interpreted only as the desire of weary old men to avoid facing up to the facts of American life in 1860.
Lincoln Carries City, County
Election day in Oswego went off peacefully enough in view of the tensions of the campaign. By midnight Lincoln’s election seemed assured, but it was several days before the official figures of the vote polled appeared in the press. Lincoln’s majority over the combined vote of the other candidates was more than 50,000 in the state, 3500 in Oswego County, and 269 in the four wards of the city. Outside of Oswego, the county gave Lincoln a majority of 27 percent as compared with only 10 percent in the city. The Republican majority in the state was 7 1/2 percent, a large margin when one considers the 30,000 majority cast against Lincoln in New York City. Paradoxically, a proposed Constitutional amendment granting the Negroes of New York the right of suffrage on equal terms with white men was defeated in the state by 140,000, in Oswego by 13 votes, but carried in the county by 1900 votes. In the minds of many Republicans the containment of the institution of slavery did not require the acceptance of the Negro as a political equal. In the minds of Democrats there was no doubt at all.
The Republicans were jubilant over the result in the county where they had registered a proportionately greater victory than in 1859. True, there were soft spots as in Redfield and Williamstown where Fusion majorities had been cast, and in Oswego where they had hoped for a larger majority. One published explanation would have it that an enormous amount of money had been sent into the county to corrupt the voters. However that may be, a more likely explanation would include consideration of the geographic distribution of the candidates on the county ticket. Voters tend to like hometown boys, whatever their politics. (Littlejohn, for example, ran ahead of his ticket in Oswego for the Assembly seat). Nor can one overlook the fact that in a port as active as Oswego was in 1860, the customs house and the political plums at its disposal would serve as a political lodestone to attract votes for the party of the federal administration.
Sought Common Ground
The election over, the Oswego press turned to the great national question of the day, the possibility of a North-South compromise that would save the Union. In the four months between the election of Lincoln and his inauguration a variety of proposals for peace were put forward. The slightest concession in anyone of them to the southern point of view was immediately rejected by the Republican “Times” which took its cue from the great metropolitan dailies. Even the Democrats, more willing to compromise, could not accept what generally were regarded throughout the North as the outrageous demands of the states threatening secession. Late in January of 1861, the probability of disunion was being taken for granted. An advertisement in the “Times” read: “The Union, Is it to be Dissolved? That we may be ready for such an event with all its results, we have decided to sell our Entire Stock of Goods at Greatly Reduced Prices. Now is the time for bargains at Place and Vrooman’s, No. 1 Jefferson Block, West Oswego.” A month later the Union was in the process of dissolution, and so was the firm of Place & Vrooman, for on March 1, the partnership was dissolved.
Fort Sumter Falls
With the fall of Fort Sumter in April, talk of compromise ceased and the fact of war was accepted by an overwhelming majority of Northerners, Democrats and Republicans alike. Non-partisan meetings throughout the state pledged devotion to the Union and support of the war effort. In Oswego, Mayor Henry Fitzhugh, newly-elected Republican, called a public meeting for April 16, at which orators of both parties vied with each other in the fervency of their expressions of loyalty. Elements in both political camps of the state spoke of avoiding partisan divisions in war-time, Thurlow Weed going so far as to propose a combination of all northerners into one “Union” party. Some Democrats favored the plan; others, whose patriotic ardor had been somewhat cooled by what they regarded as repressive measures on the part of the Lincoln Administration, or by the military reverse at Bull Run, insisted that party divisions were essential to our form of government.
There followed the regular Democratic state convention held at Syracuse, which accepted as its keynote the responsibility to “oppose abolition at the North and secession at the South,” to support the national administration, but to prevent the war from becoming a crusade for slave emancipation. Weed’s proposal of a union party resulted in the meeting of two other state conventions. The regular Republicans selected a ticket at Syracuse and were followed by a “People’s Union” convention which nominated a state ticket of Republicans and Democrats on a war platform. This union ticket was later indorsed in part by the Republicans and supported by many Democrats, so that the regular Democratic slate was easily defeated in November. Unfortunately for the political peace of Oswego, the making of nominations for the county offices in 1861, was complicated by the development of a movement to form a Union ticket which it was hoped would be endorsed by both major parties. The “Times'” denounced the move, insisted that the Republican party was the party of union and that it need not submit to so bald-faced an effort to cram unwanted candidates down its throat. The editor professed to know that the authors of the union idea were Democrats who wished to break up the Republican party. In the end the Republican and the Democratic county conventions agreed on a common ticket which was elected over a weekly supported union ticket.
Fortunes Of War
Meanwhile the fortunes of war had gone consistently against the North; the Lincoln administration, in desperation, had taken measures which, in the view of many, were doubtful either as to their constitutionality, or their wisdom, or both. The suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, the draft, the pending Emancipation Proclamation, created public alarm and discontent. There were financial difficulties, and New York’s commerce was hard hit. Responsible politicians, the Republicans particularly, feared the political repercussions, and laid their plans for the elections of 1862 with these factors in mind. The first state convention of the year was that of a “Constitutional Union Party” which met at Troy in December. Its purpose was to nominate John A. Dix, a Democrat, for governor and to induce the Democrats and Republicans to accept him as their nominee in a grand coalition movement. The convention got out of hand and named Horatio Seymour who had been outspoken in his condemnation of the Lincoln government for the suspension of habeas corpus. Coalition was dead; the Republicans at Syracuse nominated General James S. Wadsworth, of Geneseo, and adopted the name of Republican Union Party.
Hot Campaign Of 1862
Oswego county put regular Republican and Democratic county slates on the ballot, and, with Madison County, nominated DeWitt Littlejohn for Congress. The campaign was bitter, more so, perhaps, than that of 1860. The Republicans found it necessary to defend a public record not always defensible; the Democrats, out of power, had achieved a new-found unity in their desire to return to power. They could count heavily, too, upon the support of the malcontents. ” Every vote given for Wadsworth is a vote for loyalty, and every vote given for Seymour is a vote for treason”, said the “New York Herald”; “Republicans go to war to fight; Copperheads stay at. home to vote”, said the “Oswego Times”, and when the “Palladium” would have set the record straight according to good Democratic scripture, the “Times’ shouted “Lies!” The “Palladium”, incidentally, had suspended publication shortly after the election of 1860. It had died of “Buchanan Democracy on the brain”, said the “Times”, both by way of autopsy and obituary. A week before the election of 1862 it was revived, and the feud with the “Times” along with it.
Fort Loses To Grant
The election of November 4 was a clear-cut Democratic victory in the state. Seymour, who had been governor in 1853-1854, was now returned to the state capital after an interim of eight years of Republican control. Wadsworth, however, had carried Oswego County by 2000 votes; Oswego City by 33. Littlejohn won the seat in Congress, and the county’s three assembly seats went to Republicans. The “Times” found some consolation on its island of Republicanism, asserting that “…. it is cheering to know that here in Oswego county, patriotism and liberty are predominant. Notwithstanding the fact that nearly the whole foreign vote was cast solidly against us, the result is glorious” But the editor painted a black picture of the nation’s future: “The State of New York has pronounced against the Union in time of war. We do not see how it is possible for Mr. Lincoln’s administration to maintain the fight against the traitors of the South and at the same time resist the ‘fire in the rear’ aimed at him by Horatio Seymour, Fernando Wood, and other Southern sympathizers, who have been endorsed by a popular verdict. We fear that our Union is to be dismembered.” Local Republican pride suffered another blow four months later when the Democrats elected their candidate for mayor, L. A. G. B. Grant, over Daniel G. Fort, the Republican incumbent. The result delighted Democratic editors as far away as Albany and Rochester. The Albany ‘Argus” noted that “Oswego comes back to the Democratic household after grievous errors. Let us welcome her to the cause of constitutional liberty, of humanity, and of true progress.” And the Rochester “Union” twitted Oswego and Rochester Republicans: “As a mutual friend we beg leave respectfully to introduce our Republican friends of Rochester and Oswego to each other: Rochester, Oswego—Oswego, Rochester. Such superior patriots should mingle their joys and sorrows, and commune freely and frequently.”
The Draft Riots
Events of 1863 were to play into the hands of the Republicans of the state. If the Democrats took advantage of Republican embarrassments in 1862 to elect Horatio Seymour because of his bold stand for civil liberty and freedom, it was now the turn of the Republicans to profit by Seymour’s embarrassments.
The July draft riots in New York City were, justly or not, laid to Seymour’s opposition to the draft. In addition, the jubilation over the victories won at Vicksburg and Gettysburg strengthened the Republican cause. The Republican Union Convention nominated a state ticket, headed by Chauncey Depew for Secretary of State. The Democrats nominated Daniel B. St. John and adopted a platform appealing for a policy of conciliation to encourage union sentiment in the South. A hard fight was in prospect. Both sides made strenuous efforts; and this time the Democrats were forced to defend themselves. Politics in Oswego were unusually lively for an off-year campaign. The people responded in providing large crowds at meetings in every part of the county. For example, Democrats scheduled meetings in Oswego, Wheeler’s Corners, Fulton, Minetto, Scriba Corners, Hannibalville, Hannibal Centre, Hull’s Corners, and Oswego Centre. A train of 20 or 25 cars (depending on the newspaper one read) earned Oswego’s Democratic delegation to Syracuse to hear Governor Seymour in late October. Included in their number were the members of the Oswego Democratic Club, who, on arrival in Syracuse, carried in procession a large portrait of General George B. McClellan, a preview, as it were, of their next year’s show.
Depew Defeats St. John
The election of November 3 brought victory for the Republican state ticket. Depew won over St. John by a majority of over 29,000 as compared with the 10,000 majority given Seymour the year before. The Republican majority in Oswego county was 2,300, but the importance of the campaign is to be seen in the heavy off-year vote of over 13,000. The vote in 1861 had been less than 8,400. The Republicans elected their candidates for the county offices and the three assembly seats. The result in the county was a clear reflection of the upstate trend against the state administration. There were no local issues which in any discernible way affected the vote cast. Although the city had elected a Democratic mayor in the Spring, it gave a small majority to Depew. A few months later, on March 2, 1864, the Democratic mayor, Grant, was re-elected, a reassuring indication to Democrats that the city’s departure from grace had been but a momentary aberration.
The Presidential campaign of 1864 involved issues of crucial importance to the nation. After three years of war—and the end not in sight—the North had yet to arrive at full agreement on war aims. In New York, public apathy had reached dangerous proportions in spite of improved economic conditions. Apathy was bred of uncertainty, uncertainty by divided leadership, and divided leadership by the political ambitions of the leaders. In a presidential year politics transcended patriotism. The Secretary of the Treasury in the national cabinet was not above carrying on a backstairs campaign to snatch the nomination and the presidency from Lincoln. A Republican conference at Albany debated a series of resolutions censuring the federal administration. The “Tribune” and the “Post” of New York opposed Lincoln’s renomination. Other anti-Lincoln Republicans met with War Democrats in a national convention to nominate John C. Fremont and John Cochrane of New York, a ticket which was later withdrawn when seen to be hopeless. If this was, after all, only politics-as-usual, how explain the Democratic platform of 1864 which denounced the war as a failure, demanded peace and the restoration of the federal system—with slavery? The Democrats offered the country a war hero, a formula for political victory which had so often succeeded in the past. Their candidate, General McClellan, found it impossible to tell his soldiers that the war was a failure, and he repudiated the Democratic peace plank, but he ran the race because he wanted to be President.
Republicans Rename Lincoln
The Republicans, calling themselves the Union party, renominated Lincoln by acclamation. They had no choice but to do so; swapping horses in the middle of the stream was to invite disaster. The tickets of the parties were completed in the state conventions. The Democrats renominated Governor Seymour, while the Republicans chose Reuben E. Fenton, an ex-Barnburner Democrat, to head their state ticket. The campaign in the state found the Republicans urging support of Lincoln and the vigorous prosecution of the war. As for the Democrats, they would conciliate the South, having first saved the Union; but their biggest guns were trained on Lincoln, impugning his ability and even his honesty.
“Palladium” Speaks Forth
In Oswego, the “Palladium,” with remarkable prescience, was humming the Democratic theme song as early as January of 1864: “The Democratic Conservative masses have steadily protested against the frauds, the wrongs, the bold and flagrant violations of Constitutional rights, which for the last two years or more have marked the policy and measures of the Lincoln dynasty. While protesting, they have not failed to discharge their every duty to the country. The soil of every battlefield has drunk the blood of Democrats. Others have poured their wealth as freely as water into the coffers of the National Treasury. But they are not disposed to continue these sacrifices to so little purpose for another four years. Never in the history of our country were there so plain and palpable reasons for a change of rulers as now. To prolong the lease of power of a party so grossly corrupt, plundering and extravagant as the abolitionists have proved, would ruin the country in the lapse of another four years, even if the treasuries of the whole world constituted is capital.
“The Democracy will enter upon the campaign with a full knowledge of the strength, the wiles and unscrupulous purposes of their abolition adversaries. The latter wield a power never before possessed by any party. Government officers have multiplied, living upon fat salaries, till they swarm the country as thick as the locusts of Egypt. Besides, there is a large army of contractors, and hosts of their subordinates, making riches from the government treasury. All these will be interested in prolonging the official life of the present administration. They will fight desperately that they may continue to profit from the necessities and miseries of war. But our reliance for a change is upon the great multitude of those who have to pay instead of being paid for their patriotism. The farmers and laborers, who are the real sufferers from the war, are anxious to see an end of it, and they have no hope except through a change of rulers.”
Battle For Newspaper Control
For the moment there was no one to answer the “Palladium’s” charges of Republican corruption. In November of 1863, Nemesis, clad in mortgages, caused the “Times” establishment to be put up for sale. The owner failed in efforts to get friends to take up the mortgages. The mortgage holders, however, found a buyer in the person of T. S. Brigham (a half-brother of Daniel Ayer who had founded the “Times” in the 1840s and who had at one time published the Fulton “Patriot” and, more recently, the Mohawk “Courier”). When Brigham appeared to take possession the old proprietor, his son, and the editor were disposed to question Brigham’s rights in the matter. According to the “Palladium’s” gleeful account there was a violent laying on of hands, and Brigham was forcibly ejected from the premises. He complained to the police who returned with him to arrest the three mm, only to find that they had barricaded the office. The day’s issue of the paper was passed out to carriers and others by letting down the upper sash of one of the front windows. Unfortunately, while the window was down, the arrest warrants were passed through it from the outside. In answer to the war rants the three emerged from a rear window. The “Times” editor charged that the sale proceedings had been instigated by Congressman Littlejohn, but from what motives is not made clear. The “Times” had loyally supported Littlejohn in his past campaigns for office. On February 1, 1864, a new Republican paper appeared in Oswego, the “Commercial Advertiser”, published by the new owner of the old “Times” premises. Thaddeus S. Brigham. When, a little later, the “Times” came to life again in another location, politics and journalism became inextricably confused. There was no love lost between the two Republican papers, while the “Times” feud with the “Palladium” went merrily on.
Littlejohn Seeks Renomination
Congressman DeWitt C. Littlejohn became the pivot around which the journalists’ war was fought. The “Times” charged that Littlejohn was seeking re-nomination for the seat in Congress in contravention of the traditional practice of giving it alternately to Oswego County and Madison County. It held that he was responsible for the removal from office of the Collector of the Port by the Secretary of the Treasury, Chase. The “Advertiser” denied both charges, but admitted that in the case of the Collectorship, Littlejohn had asked Secretary Chase to examine the evidences of corruption and to act accordingly. Indeed, the retention of the man in question, with all the rumors of fraud and corruption rife throughout the county, was doing the Republican cause more damage than all other questions combined. The “Times” retorted that Littlejohn was using promises of custom house appointments to win re-nomination, that he had attacked Judge Churchill and Assemblyman Matoon, that he had shuffled Oswego out of a supreme court judgeship, that he had abandoned his regiment to run for Congress two years ago; that he had expressed surprise over his nomination although he had told the “Times” editor privately that he expected to be nominated.
Whatever the truth of these charges, denials, and counter charges, Littlejohn permitted his name to be presented before the Congressional District Convention in September. He withdrew, however, when it became apparent that he could not be re-nominated. Yet, his popularity in Oswego County was unquestionable; he was supported by a majority of the Oswego delegation, but the nomination was given, as tradition required, to a Madison County man, Sidney T. Holmes.
Oswego Goes Against Lincoln
In the elections of November 8, Lincoln carried the state, but by a majority of less than 7,000 votes. And of those 7,000, Oswego County’s 2,500 majority were a significant fraction. Oswego City went for McClellan by 120, and for Seymour over Fenton by 91 votes. The Republicans elected the county ticket and the Congressman. A comparison of these results with the vote of 1860 shows that the President’s majority in the first election had been cut by 1,000 votes in the county, and that Oswego had supported him in 1860, but repudiated him in 1864.
Charges were made during the campaign that Oswego employers were coercing employees to vote for Lincoln. On the other side, the New York “Tribune” reported information to the effect that Oswego County was being flooded with fraudulent McClellan votes, purporting to have been sent home by the absentee soldier voters. Some of the ballots were from soldiers known to be dead, others from soldiers whose genuine votes and powers of attorney were in the hands of their friends. Neither side could prove its charges. If political corruption had any bearing of the poll of 1864 it cannot have changed the result materially, for while the county stood by Lincoln, although with a cooling enthusiasm, it was reflective of the trend in most up-state counties; and the Republican reverse in Oswego city was characteristic of the popular verdict of most of New York’s urban centers.
New Era Inaugurated
This was the last state campaign during the Civil War. It marked the end of the corrosive issues of sectionalism and disunion as factors in state and local politics. It inaugurated a new era with new issues and new heroes— the era of triumphant industrialism with issues growing out of industrialism and its control, with heroes created by industrialism and the need of society to make industrialism its servant. In the new era the politician was not always the hero of the piece.
