become a state political party. Until this period, according to the statement contained in Chapter XXXVIII. they had acted entirely from the impulse of feeling, produced by the outrage upon Morgan, and the danger they apprehended in the immediate vicinity of that outrage, from suffering the executive and judicial powers of that community to remain in the hands of masons, who had furnished such a demonstration of their determination to regulate their conduct according to the absurd rules and obligations of masonry, even when those obligations required them to violate the fundamental and most sacred provisions of the municipal law. But they now began to taste a little of the sweets of power, and it was savoury to their palate. They thought that the same powerful excitement which had given the eighth district thirteen thousand majority-a majority of about two to one-would in time. extend itself through the state. Although, for causes which must be obvious to every reflecting man who has made himself acquainted with the history of popular excitements, they in this respect misjudged, it must be confessed that their measures were exceedingly judicious and well contrived for accomplishing the end they had in view. They sent to the legislature their most talented, worthy and influential citizens. Trumbull Cary and Robert C. Nicholas were men of wealth and personally very highly esteemed. William H. Seward, Albert H. Tracy, John C. Spencer, Francis Granger, William H. Maynard, John Birdsall and Millard Fillmore, were all men whose talents would have done credit to any deliberative body; and the address and eloquence of some of them would have added lustre to any legislative assembly in the world.

The anti-masons did not stop here. In the latter part of the winter of 1830, they established at the seat of government the ALBANY EVENING JOURNAL, under the editorial management of Thurlow Weed, then a member of

the assembly from the county of Monroe, and one of the most shrewd and sagacious political editors and eagleeyed politicians the state of New-York ever produced. Mr. Weed was a self-made man. He had, when a boy, learned the mechanical art of printing at a small printing establishment in a country village; but at this period of his life, he gave little promise of becoming respectable, even as a mechanic; for his habits were extremely reckless, and he was indisposed to any regular course of industry. Influenced by a propensity for roving, or excited by youthful ardor, the bustle and parade of military life so far fascinated him, that in the early part of the late war with Great Britain, he enlisted as a private or a musician in one of the volunteer regiments of militia, and continued in the service during some part of that war. When, in 1815, peace was concluded and the corps to which he belonged was discharged, he was cast upon the world, without friends, without money, comparatively speaking, without education, and with habits illy calculated to advance him in life as a man of business. He was not disheartened. He resumed the trade which he had learned when a boy. He reformed his habits, and became industrious and economical. When, as a journeyman printer, he had established a character for industry and sobriety, and accumulated a small stock of funds, he established a newspaper in the county of Chenango; from thence he removed to the county of Onondaga, and shortly afterwards to Rochester, in the county of Monroe, where he printed and edited a Clintonian paper. In this place he acquired so much influence and standing by his talents as a writer and activity as a politician, that in 1824 he was elected one of the members of assembly from that county. When the outrage on Morgan was committed, he took a most decided stand against the masons, and his paper soon become a leading anti-masonic journal. He is now

the printer to the state. His faults as an editor and politician are, I regret to say, too common with the conductors of political papers of both parties; he pursues what he deems to be the interest of his party with too little regard to the feelings of his opponents; his attacks are severe, and sometimes more gross than is suited to the dignity which ought to characterize a leading political journal. But every thing, written by him affords evidence of a powerful mind. His sarcasms are keen, and his wit is pungent. He knows how to touch the most sensitive part of his adversary. Every blow he strikes is felt. Few editors in America possess more of party tact than Thurlow Weed. He affords one decisive evidence of being, by nature, a great man. He has risen from an obscure situation in life to considerable eminence, and in all the positions which he has occupied, he has discovered new resources of mind, fully adequate to those powers which were requisite to successfully meet the exigency.

In this, as yet free country, no young man of talent and enterprise ought to entertain a doubt but that industry and patient perseverance will secure to him ultimate success.

Not long after the election in November, a meeting was got up in Buffalo, attended by Gen. P. B. Porter and Judge Rochester, at which very spirited resolutions were adopted in favor of the protection of American manufac

tures.

There can be little doubt but that the object of this meeting was to prepare the public mind, in the state of New-York, for the support of Henry Clay as the next candidate for the presidency; for, a few days after, (Dec. 16,) a public meeting was held in the city of New-York, of which John L. Lawrence was chairman and Isaac Minard and Peter Sharpe secretaries, where Mr. Clay was publicly nominated for the presidency.

In the latter part of the summer of 1830, Nicholas F. Beck, adjutant general of the state, died at Albany. He

received his appointment from Gov. Clinton, and continued under his successors to hold the office until his death. Perhaps the death of no person of his age, (he was a young man and brother of the learned and estimable Dr. T. Romeyn Beck, principal of the Albany Academy,) would have been more felt or deeply lamented. He possessed respectable talents, and was one of the most amiable men, as a member of society, I ever knew.

When the office of adjutant general became vacant by the death of General Beck, Gov. Throop appointed Maj. John A. Dix, of Cooperstown, who had been one of the aids of Gen. Jacob Brown. Mr. Dix was, I believe, a native of New Hampshire. He had been regularly educated at one of the eastern colleges, and is justly distinguished for his classical knowledge and literary attainments. He is an accomplished and able writer. He was at Washington in the family of Gen. Brown in 1824-5, and so long as Mr. Calhoun was a candidate for the presidency, Mr. Dix, in common with most of the gentlemen of the army, was his zealous friend and supporter. Not long after the election of Mr. Adams, he married the daughter of a wealthy and respectable citizen of New-York and came to reside in this state. Soon after he came here he manifested a determination to support the party then in the majority in the state, and has ever since acted zealously with that party.

From the character and talents of Mr. Dix, and more especially from the knowledge he had acquired of military science while in the service of the United States, his selection by Gov. Throop as adjutant general was very judicious, and the appointment was generally approved of by the public.

senator.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

FROM JANUARY 1, 1831, TO JANUARY 1, 1832.

THE most distinguished member the late election brought into the senate was William H. Seward, the present governor of the state, who had been chosen by the anti-masonic party of the seventh district. Mr. Seward was quite a young man, I believe barely eligible to the office of He had been bred and educated a democrat, and from the time he was of a sufficient age to take any part in the politics of the day, he had uniformily acted with the democratic party. When the anti-masonic question excited the attention of the people of Cayuga county, (the county in which he commenced his professional life,) he declared himself an anti-mason. In the summer of 1830, he was a delegate to the young men's anti-masonic state convention, which met at the city of Utica, and was chairman of that assembly.

causes.

It is not a little singular that so young a man should have been placed by any political party on the senatorial ticket. His nomination was probably owing to two The first was his great personal popularity, and the second the improbability that any person nominated by the anti-masons would be elected. Had the election been considered as certain, or even probable, it is most likely that older men of greater influence would have solicited and obtained the nomination in preference to Mr. Seward.

Of the talents of Mr. Seward, I need not speak.

senate.

Mr. Foster of Oneida county, came this year into the He possessed a respectable standing as a lawyer at Rome, which was then and now is his place of resi