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alleged informality had been committed by the returning officers of one of the towns.

On the 4th of December, 1828, Mr. Wright resumed his seat in congress. An attempt was made to repeal the tariff law passed at the last session, but the movement was resisted by Mr. Wright, and failed,-a very large majority voting against it.

It affords us pleasure to be able to state, that during the short period that Mr. Wright sat as a member in this ses sion, two resolutions were adopted providing for the ap pointment of a committee to inquire into the condition of the slave-trade as it existed in the District of Columbia, and the laws in relation thereto, and to consider and report upon the propriety and expediency of the abolition of slavery in that district, and that Mr. Wright voted for both resolutions, although they were opposed by most of the southern members.

Mr. Van Buren having been elected governor, he resigned his seat in the senate of the United States, and it became the duty of the legislature, which met in January, 1829, to supply the vacancy. At a caucus to nominate a successor, Mr. Wright, though not a candidate, and without his knowledge, was voted for by several of the members, a fact which shows the great respect entertained for him by his former associates.

CHAPTER VII.

Mr. Wright is appointed Comptroller of the State-The Importance of that Office and its high Responsibilities-The Chenango and other projected Canals-Mr. Wright's Report in 1830-General Fund-Mr. Wright attends the State Convention and successfully advocates the Nomination of Mr. Throop for Governor, who is elected-Mr. Wright elected Senator of the United States in the winter of 1833.

DURING the session of the New York legislature in the winter of 1829, and while Mr. Wright was engaged in the performance of his duties as a member of congress at Washington, he was appointed comptroller, to supply the vacancy occasioned by the appointment of the former comptroller, William L. Marcy, to the office of judge of the Supreme Court. This appointment, so far as we know, or have reason to believe, was conferred on Mr. Wright without his solicitation. The multifarious and important duties, and the high responsibilities which a succession of statutes have devolved on the comptroller, are so well described by an able writer in the Albany Argus in one of the numbers of that paper published in the year 1846, that we can in no way so well express our own views on the subject as by transcribing his remarks.

"There is at this day," says the learned correspondent of the Argus, "no officer of the state whose duties and powers are so diversified, so extensive, and so complicated, as those of the comptroller; nor is there any who is placed in a more commanding position for exercising a political influence. From a simple auditor of accounts, and a watch upon the treasury, he has sprung up into an

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officer of the first eminence in the administration; sup planting, by degrees, some departments which were once in equal, if not higher regard, as auxiliaries and advisers of the executive power. He is the one-man of the government. He is not simply an officer, but a bundle of offiThere is hardly a branch of administration of which he is not a prominent member; so prominent, in some cases, that the affairs of that branch cannot be conducted without his actual presence, although personally he may be a minority of those having it in charge. He is the chief of the finances; the superintendent of banks; and the virtual quorum of the commissioners of the canal fund, with all the power which such a position gives him in the canal board. While other state departments have no more than maintained their original sphere and authority, or have suffered material diminution, particularly of influence, the office of comptroller has been a favorite of the legislature, and the chief object of its confidence, intrusted with high if not extraordinary powers of government. An examination of the statutes will show that every year adds to its duties, until they have. become, by continual aggregation, a complicated mass, beyond the power of performance by any one man, and almost beyond the reach of his thorough and intelligent supervision.

"For twenty years after the adoption of the first constitution, the treasurer was the principal financial officer. It became obvious that he needed a check, not more for the prevention of frauds than for the detection of errors. The co-operation of two officers, and a double set of accounts, constituted a device of great wisdom for the public security; and its practical working has been so perfect, that peculations and frauds in respect of the public funds

confided to the treasury are unheard of. They are, in fact, impossible, without presuming that rare case of profligacy, when two high officers of state combine, by mutual overtures of corruption, to violate their oaths and their consciences,-a result unknown in the history of our state government.

"It is of little moment that the comptroller, and not the treasurer, is now by law the chief of the finances; but if the treasurer have duties enough to occupy his time and capacity, it would seem that the parallel duties of the comptroller should of themselves be a sufficient employment and trust, without the vast additional burden of labor and responsibility which is otherwise cast upon him. To form an adequate idea of the mass of duty he has in charge, it is necessary not only to survey the summary contained in the revised code of our laws, but to trace out the statutes from year to year; to review the reports of his office; and to follow him and his numerous assistants in the actual discharge of their various labors in the financial, banking, and tax bureaux of his department. But it is inconsistent with the designed brevity of these papers to enter into the details which alone can convey a suitable notion of the magnitude and responsibility of his trust and influence. As the department is now organized, it is overgrown and cumbersome; and to perform with thorough intelligence and conscientiousness, without error or delay, all its requisite offices' of supervision and of action, requires the sight of Argus with his hundred eyes, and the activity of Briareus with his hundred hands."

A higher evidence of respect for Mr. Wright, and confidence in his ability, sagacity, and integrity, could not have been given, than was exhibited by this appoint

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ment, a respect and confidence which had been created during the short period he had been in public life, which was then but five years.

Here, then, was a man, brought up in one of the country towns of Vermont, whence he had migrated to a secluded village in a county bordering on the province of Canada, placed at the head of the complicated financial concerns of the state of New York, a state which, we will venture to assert, requires more skill to conduct judiciously its moneyed and various fiscal operations than some of the kingdoms of Europe. But Mr. Wright proved himself to be fully competent to discharge those high and important duties.

As a member of the canal board, it was the duty of the comptroller to advise and give his opinion upon the merits of all projected canals; and as the financial officer of the state, it was also his duty to inform the legislature of the condition of the funds of the state, and its capacity of increasing its expenses and paying its debts. The application for new canals through the Genesee valley, along the Black river, and in the valley of the Chenango, to which we alluded in a previous chapter,* as having been made in 1827, were repeated in 1828, and again pressed upon the legislature in 1829. Time, instead of weakening, strengthened the power and influence of these formidable combinations. The success of each was made the common cause of all. The members of the legislature coming from that part of the state which bordered on the contemplated route for the Chenango Canal, were considerable in numbers, and most of them democrats, and for that reason were supposed to have more influ

* See Chapter V.

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