OF

SILAS WRIGHT,

LATE GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

BY JABEZ D. HAMMOND.

FORNIA

SYRACUSE:

PUBLISHED BY HALL & DICKSON.

NEW YORK:-A. S. BARNES & CO.

M DCCC XLVIII.

Entered according to Act of Congress, m the year 1848,

BY HALL & DICKSON,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Northern District of New York.

SPRECKELS

PREFACE

Ir was with great diffidence and reluctance that I undertook the work now offered to the public. My "Political History," which was published in the year 1842, had been better received than I had anticipated. The press of both political parties had treated it not only with liberal indulgence, but with kindness; and I had, perhaps wisely, certainly prudently, determined not to hazard, by another appearance before the public, the forfeiture of the favorable opinion which had been expressed. Within two or three of the last years, friends residing in various parts of the state, belonging to different parties, have urged me to continue my narrative of political parties, but I have uniformly replied, that the difficulty of describing with accuracy and truth the conduct of men now acting a prominent part on the political theatre, without partiality to personal friends, (I am not aware that I have any enemies,) was so great, that I had not the temerity to engage in the enterprise. But immediately after the sudden and unexpected death of the late Governor Wright, several gentlemen, whose opinions were entitled to my highest confidence and regard, requested me to compile the biography of that distinguished statesman. Although I had reason to doubt, and in truth did doubt, my ability to do justice to the memory of that great and good man, and to the reading public, I confess that I felt a desire to make the effort. In considering the course to be pursued in writing the Life of Mr. Wright, it immediately occurred to me, that for the last six or seven years he had been so connected with the political parties in this state, and his actions and fortunes had been so much influenced by the

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action and fate of those parties, that his life could not be written as it should be, without at the same time giving a pretty full account of many of the most distinguished politicians in the state and nation, who have recently been active in public life, and who have to a considerable extent influenced public opinion; and, in fact, that a correct and full history of SILAS WRIGHT from the year 1840 to the close of his administration of the government of this state in 1846, would necessarily be the political history of the state during that period. I was thus led to the attempt which has resulted in the production of what is contained in the following sheets. Those who may take the trouble of perusing them, will find that until the year 1841, to which time, by my former work, the political history of the state is brought down, I have confined myself entirely to the history of the Life of Wright. In continuing the account of his life from the year 1840 to the close of his administration of the government of New York, the history of the political parties which existed during that period is naturally and almost necessarily resumed and continued. After he retired from the gubernatorial chair, there remains to his biographer little other labor than the painful task of re-. cording his death.

So far as relates to that portion of this volume which treats of the political history of the state, I dare not hope that I have done full justice to the subject.

I have not, during any part of the period about which I have written, personally mingled in the controversies which have prevailed. Indeed, I have not frequently within that time visited the seat of government, which is the great theatre of the operations of parties. It is therefore highly probable that some material circumstances, which had an important bearing on the events which have occurred, may not have been known to me. My account of the movements of the whig party, and of the action of distinguished whigs, may not be