scientious, and seldom gave any public measure his approval simply on the ground of public expediency.

At the November election in 1822, he was chosen one of the four state senators elected in the fifth senate district, under the constitution recently adopted. On taking his seat he drew the long term of four years. Although he was elected in an almost political calm, nearly the whole term of his service in the senate, from January 1st, 1823, to January, 1827, was one of the most stormy and exciting periods in the political history of this state that has occurred; and we have not, before or since, been unfrequently visited by political tornadoes, which not only baffle all description, but set at defiance the ingenuity of man to discover or detect the true causes of their origin. Such is the opinion entertained of us in other states. Even an attempted elucidation of problems of this sort would be unsuited to our purpose.

The political agitations preceding the election of Mr. Monroe's successor, did not commence until after Mr. Wooster's election, and he was consequently not subjected to any personal pledges in regard to that subject. He was left free to ascertain the opinions and wishes of his constituents in the best way he could, and act accordingly. In regard to the celebrated electoral law, which has been necessarily mentioned in the preceding pages of this work, he voted for its postponement to a future day, which was beyond the succeeding annual election, and this was therefore considered a virtual rejection of the bill by its friends, and it was so, in fact, in reference to the pending election. Hence his name, associated with others, as one of the famous SEVENTEEN SENATORS, was pasted up in black letter in public barrooms, and had a conspicuous place in most of the newspapers which advocated the passage of the law. Neither Mr. Wooster nor his friends considered him materially damaged by a proceeding of this sort. At any rate, there never was a body of men so resolutely sustained by their friends in subsequent political conflicts, as were these same seventeen senators, and the names of Bronson, Dudley,

Earll, Livingston, Suydam, and Wright, have not been unfamiliar names at the polls of election for more than twenty years. But Mr. Wooster was friendly to Mr. Crawford's elevation to the presidency, and if he supposed the best interests of the country would be promoted by his election, as he no doubt did, was he not fully justifiable in adopting every legitimate expedient to effect his object and defeat the measures of his opponents? I will not repeat what has been elsewhere stated in regard to the choice of electors by the people, but it is impossible to avoid the conclusion which forces itself upon all familiar with the politics of this state for the last half century, that if the contest in 1824 had been confined to two candidates, the selection of the two great political parties, the controversy about the electoral law would have ended where it began, within the walls of the two houses. This was a contest for political power by the adherents of numerous presidential aspirants, and involved no principle of government acting upon the masses of the community beyond one single election, and so long as the legislature so exercised the powers conferred by law as to be the true exponents of the will of the majority of the electors, the political party or politicians, acting in conformity to this idea, risked but little with friends, when their "sober second thoughts" were appealed to. When the parties come to reflect upon what had been done, and the whole ground had been surveyed, the voters in this county by a majority of about six hundred, at the election in November, 1825, reversed the decision of the preceding year, by returning those members of the assembly who had heartily concurred in Mr. Wooster's course on the electoral law question, and thereby directly sanctioned his previous political course in the senate.

He was elected to the assembly of this state in the fall of 1832, with Dudley Burwell and Joseph M. Prendergast, and was consequently a member of the house of assembly when he died. His votes in the house during the session of 1833, on all the important questions which came up for

discussion, were in accordance with his preexisting and expressed opinions. He was opposed to all projects of internal improvements, such as the Chenango canal, whose eventualities were the entailment of a certain debt upon the state, without the slightest prospect of reimbursement from income, even to the extent of the ordinary expenses of repairs. He was one of those statesmen who did not esteem it prudent to contract a debt to develop the resources of a section of country, whose trade and business was not sufficient to maintain and superintend the work constructed; and on this question he agreed in opinion, not only with a large majority of the people of the county, but with many distinguished men in the state. This, it is true, is a subject which has afforded, and always will, a wide range of discussion, and even fair-minded men might possibly entertain antagonistic views in regard to particular projects, and even the general proposition as above stated; but that generation on whom the burthen of canceling the debt might be cast, would not be likely to disagree in regard to the wisdom or prudence of measures that submerged their country in debt. It is difficult to limit the powers of commerce, or even to define the extent of taxation or burthen a highly commercial people can bear, without materially affecting the healthful action of trade. Our own experience as a nation shows the paralysing effects and the ruinous consequences of an overshadowing and crushing public and private indebtedness; and it shows, too, that an animated but steady application to industrial pursuits, aided by extensive commercial relations, how soon a people can wipe out and even forget financial embarrassments. We have only to look at a kindred nation, whose annual revenues exceed our own five fold, and whose public debt, set down in figures, would seem ponderous enough "to crush out" seventeen millions of people; yet we see that nation adding millions to the annual burthens of its subjects, and fitting out naval armaments sufficiently extensive to blockade the approaches by sea of a power whose boundaries

circumscribe a large portion of two continents, and some portion of a third, and whose ambition reaches to grasp at a fourth, and this mighty effort is sustained by the power of commerce and trade, domestic and foreign, without seeming to disturb in the least the general prosperity of the country. But here we must pause. The people of the most powerful nations on the continent of Europe, with the exception of France, and she is sustained by internal and external trade, are literally groaning under the burthen of taxation, much of it being required to pay the interest on public debt; and so little credit have many of their governments with the money kings of the day, that they can not negotiate a loan except at a ruinous discount of fifteen or twenty per cent. The credit of an impoverished country, or whose subjects are ripe for rebellion, will not command a premium with modern money lenders.

SAMUEL WRIGHT.

There are but few men in the walks of civil life, and especially those whose minds have been embellished with nothing more than a common school education, who burst forth like meteors, blaze for a moment, attract universal attention, and then become as suddenly extinguished and forgotten. This, however, was the brief course of Mr. Wright in this county. He came from Vermont, and settled within the limits of the present town of Russia, about the year 1793, where he engaged in the business of farming, which, in a new country, consists, for the first few years, in opening roads, clearing up lands, and erecting such buildings as may be required for family purposes.

So soon as the country around him had become pretty well filled up with population, he opened a country store, and traded in "West India and dry goods," not neglecting the cod fish," a very needful article to a full assortment for the country trade in those days. Having made successful progress in farming and merchandising, Mr. Wright

next turned his attention to politics, in which he prospered remarkably well for a time. He was elected member of assembly in 1802, and the four following years. He appears to have been the standing candidate of his party, with General Widrig, for a long time, but his popularity could not always last. Dr. Westel Willoughby, Jr., was a townsman of Mr. Wright, all the northern part of the county then being embraced in Norway, a rising man, and competed vigorously with him for popular favor. Notwithstanding his extraordinary native talents and indomitable Yankee perseverance, Mr. Wright was compelled to yield the palm of victory to his rival. At the election, in 1806, his vote was the lowest of three members who obtained certificates of election, and even then was defeated by the popular votes. Willoughby's official canvass was only 43 below Wright's, and this after 63 votes, intended for the former, had been rejected for informality.

In the winter of 1805, the Merchant's Bank, of the city of New York, was chartered, after being strongly opposed, but not without strong suspicions and direct charges of bribery and corruption; and Ebenezer Purdy, a senator, "who introduced in the senate the bill to incorporate the company, finally was compelled to resign his seat, to avoid expulsion for bribery." On the 16th of March, 1805, Luke Metcalf, a member of assembly, made a statement under oath, which was laid before the house, to the effect that Mr. Wright told him, there were fifteen shares of the stock for each member who would favor or vote for the bill incorporating the bank, which would be worth twenty-five per cent on the nominal price of the stock. That Wright afterwards asked Metcalf if he remained opposed to the bank, and being answered in the affirmative, Wright then said, the same provision would be made for those members who would absent themselves, when the vote was taken on the bill, as for those who should be present and vote for it.

Wr. Wright was twice elected to the assembly after his vote on the bank bill, and after this expose; it was not,