THE EQUAL RIGHTS PARTY
1834-1837
The Equal Rights movement, which began its activity inside the Tammany
organization, was virtually a moral, then a political, revival of the
Workingmen’s movement. Its principles, however, were less radical,
and its demands more moderate. It advocated the equal rights of
every citizen in his person and property and in their management;
declared unqualified and uncompromising opposition to bank notes as
a circulating medium, because gold and silver were the only safe and
constitutional currency, and a like opposition to all monopolies
by legislation. It also announced hostility “to the dangerous and
unconstitutional creation of vested rights by legislation, because
these were a usurpation of the people’s sovereign rights,” and asserted
that all laws or acts of incorporation passed by the Legislature could
be rightfully altered or repealed by its successors. The Equal Rights
movement comprised men of various classes. Moses Jacques and Levi D.
Slamm were its principal leaders. To comprehend its nature, a brief
review of the causes which conspired to bring it into being will be
necessary.
Up to 1831 the repeal of the law for the imprisonment of debtors
had been a subject of almost constant agitation by reformers and
workingmen. Under this law more than 10,000 persons, mainly unfortunate
laborers, were imprisoned annually in loathsome prisons, without
inquiry as to their innocence or guilt, lying there at their
creditors’ will, unsupplied by the city with any of the necessities
of life.[1] Tammany Hall had taken no action until 1831, when its
leaders gave a belated approval to a bill introduced in the Assembly,
abolishing imprisonment for debts of any sum except in the cases of
non-residents.[2]
This bill had become a law in that year; yet by 1833 the interest of
Tammany’s chiefs in the workingman had died away to such an extent that
the Assembly was allowed to pass a measure entitled “a law abolishing
imprisonment for debt,” but reinstituting imprisonment on all debts
under $50, thus completely nullifying the law so far as the poor were
concerned.
The measure failed to become a law; but the sharp practise shown in
its wording, and in the means taken to push it through the Assembly,
disgusted the Equal Rights men, and in their meetings they passed
resolutions denouncing the chiefs responsible therefor. Their
resolutions furthermore declared that the proceedings at Tammany
Hall were a sealed book; that a few men--William Paxen Hallett,
Elisha Tibbits, J. J. Roosevelt and John Y. Cebra--made up important
nominations in Wall street after the bankers had decided upon the
candidates and then had the nominating committee accept them.
Popular disaffection was increased by the manner in which the
Legislature and the Aldermen continued to create corporations with
enormous grants. The scandals over the procurement of legislative
charters, particularly bank charters, had for more than 25 years
aroused a growing indignation among the people. In 1805, shortly
after the passage of the Merchants’ Bank charter, Peter Betts, an
Assemblyman, declared in open session of the lower house, that Luke
Metcalfe, a fellow-member, had sought to bribe him to vote for the
measure. The price promised was 15 shares of the bank’s stock, valued
at $50 each. Conflicting testimony was given on the matter, and a
motion was made to expel Metcalfe; the house, however, retained him in
his seat by a vote of 37 to 16.[3]
Charges of the same kind, affecting practically every session of the
Legislature, were common, though only occasionally were they made the
subject of official investigation. In 1812, however, shortly after
the Assembly, forced by public criticism, had passed a resolution
compelling each member to pledge himself that he had neither taken
nor would take, “any reward or profit, direct or indirect, for any
vote on any measure,”[4] another scandal arose. The Bank of America,
with very moderate assets of any sort, received a charter on a stated
capitalization of $6,000,000, an enormous sum in those days. Charges of
corruption were bandied about, one Assemblyman, Silas Holmes, declaring
under oath that the sum of $500, “besides a handsome present,” had been
offered him. A committee of the lower house listened to testimony in
the case, and then, by a decisive majority, voted that the body was
above suspicion.[5] But in a pronunciamento to Gov. Tompkins during the
same year the same house graciously reported: “We are well aware that
the number of charters for banking institutions already granted has
awakened general solicitude and anxiety.”
The Chemical Bank was a more modern instance. The report of the joint
legislative committee in 1824 had shown that its promoters set apart
$50,000 worth of stock at par value[6] to buy the votes of members,
Gen. Robert Swartwout--he who had defaulted for $68,000 in 1820--acting
as one of the lobbyists and claiming $5,000 for his services.[7] Other
scandals throwing strong light on legislative practises were those of
the Ætna and Chatham Fire Insurance Companies. The testimony brought
out in the investigation of these companies in 1826 showed that
William J. Waldron (one of the line of Grand Sachems) gave $20,000
in certificates of stock to Gen. Jasper Ward, a State Senator, and
$20,000 more to various other persons to get the Ætna charter through
the Legislature.[8] The Chatham charter, passed in 1822, cost $20,000
in stock at par value, additional sums being paid for the passage of
certain amendments in 1824.[9] Ward wrote from Albany to a friend in
the city, complaining that the Jefferson Fire Insurance Company, which
secured a charter at the same time (1824), had paid only 5 per cent. of
what it had promised, giving notes for the remainder.[10] These were
but a few examples of the general legislative corruption. The men who
profited by these charters brought about, in 1830, the exemption of
bank stock in the city from taxation. That nearly every Tammany leader
held bank stock was proved by the testimony before an investigating
committee in June, 1833, which set forth how the organizers of the
newly founded Seventh Ward Bank had distributed thousands of shares
among over one hundred State and city office-holders, both Tammany
and Anti-Masonic. Every Tammany Senator was involved. James Perkins,
the principal lobbyist for the charter, swore repeatedly that $5,000
in stock at par value had been taken directly by State Senators and
from $10,000 to $25,000 in stock distributed indirectly.[11] Perkins
charged Thurlow Weed with accepting a $500 bribe.[12] The investigating
committee reported finally that it could find no proof involving any
but one of the accused.[13] As the bill for the charter had originally
passed the Senate by a vote of 27 to 2,[14] and as the members of
the investigating committee had been chosen from this majority, its
conclusions were naturally viewed with a good deal of suspicion.
The Equal Rights men complained that 75 per cent. of the whole of the
bank notes circulating in New York City consisted of depreciated paper.
The circulation of these in notes of $5 or under amounted by March,
1835, to nearly $1,500,000. One establishment alone, whose weekly
payroll in 1834 amounted to $40,000, paid the greater part of this sum
in depreciated notes. The wage-earner was in constant fear that any
morning he might wake to hear that the bank whose notes he held had
failed. Frequently the worst deceptions on the public were connived at
by the officials. The Hudson Insurance Company, for instance, with a
nominal capital of $200,000, was permitted to issue bonds to the amount
of $800,000, upon the most fictitious resources. This was far from
being an isolated instance. The law allowed a bank with only $100,000
capital to loan $250,000, thus receiving interest on more than twice
the capital actually invested.[15]
The Council was more than ever a hotbed of venality. Numberless
small “jobs” were perpetrated without public notice; but when it was
proposed in October, 1831, to give the Harlem Railroad Company the
franchise for the perpetual and exclusive use of Fourth avenue, free
of all payment to the city, Alderman George Sharp, one of the few
public-spirited members, drew general attention to the matter by an
energetic denunciation. After every other means had been resorted to
without success to influence his vote, he was told that he would be
excluded from the party by certain persons at Tammany Hall. Alderman
Stevens, who declared that he had seen stock given to members of the
board and to the “corps editorial” to secure their influence, was also
threatened. The words of these two men proved conclusively the truth
of what for a long time was common report: that the group of Tammany
leaders not only controlled the party nominations but threatened public
officials with their displeasure, with all which that implied--exile
from public life, loss of political influence, perhaps ruin of
fortune--in case they did not vote for certain measures whose “merits”
were recommended to them.
The laborer had other grievances. For seventeen years the Council had
refused to grant any additional ferries between New York City and
Brooklyn. During that period the population of New York had increased
150,000 and that of Brooklyn 15,000. This growth involved a vast amount
of marketing and increased the business intercourse between the two
places more than fourfold. The lessees of the Fulton Ferry--the sole
ferry--had made an agreement in 1811, it was alleged, with the New York
City Corporation, by which the latter undertook to bind itself not to
establish any additional ferries from south of Catherine street to
the Village of Brooklyn for twenty-five years. The large landholders
influenced the Common Council to continue this monopoly, their aim
being to force the people to stay in New York, where rents were 35 per
cent. higher than in any other city in the Union. The exactions of the
water, gas and steamboat monopolies likewise had a share in causing the
formation of the Equal Rights party.
Besides the dispensing to favored knots of citizens of trading
privileges and immunities which were withheld from the great body of
the community, the laboring element believed that there was a gross
inequality of taxation in the interests of the rich. Taxes rose from
$550,000 in 1832 to $850,000 in 1833, but the increase fell upon the
poor. The Merchants’ Bank was assessed at $6,000; the lot and building
had cost that sum twenty years before, and were now worth at least
twice as much. The Merchants’ Exchange was assessed at $115,000, yet it
was known that the land and building had cost $800,000. Dozens of like
instances were cited by the reformers and they now determined upon a
concerted effort looking to better government.
A powerful influence came to the aid of the Equal Rights men when
William Cullen Bryant and William Leggett assumed the editorship of the
_Evening Post_. This journal now advocated industrial and political
reforms with singular independence and ability. It revived the original
conception of the nominating committee’s functions. It urged the
electors to remember that the nomination by a nominating committee was
but a recommendation to the people of certain candidates whose merits
and qualifications were as fair a matter of discussion as any under
Heaven; and that it was for this very purpose that nominations were
made so long before the great popular meeting was convened. Besides
his editorial support of the movement, Leggett participated in the
practical work of its organization and management. The clear thought
and definite expression shown in most of the Equal Rights manifestoes
and resolutions are perhaps directly due to him.
The Equal Rights faction became especially active in the Fall of
1884. Its orators raised such a stir that both Tammany Hall and the
Whigs suddenly developed an astonishing care for the workingmen. To
conciliate them, the Tammany Nominating Committee exacted a written
pledge from every one of its candidates requiring an expression of his
sentiments on the monopoly question. To counteract the Wigwam, the
Whigs gathered a meeting of “Whig Mechanics” at Masonic Hall, October
14, at which opposition to monopolies, especially banking monopolies,
was declared. Not to be outdone, the Wigwam got together a meeting
of “Democratic Mechanics,” who resolved to oppose monopolies and to
restore the constitutional currency. Tammany also began to recognize,
even more liberally than before, the naturalized citizens. As a
consequence, it won the Fall (1834) election by over 2,300 majority,
most of the Equal Rights men voting with it. One-third of its 18,000
voters were estimated at this time to be of foreign birth.
Nearly all the Tammany Assemblymen proceeded to forget their pledges,
only four of the delegation voting in the February following against
the bill giving exclusive privileges to the Peaconic Company.
The first clash between the Equal Rights faction and the Tammany
monopolists occurred at a meeting at the Wigwam on March 31, 1835.
Certain that the Aldermen would never grant additional ferries, the
Equal Rights men favored a measure, then pending in the Legislature,
for the establishment of a State Board of Commissioners clothed with
that power. Gideon Lee,[16] a Wall Street banker, called the meeting
to order and nominated Preserved Fish for chairman. Many objections
were uttered, and Fish retired. The radicals howled down the Tammany
speakers and ran the meeting themselves, adopting resolutions prepared
by Joel P. Seaver, declaring for the creation of the State board. A
bill for a new ferry--the present South Ferry--was passed the same year.
The Equal Rights men still hoped to gain their ends inside the
organization. When Cornelius W. Lawrence[17] stood for reelection as
Mayor in April, 1835, there was scarcely any opposition to him from any
quarter, he receiving 17,696 votes out of a total of 20,196.
In the Fall of 1835, however, the Tammany Nominating Committee
recommended for State offices candidates of a character most obnoxious
to the Equal Rights men, and called a meeting for the evening of
October 29, to ratify its nominations. Barely were the doors opened
when the Equal Rights men rushed in and frustrated an attempt to
place Isaac L. Varian in the chair. In the mêlée, the Bank Democrats,
finding themselves unable to control the meeting, withdrew, but in
doing so turned off the gas, leaving the Equal Rights men in total
darkness. The trick must have been anticipated; for each man drew forth
a candle and a lucifer, or “loco foco” match, and in a twinkling the
hall was resplendent with dancing lights. The Equal Rights men adopted
resolutions and a suitable ticket of their own.[18]
Three sets of candidates stood for election. The Native Americans, who
opposed the election of foreigners to office and urged the repeal of
the naturalization laws, took the place of the Whigs. In the face of
this strong sentiment, Tammany Hall acted with its usual diplomacy. The
general committee boasted that the regular Tammany ticket was composed
of only native Americans, which was true, the naturalized citizens
having been cajoled on the promise of receiving the usual quota
among nominations the next year. Of the nearly 23,000 votes cast at
the election, Tammany Hall obtained an average majority of about 800.
The Native Americans polled 9,000 votes, and the Equal Rights men, or
Anti-Monopolists, over 3,500. It was estimated that 2,000 Whigs voted
the Tammany ticket to defeat the Anti-Monopolists, and that about 5,500
Whig votes were divided between Tammany Hall and the Native Americans.
The news of its slight plurality was hailed with anything but pleasure
at the Wigwam, where the Anti-Monopolists were denounced as political
swindlers and adventurers. Instead, however, of making a show of
outward fairness, the organization leaders blindly took the course
most adapted to fan the flame of opposition to themselves. After the
great fire of 1835, which destroyed $20,000,000 worth of property, and
the extent of which was due to the refusal of the corrupt Aldermen
to give the city a proper water supply, the Common Council agreed to
loan $6,000,000 at 5 per cent. interest for the relief of insurance
companies and banks which had suffered from the fire.[19] Nothing was
said or done for the relief of the poor sufferers whom the Wigwam
claimed to have under its especial protection. The Council allowed
pawnbrokers 25 per cent. interest and prohibited them from loaning
more than $25 on a single pledge.[20] The city institutions were in
a melancholy state.[21] Most serious of all on the public mind were
the disclosures concerning the Commercial Bank, from which funds were
embezzled in the scheme of cornering the stock of the Harlem Railroad.
As a step towards this end, Samuel Swartwout and Garrit Gilbert (a
sometime Sachem) lobbied for the passage of a bill to increase the
capital stock of this road, which in turn, it was thought, would
increase the price of all the stock--two Senators agreeing to raise
objections temporarily “so as to blind the eyes of the New Yorkers.”[22]
The leaders made no effort to stop the granting of charters, or to
curtail the monopolist privileges already granted. It was admitted
generally that no legislation even remotely affecting the interests
of the banks could pass without the consent of those institutions.
Tradesmen also had their combinations. But combinations, legal enough
when organized by capital, were declared illegal when formed by
workingmen. At this time the Supreme Court of the State of New York
decided that combinations to raise the wages of any class of laborers
amounted to a misdemeanor, on the ground that they were injurious
to trade. Later, in June, 1836, twenty tailors were found guilty of
conspiracy under that decision and fined by Judge Edwards $1,150 in the
aggregate for engaging in a strike for higher wages.
The mechanics prepared to hold an indignation meeting and applied for
permission to use Tammany Hall. This was refused by the Sachems.[23]
In defiance of the Wigwam, the meeting, a gathering of 20,000 persons,
was held in the park fronting Tammany Hall. “Are workingmen,” read the
address of the committee of this meeting,
“free in reality when they dare not obey the first instinct of
all animated beings; when our courts pronounce it criminal to
exercise nature’s paramount law of self-preservation? Trades
unions and mechanick societies are only self-protective against
the _countless combinations of aristocracy_; boards of bank and
other chartered directories; boards of brokers; boards of trade
and commerce; combinations of landlords; coal and wood dealers;
monopolists and all those who grasp at everything and produce
nothing. If _all these combinations_ are suffered to exist, why
are trades unions and combinations of workingmen denounced?
Should they not have an equal chance in the pursuit of life,
liberty and happiness? Should they not have an equal right
with the other classes of society, in their person, in their
property or labor, and in their management?”
The meeting, in strong resolutions, condemned the Supreme Court
decision and that of Judge Edwards.
At this moment the peculiar Wigwam methods were being displayed in
another direction to an edified public. In the first days of May, 1836,
the Board of Aldermen found itself divided equally, Tammany Hall and
the Whigs each having eight votes, precluding either from electing a
president. The Tammany members, in the tea-room downstairs, made merry
over refreshments. The Whigs could not muster a quorum, and sent word
to the organization men to appear; the Wigwam men replied that they
didn’t choose, and bade the Whigs come to them. Meanwhile the public
business stood still. Finally the balloting was begun. On May 23,
seventeen votes were found to have been cast, although there were only
sixteen voting Aldermen.[24] By the end of May more than 120 ballots
were had. At last, on July 1, the Tammany men persuaded Alderman Ward,
a Whig, to offer a resolution electing Isaac L. Varian, a Wigwam
candidate, for the first six months, which was done.
Taking these proceedings as a cue, the Equal Rights party, on June 6,
at Military Hall, adopted a long series of resolutions stating that
the aristocracy of the Democracy, or in other words, the monopolists,
the paper-currency Democrats, the partizans of the “usages,” had
long deceived and misguided the great body of the Democrats. Through
these “usages,” the tools of the banks and other incorporated
and speculative interests were enabled to take advantage of the
unsuspicious self-security of the people, both before and at primary
meetings. By the aristocracy and through secret caucuses, candidates
were chosen, proceedings were cut and dried, and committees were
packed. When committees could not be packed without opposition, the
resolutions further read, two sets of committeemen were usually
elected, and that set whose political complexion best suited the
packed majority of the general committee was always accepted without
any regard to the majorities of the people. The Union did not furnish
a more dangerous usurpation upon the sovereignty of the people than
the fact of the Tammany Hall Nominating Committee sending recently
a petition to the Legislature in favor of chartering more banks and
banking paper capital and designating themselves, not as citizens,
but as members of the nominating committee, notwithstanding the very
nominees of such a committee had given their written pledge to oppose
new banks and monopolies.
The “usages,” the Equal Rights party next resolved, so productive of
secret caucuses, intrigues and abuses, furnished the avenue through
which one portion of the Democracy had been corrupted, and the other
portion--the great mass--led astray. The latter was taught to believe
that “usages” alone made men Democrats, and that to keep Federalists
and Whigs out of office was the very essence of Democracy.[25]
The Equal Rights party then nominated Isaac L. Smith, of Buffalo,
for Governor, and Moses L. Jacques, of New York City, for
Lieutenant-Governor.
To draw from the strength of the new party, some of Tammany’s
leaders--Samuel Swartwout, Jesse Hoyt, Stephen Allen, Saul Alley and
a few others--professed to favor the repeal of the Restraining law,
which in effect prohibited private banking and gave the incorporated
institutions a monopoly. The Anti-Monopolists were not to be deluded.
On September 21 they declared that in the recent _professions_ of the
Tammany corruptionists in advocating this repeal and in favoring some
other few _minor_ democratic measures, they beheld the stale expedient
of luring the bone and sinew of the country to the support of their
monopoly and banking men and measures and that they had no faith in
Tammany “usages,” policy or its incorrigible Sachems.
The characters of most of the Wigwam nominations were so tainted that
it seemed as if the candidates were put forward in defiance of the
best public sentiment. It is not so certain that outside the Equal
Rights party the voters were repelled by the current methods of buying
legislation and dictating nominations. A low tone of public morals was
manifested. Men were bent on money-making. He who could get rich by
grace of the Legislature was thought “smart” and worthy of emulation.
The successful in politics were likewise to be envied, and, if
possible, imitated. A large part of the community bowed in respect to
the person of wealth, no matter whence came his riches; and the bank
lobbyists were the recipients of a due share of this reverence.
From these men the Tammany leaders selected candidates. One of the
Assembly nominees was Prosper M. Wetmore, who had lobbied for the
notorious State Bank charter. This bank, according to the charter,
was to have $10,000,000 capital, although its organizers did not have
more than a mere fraction of that sum. This was going too far, even
for Albany, though upon modifying their application, the charter was
granted.[26] Reuben Withers and James C. Stoneall, bank lobbyists;
Benjamin Ringgold, a bank and legislative “go-between,” and Morgan
L. Smith, preeminent among lobbyists, were other Tammany nominees.
Notwithstanding the low standards of public morals, these men were
so unpopular, that when the form of submitting their names for
ratification to the great popular meeting at the Wigwam on November
1, was carried out, a hostile demonstration followed. The names of
Wetmore, Smith and Ringgold especially were hooted. But the leaders had
groups of “whippers-in” brought in hurriedly to vote affirmatively, and
the presiding officer declared all the nominees duly accepted by the
people.
Only six of the organization’s thirteen Assembly nominees survived
the popular wrath, and the nominees for nearly all the other offices
were beaten, notwithstanding the expectation that the Presidential
election would carry them in on the party ticket. A number of Tammany
men of principle refused to vote. The Whigs, the Native Americans and
some “Locofocos” joined forces. They were aided by the panic, which,
breaking out shortly before election, reacted against the Democrats.
The Equal Rights men as a rule voted for Van Buren. Tammany Hall and
the Whigs both committed frauds. Van Buren received 1,124 majority in
New York City, which in 1832 had given Jackson nearly 6,000 majority.
Made wiser by defeat, the organization leaders realized the importance
of the Equal Rights movement, and caused, as a sop, the passage, in
February, 1837, of the bill repealing the Restraining act. The Common
Council likewise modified the Pawnbrokers’ act by cutting down the
interest to a more reasonable percentage.[27]
Their providence stopped at this point, however,[28] and during the
panic Winter following neither Legislature nor Common Council did
anything to alleviate the miseries of the poor. On the contrary,
the poor complained that the tendency more and more was to use the
power of the law to make the rich richer. While the suffering was
greatest, Alderman Aaron Clark, a Whig, who had made his fortune from
lotteries, proposed that the city spend several millions of dollars to
surround its water front with a line of still-water ponds for shipping
purposes, his justification for this expenditure being that the North
River piers would “raise the price of every lot 25 × 100 feet west
of Broadway $5,000 at a jump.”[29] “Millions to benefit landowners
and shippers, but not a dollar for the unemployed hungry!” exclaimed
the Anti-Monopolists. Alderman Bruen, another Whig, at a time when
the fall in the value of real estate in New York City alone exceeded
$50,000,000, suggested the underwriting by the city to the speculators
for the sum of $5,000,000, to take in pledge the lands they had bought
and to give them the bonds of the city for two-thirds their value.
To the Equal Rights men there was not much difference between the
Tammany Hall and the Whig leaders. Both, it was plain, sweated the
people for their own private interests, although the Whigs, inheriting
the Federalist idea that property was the sole test of merit, did not
flaunt their undying concern for the laborer so persistently as did the
Wigwam.
The city in 1837 was filled with the homeless and unemployed. Rent was
high, and provisions were dear. Cattle speculators had possession of
nearly all the stock, and a barrel of flour cost $12. On February 12
a crowd met in the City Hall Park, after which over 200 of them sped
to the flour warehouse of Eli Hart & Co., on Washington street. This
firm and that of S. B. Herrick & Son, it was known, held a monopoly
in the scarce supply of flour and wheat. The doors of Hart’s place
were battered down, and nearly 500 barrels of flour and 1,000 bushels
of wheat were taken out and strewed in the street. Herrick’s place
likewise was mobbed.[30] On May 10, when the banks suspended specie
payments, a vast and excited crowd gathered in Wall Street, and a riot
was narrowly averted.[31]
The Equal Rights party could not be bought out or snuffed out.
To deprive it of its best leaders Tammany Hall resorted to petty
persecution. Jacques and Slamm had headed a petition to the Legislature
protesting against the appointment of a certain suspicious bank
investigating committee. The Wigwam men in the Legislature immediately
secured the passage of a resolution for the appointment of a committee
to investigate this petition, and this committee instantly haled
Jacques and Slamm to appear at Albany and give testimony.[32] The
purpose was plain. The Tammany men sought to have the Equal Rights
leaders at Albany, which was not as accessible from the city as now,
and there keep them under various pretexts while the Spring campaign
for Mayor was going on. Jacques and Slamm did not appear and were
adjudged guilty of contempt. When they were most needed in New York
City they were arrested and arraigned before the Legislature. William
Leggett also was threatened, but escaped arrest.
The Equal Rights party, however, was soon to demonstrate its capacity
to do harm to Tammany. The organization nominated John J. Morgan for
Mayor; the Whigs named Aaron Clark, and the Equal Rights party opposed
them with Jacques. The 3,911 votes Jacques received were enough to
defeat Morgan, with his 12,974 votes, against Clark’s 16,140. Worst
blow of all, Tammany Hall lost the Common Council. When the new body
came in it removed all of the Wigwam’s office-holders that it could.
The spoils in the form of annual salaries paid by the city, amounting
to $468,000; the perquisites and contracts--such as that for the Croton
Aqueduct, in favor of which the people had voted some years before--and
other improvements, all went to the Whigs.
The Tammany men, regarding the Equal Rights men responsible for this
loss of power, were now disposed to treat with them and willing enough
to throw over the banker-corporation element.
FOOTNOTES
[1] The minutes of the Common Council covering these years show
continuous records of petitions from imprisoned debtors, praying for
fuel and the patching up of windows in the dead of Winter. Charitable
societies were in existence to supply the jailed debtors with food.
[2] This singular provision, by which non-residents were liable to
imprisonment for debt, while the natives of the city were exempted, was
erased in 1840.
[3] _Journal of the Senate and Assembly_, 1805, pp. 351 and 399.
[4] _Ibid._, 1812, p. 134.
[5] _Journal of the Senate and Assembly_, 1812, pp. 259-60.
[6] Stock given at par value meant an almost immediate rise in value
to the legislator. Most stocks went upward from 10 to 15 per cent. on
the passage of the charter, and in the case of the more profitable and
exploitative corporations, far higher advances were scored in a short
time.
[7] _Journal of the Senate_, 1824, pp. 498-532.
[8] _Journal of the Senate_, 1826, Vol. 6, Appendix B. A considerable
part of the money and stock promised the members of the Legislature for
their votes was withheld owing to the expected investigation.
[9] _Ibid._
[10] _Ibid._
[11] _Senate Documents_, 1834, No. 47, and _Ibid._, No. 94. Walter
Bowne was the bank’s president.
[12] _Ibid._, No. 94.
[13] _Ibid._, No. 47.
[14] _Journal of the Senate_, 1833, p. 396.
[15] _Documents of the Senate_, 1834, No. 108.
[16] Lee was the last Mayor elected by the Common Council (1833-34).
[17] Lawrence had a curious habit of strolling the streets carrying his
spectacles in his hand behind his back, and ogling all the pretty girls
he met, a habit which was broken later when one winsome lass tangled
him in a plot, much to his financial and mental distress.
[18] The next day the Equal Rights men were dubbed “Locofocos,” a name
afterward applied by the Whigs to the entire Democratic party.
[19] _Documents of the Board of Aldermen_, 1836, Nos. 65 and 100.
[20] _Ibid._, 1837, No. 48.
[21] _Ibid._, 1837, No. 32.
[22] _Documents of the Senate_, 1836, Vol. II, No. 94.
[23] A short time before, at an Anti-Monopolist meeting, Chairman
Job Haskell had represented that the Tammany Society--the secret
body, responsible to no one and enforcing its demands through the
Tammany Hall political organization--was to blame for the political
corruption. Resolutions were then passed setting forth that whereas
the self-constituted, self-perpetuating Tammany Society had assumed a
dictatorial attitude and by usages made by itself endeavored to rule
the people as with a rod of iron; and, as they (the Equal Rights men)
believed the people were capable of managing their own affairs without
the aid of said inquisitorial society, “that we deem the Tammany
Society an excrescence upon the body politic and dangerous to its
rights and liberties.”
[24] _Proceedings of the Board of Aldermen_, Vol XI, p. 16.
[25] These resolutions were published officially in the New York
_Evening Post_, June 8, 1836.
[26] Cornelius W. Lawrence, the Tammany Mayor, became the bank’s first
president.
[27] _Documents of the Board of Aldermen_, 1837, No. 48.
[28] Excepting some instances of private charity by Tammany leaders.
[29] _Documents of the Board of Aldermen_, 1836, No. 80.
[30] _Documents of the Board of Aldermen_, 1839, No. 29.
[31] _Ibid._
[32] _Documents of the Assembly_, 1837, Nos. 198 and 327.