WHITE HORSE REGENT: Gov. Bouck and the Erie Canal (Part III)

WHITE HORSE REGENT: Gov. Bouck and the Erie Canal  

   Part Three

By: D. Brooks

    Boucks’ nativity may have been his weakest point. For instance, it had been explained to him that as governor he would need to maintain a level of appearance. That of house, home, and not just conduct. He took that  advice, misguided to his lifestyle as it was, and fully staffed the governor’s mansion with maids, a coachman, a cook, laundresses, etc. The first year in office the expense was equal or more than his salary, so he released them. It would be the Bouck family that would keep household from then on.   This policy meant contracts unpaid by the Canal Commission could petition for damages. Contractors extended on lines of credit for work they awaited payment for, filed grievances leading to the remaining pocket of Whigs to declare of the Democrat Regency, “Millions for Damages, but not a cent for improvement.”   

   And what would a Politician be without some  controversy? Bouck had faced opposition attacks as a canal commissioner, and during his runs for the executive office, but the foment grew by early 1843. A year into his leadership, accusations were hurled at Bouck from within the Senate chamber. Sixth District’s Senator Dickinson  openly accused the governor while in session of “wantonly and wickedly expending the public moneys…” while he was a Canal Commissioner. Dickinson took partisan malice and threw it out the window, calling out both sides of the isle for expenses on infrastructure. Through the spring of 1843 accusations continued to be published in newspapers about misappropriated funds and frauds perpetrated by Bouck along the canal, especially as part of the early enlargement. Several noted in particular, issues to be brought to the attention of the people of the state, contracts with Ephraim Baldwin, in one case  stating Bouck allowed public funds to establish a road along private property and a decorative stone wall near the dock adjoining the private property. The Auburn Journal and Advertiser, April 5, 1843, stated, “…at the public expense, …our first Agricultural Governor has added a fancy stone wall…(this) resolution seeks an explanation of this munificence of the late commissioner so expensive to the State over which he presides.”   

   The paper continues for more than a page, in column after column with what seems like a  laundry list indictment of contract errors, shady deals, and closed-door arrangements with preferred contractors. An official with the state reviewed the allegation in particular to the “fancy wall” in Troy, declaring it was required to preserve the roadway as the canal expanded in that section. It was far cheaper to build a wall than re-route the canal. The investigation also found that while Bouck conducted the contract initially for the wall, one to be made from large fieldstone rubble masonry, “…a kind of wall made of common stone of the country, no better than ordinary cellar wall, except in the size of the stone…,” it was Bouck’s successor on the Canal Commission, Mr. Whitney, who supervised the work and made changes so assailed by Dickinson and others in the papers and Senate. Whitney oversaw the inclusion of an Egyptian panel, parapets, copings, and pilasters from the “finest cut stone upon the whole canal.”

   Another issue in the larger minefield of politics, William had endorsed a circular sent to Europe that in essence was an advertisement for the enlargement of the canal at an expense of $20 Million that would need labor. The enticement and the worsening conditions for some laboring classes in parts of the old world, would come to mockery toward Bouck as workers who came to fill those postings would be dismissed or turned away as fiscal conservatism and his own declaration to only use surplus funds meant work slowed, contracts went unpaid, and the project slumped to a near halt as calls from constituents for the “regency” to act.

 Check out Part IV next week

*This article series was first published in the Friends newsletter Autumn 2023 to Summer 2024.