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

 WHITE HORSE REGENT: Gov. Bouck and the Erie Canal  

Part Four

By: D. Brooks

 

   Perhaps even more damning were the accusations in 1844 of patronage and nepotism that circulated around Boucks’  administration. The Whig press covered the scandal (Albany Atlas) as it was claimed the 7th Circuit Court Judge appointment of Whiting was only done on the agreement that Mr. Birdsall would be selected as the clerk for that office.  Birdsall was the father-in-law of Christian Bouck, the Governors son. To make the moment worse, it was also about that time that James Bouck, another of the Governors sons took an appointed position in the Schenectady Post Office.
   Boucks’ administration flatly denied any arraignments for the 7^th Circuit Court and William stated he had advised his son not to take the postal position. The controversies played out in the press, and amid the minds of voters for sure.
   These matters put the Governor in a defensive political position, taking shots from Whigs as well as the Radical faction of his own Democratic  party, losing favor with Van Buren and his “Barnburner” supporters.  As Bouck reinstated work on the enlargement of the Erie Canal, bending to the pressure of public outcry – to the point that Engineer John B. Jervis writes open letters to the Regency to resume the work.  Gov. Bouck addressed the legislature and directed the Canal Commission that contracts on projects already begun should be fulfilled. The Radical opposition leverages that toward a State Constitutional Convention that will happen in 1846, meaning changes to the way the state  conducts business on the canal system.
   If these troubles weren’t enough, Bouck is also politically occupied by the Anti-Rent Wars in New York. He had inherited the issue from Gov. Seward, who had used the state militia to suppress parts of the early insurrections around Albany County.  While laws were being disobeyed, and there was a growing discontent. The lack of Seward’s attention turned that into bitter anger and allowed the movement to grow, and to spread to further districts in the state.
   Boucks’ administration hoped that persuasion and solicitation would lead to compliance, ending the “troubles.” The fermentation grew into greater disaffection amongst Democratic supporters.   Anti-Rent grew like a mold to more and more lease holding estates, particularly those with large debts and mortgages. Riots and armed resistance to enforcement of rent laws erupted in Rensselaer and Columbia Counties in particular.  Bouck would call out the militia after an attack on the jail in Hudson on December 27^th, 1844. It would be one of his final acts as Governor of the State of New York.

   Bouck was not nominated by his party as gubernatorial candidate that year. Instead, the party put up Silas Wright to contend against Buffalo Lawyer, Millard Fillmore. Wright was selected in hopes of quelling tensions within the Democratic party and by pressure from the national convention that saw New York as a vital link to getting James K. Polk into the presidency. The National election ran the political barge in ’44, pulled by a Dark Horse.
   While there may have been disappoint for Bouck, his practical sense must have told him the course was set, the pins were dropped, and he was once again a man tasting the bitter salty sweat of his own labor.  In 1846 Bouck attended the State Constitutional Convention, then took a seat on the New York State Board of Regents (University of NY) for two years, and “Young Hickory” Polk would give the last “Hunker” a role as the Assistant US Treasurer in New York City.  Bouck filled that role until 1849, returning to his family home on Bouck island, in Schoharie County, the farmer who had become governor, but along the way had shaped the economic and political landscape of New York, passed to eternal rest, to labor no longer behind nor in front of the plow, on April 19^th, 1859. 

 * This is the last of a four part series on Gov. Bouck and the Erie Canal.