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

 WHITE HORSE REGENT: Gov. Bouck and the Erie Canal  

   Part Two

By: D. Brooks

 

   In 1839 the Whig party took over the New York Senate from the Democrats. They ran candidates on the platform of expense regulations; tying themselves to the success of the Erie Canal. Democrats voiced concerns to the “reckless building program of the Whigs…” but the response was an easy political maneuver; they removed the two Democrats remaining on the Canal Commission, Samuel Young and William Bouck, reducing the commission from four to only three and placing a Whig, Simon Newton Dexter in the role. The Whig controlled legislature moved to immediately approve an appropriation of $2.5 Million for the Erie Enlargement 

and $4 Million for the lateral canals. This, while an economic recession began sweeping the country. Bouck may have been one of the biggest supporters of the canals and he might have been able to fight to keep his position if he wanted to, but he was also still tuned into the economics of his youth, of the farm, and could not fathom large scale spending when the work could be done at judicious expense instead.

  Perhaps losing his appointment was just the push the man needed, hitching up his white horse for the ride into “martyrdom” much like DeWitt Clinton had done in 1824 when he was  removed from the commission but then re-Elected Governor.  William Bouck became the Democratic candidate for Governor in 1840, pitted against the Whig candidate, William Seward. The November election returns put Seward at 50.3% of the votes (222,011), and Bouck with only 49.1% (216,726). Seward’s margin of victory was 1.2% or only 5,285 votes.

   It was a year of victory for the Whig party, in New York State as well as the rest of the country; taking control of several legislatures as well as placing Harrison and Tyler into the White House. Bouck had support amongst the Democratic Republican newspapers, the last of the Bucktails, and had declared support of the enlargement, but only with the use of surplus funds generated by the canal itself and not increased appropriations. Seward was already looking to work up a $40 Million debt with state canal projects, and one Democratic leaning newspaper wrote that William Seward would add on another $5 Million to “carry a railroad or canal to every man’s door” (Albany Argus, Sept. 1840).

   By 1842 the Democrats would retake the New York State Senate and add back the lost Canal Commissioner positions. Gov. Seward had reluctantly signed into law the Stop & Tax bill, rolling back the excessive Whig spending over the previous three years. This law divided the Democrats into two camps; the “Radical” wing, coming to be known as the “Barnburners” likened to the farmer who would burn down their barn to rid it of rats and, the “Conservative” side called the “Hunkers,” who were content to “hunker down” for the spoils of public service, patronage, and private speculation.

   In 1842 the state would look to elect a new Governor, as Seward did not seek another term, and the Whig party, struggling to keep itself viable in state politics put up the Lt. Gov. for their candidate and forced the canal as the sole issue to be played out at the ballot box.  The Whig newspaper, New York Daily Express, said Bouck was “a Whig inside, only with a Loco Foco coat on the outside” (July 1842). Their job was to convince Radical Democrats that Bouck was too similar to a Conservative Whig, and to the Hunkers, that he was more radical than they were.  This backhand might have worked if their party hadn’t been fractured itself. The Loco Focos was split from the Whig party as being fiscally conservative and wanting to put further checks and balances on the spending power of the state executive and canal commission. 

   The election of William C. Bouck as governor, the thirteenth in New York’s history, was the first single day gubernatorial election to be held. The Whig party had put Luther Bradish up, and the returns here 51.8% for Bouck (208,072), and 46.3% for Bradish (186,091).  The nearly thirty thousand vote difference (5.5%) was as much as could be considered a mandate for Bouck, bolstered by his canal commission reputation and work amongst the people of the state.

A QUICK LOOK at Bradish –

   Luther Bradish was the Lt. Governor under William Seward. He was born in Massachusetts to Col.

Bradish who had fought in the Revolution. Luther attended Williams College and passed the bar. He served in the War of 1812, and under the Secretary of State John Quincy Adams in 1819, Bradish negotiated with the Ottoman Empire as the United States sought to end a series of conflicts along the Barbary Coast.  He entered New York State politics in 1826 as the Franklin County representation to the Assembly, eventually serving as Speaker of that body.  He was put up by the Whigs to be Lt. Governor as the party responded to increasing support from abolitionists; Bradish had already declared his backing of that cause. After his defeat by Bouck, he becomes president of the New York Historical Society, of which he oversaw until his death in 1863.

 

     As Bouck takes office with Lt. Governor Daniel Dickinson, so do the rest of the Democrats who have swept the house and assembly of New York. The party controls all but one of the seats in the Senate and has a comfortable majority in the Assembly as the new Governor makes his first message to the legislature. Bouck declares a commitment to the enlargement of the Erie Canal, especially at the Schoharie Creek, in Syracuse, in Lockport, and along the line of the canal.

 Check out part three next week

*This article series first appeared in the Friends Newsletter, Autumn 2023 to Autumn 2024.