Whigs and Locofocos Change the Canal Commission
Whigs and Locofocos
Change the Canal Commission
By: D. Brooks
Until 1844 the term of the commissioners was indefinite. The Act of May 6, 1844,
established a four-year term, while vacancies were filled by concurrent resolution of both houses of
the State Legislature, or during the
recess of the Legislature, temporarily by the Governor, and a substitute was
elected at the next State election if t here was a remainder
of the term. The Constitution of 1846 shortened the term to three years.
The office of Canal Commissioner was abolished by an amendment in 1876,
with the functions of the office taken over by the new Commissioner of
Public Works.
By 1844 the Whig faction in NYS reflected the national platform of the party, “bringing together a loose coalition of groups united in their opposition to what party members viewed as the executive tyranny of ‘King Andrew’ Jackson. They borrowed the name Whig from the British party opposed to royal prerogatives.” Overall the party favored an interventionist economic program, which called for a protective tariff, federal subsidies for the construction of infrastructure, and support for a national bank. It also advocated for modernization, meritocracy, the rule of law, protections against majority tyranny, and vigilance against executive overreach. The Whig base of support was centered among entrepreneurs, planters, reformers, and the emerging urban middle class. It had relatively little backing from farmers or unskilled workers.
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica online, the “Locofoco Party, in U.S. history, radical
wing of the Democratic Party, organized
in New York City in 1835. Made up primarily of workingmen and
reformers, the Locofocos were opposed to
state banks, monopolies,
paper money, tariffs, and generally any financial policies that
seemed to them antidemocratic and conducive to special privilege. Originally named the Equal
Rights Party, the group became known as the Locofocos (which was later
derisively applied by political opponents to all Democrats) when Democratic
Party regulars in New York turned off the gaslights to oust the
radicals from a Tammany Hall nominating meeting. The radicals
responded by lighting candles with the new self-igniting friction matches known
as locofocos and proceeded to nominate their own slate.
Never a national party, the Locofocos
reached their peak when President VanBuren urged and Congress passed (July
4, 1840) the Independent Treasury Act, which fulfilled the primary
Locofoco aim: complete separation of government from banking. After 1840 Locofoco political influence was largely
confined to New York, and by the end of the decade many Locofocos were allied
with the Barnburner Democrats, who eventually left the party over the slavery-extension issue.”
It is really quite interesting just how much of our collective history has been steered by political parties that no longer exist, may have only existed to achieve a particular goal, imploded on themselves or that fizzled out into obscurity. When we look at political circumstances of today, and the course of New York as well as American government, it sheds a new light—this time perhaps casted a bit by some old locofoco lit candles.
Did You Know?
The term Loco-foco was originally used by John Marck for a self-igniting cigar, which he had patented in April of 1834. Marck was an immigrant who invented the name for his product from a combination of the Latin prefix loco-, which as part of the word "locomotive" had recently entered general public use, and was usually misinterpreted to mean "self," and a misspelling of the Italian word fuoco for "fire." Therefore, his name for his product was originally meant to be something like: "self-firing." However, it seems that Marck's term was quickly genericized to mean any self-igniting match, and it was this usage from which the political faction derived its name.
The Whigs quickly seized upon the name,
applying an alternate derivation of "Loco Foco," from the combination
of the Spanish word loco, which had the meaning mad or
crack-brained, and "foco," from focus or fuego that
means 'fire.'
The Whigs meaning then was that the faction
and later the entire Democratic party, was the "focus of
folly." The use of "Locofoco" as a derogatory name
for the Democratic party continued well into the 1850s, even following the
dissolution of the Whig Party and the formation of the Republican Party.
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