Internal Improvement policy, to suggest-guages instead of the English, and drilled ing and urging recommendations of Law in Catholic catechisms instead of spellingReform, to Education, the Currency, the books and readers; and yet such a conPolitical action of the Federal Govern- struction of the Governor's suggestions ment, &c., &c. Space will not permit was very generally proclaimed and doggedeven a synopsis of his positions and argu- ly persevered in, to his temporary but ments. The following passage, however, serious injury. The above paragraphs, tooccasioned so much controversy and en- gether with his urgent advocacy of Chancountered so very general a prejudice and cery and Law-Practice Reform, cost him hostility that it cannot well be omitted: at least Five Thousand votes in the ensuing Election. But, Time at last sets all things even. Although our system of Public Education is well endowed, and has been eminently successful, there is yet occasion for the benevolent and enlightened action of the Legislature. The advantages of Education ought to be secured to many, especially in our large cities, whom orphanage, the depravity of parents, or some form of accident or misfortune, seems to have doomed to hopeless poverty and ignorance. Their intellects are as susceptible of expansion, of improvement, of refinement, of elevation and of direction, as those minds which, through the favor of Providence, are permitted to develop themselves under the influence of better fortunes; they inherit the common lot to struggle against temptations, necessities and vices; they are to assume the same domestic, social and political relations; and they are born to the same ultimate destiny. "The resistance to the Sheriff arose out of a controversy between the tenants of the Manor of Rensselaerwick and its proprietors. The lands in that Manor are held under ancient leases, by which mines and hydraulic privileges, rents payable in kind, personal services, and quarter-sales are reserved. Such tenures, introduced before the Revolution, are regarded as inconsistent with ex "The children of foreigners, found in great numbers in our populous cities and towns and in the vicinity of our public works, are too often deprived of the advantages of our system of public education, in consequence of prejudices arising from differences of language or religion. It ought never to be forgotten that the public welfare is as deeply | concerned in their education as in that of our chil-isting institutions, and have become odious to dren. I do not hesitate, therefore, to recommend the establishment of Schools in which they may be instructed by teachers speaking the same language with themselves, and professing the same faith. There would be no inequality in such a measure, since it happens from the force of circumstances, if not from choice, that the responsibilities of Education are in most instances confided by us to native citizens, and occasions seldom offer for a trial of our magnanimity by committing that trust to persons differing from ourselves in language or religion. Since we have opened our country and all its fullness to the oppressed of every nation, we should evince wisdom equal to such generosity by qualifying their children for the high responsibilities of citizenship." It would seem difficult honestly to misunderstand this wise suggestion of the employment of teachers for the ignorant and vagrant children of our cities able to speak a language that those children could understand and prepared to overcome their natural distrust of and aversion to strangers by the sympathy of a common religious faith, as a proposition that the children should be taught in foreign lan those who hold under them. They are unfavorable to agricultural improvement, inconsistent with the prosperity of the districts where they exist, and opposed to sound policy and the genius of our institutions. The extent of territory covered by the tenures involved in the present controversy, and the great numbers of our fellow-citizens interested in the questions which have grown out of them, render the subject worthy of the consideration of the Legislature. While full force is allowed to the circumstance that the tenants enter voluntarily into such stipulations, the State has always recognized its obligation to promote the general welfare, and guard individuals against oppression. The Legislature has the same power over the remedies upon contracts between landlord and tenant as over all other forms of legal redress. Nor is the subject altogether new in the legislation of the State. It was brought under consideration in 1812, by a bill reported by three Jurists of distinguished eminence and ability. I trust, therefore, that some measure may be adopted, which, without the violation of contracts, or injustice to either party, will assimilate the tenures in question to those which experience has proved to be more accordant with the principles of Republican Government, and more conducive to general prosperity, and the peace and harmony of Society." These suggestions, though generally decried when made, have since been, if not literally adopted, yet in effect surpassed. Successive Legislatures have directed the State's Attorney-General to institute proceedings for the recovery of lands held under Manorial grants, where it shall seem to him that said grants were invalidated by fraud or by want of due authority in the grantor. The Convention of 1847 engrafted upon our Reformed Constitution provisions intended to prevent the creation. of new and ultimately to extirpate all existing Manorial rights or privileges within any State. And, by a late decision, our Supreme Court has distinctly pronounced the exaction of Quarter Sales, as stipulated in most of the Manorial Leases, illegal and void, being contrary to fundamental law and Republican policy. The time is eviThe time is evidently at hand when the securing of a Homestead to each Family, of Land to each Cultivator, and of Opportunity and full Recompense to each individual willing to Labor, will be recognized and acted on as cardinal principles of a genuine Democracy. The controversy between the Executives of New-York and Virginia respecting the nature and extent of the constitutional obligation to deliver up fugitives from justice had mainly taken place the preceding season, though it was not then concluded. Gov. Seward refers to it in his Message in the following terms: "A requisition was made upon me in July last, by the Executive of Virginia, for three persons as fugitives from justice, charged with having feloniously stolen a negro slave in that State. I declined to comply with the requisition, upon the grounds that the right to demand and the reciprocal obligation to surrender fugitives from justiee between sovereign and independent nations, as defined by the law of nations, include only those cases in which the acts constituting the offence charged are recognized as crimes by the universal laws of all civilized countries; that the object of the provision contained in the Constitution of the United States, authorizing the demand and surrender of fugitives charged with treason, felony, or other crime, was to recognize and establish this principle of the Law of Nations in the mutual relations of the States as independent, equal and Eovereign communities; that the acts charged upon the persons demanded were not recognized as criminal by the laws of this State, nor by the universal laws of all civilized countries; and that consequently the case did not fall within the provision of the Constitution of the United States. "The Governor of Virginia, in his last Annual Message, referred the subject to the consideration of the Legislature of that State, and declared that my construction of the Constitution of the United States could not be acquiesced in nor submitted to. He added, that if it were allowed to prevail, and no relief could be obtained against what he designated as a flagrant invasion of the rights of Virginia, either by an amendment of the Constitution of the United States, or by the action of the Legislaimportant and solemn duty of Virginia to appeal ture of Virginia, it might ultimately become the from the canceled obligations of the National compact to original rights and the laws of selfpreservation. "I confess my surprise that it should in any part of the Union be regarded as a new and startling doctrine that the Constitutional power of the Executive of any other State to demand the surrender of a citizen of this State, to be carried to the for mer and tried for an offence committed there, is recognized as criminal by the statute laws of this limited to cases in which the offence charged is State, by the common law, or by the universal laws of mankind. Nor can I withhold the expression of my sincere regret that a construction of the Constitution, manifestly necessary to maintain the sovereignty of this State and the personal rights of her citizens, should be regarded by the Executive of Virginia as justifying in any contingency a menace of secession from the Union." The Election of 1840, which followed, resulted in an overwhelming Whig victory. Gen. Harrison was chosen President by 234 Electoral votes to 60 for Van Buren, the Whigs fully maintained their ascendancy in our State, and Gov. Seward was re-elected, though by a majority seriously diminished by the influences already alluded to. He declined to stand for a third term. have had four Governors since, but as yet, no one of them has been re-elected. We Internal Improvement, Law Reform, Land Distribution, Educational Progress, and a diminution of the expense of and impediments to Naturalization, were the chief topics of his third Annual Message, transmitted on the 5th of January, 1841. The following paragraphs alluding to Gen. Harrison, the elected but not yet inaugurated President, have a concise felicity of expression, of which time has not yet denuded them: "The Chief Magistrate of the Union will enter upon his trust with favorable auspices. The public good requires, and the public mind consents to repose. Fortunate in experience of public services in the Senate and the field, in executive and diplomatic stations; fortunate in exemption from prejudice in favor of any erroneous policy hitherto pursued; fortunate in the enjoyment of his country's veneration and gratitude; and especially fortunate in having at once defined and reached the boundary of his ambition, the President can have no other objects than the public welfare and an honorable fame. "The People expect that he will preserve peace, maintain the integrity of our territory and the inviolability of our flag, co-operate with Christian nations in suppressing piracy and the Slave-Trade, avoid alliances for every other purpose, conduct our foreign relations with firmness and fairness, terminate our controversies with the Indian tribes, regain their confidence, and protect them against cupidity and fraud; confine the actions of the Executive Department within constitutional bounds; abstain from interference with elections and the domestic concerns of the States; defer to the wisdom of Congress, and submit to the will of the people; observe equal and exact justice to all men and classes of men, and conduct public affairs with steadiness, that Enterprise may not be disappointed; with economy, that Labor may not be deprived of rewards; and with due accountability of public agents, that Republican institutions may suffer no reproach. If he shall endeavor to meet these expectations, no discontents can affect-no opposition can embarrass him; for he will act in harmony with the spirit of the Constitution, and with the sentiment of the People. And when, like him whose fame is unapproachable, but whose wisdom and moderation this distinguished citizen has adopted as his great example, he shall have healed his country's wounds, and restored her happiness and prosperity, he will enjoy the rare felicity of a retirement more honored than even his distinguished station." Gov. Seward's fourth and last Annual Message was transmitted in January, 1842. The trial of McLeod for the alleged murder of a citizen of our State at the time of the burning of the steamboat Caroline at Schlosser, in the Niagara River; the Public School system of our city and its degrave fects; the General Banking Law and its deficiencies, as shown by experience, were, after Internal Improvement, its more prominent topics. On the subject of his still unsettled controversy with the Executive of Virginia, he says: "I lay before you a law of Virginia calculated to embarrass our Commerce. The effect of the act is postponed until May next, and the Governor is authorized further to suspend it whenever the Executive authority of this State shall surrender three persons heretofore demanded by the LieutenantGovernor of the Commonwealth as fugitives from jnstice, and the Legislature shall repeal the law extending the trial by jury. I have respectfully informed the authorities of Virginia that my convictions of the illegality of that requisition are unchanged; and that although New-York, from motives of self-respect and devotion to the Union, will not retaliate, nor even remonstrate, yet she cannot consent to remain a respondent, since Virginia has seen fit to transcend the sphere assigned her by the Federal Constitution, and to pass an aggressive law; but that this State will cheerfully return to a discussion of the subject, with a sincere desire to arrive at the conclusion mutually satisfactory and conducive to the general harmony, whenever the effect of that unfortunate statute shall be remedied by the action of our sister State, or by an overruling decision of the Supreme Court of the United States. The Legislature will decide whether the trial by jury shall be relinquished, and whether a State which acknowledges no natural inequality of man, and no political inequality which may not ultimately be removed, shall wrest that precious shield from those only whose freedom is assailed, not for any wrong-doing of their own, but because the greatest of all crimes was committed against their ancestors. Taught as we have been by the founders of the Constitution, and most emphatically by the Statesmen of Virginia, we cannot renounce the principle that all men are born free and equal, nor any of its legitimate consequences. But we can, nevertheless, give to Virginia, and to the whole American family, pledges of peace, affection and fidelity to the Union, by relying upon legal redress alone, and by waiting the returning magnanimity of a State whose early and self-sacrificing vindication of the Rights of Man has entitled her to enduring veneration and gratitude." At the close of his second term, Gov. Seward returned to Auburn and resumed with ardor the pursuit of his long neglected profession, to which his next six years were assiduously and most successfully devoted. An extensive and lucrative practice in the Courts of the United States, especially in cases arising under the Patent Laws, was rapidly acquired, and had increased to an embarrassing extent when he relinquished, so far as practicable, his practice in 1849, to devote himself to his new Senatorial duties, and to settling the large estate of his father, who died late in that year. Though not a candidate for office at any time during these years, he yet devoted a portion of 1844 to an active canvass of our State in behalf of the Whig cause and of Mr. Clay's election as President, and in 1848 he addressed large assemblages not only in this State but also in Pennsylvania and Ohio in advocacy of the election of Taylor and Fillmore. Gov. Seward, though ardently engaged in the canvass of 1844, through almost the entire Summer and Fall, was unable to accept half the imposing invitations to speak that urgently solicited his consent; and the brief letters he addressed to those whose solicitations he was compelled to decline, are among the most effective appeals of that memorable contest. In reply to the Whigs of Orleans County, he wrote: "AUBURN, May 19th, 1844." "Our Revolutionary sires sung of the Tree of Liberty' they planted and watered with blood, and we, who rest under its branches, justly boast of its fruits and rejoice in its protection. Yet the exile, though invited from other lands, too often finds himself an unwelcome intruder beneath its shade. Masses of our countrymen too hastily seize and satisfy themselves with its unripened fruits, while to a whole race it yields nutriment as bitter as Apples of Sodom. Let us stir the earth as then, and apply to the roots of our noble Tree the fresh mould of knowledge and religion, so shall it produce for all alike and abundantly the sweet fruits of peace, security and virtue. Gentlemen, Let the Whigs of the Eighth District look to this: they are not mere partisans, politicians of the day, nor of the season, politicians from interest nor expediency. When I had the honor to be elected Chief Magistrate of this State, I received in the Eighth Senate District a majority equal to my entire majority in the State. During the short interval of seven weeks between my election and inauguration, I received more than a thousand applications for offices. Of these applications two only came from beyond theCayuga Bridge. To that region I look continually, confidingly, and always, for the spirit which shall not merely restore prosperity when it has been lost, but which shall constantly renovate and regenerate Society. Look at our neglected and decaying Public Works. Who shall renew and complete them but the Whigs? Look at the Tariff Law, which constitutes our system of Protection! passed in the Senate of the United States on compulsion by a casting vote perfidiously pledged to its speediest possible repeal. Who has saved it but the Whigs? Look at the stain of Repudiation on our National Honor. Who shall efface it but the Whigs? Look at the intolerance, turbulence, conflagrations and shedding of blood in the streets of an Eastern City, and say how shall such crimes be averted but by establishing the truth that all men are equal before the Constitution and the Laws? And who shall do this but the Whigs, who always maintained the supremacy of the Laws? Look at the threatened extension of our territory, for the mere purpose of extending the public domain of Slavery, and adding new bulwarks to support that accursed institution. Who shall postpone this evil now? A Whig Senate. Who can prevent it hereafter but a Whig Administration and a Whig Congress? And who shall lead the way in those great measures but the Whigs of Western New-York-who led the way in 1837 and 1838, and in 1840? And who so fit a leader as Henry Clay, whose self-sacrificing patriotism has so often postponed its own rewards to save the interests, the peace and the welfare of his Country? I am, gentlemen, with great respect, Your humble servant, To the Whigs of MICHIGAN, who soon after addressed him a similar and pressing invitation, he returned the following an swer: "AUBURN, June 12, 1844. DEAR SIR:-The Whig State Central Committee of Michigan could hardly have been conscious how seductive would be the call they were making upon me in their invitation for the 4th of July next. Independent of the great satisfaction I should enjoy in becoming acquainted with the citizens of your State who support the great party upon which I have bestowed my confidence and affection, there is nothing in the range of human knowledge I so much desire as to see and study the Great West, its resources, its condition, its prospects, and its growing influence upon the destinies of our Country and of our Race. But, my dear Sir, I have been long a truant to domestic duties, and neglectful of personal interests. The inconvenience of this error must be corrected. I cannot, therefore, gratify my desire to see the West, at this juncture. I should the more deeply regret this, if I had the vanity to believe for a moment that what I could say would at all promote the success of the Whig party in Michigan. I could only speak of the beneficent operations of the Tariff, and invoke the People of Michigan to let it stand; of the desirableness of saving the avails of the Public Lands, and applying them to Education, and the improvement of our interior communications by water, and invoke the aid of the people of Michigan in favor of a policy more important even to them, than to the State to which I belong; of the deplorable error of adding bulwarks to the falling institution of Slavery, which is the chief cause of our national calamities, and the only source of national danger, and implore the Free People of Michigan "to stand by the cause of human freedom" and of the importance of liberal naturalization, as a chief element in our growing empire; and appeal to the enlightened People of Michigan to instruct their elder brethren of the East on a principle which lies at the base of Western prosperity. But there can be no need of such appeals to such a people, and at least I shall have no special claims on the attention of those whom I should address. Accept, my dear sir, for yourself and your associates, assurances of my very high respect, and believe me, most respectfully your obedient servant, W ILLIAM H. SEWARD. To M. EACKER, &c., State Committee." We give one more of these letters, and give it entire, because of the honor it does to a noble Commonwealth, first on the list of immovably Whig States, and to two of her illustrious Statesmen whom the Country delights to honor. Gov. Seward, having been urgently invited to attend a great gathering of the Whigs of Western Massalowing answer: chusetts at Springfield, returned the fol "AUBURN, July 29, 1844. GENTLEMEN:-The earliest studies of every citizen in the history of Democracy in America carry him at once to Faneuil Hall, the Council Cham ber of Boston, and to Lexington and Bunker Hill, the battle-fields of Massachusetts. When sedition raised her thousand clamors, and fears of the dissolution of the Union came thick and fast upon me in a foreign land, opening a sad perspective of commotions, declining public virtue and the calamities of endless civil war, the voice of Massachusetts, delivered by DANIEL WEBSTER, defending our glorious Constitution, not for her interests, nor her sake, nor her glory alone, but for the peace, welfare and happiness of the whole American People, quelled the storm, dispelled the alarm, and assured mankind of the stability of Liberty and Union, then and forever, one and inseparable." 66 Whenever and wherever fraud has planned a mine to subvert a pillar of the Constitution, or Power has meditated a blow against the People, or against a citizen, or against an exile, or against a slave, against anything in the shape of a Free Society, or against anything in the shape of a man, JOHN QUINCY ADAMS of Massachusetts has been seen watching the design with eagle eye, and in the moment of the attempted perpetration of the crime the conspirators fell, the intended victim rose free and safe, and the deliverer, unrewarded and unthanked, set himself again on his endless watch for the cause of Freedom and Humanity. If I could be allowed to sit in the silence that would become me in the proposed gathering of the Whigs of Massachusetts, or if they would be content with my merely expressing the veneration and reverence I cherish for them and her, I might be persuaded to accept the hospitalities tendered to me. But they have another object; I am required to speak. Massachusetts and her sons stand there, needing no praise from me, and asking none. My life has already become a living offence against my own conviction of propriety. I cannot instruct, nor can I consent to seem as if I thought I could instruct, those from whom it is my pride to learn. I must therefore, gentlemen, again decline your kind invitation. But I will second in this State your noble efforts for Clay and the Constitution with what ability I possess. Past relations excuse my advocacy here, and it seems not altogether unbecoming, because it is at least dutiful and grateful. Accept, gentlemen, renewed assurances of grateful and affectionate respect and friendship. WILLIAM H. SEWARD. George Ashmun, George Bliss, &c., Esqrs." A concurrence of malign influences deprived the Whigs of the victory in that desperate contest to which they were entitled. Prominent among these influences were the outbreak of Nativism in several of our great cities, whereby the Adopted Citizens, alarmed for their dearest rights, were driven pell-mell into the Loco-Foco ranks, while thousands were naturalized on purpose to vote for Polk as the way to put down Nativism, and many Immigrants voted who were not naturalized at all, nor entitled to be. Hardly less baleful was the obstinate assertion of our adversaries in the Free States that Mr. Clay was as favora ble and as much committed to the Annexation of Texas as Mr. Polk-an assertion for which some color of countenance was indeed extorted from the letters written by Mr. Clay to Alabama, but which was none the less a fraud and a falsehood, not only in the absolute fact but in the consciousness of its utterers. The votes thrown away on Birney in this State alone because of such assertion would have sufficed to elect Mr. Clay. Other influences conspired with these to carry Mr. Polk into the Presidential Chair, bring Texas into the Union, and plunge the country into a destructive, needless and therefore criminal War with Mexico. Gov. Seward, having done all that man could do to avert these foreseen calamities so long as effort would avail, returned to his profession when the result of the struggle of '44 was declared, discharging his duty as a private citizen and a Whig with unwavering fidelity and biding in faith the dawning of a brighter day. On the evening of the 12th of March, 1846, a horrible destruction of human life took place in Cayuga County. John G. Van Nest, a worthy farmer residing in Fleming, three miles south of Auburn, with his wife, infant son and mother-inlaw, was butchered outright, and a guest named Van Arsdale severely wounded. The murderer was a negro, unknown to the victims or the survivors of the family; but he stole a horse and rode away upon it, was traced north to where he exchanged it for another, also stolen; and thence into Oswego County, where, at a point forty miles from Fleming, he was overtaken and arrested next day. He proved to be a half Indian, half negro, twenty-two lived nearly all his life and spent five years years old, born in Auburn, where he had horse-stealing. He was taken back to the in the State Prison under a conviction for slayer, and ordered to stand committed for scene of the tragedy, fully identified as the trial as the murderer. But the immense, excited concourse by this time assembled the slow process of indictment, trial and there could ill brook the idea of awaiting execution. They were fierce for his blood |