siduous arts of the agitators, that they were burned and hanged in effigy in many parts of the country.

At the general election in November, 1824, the democracy was utterly defeated. Upon the causes that combined to produce this effect, it is unnecessary here to pause. The candidate of the opposition for the Executive chair received a majority of seventeen thousand votes. General James Tallmage, who had belonged to, and been a leader in, the republican ranks, went over to the enemy. He was elected Lieutenant-Governor by a majority of thirtyfour thousand.

A large number of the seventeen remained in the Senate during the session of 1825. The "victors" quarreled and fell into distraction. In this condition of affairs these seventeen exercised a controlling power over the acts of the Legislature. A vacancy was about to occur in the Senate of the United States. An individual who had belonged to the democratic party, but who had deserted and gone over to the federalists, was presented to the Senate, a majority of whom declared that they would not vote for this individual, nor would they accept of his nomination. The House refused to designate any one else, and there was, precisely as has been again recently witnessed, no election. At the ensuing general election in 1826, the republicans again carried the state, and one of their friends was chosen the Senator.

It was at this election that Mr. Wright was nominated to represent the district in which he resided in the Congress of the United States. He had acquired a high reputation for ability and independence in the discharge of his official duty. This was the first occasion on which any one of the seventeen had come before the people since the memorable events already detailed had occurred. The contest was bitter beyond all former example, yet Mr. Wright beat his competitor by five hundred votes. In December, 1827, he took his seat. This was the year before the second contest between Jackson and Adams. The republican party in New-York had rallied, and espoused the cause of the former. At the election of 1828 Mr. Wright was again a candidate for Congress in what was called a double district; and not

withstanding that there was much foul play and treachery practised against him, he was successful. His certificate, however, was refused him, and he was compelled to contend for his seat before the House of Representatives, where a decision was made in his favor.

Early in February, 1829, whilst Mr. Wright was employed in the discharge of his duties at Washington, he received from the Legislature of New-York the appointment of Comptroller, whose services, with regard to the financial affairs of that state, correspond precisely with those of the Secretary of the Treasury with regard to the financial concerns of the Union. This office is held for three years. Mr. Wright served out his first term to the entire satisfaction of the public, and was re-elected in 1832. In this year, William L. Marcy, who was a Senator in Congress from New-York, was chosen Governor, and was sworn into office on the first day of January, 1833. Mr. Wright was elected to succeed him, and forthwith took his seat. His first term expired on the third day of March, 1837, but on the first Tuesday of the preceding February, he was reelected for the constitutional period of six years.

Opportunity to display his eminent abilities was all that Mr. Wright required to secure his rapid advancement. Within twelve years the "village justice" had become one of the representatives of the sovereignty of the “ Empire State," containing nearly two millions of people. In October, 1833, occurred the famous removal of the deposites. The opposition, who held the majority in the Senate, determined to attack this bold measure there, and to pass a direct and disgraceful censure upon the executive. It is unnecessary here to advert to the extensive preparations that were made to render this premeditated assault fatal to the Administration, the history of that stormy and eventful period being doubtless still fresh in the memory of most of our readers.

It was at this period that it became the duty of Mr. Wright, Mr. Forsyth and others, to repel the charges which were thus preferred with a united eloquence and ferocity never surpassed in the annals of parliamentary debate, against the administration which they

supported, and to defend the course which had been pursued towards the Bank. This was the first occasion on which Mr. Wright had enjoyed an opportunity to act a distinguished part in the deliberations of the Senate, since he had become a member of it. It is almost superfluous to say that he even exceeded the expectations of his friends. There is in all the movements of Mr. Wright an air of quietness and resolution, of modesty and mildness, which is generally found in a public speaker who feels an unshaken confidence in his intellectual strength and in the justice of his cause. When he rose, the opposition became profoundly attentive, because they knew that he possessed the entire confidence of the Executive, and therefore that whatever revelations he might make were to be regarded as authentic and conclusive. It was evident, in a few moments after he had risen, that he had prepared himself fully, and that he would be able to present the truth with simplicitywithout hesitation or the least affectation. -Whilst his adversaries had spoken to the throng within and without the Senate, the young Senator spoke to it, and through it to the whole nation. -It was curious to observe with what coolness, energy and effect, combined with the most unruffled courtesy, the orator dispelled, one after another, the delusions under which the opposition had been laboring; and when he at last announced that the Executive was content to appeal from any sentence which they might pronounce, back to the people from whom he and they alike derived their respective powers, the effect was wholly irresistible. It forewarned the federal members, and truly too, that the tempestuous passions of the Senate chamber would soon be quelled by the solemn judgment of their constituents. Mr. Wright passed through this memorable contest as became one of his rare gifts. Even his opponents confessed with admiration the skill and ingenuity of the speaker's logic, and placed him at once in the very front rank of the friends of the Administration, side by side with the best and foremost; while many have been accustomed to assign him the first place, as the Administration "leader" in the Senate, for weight, soundness, discretion, and eloquence.

VOL. XIX-NO. CI.

It will be asked if Mr. Wright is an orator. In the common sense of the term, he is not. We have never known him excited beyond his usual level of cool equanimity. He never declaims, he never addresses the passions, nor attempts to charm the imagination with the figures or embellishments of rhetoric. His voice is not melodious, though after listening to it for a short time it becomes not unpleasing. His enunciation is slow, but distinct and fluent. The same accurate logical precision characterises his language and his thoughts. He is the most perfectly calm, methodical and logical speaker, that we have ever listened to. His opinions are habitually marked by moderation-by a constant regard to the results of actual experience, as well as the dictates of an enlarged reason-by a fixed determination to be practical, at the same time that he is giving scope to the broadest general views.

2

be

In the course of Mr. Wright's senatorial career, the sessions of the 27th Congress afford evidence of the highest efforts of intellect, and of what may effected against great odds, by a fearless adherence to principle. The desperate battle fought for its special privileges by the moneyed power, under the United States Bank, aided by concurrent events throughout the commercial world, resulted in 1840 in great national distress. The United States Bank had failed utterly under disgraceful circumstances, and dragged down with it nine sovereign states of the Union, that became insolvent amidst a host of broken banks and bankrupt individuals. Trade was paralysed by the general loss of credit, and prices of all products of labor fell on the hands of the producers. The great struggle of the manufacturers for protection, in 1828 and 1832, had resulted in a compromise tariff which, under a descending scale, biennially reduced duties, and caused them all to approximate a general 20 per cent. duty in 1842. The general distress growing out of financial causes, tempted the manufacturing interest, in 1840, to renew their clamor for "protection," or for the levy of duties for other purposes than the only constituent one of meeting the economical expenses of the government. All these elements

combined to favor that cry of "change," which was the watch-word of the hardcider party, and which undertook to remedy all evils, no matter from what source they might have originated. To bankrupt individuals they promised a loan to expunge their debts. This was supposed to bring, at least, 150,000 votes to the hard-cider flag. Some estimates were as high as 500,000; an official statement, however, of the operations under the bankrupt law, shows the applications for its relief to have been but 33,739. Their liabilities, however, were $440,934,615, and their assets $43,697,307, a remarkable instance of the abuse of credit. The several States had issued $200,000,000 of stock, and of these $100,000,000 were dishonored. To the holders of these the hope of assumption was held out, and distribution of the proceeds of the public lands among the states was promised to discharge their claims. The manufacturers were tempted by a higher tariff to supply an alleged deficit in the revenues; to the cramped merchants, and traders, a National Bank to supply them with large loans, was offered; and high prices to producers, with enhanced wages to laborers, were guaranteed. This combination of events and skillful promises resulted in the revolution of 1840, and the election of the remarkable 27th Congress. When the new government came into power in March, 1841, the needy speculators who helped to place them there were impatient for relief, and the new Congress was summoned for the first of June. A large majority, under the dictatorship of Mr. Clay, proceeded eagerly to the work. The Independent Treasury Law was repealed; a National B. nk chartered, and vetoed by the hard-cider Congress and Executive. The same fate overtook the provisional tariff. The Bankrupt Act was passed, August 12, 1841, and repealed, March 3, 1843, by the same Congress, which also passed the Distribution Bill, and repealed it after six months' operation. In all these changes and vacillations, the part sustained by Mr. Wright was singularly important. As chairman of the Committee of Finance, under the former Administration, he most effectually crushed the charges of extravagance and wasteful expenditure that had been so freely made. He pointed out

the hollowness of the allegations and the gross inconsistencies of those, who, while making them, were needlessly contracting greater debts. The great movement of that extra session, was doubtless to gratify the foreign holders of American bonds, whose agents were in attendance at Washington, by taking out of the Treasury the proceeds of the public land sales, and making them over to the states as a fund for the discharge of those dishonored bonds.The tariff question was made _part and parcel of this scheme. Inasmuch as that the increased expenditure of the federal government was a pretext for those high taxes, which were coveted by manufacturers, as beneficial to their interests, so a diminution of the legitimate revenues of the government led to the same resultThe defeat of that iniquity may mainly be attributed to the exertions of Mr. Wright. The terms of the compromise act stated, that after 1842:

"Such duties shall be laid for the purpose of raising such revenue as may be necessary to an economical administration of the government."

When the bill, in August, 1841, was brought forward for distributing the land revenues,' Mr. Clay quoted this passage with matchless effrontery, as a positive stipulation, that from that time the land revenues should be abandoned, and the customs alone depended upon for revenue. Mr. Wright quickly denounced this perversion of meaning, showing that the passage quoted was merely an additional restriction. When Mr. Clay boldly announced that the object of squandering the land revenues was to cause a necessity for high taxes, and as a means of protection, Mr. Wright exposed the nefarious tendency of the scheme with a degree of clearness and force seldom equalled. Not only did he denounce the unconstitutionality of collecting money to give away, not in support of government or the defence of the country, but showed that it was an attempt to remove a tax from the shoulders of property-holders and lay it upon the poor. The debts of the states were contracted to be paid, if paid at all, by direct taxes on the taxable property of the states. By removing that liability from property, and collecting money through taxes on con

sumable goods, to be paid over to the states, the men of wealth are released at the expense of the poor and the operations of commerce. He said, with great force:

"The states are to be bribed to wink at

taking money out of the Treasury, that the people may be taxed to put it back again into the Treasury, and then the states bribed over again, that the people may be taxed over again."

So apparent did this great injustice become under his luminous exposition, that, powerful as was the dictatorship of Mr. Clay, backed by a large ninjority, the bill could not pass without the following clause:

"That if, at any time, during the existence of this act, there shall be an imposition of duties on imports inconsistent with the provisions of the act of March 2d, 1833, and beyond a rate of duty fixed by that act, to wit; 20 per cent. on the value of such imports, or any of them, then the distribution provided for in this act shall be suspended."

A tariff bill was passed at the same session, imposing 20 per cent. duties on goods before free, in order to enhance the revenues. The general decay of business, arising from financial causes, had diminished commerce and lessened revenues. The whole duties accrued for the fiscal year 1842, reached no more than $16,510,217, a sum inadequate to the wants of the government. In June, 1842, on the expiration of the compromise act, a bill was passed extending temporarily the laws for collecting the revenues, and was vetoed by the Executive. With infinite difficulty a general tariff bill was then passed; not, however, without embracing a clause making inoperative the above provision of the distribution act; that is, the law levying high taxes to supply a deficit revenue, contained in itself a clause to make that deficit greater. This was vetoed. The session was approach ing its close, and amid the intense excitement there was great danger that no revenue law would be passed. At length the tariff bill of 1842 was presented and passed, Mr. Wright denouncing it as wrong in principle, and unjust in its operation, voted for it as the only revenue bill that could be passed under existing circumstances, and as repealing the odious distribution law. The squandering of the land revenues

among speculators was matter that could not be recalled, but the people always held the right, which they subsequently exercised, of reducing the tariff. Among the iniquities of that extraordinary session, which Mr. Wright strongly combated, and subsequent events showed the sagacity of his views, was the loan bill of April, 1842. The law authorized the government to sell a stock at any price in the market: an unheard-of innovation, ruinous to credit; and the spectacle was soon after exhibited of the government sending an agent to hawk the stock all over Europe, at any price. while it expected Treasury notes to float at par at home. The result of this financiering was, that when trade revived in the following year from the unnatural depression that then hung over it, a surplus of $10,000,000 accumulated in the Treasury, which was loaned to the banks without interest, while the government was at the same time paying interest on an equal amount of debt.

After the close of the 27th session of Congress, Mr. Wright was called to preside over the state of New-York, and at the election of November, 1844, received the largest number of votes ever cast in the state for one individual. At the first session of the Legislature after the election, the financial policy of the state reached a crisis which eminently called for that unswerving integrity and soundness of judgment for which the people had frequently relied on Silas Wright, and never in vain. His single-hearted confidence in the ultimate success of sound principles when submitted to the people for judgment, was well expressed, when on the occasion of his vote in the Senate against the provisional tariff, embracing the distribution clause, Mr. Clay taunted him with the displeasure of his constituents for voting against supplies to the government, he replied:

"As to the honorable Senator's commentary upon the vote he was about to give against this tax bill, he had but a single remark to make. The Senator had told him to go home and meet those constituents, if he could. That he was most anxions to do, and to be permitted that had consented to meet this great and grave inestimable privilege, at an early day, he question at this late hour, and in this summary manner. He had, upon repeat

In those disastrous years following the election of 1838, the sound policy of the government of the state of NewYork, in relation to its public works, underwent a great change. Instead of adhering to the original plan of enlargement of the Erie canal, viz. to spend only the surplus revenues in its prosecution, it was resolved to borrow money for that purpose, as well as to construct other works upon credit, and also to loan the credit of the state to joint stock companies for the construction of railroads. In pursuance of these views, the debt of the state was rapidly increased. Large amounts of stocks were issued to companies on their demand, and thrown at any price upon the market, in a time of pressure. Not only was the supply of stock already large, but the system pursued was such as to indicate no limit to the amount yet to be issued. The credit of the state was rapidly sinking, and New-York six per cent. stocks fresh from the Comptroller, were sold at 20 per cent. discount. Many states had failed. Pennsylvania was dishonored; the liabilities of the state of New-York were already beyond its means, and insolvency seemed inevitable. Fortunately at that moment a change took place, and the law of 1842 gave a new direction to affairs, and saved the honor of the state. The law of 1842 contemplated the final extinguishment of the state debt in 22 years from the passage of the act. To do this, a sinking fund was established. Thus the amount of the debt was then $20,710,335, on which the annual interest was $1,127,728, and the law required that a sum equal to one-third this interest, or $375,909 should annually be set apart from the canal revenues, for the redemption of the principal of the debt, and if the canal revenues in any one year did not yield enough to set apart that sum, the deficit should be added to the amount set apart in the next year of larger revenues. These contributions, improved by annual accumu

lations of interest, will, if rigidly persevered in, suffice to extinguish the debt. The law also suspended the prosecution of the public works; authorized specific loans to defray outstanding engagements, and levied a direct tax to make good the deficiency in the revenues to meet the annual liabilities of the state.

The results to be obtained by this law, were the total extinguishment of the debt of the state, a removal of the direct tax imposed to preserve the public faith, and to leave the surplus canal revenues, after these objects were attained, at liberty to be applied to the prosecution of the public works. The successful operation of the law, and its good effects upon the credit of the state, partially aided a relaxation of vigilance on the part of the Legislature, and a bill was passed appropriating money for the resumption of the state works. Perhaps, by a misunderstanding of the law of 1842, it was supposed that the surplus contemplated by it as applicable to such objects, already existed. This bill was promptly vetoed, May 13, 1845, in a message of great clearness and force, giving a most luminous exposition of the state finances, and of that sound policy in which it is necessary to persevere, in order to relieve the state from the effects of the disastrous legislation of 1838-40.

In all the positions which Mr. Wright has occupied before the people, we always discover that firm adherence to sound principle, which never bends to circumstances or yields to expediency. In private life, he is as simple and frugal in his habits as he is dignified and generous in pub.ic. While his untiring and laborious industry commands the admiration of the observer, his affable and courteous manners wins the regard of all. Devoted to his principles, his party and his friends, because in them he sees the true highest interests of his country, he is, as we firmly believe, the most perfectly free from all personal ambition or interestedness, of all the public men of the day.

It will be seen from the above that Mr. Wright is yet in the flower of his age. being only in his fifty-first year. We look forward to a glorious continuance and eventual consummation, of the high political career, along which we have thus slightly traced his strong and steady footsteps.