Recollections, 1828-1911

Introduction

The career of General E. A. Merritt is a signal illustration of the best features of American social and political life.

Descended from old New England stock, his immediate ancestors were soldiers in the Revolutionary struggle and eminent in laying the foundations of civil polity and of social frame work in Vermont, that sturdy and vigorous first representative of the great commonwealths that have clustered about the original thirteen colonies. Largely self-educated and earning as a teacher the means to obtain his own further academic culture. General Merritt began practical life as a surveyor in the fertile region between the St. Lawrence river and the Adirondack wilderness, and like the great Washington found in that occupation an expansion of sentiment and sympathy often lost in those who pursue their tasks within narrow walls. He took an interest in all public matters and was of those who aided in the organization of the Republican party in 1854 and was one of the most earnest workers in that cause of free soil and free speech that finally triumphed in the election of President Lincoln.

Having become a resident of St. Lawrence county in this State in 1 84 1 , it was as a member of the Board of Supervisors of that county and as clerk of the same body, that he first rendered public service from 1854 to 1859- In the latter year he was elected a member of the Legislature and was re-elected to that notable body which, convening on January 1 , 1 86 1 , by its patriotic endeavor and wise legislation placed New York foremost of the loyal states in the tribute of men and money to save the Union.

Disregarding the favorable political prospects opened to him by his good services in the Assembly, General Merritt determined to go into the field and render there such aid as he vv^as qualified to give.

As Regimental Quartermaster and Commissary of Subsistence, he served over three years m the armies of the Potomac, the Cumberland and the Tennessee, resigning in December, 1864, to accept the position of Quartermaster- General on the staff of Governor Fenton and remaining in that place to the end of the Governor's second term on December 31,1 868.

His vigorous and economical business principles v^ere conspicuously displayed in the important affairs connected with the closing months of the war, the final return of our war-worn veterans and the reorganization of the National Guard of the State. In the conduct of the soldier's homes at New York and Albany and in providing gratuitous means for the collection of back pay and other dues for needy soldiers and their dependent families, his philanthropic sentiments found the means of earnest and practical exercise.

During this period he served as a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1867 to which he had been elected from his senatorial district. In this body of conspicuously able and representative men. General Merritt took an active part and was Chairman of the Committee on the Organization of the Legislature.

President Grant appointed General Merritt Naval Officer of the port of New York on March 29, 1869, where he rendered excellent service in the economical administration of the custom laws until displaced in July, 1870, by one of those factional contests that have too often weakened the Republican party in this State. Many of his admirable official suggestions were, however, subsequently carried into effect by the Secretaries of the Treasury.

Introduction

For several succeeding years General Merritt devoted himself to private concerns, while retaining a strong interest in political matters. In 1875 he was unanimously nominated by the Republican State Convention for State Treasurer on a ticket that also comprised the names of Frederick W. Seward, Francis L. Spinner and George E. Danforth and which received the enthusiastic support of the party. This ticket was defeated by the extraordinary efforts of the Democrats in preparing for the presidential candidacy of Governor Tilden in the next year.

In December, 1877, General Merritt was nominated by President Hayes to be Surveyor of the Port of New York, his name was favorably reported by Senator Conkling, Chairman of the Committee on Commerce and his confirmation was without opposition. His previous experience in the Naval office enabled him to promptly put in force the reforms recommended in the recent reports of the Jay Commission and to further extend them by reorganization of the force at his disposal and by a rigid system of official responsibility.

The marked success of his efforts in these directions induced President Hayes to promote him, in July, 1878, to the office of Collector of the Port. In this prominent place his trained ability found a large and favorable field and his administration received the cordial support and applause not only of the Treasury Department, the importers and others directly interested, but of the general public who recognized the first successful attempt to rescue this great business office from the domination of partisan influences. Certain political considerations led President Garfield in the early days of his term to appoint General Merritt to the position of Consul- General at London.

This action aroused a general expression of regret that an officer so efficient in customs administration should be displaced from the principal position where such qualifications were of value. The business men of New York united in a petition to the President praying for his retention as collector, while the press, secular and religious, without regard to party affiliations spoke in the highest terms of Collector Merritt's administration and regretted the imminence of his transfer to another field of duty.

General Merritt was Consul-General from August, 1881, to May, 1885. For the first time the Consulate-General at London was thoroughly and efficiently organized and all branches of its business supervised by citizens of the United States.

During this period General Merritt's reports to the State Department were marked by his characteristic breadth of observation and accuracy of treatment. He investigated the industrial, social and commercial conditions of the British Empire and commented upon them in a clear and unambitious style. It had been his unique opportunity to have occupied those custom places at the great port of New York that best fitted him to appreciate and administer the significant consular work connected with the proper valuation of imported goods. In this field of official duty he rendered great and constant service to our government.

SILAS W. BURT

Contents

PAGE.

Chapter I. Early Life II II, Political Activity 17

III. Thurlow Weed, the Warwick of New York. . . 27

IV. The Civil War and My Relations with Fenton. 33 V. Governor Fenton 51

VI. The Godard Controversy 57

VII. State Normal School at Potsdam 63

VIII. The Constitutional Convention, Naval Officer

and Political Matters 73

IX. Horace Greeley 87

X. Surveyor and Collector of the Port of New

York 107

XI. Consul-General to London 121

XII. Life in London 1 49

XIII. Retrospect 1 69

ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING PAGE

Gen. E. A. Menilt Frontispiece u^

Mrs. Eliza R. Merritt 8^

Governor Fenton 32

W. A. Wheeler 72*^

Facsimile letters 102 "^

R. E. Fenton, facsimile letter 116

James A. Garfield 1 24

Facsimile letter 1 34 "^

John Sherman 126'-^

E. A. Merritt, Jr 1 68 ^

MRS. ELIZA R. MERRITT

CHAPTER I EARLY LIFE

CHAPTER I Early Life

I have been privileged to be a participant in many events of a great period of our national life, and while I have not thought that my association vv^ith them was of importance enough to be made a matter of public record, I have been persuaded by over partial friends to write them out. I consented to do this in the form of an autobiography for my family, and this book is compiled mainly from that record.

Nearly all the persons of public note with whom I have been associated have passed away and it may be of interest to the generation which is succeeding the one in which I was an active worker to learn something of the stirring times which were so fateful to the State and Nation, and of the men who were then influential, but whose names are now only memories.

The conditions of life eighty years ago were hard. Our modern comforts and opportunities of knowledge were then unknown. It was a pioneer age. Labor was hard and poorly paid, and I was not exempt from the hardship which was the common lot. I was born in Sudbury, Vt., February 26, 1828. My father, Noadiah, was the son of Noah Merritt, a revolutionary soldier who served six years in the Continental Army. My great-grandfather of Templeton, Mass., was one of the Minute Men at Lexington. My maternal grandfather, Jeremiah Parker, while working in the field at Leicester, Vt., was captured by the Indians and taken across Lake Champlain to Essex. He was deaf and to this infirmity he owed his release, for the Indians thought

[II]

that his deafness was the sign that he was under the guardianship of the Great Spirit.

It was an age of large families, and to my father, by his first and second wives, sixteen children were bom. The family was reared in humble circumstances and though the opportunities of education were few, they were carefully used, even at much sacrifice. There were no schools but the common ones and they were of the crudest sort. But the family was a school of itself, in which the older children taught the younger ones, all stimulated and encouraged by my father who was a man of wide reading, exemplary habits, a good neighbor and citizen. He had a fine tenor voice and in his early life taught a singing school. He died in 1854 at 71 years of age. My mother lived until 1867, dying at 76. She was a woman of great kindness, a good wife and mother. She had wide knowledge of the simple botanical remedies and was a helpful friend to the sick and needy. Despite the lack of educational advantages, twelve of the children of the family became school teachers, some of them obtaining distinction as such. Two of the boys became ministers, one in the Methodist, the other in the Universalist denominations. In 1 84 1 , my father moved his family to St. Lawrence County, New York, crossing the ice of Lake Champlain on the day that General Harrison was inaugurated President.

Returning to Sudbury at I 7 years of age, I worked for my brother who lived upon grandfather's farm, in the winter teaching my first school at Hubbardstown. .My health had been impaired by overwork in the field and a sun-stroke so that I was unable to endure hard labor, and I engaged to go out as one of the salesmen or peddlers for my brother who, with a partner, conducted a patent medicine and novelty business. With other agents we accompanied Rockwell &

Early Life 13

Stone's circus, joining it at Ticonderoga and remaining with it until we reached Chippewa, Canada. We visited Montreal and the principal Canadian towns, selling our goods, and though the life was one of hardship it was full of interest.

One of the peddlers being taken sick at St. Catherine's, I was sent for to care for him until his recovery. This exhausted all our resources, and retaining only enough to pay my steamer fare to Toronto, I arrived there with fifty cents. Unable from lack of funds to return home I engaged with a man I met at the hotel to get out barrel hoops for flour mills. I was in no condition to set my own terms and greedily accepted what he offered. He paid my hotel bill and I went seventeen miles to my work. Having left my clothes at the circus when I was hastily summoned away, I was very destitute, nor was I much better off when I ended my service of six weeks as I only received enough to pay my board and buy a shirt and a pair of boots.

Boarding at the same place with me were some American contractors for whom I worked until winter in bridge building, and then in their employ in the making of a macadamized road near Lake Simcoe. Our construction camp was primitive. Built of logs, it was kitchen, sitting room and bedchamber. We slept in bunks and the cooking was done in the same room. It was a hard life and my health failed, and engaging board with a prosperous farmer who had come from the United States, I opened a writing school which attracted many pupils.

In the spring I engaged myself to a mill owner to tend his saw-mill. The hours were long, from midnight to noon, and the pay was not large. Two men had the other part of the day but my work equalled theirs, and it was so appreciated by my employer that I was asked to take charge of his lumber yard and saw mills and sell his lumber. Taken with fever and ague I returned home after my long absence, enriched in experience but not in money. Attending school at the old St. Lawrence Academy for two or three fall terms I taught winter schools at Hannawa Falls, Morley and Potsdam, doing my last teaching in 1852. Our life in the Academy was marked by hard work and hard living. In company with two comrades we roomed in the Academy building, messing together and sharing expenses. Butter was from ten to twelve cents a pound and eggs ten cents a dozen, and though food was cheap, money was dear. We cooked our potatoes on the top of a box stove under a basin. Aside from our room rent our living cost us per capita fifty cents per week. We were an uncouth lot for we had come fresh from the woods, but we studied industriously and kept well up in our classes. We had as fellow students some who afterwards attained distinction, among them being Hon. A. X. Parker, Gilbert B. Manley and Hon. John A. Vance.

In 1 850 I worked as a carpenter on the depot in Madrid and saw the first engine go over the road to Ogdensburg. While in the Academy I had learned surveying and was familiar with the use of instruments, and Hon. Benjamin Smith of Russell being engaged to make the survey of a highway from South Colton to Long Lake, I became a member of the surveying force, and when Mr. Smith was taken sick I used the compass and laid out forty miles of road. This opened to me a new occupation which I followed until more important work brought me to another chapter in my life. To those days of out door life I look back with pleasure. I was employed to subdivide the northern half of the township of Hollywood, an intricate work which gave me standing as a surveyor, and I aided in the preliminary survey of the Rome and Watertown railroad, making a topographi-

Early Life 15

cal map of the route. This insured me employment as an engineer when the road was to be located. I did the compass and transit work from Norwood to De Kalb and a portion of the work of excavating, superintended the laying of the rails from Norwood to Canton, the building of the railway bridge at Canton and the abutments and piers at Potsdam. Until the breaking out of the war of 1861 I followed the business of surveying, making maps of many of the towns. In this pleasant occupation I was engaged until the war called me from home to other work.

CHAPTER II POLITICAL ACTIVITY CHAPTER II Political Activity

My first entrance into public life was my election as Supervisor of Pierpont in 1 854. My re-election followed in the two succeeding years, following which, in 1837, I was made Clerk of the Board, holding the position for four years or until the breaking out of the Civil War.

During my absence from home in 1856 I was nominated for the Assembly on the American or " Know Nothing " ticket, being defeated, however, by the Republican candidate. It was a triangular contest, a Democrat being in the field.

The Republican party under the leadership of Hon. Preston King, was organized in 1856, the Democratic county convention, by resolution merging with the Republican party.

I supported John C. Fremont, the first Presidential candidate of the new party and in 1858 I was elected temporary deputy clerk of the State Assembly. The following year I was elected Member of the Assembly and was re-elected in I860, entering actively into the canvass of the campaign. It was in the legislative session of that year that my acquaintance began with Horace Greeley. This acquaintance soon ripened into a friendship which became intimate and continued through his entire life. The great editor had come to Albany to take part in the organization of the Assembly in opposition to the leadership of Thurlow Weed and William H. Seward. Thurlow Weed was in the height of a power which lasted many years and was too strongly intrenched to be defeated and his candidate, De Witt C. Littlejohn, was chosen Speaker. An early State Convention of the

Republicans was called and a delegation was selected pledged to William H. Seward as a candidate for the Presidency. Mr. Greeley opposed this candidacy and as a substitute for an Oregon delegate voted in the convention for Mr. Lincoln. Mr. Greeley's action was of course bitterly offensive to the Seward- Weed faction. As the days went on the feeling became intense.

Mr. Greeley's position as the editor of the leading Republican paper in the country gave him great influence and power, and the factional lines became strictly drawn. The radical and aggressive forces of the party followed Mr. Greeley, the conservatives being arrayed with Mr. Seward. Thurlow Weed, as editor of the Albany Journal, together with his prestige as the ablest and most adroit leader of his time, made him a formidable antagonist.

The election of Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency was a severe disappointment to Mr. Seward and his followers and did not allay the factional strife. The Legislature of 1 860 was absolutely under the control of Weed, and the following year a United States Senator was to be chosen.

The radicals favored Mr. Greeley, the Weed party, William M. Evarts, and a small number desired the Hon. Ira Harris. I was one of the live to conduct Mr. Greeley's campaign. The Harris contingent, numbering twenty, preferred Greeley to Evarts.

In the earlier ballots Mr, Greeley led, the Harris leaders assuring us that failing to elect their candidate they would throw enough votes to Greeley to elect him. The Evarts men to prevent this decided to secure an adjournment of the caucus from Saturday to Monday. Governor Morgan's room was the headquarters of the Evarts party. I was outside the executive chamber, when I saw a Mr. Schull, a member from Herkimer county, come out with a resolution

Political Activity 21 for adjournment in his hand. I had time to reach the caucus and inform the Harris leaders and they united with us against adjournment. The voting continued without change. On the next ballot the expected break was to be made. As the ballot was being called, Mr. Pierce came to me and said, " We can't carry out the understanding as the old man (Thurlow Weed), has sent word that if they will hold on, the Evarts men would come to Harris." This was done and Harris was elected.

It was reported to me by one who was in the executive chamber that when there was a failure to adjourn. Weed said to Evarts, " You cannot be nominated. The best thing to do is to withdraw." Mr. Evarts declined to do this, and without his consent. Weed gave orders to his followers to go for Harris. It was a surprise to Harris who had given up the contest and was in conference with Lieut. Governor Campbell of the Greeley party for the transfer of his followers to Greeley. The final ballot was Greeley, 49, Evarts, 2, and Harris, 60.

Commenting on the result in a letter to Hon. Beman Brockway, Mr. Greeley said: '* I thank you for your account of doings at Albany. I ought not to have allowed my name to go before the caucus seeing that success was hopeless from the start ; and I cannot avoid the imputation of having sought the office and of quarreling with Weed and Seward because I did not get it, when, in fact, they have not done anything for a year that I so thoroughly justify and approve as I do this opposition to me. I like Seward far better than I could have done had he supported me and wish he had always shown a corresponding spirit. My vote was so large that I do not feel at all mortified by the result; I only regret the obligation it has imposed upon me of coming here (Washington), to engage in a hopeless struggle to repay some friends for the efforts they have made for me."

When Mr. Greeley was being considered as a candidate for United States Senator, John Morrissey, formerly a noted prize lighter, but then a member of Congress, sought my acquaintance and suggested that if Mr. Greeley were really a candidate he would gladly aid him and as he assumed money would be required to conduct the canvass he would be glad to contribute $10,000, and he authorized me to draw upon him for this amount. When Morrissey was first a candidate for Congress, his district was strongly Democratic and there was no hope of electing a Republican. Mr. Greeley, comparing him with some others, spoke well of him as a suitable representative of his district. He said he had a reputation for being an honest man and that he believed he would not sell his vote, as some representatives had been charged with doing. Mr. Morrissey stated that he considered Mr. Greeley a good friend to the poor and popular in his district and he considered that what Mr. Greeley said about him was of valuable service to him in his canvass. Mr. Morrissey, after entering Congress, was anxious to leave behind him a good record for his son — and his record was a good one.

Soon after the election of Lincoln to the Presidency he invited Mr. Weed to come to Springfield and through him he tendered the position of Secretary of State to Seward, and the fact was given to the press. This was the only public ^announcement of a cabinet position until the appointment of all the other members.

On his way to Washington, President Lincoln stopped at Albany and was received by the Legislature in joint session. He was introduced by Senator Andrew J. Colvin, a Democrat, who had been made President, pro tem., of the Republican Senate for the day and for the purpose of presiding. Mr. Lincoln responded, and knowing of the intense feeling that prevailed, tactfully declined to be entertained by

Political Activity 23 either faction, even declining to accept Governor Morgan's invitation.

The fact of the conspiracy to assassinate Mr. Lincoln on his way to Washington is familiar. The advertised route was changed, the Capitol was safely reached and the great President entered upon his great career.

Mr. Greeley decided to go to Washington to confer with the President in regard to the organization of the Cabinet, with special reference to the appointment of Salmon P. Chase as Secretary of the Treasury. I was in New York and in a conference of Mr. Greeley's friends, it was decided that Col. Mix and myself should accompany Mr. Greeley as a bodyguard. The reports in regard to the peril of Mr. Lincoln had created anxiety for Mr. Greeley's safety. No man among the secessionists was more intensely hated. Mr. Greeley objected to these precautions but was overruled, and we arrived in Washington a week before the inauguration and remained until after the selection of the cabinet.

The headquarters of the radicals with whom Greeley was associated was at Willard's in the room of Hon. James S. Wadsworth, father of the former member of Congress and grandfather of James W. Wadsworth, Jr., former Speaker of the Assembly. In the coterie were Gov. Denison of Ohio, Senator Fogg of New Hampshire, Frank P. Blair of Missouri, Henry B. Stanton, David Dudley Field, Reuben E. Fenton, of New York, and other men of like celebrity. The sharpest contest was between the advocates of Chase and Simeon Cameron for the Treasuryship. Thurlow Weed's rooms were the headquarters of the Camerons. Greeley's zeal for Chase was equalled by his hostility to Cameron. The opponents of Chase sought to prejudice Lincoln against him by citing his supposed abolition sentiments and the opposition that his appointment would be offensive to the border slave states. Delegations from Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia made urgent protest under the skilful manipulation of Weed and Seward. This was offset by the opposition claiming that Cameron was the unscrupulous controller of the Legislature of Pennsylvania, and was corrupt in his political methods. The fight was intense and inclined to bitterness. It was important that Senator Benjamin Wade of Ohio should be enlisted on the side of Chase. Although both were from Ohio, they had belonged to opposing factions. His acquiescence in the appointment of Chase was essential and the President had given a hint to that effect.

Preston King, Wade's friend, was selected for the work. He was not active in the canvass but he was friendly to Chase. He had retired for the night but he was awakened and taken to Wade's apartments. He also was in bed, but his consent to withdraw his opposition was secured. When this was reported to Lincoln he sent for Greeley and informed him that he had decided to appoint Mr. Chase. An anxious company waited in Wadsworth's room for the return of Greeley from his conference with the President. When he arrived he swung the door wide open and with boyish glee danced about the room. Being asked " What is it, Mr. Greeley? " he replied, "I can't tell you, but you can bet your bottom dollar on Uncle Abe." It was the only time during my long acquaintance with Mr. Greeley that I ever saw him unduly excited, but he repeated many times, *' You can bet your money on Abe. Bet your bottom dollar."

Mr. Greeley's candidate for Secretary of the Navy was Gideon Wells and Mr. Bates, as Attorney General. Montgomery Blair was a candidate for Secretary of the Navy. The day the nominations were sent to the Senate for confirmation, I was walking down Pennsylvania Avenue with Mr. Greeley when we met Mr. Blair, who had just learned that he had been nominated for Postmaster-General. He

Political Activity 25 expressed surprise and disappointment and asserted that the announcement of his candidacy was the first intimation he had of his selection for that office. He assumed that he was to be Secretary of the Navy. Cameron was a candidate for the Treasury but was nominated Secretary of War. Neither was satisfied and both ultimately retired. Cameron was subsequently appointed Minister to Russia. Chase also retired and was made Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

The great political shrewdness of Lincoln was seen in his not consulting these gentlemen as to the positions they were to occupy, as they would doubtless have objected, but being appointed they could not well decline to serve, and no serious complaint could be made by their friends that their claims for recognition had been ignored.

I was privileged to hear President Lincoln's inaugural address. The New York delegation was near the platform. The venerable Chief Justice Taney administered the oath, Lincoln's old antagonist, Stephen A. Douglas, holding Lincoln's hat while he spoke. Fearing trouble, U. S. Troops with a battery were located on Capitol Hill, Gen. Winfield Scott being in command. The Republicans in Washington were very apprehensive.

During our stay in Washington Col. Mix and myself were constantly at Mr. Greeley's side, and when he was at the National Hotel we occupied an adjoining room. Only on one occasion did we apprehend danger to him and that was at Willard's Hotel. While passing through the office he was assailed by a Mr. Wallack, Editor of the Washington Star, who was under the influence of liquor. He charged Mr. Greeley and the Tribune with contributing to the sectional feeling. Mr. Greeley in a quiet way endeavored to explain his position. The crowd gathered quickly and threats were made, but Col. Mix and myself pushed through the crowd and brought him safely to his room.

Chapter III

THURLOW WEED. THE WARWICK OF NEW YORK

CHAPTER III

Thurlow Weed, the Warwick of New York

My first personal acquaintance with Thurlow Weed was in the winter of 1 860 when I was Member of Assembly. The bills authorizing the construction of street railroads in the City of New York had passed the Legislature and were vetoed by Governor Morgan. I voted against them because no provision was made to compensate the city for the franchise and use of the streets. The incorporators, who were distributed through the State, were understood to represent the members of the Legislature, of which Mr. Weed was the leader. He desired to pass the bills notwithstanding the veto, which would take a two-thirds vote. Mr. Weed sent for me as he did for others and urged me to vote to override the veto. After complimenting me as a " rising young man " he gave me, as a special reason, that the Presidential campaign would require a large amount of money and assured me that there was very little doubt that Mr. Seward would be the Republican candidate and that a large sum could be procured from the incorporators. I asked him how much and he responded, $300,000. He justified the measure as being in the interest of the city. He did not convince me that I ought to vote for the bills and, of course, I did not get further recognition from him. He was the leader of the Republican party in the Legislature and Governor Morgan and he were political as well as personal friends. Geo. Bliss, Jr., was Governor Morgan's private secretary, and I found him working for the bills and I went to the Governor on the assumption that he wanted his veto sustained and told him what I had heard of Bliss's work.