Page images
PDF
EPUB

more step to take to arrive at treason, under the Constitution, and that was an easy and natural one-to act out what they felt, in favor of Great Britain and against their own country. If the Federalists of New England had succeeded in carrying out what they felt, and often manifested, Great Britain would have overcome us during the war, and we should have been a mere appendage of that power, or been a weak nation by her permission.

43.-DANIEL D. TOMPKINS.

The war of 1812 developed men equal to the occasion. Mili tary and naval stars arose as the exigencies of the country demanded them. Civilians of great intellect and power presented themselves, and orators came forth to arouse the energies of the people and cheer them on in patriotic duty. The enemy knew the strong and weak points in the country, and how the pulse of men beat. He must strike his blows where they would best produce the desired consequences, without needlessly wasting his strength or damaging his friends. The climate of New Orleans was long its protector. The growing West had little wealth to plunder or destroy, while it had strong arms, noble hearts, and stubborn will to protect itself. Distances and the condition of the roads were unfavorable. The South presented no point where aggressors would not soon be driven into the sea. New England was filled with friends who must not be injured or annoyed, but encouraged into resisting its own Government.

[ocr errors]

New York presented the assailable points. She had a long sea-coast and a lake frontier of several hundred miles, and waterways for most of the distance between Canada and her great city, all of which were well-known old battle-grounds. New York was the most exposed State, and with Canada on the north, hostile New England on the east, the sea on the south, and New Jersey and the almost impenetrable hills and forests of Pennsylvania on the other, the British believed they could crush her. This would separate the South from New England and allow her to carry out her long-cherished plan of seceding and forming a separate government, under the protection of Great Britain. The national Government, thwarted every way by the

Federalists, was without men or means adequate to the defence of the State. Its blows upon Canada had been few and ineffectual. But the Democracy of New York had placed at the head of her State government a man equal to the emergency. Daniel D. Tompkins was her much-loved Governor.

Governor Tompkins was born in Westchester County, N. Y., in 1774. He graduated with the highest honors at Columbia College, and was admitted to the bar in 1797; settled in the city of New York; was elected to the Legislature in 1802; in 1804 to Congress; appointed a justice of the Supreme Court in 1805; and in 1807 elected Governor of the State, in which office he continued, by reëlection, until 1817, when he became VicePresident, before he was thirty-three years of age. No man ever rose more rapidly or rested on a more solid foundation, or served in these various capacities more to the satisfaction of those he represented.

His personal appearance was strongly in his favor, and his conversational powers charmed all who heard him. He was genial, kind-hearted, and benevolent. It was in pursuance of his two recommendations that the Legislature enacted the gradual abolition of slavery in the State. He was a stanch friend of education, and of many charitable institutions. The poor and suffering were never turned away empty-handed from his door. He loved his country, her institutions, and the principles of democracy upon which they were founded. A more perfect personification of those principles never lived. Although extremely gentle, he was as firm as the hills in favor of what he believed to be right. He acted no studied part, but exhibited to the world the natural impulses of a true heart. He possessed the happy faculty of remembering the name and face of every person to whom he had been introduced, and was the admiration of those who add grace and give charms to drawing-rooms. The father being a Westchester farmer, the son received the sobriquet of "The farmer's son."

Such was the man at the helm in New York when the War of 1812 was declared. He commenced his political career in 1801, the year that Jefferson was inaugurated, and sustained him

and Madison throughout their administrations, giving them and their principles his hearty and fervid support. He had then been five years in the Executive chair, and had a strong hold upon the masses as well as upon leading men. He had been found fully adequate to his position, and never shrunk from any duty. He was the first Governor who had had the nerve to prorogue the Legislature under the provisions of the then constitution. This he had done on the 27th of March, 1812, hoping thereby to prevent the chartering of a bank through the means of bribery and corruption. Then he displayed an honesty, firmness, and courage which the people greatly admired, as his triumphant reëlection the next year clearly confirmed.

Every call made by the national Government upon the State was promptly answered. At his instance the Legislature voted men, which the Governor caused to be sent into the field; and money, which he properly applied. He advanced all his own means and all he could procure among his friends to aid in bringing the war to a successful close. But more money was required. The banks would not lend on the stocks or treasury notes of the national Government without additional security. When informed that half a million could be raised on treasury notes if the Governor would indorse them, he remarked that he should have to act on his own responsibility and should be ruined. Thereupon, Rufus King remarked to him, "Then ruin yourself, if it becomes necessary to save the country, and I pledge you my honor that I will support you in whatever you do." Governor Tompkins indorsed the notes, and the banks advanced the money.

The Governor traversed the State, and went wherever he could be useful in rallying men and facilitating the progress of preparation for defence or assault, not unfrequently assisting with his own hands in prying from the mud, wagons loaded with warsupplies.

Such was his hold upon the confidence of the people, that Mr. Madison tendered him the office of Secretary of State, then considered the stepping-stone to the presidency, but he declined. In October, 1814, he was appointed by Mr. Madison to the command of the third military district, which included New York, in

which he acquitted himself with very great ability and success. When, at the close of the war, the troops were disbanded, he received from all quarters complimentary letters expressing much gratitude for his services. These compliments, and the satisfaction of having faithfully performed his duty, are all the recompense he ever received for his services.

He was reëlected Governor, by a triumphant majority, at the spring election of 1816. A congressional caucus having nominated James Monroe for President and Governor Tompkins for VicePresident, they were both elected in December, 1816, and were sworn into office on the 4th of March, 1817. Both were reëlected, and served until the 4th of March, 1825. In 1821 VicePresident Tompkins was a delegate, and elected president of the convention for the revision of the constitution of New York. He died on the 11th of June, 1825, on Staten Island, where he then resided, deeply lamented by all who knew him.

Such a man as Daniel D. Tompkins is an honor to the age and State in which he lived. Of all fraud, peculation, and dishonesty he was innocent. The assault of his political enemies, charging that he was a defaulter to the State and nation, was disproved by the action of the State Legislature as to the one and Congress as to the other, the latter appropriating over $95,000 as a balance due him.

To him, more than to any other man, are we indebted for preventing the British from sweeping over the State of New York and subduing it, and for restraining the secession and disunion proclivities of New England and the growing discontents in New Jersey. The glorious efforts of Tompkins secured New York to the Union, and the sober second thought became effective in New Jersey, leaving New England alone in her despairing agony in her pursuit of power. But for the management of Virginia politicians, whose fortunes he had saved, Tompkins would have been President, as the popular voice demanded and the people expected. But a seat in the national Executive chair could not have added to his fame or worth, and could only have furnished cumulative evidence of an admitted fact. New York will ever be proud of him as a son, and the nation will cherish his memory with admiration and gratitude.

44.-BURNING BLUE-LIGHTS.

The scrap of history we are now about to cite is given to show to what ends erroneous principles will carry men. Instead of exerting their talents and energies to protect their fellow-citizens in their pursuits, they lead men to defeat protection and humble the State at the feet of a foreign power. It is ever the object of those professing anti-Democratic principles to overcome every opposing obstacle and seat themselves in power. The pursuit of the object occasions excitement, and during its existence the means of accomplishing the end are not scrutinized rigidly, even if their propriety is at all considered. Patriotism is ignored, and every thing possible must be made to contribute to ultimate suc

cess.

During the War of 1812 our vessels-of-war were often driven and shut up in protecting harbors to avoid the superior force of the enemy. The only possible chance of escape was under cover of the darkness of night, when the enemy could not discern their movements nor become alarmed at them.

During the war, June 1, 1813, Commodore Decatur, commanding the frigates United States and Macedonian, and Hornet, was chased into the harbor of New London by a vastly superior force. During the remainder of the war, these three vessels continued shut in there, while the blockading squadron by its position commanded the commerce of Long Island Sound and vicinity. This was destructive of our coasting trade in that quarter. Decatur was fertile in expedients and skilful in managing to escape. But he was baffled by the enemy, who seemed always to be aware of his intended movements. The cause soon became perfectly apparent. Randall, in his admirable "Life of Jefferson," says:

"He officially communicated to the Secretary of the Navy (December 20, 1813) that he attempted to get to sea on a dark and tempestuous night; that as soon as his movements to that end became apparent, signals continued to the enemy were made by burning blue-lights on both points of the harbor's mouth, and he declared: 'There is not a doubt that they (the enemy) have by signals or

« PreviousContinue »