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POLITICAL WRITINGS.

ADDRESS OF A REPUBLICAN CONVENTION.

AUBURN, OCTOBER 5, 1824.

HONEST and honorable men are convinced that a combination exists in this state, enjoys its honors, and wields its power, whose principles and practices are at war with its best interest, its prosperity, and its fame.

The history of this combination begins when, taking advantage of the strong current of popular opinion in favor of a correction of the errors of the old constitution of this state, a few men who were clamorous for reform, but whose lives had exhibited not one sacrifice for the public good, united with a few others until then unknown among us, because they had done nothing worthy of notice, and all becoming loud in their protestations of devotion to republicanism, they succceded in obtaining seats in the late constitutional convention.

Defeated then in their efforts to retain the old council of appointment which they had hoped to wield at their pleasure, they succeeded in incorporating into the new constitutional system an institution, the evils of which are more severe than those which were produced by the justly-obnoxious features of the system which was abolished- an institution which combines in one strong phalanx the officeholders, from the governor and the senators down to the justices of the peace in the most remote parts.

NOTE-This address is among Mr. Seward's earliest political efforts. At the time it was written he was but twenty three years. A more faithful portrait of the "Albany Regency" could scarcely have been drawn by a practised hand.-Ed.

of the state which makes the governor a subservient tool of the faction which designates him; converts the otherwise respectable judiciaries of the counties into shambles for the bargain and sale of offices; and selects justices of the peace (in whose courts are decided questions involving a greater amount of property than in all the other tribunals of the state), not from among those whom an intelligent people would choose, but from the supple and needy parasites of power, who may, and it is to be feared do, bring not only the influence but the very authority of their offices to the support of the party whose creatures they are. Thus it has come to pass that each of the several counties contains a little aristocracy of officeholders, existing independently of popular control, while they are banded together by ties of common political brotherhood.

Another part of their organization which presents serious ground of apprehension, is the caucus system. It was in vain that the framers of the constitution placed a barrier between those who should make the laws and those who should execute them. The doctrine of construction has been extended so far by ingenuity and subtlety, that their union is no longer an anomaly. Men chosen to make laws, have constituted themselves a power to appoint those by whom they shall be executed. The effect is, that these men have themselves become the subjects of barter and sale. Public and beneficent laws are seldom seen in their journals, while their pages are swollen with laws to accommodate politicians and speculators. Republican dignity and simplicity are banished from the public councils, and faction has obtruded its unblushing front into the halls of legislation. The caucus system, originally adopted from necessity, and never considered obligatory further than its nominations concurred with popular opinion, has been converted into a political inquisition. Patriotism is made to consist in a servile submission to its decrees. Offices and honors are offered to those only who will renounce their independence, and give their support to the "old and established usages of the party," while denunciations without measure are poured forth upon the heads of those who dare to question the infallibility of the decrees thus obtained. These denunciations have had their effect upon weak and timid minds, while the inducements offered on the other hand have not failed to enlist profligate politicians. These systems constitute the machinery

of the Albany regency. Honest men need no such aid to maintain a just influence. The safety of the state is not to be secured, nor its welfare to be promoted, by combinations to deprive the people of their constitutional power. When in republican states men attempt to entrench themselves beyond the popular reach, their designs require investigation. Such men have for three years exercised the authority of this state. And what have they done to promote its prosperity or to add to its renown? The judiciary, once our pride, is humbled and degraded. The march of internal improvement is retarded, and the character of the state is impaired. Let the proceedings of the present legislature speak a legislature composed of members, most of whom were pledged in their several counties and all of whom were instructed to restore to the people their constitutional right of appointing electors of president and vice-president of the United States. Yet its journals exhibit little else than contradictory measures, affecting private corporations, together with all the practices of chicanery and open opposition to the very law they were required to pass. And all this has been done to effect the election to the presidency, of a citizen of this state known only by successive developments of his political intrigues, while he is deficient in all those high qualifications which ought to distinguish the chief magistrate of a free people.

ADDRESS OF THE MINORITY OF THE MEMBERS OF THE LEGISLATURE OF 1831.*

TO THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK:

Ar the close of a long, laborious, and in many respects important, session of your legislature, a portion of your representatives who avow their adherence to the democratic principles of our government, and their opposition to all privileged orders, aristocracies, and secret societies, feel it their duty to give you some account of what has been done, and of what has been left undone.

On our assembling in the chambers of the two houses, we were amazed by the declaration in the executive message to the effect substantially, that our state treasury was exhausted, and that no resource for carrying on the government remained, but a direct tax on your real and personal property. When, in looking over the account of the expenses of the government, we found fifty thousand dollars expended for salaries of the state officers, and forty-five thousand dollars for a stateprison, thirteen thousand dollars paid to a state printer, forty thousand dollars for undefined miscellaneous expenses, thirty-five thousand dollars for deficiencies in the Oswego, and in the Seneca and Cayuga canals, besides numerous other expenditures; and when we perceived with what reckless profusion the public treasure was squandered, we were at no loss to account for the alarming fact that the treasury was exhausted. And yet with a full knowledge of our condition, the session has been marked by constant efforts on the part of the majority to appropriate the public treasure for the benefit of themselves and their friends, and to increase the sala

* Among the names signed to this address, we find those of Trumbull Cary, Philo C. Fuller, William H. Maynard, Albert H. Tracy, Millard Fillmore, and John C. SpenWhile Mr. Seward was a member of the legislature, and even since that period, the task of preparing the annual legislative address of the political party to which he is attached, has frequently been assigned to him.-Ed.

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ries and emoluments of their partisans; and by the most obstinate resistance to every measure calculated to reduce exorbitant compensations, and to restrain and limit unnecessary expenditures. A new office has been created with a salary of two thousand dollars; propositions to raise the salaries of the chancellor, supreme court, and circuit-judges, have been made; the salary of the adjutant-general has been increased, while the expenses of his office have been reduced. To the comptroller, who has a salary of $2,500, and an allowance for clerk hire, stationery, fuel, &c., of more than $7,000, an additional allowance of $2,000, for clerk hire, has been made. Some of these were probably necessary, many of them were not required by any public exigency; and a prudent economy with a bankrupt treasury, would have dispensed with a large portion of them. They are now alluded to for the purpose of exhibiting the wanton and reckless disposition to squander your money, which characterizes the dominant party, and their general extravagance. Other circumstances evince their determination to divide among them the spoils derived from the public. There is a quarantine establishment on Staten Island, for the protection of the public health, which is supported by a tax on passengers and sailors arriving at the city of New York. More than one million of dollars that has been thus collected, has been squandered upon the construction of splendid palaces and extravagant and unnecessary buildings, and in pampering a set of officers attached to the establishment. Some charitable and enlightened captains of vessels and friends of sailors, besought the legislature to provide a mode by which the amount collected by the tax on sailors might be taken from the grasp of the quarantine officers, and placed under the charge of trustees, who should hold and dispose of it for the relief of sick and disabled seamen; and should defray the expenses of their support at the Marine hospital. This application was in itself so just, and its objects were so benevolent, that the house of assembly with unprecedented unanimity passed a bill in accordance with the noble design. In the course of the discussions on this bill, it was discovered that one of these officers at the quarantine, the health officer, received an annual compensation of between $12,000 and $16,000 for about seven months. service. A bill was immediately introduced and passed, in the assembly, providing for that officer a salary of $4,000, and re

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