The Memorial History of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1884, Volume 1
(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.
Isaac was born on November 15, 1792 in Newtown, Connecticut. He was the son of Zalmon and Phebe (Booth) Toucey (or Tousey). He was a descendant of Richard Toucey who came from England to Saybrook, Connecticut, about 1655 and whose grandson, Thomas, was the first Congregational minister of Newtown.
Education
After a common-school training, Isaac studied law with Asa Chapman, who later became a judge of the supreme court of errors.
Career
Admitted to the bar in 1818, Toucey practised law in the city of Hartford, which was thereafter his place of residence. From 1822 to 1835 he was state's attorney for Hartford County. In the latter year he became a member of Congress, serving as such until March 3, 1839. He did not speak often, or ever at great length, his most sustained effort being a plea, September 29, 1837, for the postponement of payments on the surplus distribution bill.
At the close of his second term, he resumed his practice in Hartford, and again served as state's attorney, 1842-44. In 1845 he was the unsuccessful Democratic candidate for governor; the following year, there being no choice by the people, he was chosen governor by the legislature; in the election of 1847 he was defeated.
He had displeased those interested in local railroads by vetoing a bill authorizing the construction of a bridge over the Connecticut River at Middletown, and had aroused ill feelings by declaring that there was a great deal of bribery practised in connection with state elections. Shortly after his governorship he again became connected with national affairs, serving as attorney-general in Polk's cabinet from June 1848 to March 1849, and for a short time during that period, in the absence of Buchanan from Washington, acting as secretary of state.
In 1850 he was elected to the upper house of the Connecticut legislature, and in 1852 was again a member of the lower house. In the latter year he was elected to the United States Senate, and served from May 12, 1852, to March 3, 1857. Here he was more prominent than he had been in the House. In August 1852, while condemning the "higher law" theory embraced by Seward and Sumner, he asked for the enforcement of the fugitive-slave act because it was the law, and because Northern opposition to it amounted to nullification.
Two years later he supported the Kansas-Nebraska bill, on the ground that the Missouri Compromise had placed an unconstitutional limitation on states to be admitted from the northern part of the Louisiana Purchase. For this stand Toucey was criticized by the Hartford Times, a Democratic paper which had usually supported his policies as congressman and as governor.
In 1857 President Buchanan chose Toucey as secretary of the navy. His sympathies were more or less with the South, and he was suspected, perhaps unjustly, of so disposing of the country's naval forces in 1860 as to aid the South in the movement toward secession. Toucey's sympathetic attitude toward the South incited some members of the Connecticut legislature to remove his portrait from the gallery of ex-governors, and a resolution providing for the replacement of the portrait, offered in the state Senate in 1863, was defeated. One achievement of the much maligned secretary has received unstinted praise: he supervised the naval expedition to Paraguay, December 1858, consisting of a force of some nineteen vessels and 2, 500 men, which was financed with such economy as to be completed without a special congressional appropriation.
After his retirement from the cabinet Toucey passed the remainder of his life in Hartford. During the Civil War he supported the cause of the North.
(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)
Personality
In private life he was a likeable man, reserved though not distant in contacts with others. He had a striking personal appearance, somewhat resembling that of Andrew Jackson.
Connections
His declining years were troubled by the feeble health of his wife, Catharine Nichols, whom he had married October 28, 1827; they had no children.