Wolcott, Oliver, 1760---1833, , Connecticut 1760 1833 Male Governor (State) Secretary of Treasury secretary of the treasury and governor of Connecticut, was born at Litchfield, Connecticut, the eldest son of Oliver Wolcott, 1726-1797 [q. v. ] and Laura (Collins) Wolcott of that place.
After being tutored by his mother he entered the town grammar school to prepare for Yale College, and immediately after his graduation in 1778 commenced the study of law under Tapping Reeve [q. v. ].
Declining a commission as ensign, he accepted an appointment in the quartermaster's department and supervised the safekeeping and conveyance of army stores and ordnance at Litchfield.
Wolcott served quietly and efficiently as comptroller.
When Hamilton resigned Wolcott was appointed by President Washington to succeed him (Feb. 2, 1795).
On larger questions of fiscal policy he constantly sought and received Hamilton's advice.
Under Gallatin's relentless pressure the House of Representatives veered steadily in the direction of specific rather than blanket appropriations, thereby curtailing the quasi-independence in apportioning governmental funds which Hamilton had so cavalierly employed.
Pressure upon the Treasury was eased when the French crisis induced Congress to impose direct taxes along lines mapped out by Wolcott and in 1798 a five million dollar loan at eight percent interest was floated.
In the meantime, Wolcott was becoming involved in a labyrinth of political intrigue which left a lasting shadow upon his reputation.
Throughout the years 1797-1800 he enjoyed the confidence of President John Adams [q. v. ], but his deeper loyalty, not to say subservience, to Alexander Hamilton, led him to cooperate with Pickering and McHenry in promoting Hamilton's wishes rather than those of the chief executive.
When Adams finally reconstructed his cabinet, in 1800, Wolcott escaped the purge; Adams liked and trusted him.
Wolcott, however, most reprehensibly collaborated in the preparation of Hamilton's indiscreet circular letter attacking the political character of the President.
Adams accepted it with "reluctance and regret. "
When Wolcott left Washington early in February 1801, his whole property consisted of a small farm in Connecticut and a few hundred dollars in cash.
To these charges he replied convincingly in a strong pamphlet entitled An Address to the People of the United States (1802).
Through Hamilton's intervention he entered (Feb. 3, 1803) into an extremely liberal agreement with James Watson, Moses Rogers, Archibald Gracie, and William Woolsey of New York City for the formation of a commission and agency firm to be known as Oliver Wolcott & Company.
His four partners each advanced $15, 000 capital, Wolcott none at all; but he was to be the managing partner at a salary of $3, 000 a year and one-fifth of the profits.
This event proved to be a turning point in his career.
Although he had been a firm Federalist, bitterly resentful of "perfidious Virginians" when he first moved to New York, his political principles underwent a steady modification, leading some of his erstwhile friends to suspect his sanity (Timothy Pickering to James McHenry, Mar. 17, 1810, B. C. Steiner, The Life and Correspondence of James McHenry, 1907, p. 556).
When a coalition of opposition elements in Connecticut formed the Toleration Party, Feb. 21, 1816, he was chosen as candidate for governor in competition with the Federalist incumbent, John Cotton Smith [q. v. ].
Defeated in April 1816, he was elected by a narrow margin in 1817 and the political revolution in the state got under way.
Charged with political apostasy, he nevertheless proved "an ideal man to work out the state's transition" (Purcell, post, p. 334).
After Federalist control of the aristocratic council was finally overthrown and Wolcott was reëlected virtually without opposition (April 1818), a constitutional convention was held (Aug. 26-Sept.
16, 1818), over which he presided.
Finally the aging executive was eliminated from the ticket by the Republican caucus in 1826 and though he ran as an independent in the election of April 1827, he was defeated by a small margin by the machine candidate, Gideon Tomlinson.
This final repudiation of Wolcott by the state he had served so well was doubtless influential in his subsequent removal to New York City, where he remained until his death.
[Oliver Wolcott Papers in the Connecticut Hist.
Soc. ; Letter Book of Oliver Wolcott & Company, 1803-05, and of Oliver Wolcott, 1805-08, N. Y. Pub.
Lib. ; Account Books, 1803-15, N. Y. Hist.
Soc. ; scattered important original letters in Hamilton Papers, Lib.
of Cong. , in Rufus King Papers, N. Y. Hist.
Soc. , and in Jeremiah Wadsworth Papers, Connecticut Hist.
Soc.
For Connecticut politics see R. J. Purcell, Connecticut in Transition, 1775-1818 (1918) and J. M. Morse, A Neglected Period of Connecticut's History, 1818-1850 (1933).
Other sources include, F. B. Dexter, Biog.
Sketches Grads.
Yale Coll. , vol.
IV (1907); Samuel Wolcott, Memorial of Henry Wolcott (1881); New-York American, June 3, 1833. ]
The new constitution which he was influential in drafting separated church and state, guaranteed complete freedom of conscience, separated the powers of government, and established a somewhat more influential executive and an independent judiciary.
To add to Wolcott's difficulties the Republican majority in the House of Representatives during the Fourth Congress (1795 - 97), under the leadership of Albert Gallatin [q. v. ], sought to wrest the initiative in financial matters from the department.
On June 1, 1785, he married Elizabeth Stoughton; they had five sons--three of whom died in infancy--and two daughters.
