Silas Wright, Jr.

Background

Silas Wright, Jr. was born on May 24, 1795, in Amherst, Massachussets, the fifth child of Silas Wright, Sr. and Eleanor Goodale. He was a descendant of Deacon Samuel Wright, an early settler of Springfield and Northampton, Massachussets.

Education

Wright, Jr. grew up in Weybridge, Vermont, where he worked on his father's farm and attended district school. At fourteen he entered Addison County Grammar School and at sixteen Middlebury College. After graduation in 1815 he studied law at Sandy Hill, New York.

Career

He was admitted to the bar in 1819, and began practice in Canton, New York, boarding with his father's friend, Medad Moody. In 1821 Wright, Jr. became county surrogate, and within the next decade held a number of local offices and attained the rank of brigadier-general in the militia. He led northern New York from the fold of the Clintonians to the "Bucktails, " to the "Republicans, " thence to the Jacksonian Democrats, and to the left wing of that party. In 1823 he was elected to the state Senate, where he served from January 1, 1824, until December 1827. His firm belief that the yeomanry were usually right made him vote for manhood suffrage and direct election of justices of the peace, yet he held that the people needed the leadership of bosses and honest use of the spoils system to attain the party unity in which lay their hope in the battle against special privilege. He voted against a law providing for the direct election of presidential electors because its adoption would be disadvantageous to the party's candidate, William H. Crawford, and voted for the removal of DeWitt Clinton as canal commissioner. He consistently opposed the granting of bank charters by the legislature. In 1827, as chairman of the committee on canals he made a report opposing the extension of the canal system except when the expected revenues promised to reimburse the treasury. By this time he had become a member of the directing group known as the "Albany Regency. " In 1827 Wright, Jr. took his seat in Congress. At this time he favored a tariff designed for the protection of agriculture as well as manufactures. As a member of the House committee on manufactures he helped frame the "tariff of abominations" of 1828 and took a leading part in defending it; but later, in 1842, he characterized his action as a great error made through lack of understanding of the subject. He was reelected in 1828, but resigned in the next year to become comptroller of New York (1829 - 1833). During his years in this office he continued to oppose the building of canals except such as would pay for themselves, and he advocated a tax to replenish the General Fund. Resigning the comptrollership in January 1833, he became United States senator to complete the unexpired term of William L. Marcy, who had been chosen governor. Reelected in 1837 and 1843, Wright, Jr. was appointed successively to the committees on agriculture, commerce, finance, and post offices and post roads. Taking his seat when his friend Van Buren was vice-president and the personal choice of President Jackson as his successor, Wright, Jr. was soon recognized as manager of Van Buren's political interests and with his uncannily accurate sense of public opinion became Van Buren's "most effective lieutenant" — a lieutenancy that was almost a partnership. Wright, Jr. voted for the "Force Bill" and the compromise tariff of 1833; Van Buren consulted him before answering Jackson with regard to the removal of the federal deposits from the Bank of the United States, and, at the President's request, entrusted him with the presentation of resolutions favoring removal. Subsequently Wright, Jr. with Benton procured the expunging of the resolution censuring Jackson. Following Van Buren's election to the presidency Wright, Jr. became chairman of the Senate finance committee (December 21, 1836 - March 1841). All measures for rechartering the Bank of the United States he firmly opposed. He opposed the distribution of the ever-mounting surplus among the states, advocating instead its use for defense, investment in easily convertible stocks of states or the United States, or use for general government expenses to permit the reduction of the tariff. The panic of 1837 and suspension of specie payment by the state banks made his position one of great importance. In preparation for the special session of Congress called for September, he contributed to the St. Lawrence Republican seven articles, beginning June 20, 1837, urging the complete divorce of federal finance from the banks and stricter regulation of banking by the states. At the special session he introduced the administration's relief bills, which were adopted, and a bill for the establishment of an independent treasury system, the plan for which he elaborated January 31, 1838. He continued to head the fight for the independent treasury until the bill was passed in 1840. After Tyler's accession in 1841, relegated to the committees on commerce and claims, Wright, Jr. urged a tax-and-pay policy; he continued to oppose distribution of the proceeds of the sale of public lands and increase in the tariff. Yet seeing no chance of any other revenue bill passing Congress he reluctantly voted for the high-tariff act of 1842, which automatically ended distribution while raising duties. Declining Tyler's offer of appointment to the Supreme Court in 1844, he campaigned for Van Buren's nomination, refusing to be considered himself for the presidential nomination and declining, when nominated, to be a candidate for the vice-presidency. Reluctant to leave the Senate, he nevertheless resigned through party loyalty, entered the contest for the governorship of New York, and carried the state for Polk. He was offered the secretaryship of the treasury as a reward, but declined. During his governorship his sturdy support of the policy incorporated in the "stop and tax" law of 1842 led him to veto a bill for canal extension, thus alienating the conservatives. His suppression of violence during the anti-rent disturbances — when, though he sympathized with the tenants' grievances and advocated their redress by law, he called out the militia and prosecuted the ring-leaders — caused bitter feeling in the anti-rent districts; his advocacy in 1846 of a tax on income from rents, short-term leases, and no distress for rent, alienated the landlords; his banking policies lost him the banking interests. Thus, although in 1846 he was renominated for the governorship, he failed of reelection. His followers ascribed his defeat to the influence of the "Hunkers" or conservatives within the party, coupled with the coolness of the national administration. Before his retirement to private life, however, Wright, Jr. had the satisfaction of seeing the fight against privilege in New York reach lasting success when the reforms he had advocated in the rent system and a provision for a popular check on appropriations for public works were put into effect through the new constitution of 1846. In that same year his tariff policy triumphed, when the revenue tariff enacted by Congress followed closely outlines drawn by him in two speeches of 1844 (Senate, April 19 and 23; Watertown, New York, August 20), and the independent treasury became permanent. Silas Wright, Jr. died on August 27, 1847, in Canton, New York, aged 52.

Achievements

• An influential statesman, Silas Wright, Jr. was active in politics and vetoed funds for canal improvements, opposed a constitutional convention, and dealt resolutely with the anti-rent rioters. Achievements of his administration also included establishment of the University of Buffalo and a restructuring of the state school system. The people of Weybridge, Vermont, erected a monument to Silas Wright, Jr. and it stands today in the center of town along Route 23. The monument is the basis for the name of the local Monument Farms Dairy.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Speech of the Hon. Silas Wright, at a mass meeting of the Democracy of Brooklyn, held at the Colonnade garden, on Thursday evening, Sept. 29, 1840

    (This reproduction was printed from a digital file created...)

Politics

An ardent Madisonian in college, Wright, Jr. was throughout his life a stanch nationalist and Democrat.

Membership

Silas Wright, Jr. was a member of the U. S. House of Representatives from New York's 20th district. Wright, Jr. was also a member of the Albany Regency, the coterie of friends and supporters of Martin Van Buren, who led New York's Democratic Party beginning in the 1820s. In addition, he belonged to the House committee on manufactures.

Personality

Master of his subject, cool, and deliberative, logical and powerful in reasoning, Silas Wright, Jr. came to hold a high rank "for solid judgment and unselfish service".

Connections

On September 11, 1833, Silas Wright, Jr. married Clarissa Moody, they had no children.

Father:

Silas Wright, Sr.

Mother:

Eleanor Wright (Goodale)

Sister:

Lucretia "Crucy" Elmer (Wright)

Sister:

Orenda Parker (Wright)

Sister:

Eleanor Bigelow (Wright)

Wife:

Clarissa Wright (Moody)

Brother:

Pliny Wright

Brother:

Samuel Wright

Brother:

Daniel Leonard Wright

Friend:

Martin Van Buren

Martin Van Buren was an American statesman, who served as the eighth President of the United States from 1837 to 1841.

References

• A Discourse Occasioned By The Death Of The Hon. Silas Wright, Late Governor Of The State Of New-York : And Delivered In The Second Presbyterian Church, Albany, Sept. 5, 184 FACSIMILE
• A Life of Silas Wright 1795-1847: United States Senator From New York 1833-1844, Governor of the State of New York 1844-1846 (1913)