Chapter 3

"I further certify, that I attended the election the following day at Goodrich's inn, in the said town, and the said James Merrill then and there made similar declarations in the presence and hearing of a number of republicans and federals; and the said James Merrill and others who were advocating the election of Mr. Young, appeared to act in unison with _the federalists_; and I saw a number of _federalists have Mr. Young's name on their ticket_, and who told me they voted that ticket.--SIMEON P. ALLCOTT. _Milton, April 1816_."

"I hereby certify, that a leading federalist, being as I understood, one of the _federal_ convention from the town of Northumberland, who met at the Court-House on the 14th of April last, to make the federal nomination for members of Assembly, &c.--informed me on his return home from that convention, that James Merril, Esq. urged some of that convention to place Samuel Young Esq. on their ticket, and offered one hundred _dollars_ if they would _go halves_ with Young's friends in the _ticket_ they should run at the then next election, for the purpose of defraying the expences of the election; and that the said Merrill took from his pocket the _hundred, dollars_, and laid it on the table for that purpose, as I understood it.--HENRY STAFFORD. _Saratoga Springs, March 1816_."

"I, Joseph Ogden, of Malta in the county of Saratoga, do hereby certify; that I was at the inn of James Jones in Halfmoon, a few days after the election of 1815, and Aaron Morehouse of Ballston, and a leading federalist of Halfmoon were there, conversing together on the late election. Mr. Morehouse said he voted for Mr. Hamilton, the federal candidate, to get a federalist in his town to vote for Mr. Young; and the federal replied, that be voted for Mr. Young, and that it was the understanding among some of the federalists and _some_ of the republicans in Halfmoon, that the federals should vote for Mr. Young, and that the republicans should vote for Mr. Hamilton. Mr. Isaac Kellogg, jun. was present at the same time.--JOSEPH OGDEN."

"I, Isaac Kellogg, Jun. of Malta in the county of Saratoga, do certify, that I was present and heard a part of the conversation above stated by Joseph Ogden, and remember hearing Mr. Morehouse state, that he voted for Mr. Hamilton, and the abovementioned federalist say that he voted for Mr. Young. I also heard another federalist of Halfmoon then present, say that he voted for Mr. Young also; and I distinctly understood from them, that there had been an understanding between the federalists and Mr. Young's friends, to support Mr. Young and Mr. Hamilton as members of Assembly.--ISAAC KELLOGG, jun."

It is also a fact, that Young's supporters did in two or three of the towns _hide_ and _suppress_ the tickets printed by direction of the county convention, for Mr. Cowen and the other candidates.

These certificates and these facts serve then to explain how Mr. Young came by a greater number of _votes_ than Mr. Cowen;--and no doubt is left on this subject when on calculating from the _returns_, you perceive that the _votes_ for Mr. Young and Mr. Cowen in the aggregate exceed by a great number the whole votes for any other candidate on either side, and that _one_ of the federal candidates received a _less_ number of votes than the others. This would of itself shew as far as the subject is susceptible of proof, a _bargain_ between _some_ of Mr. Young's friends and _some_ of the federalists. Shortly after this bargain which Mr. Roe speaks of, the McBain Meeting[4] was called, where every exertion tended to produce a political abortion.

I cordially join with "the book" in censuring the editor of the Journal for resembling this meeting to a political _funeral_;--for I do not believe that the lifeless _embryo_ which it bro't forth, ever raised the tho't of a _funeral_ in its poor _distracted father_. And while I could not have the face to vindicate him from falsehood in not making a better distinction, I should feel the less inclined to deny his being a savage, while I behold him wantoning with the wounded feelings of a forlorn, hopeless and unhappy _parent_. If his personification had embraced the meeting merely, he ought to have known that even the _dead_ are not always unavenged, and that its ghost at least, would have arisen from the tomb to flutter round and haunt the unhappy county of Saratoga on the eve of the next nomination, in the form of a _book_; that thing which like the poet is justly admired for giving

"To airy nothing, A local habitation and a name."

We could hardly say of that book, however, as Hamlet said of his Father's ghost that

"He would take his word for a thousand pounds"--

Or why do we hear it insisted that the fault of keeping alive discord and division in the county, is imputable to a few individuals named and pointed out by it?--Aside from the base and unprincipled attempts of Roe, Thompson and some of their co-adjutors, to prostrate the only _republican press_ in the county, by a system of slander and detraction; The public cannot have forgotten that Mr Young's _famous_ colleagues were mildly and publicly invited to an amicable explanation, which they refused and rendered the publication of affidavits necessary in justification. The only reply which was received, was a still more general, malignant and furious attack upon the press, not only from the columns of the Schenectady Cabinet, but the foul lingo of Roe, Thompson & co. with bitter complaints whenever that press either ridiculed their folly and impertinence, or defended itself against their insidious and secret attempts to effect its destruction.

Amongst other things in order to create a pretence for their _book_, it will be recollected that judge Child has authorised the charge of falsehood against the Journal in its maintaining that he had threatened to get a new press into the county &c.--Indeed the judge appears to be remarkably well pleased with that production, not only by his long certificates, but by a letter which he afterwards wrote to the printer of the _Courier_, recognizing its merits and trying to _divide with federalists_ the honor of carrying clothes to the army;[5] which it seems was given him by the _book_ in order to render his standing as a certifier more conspicuous, by uniting on his broad brow, both the _military_ and _civic_ wreath. How far the _denial_ of this mock _Cincinnatus_ that he threatened as early as May to get a new press, "_with all his blushing honors thick upon him_," will satisfy the public, may in some measure he determined by the following certificate.

"I hereby solemnly certify, that on the last of May or first of June last, when at the house of Judge Child, in a conversation relating to the Saratoga Journal, and the conduct of its Editor Mr. Isaiah Bunce, the said Judge then and there made use of the following expression to me, viz. 'You must remember that the friends of Mr. Young, are not men of the _least property_, nor _least influence_ in the County, and Bunce may have _another press set up by his side_ in less than six months--That he [the said Judge] should withdraw his support from him, and said that it was best for every one to do the same, and then his press would fall of course.' And at the same time said, that he had rather _support the federal press at the Springs_ than the _Journal_. Shortly after this I informed Mr. Bunce of the above conversation at his office.'--JONATHAN WESTCOTT. _Milton, March 14th 1816_."

Young and Thompson made similar declarations of their intention to get another press about the same time, with which they have been often charged, and it seems thought best not to hazard a denial in the book--therefore no other certificate but the one relating to Child's has been procured--And the judge's conduct would have been more christian-like, had he written a letter exculpating the editor of the Journal from an undeserved odium cast upon him by his authority, than thus to have given it confirmation and support, at the same time knowing it to be _untrue_.

Of a piece with this however, appears to have been his previous conduct about the time of his presiding over the _abortion_ at McBains. I allude to his sending the history of that meeting with orders by Thompson and Stillwell, to the editor of the Journal to print without reading it.

"I Lyman B. Langworthy, of the village of Ballston Spa, do certify to my fellow-citizens the following facts;--That on the night of the 20th April 1815, two days after the McBain meeting--being in the office of the Saratoga Journal late in the evening, James Thompson, James Merrill and Wm. Stillwell, Esqs. came into the room. Immediately after being seated, Mr. Thompson who acted as chief speaker, pompously displayed a fold of paper which he wished Mr. Bunce to print off in the form of Handbills by morning, it being then quite late. Mr. Bunce wished to see it and its contents.

"Here Mr. Thompson to my astonishment flatly refused, unless Mr. B. would first promise on his word and honor that he would _positively_ and _unconditionally_ agree to print it _let it contain what it would_. This bro't on a long parley; Mr. Bunce wished to see it if for nothing more than to shew his workman its length, to learn from him whether it was possible to execute it in the time allowed. Mr. Thompson refused, and entered pretty lengthy into the subject, in his _precise roundabout_ manner: asserting that it was _none of his business what it contained_--that it was impertinent in a '_mechanic_' to ask his employers the use or destination of any work he should employ him to do; and frequently by way of a _salve_ interlarding his conversation with '_we do not wish you to do it for nothing Mr. Bunce, we have money enough_.' After much chaffering between the parties, judge Stillwell in a very candid manner, desired that the paper might be read, asking him if it _contained any thing they were ashamed of_. Mr. Thompson then looked to Mr. Merrill as for his opinion. Mr. Merrill said with some warmth, 'he shan't see it.' This brot' on considerable bickerings--crimination and re-crimination between Mess. Bunce, and Thompson, which judge Stillwell tho't rather indecorous, and quite earnestly rebuked the two gentlemen for their wrath, and at the same time said he thot' it high time to deliver judge Child's message. Here Mr. Thompson apparently supposing himself only entrusted with the charge, seemed not to understand.--After a great deal of argument, the paper at last had a 'first reading,' & was the proceedings of the McBain meeting, signed by Child, Thompson and Stillwell; and was delivered to Mr. Bunce, to shew his compositor, who was in bed. Mr. Bunce insisted that some of the gentlemen should deliver the message which judge Stillwell seemed to be so anxious about. Here the three gentlemen were thrown into great confusion--eyed each other as though each supposed the other ignorant of what he himself knew. Judge Stillwell's countenance seemed to labor with something which he was bound to reveal; and Mr. Thompson noting this, desired judge Stillwell _if he knew it to let it out_. Judge Stillwell then putting himself in an attitude corresponding, as he appeared to think, with the magnitude of the subject, began by saying that judge Child had instructed him to say to Mr. Bunce, _that he had always been a particular friend of his--had always given him all of his business--and should be sorry to withdraw it after the friendly intercourse which had subsisted between them--that it was the earnest desire of judge Child that Mr. Bunce should have the refusal of printing it; 'but as a last resort say to him from me, that if he refuses to print it as desired by Mr. Thompson, that I forever withdraw my patronage from his press.'_"

Here Mr. Bunce indignantly threw back the paper to Mr. Thompson, and declared that under those circumstances he should not print it--saying that after buffeting the storm of federalism, and the dark days of the wars of our country, he little expected such treatment from one whose duty it was to protect the press &c. &c.--and it was after much persuasion, and partly through my own importunities, that he was induced to print it.

"Mr. Bunce's conduct through the whole transaction, which must have lasted two hours or more, was _consistent, firm_ and _independent_ to my conception, as was the others _haughty_, _supercilious_ and _overbearing_.--Lyman B. Langworthy. _March, 1816_."

Here fellow citizens is the _iron club of power_ held over the head of an editor of a _free press_, during an election--to coerce him and his press into obedience to their dictates. What are we coming to when men high in office use their offices, influence and patronage to control the freedom of the press, which all the champions of freedom esteem the organ and safeguard of our _liberties_--and attempt to compell it to bend to their purposes--to sell itself and rush _blind fold_ on any measure their interest or ambition may dictate?

The independent conduct of Mr. Bunce on this occasion was probably one reason among _others_ why the judge aided in the introduction of another printer of the more _pliant sort_; who would more readily bend to his purposes and serve as a pipe with which his friends Roe, Thompson, Stillwell &c. could spit their venom thro' the county in the more permanent form of a _pamphlet_.

In this, with _three_ insolvent advertisements staring him in the face from the _Independent American_, the judge denies, or sanctions a denial, that he ever ordered an advertisement to be printed in that paper _at all_. Unblushing impudence indeed!--Thus to ask the public to pervert the eternal principles of truth and justice by giving credit to such assertions as these.

The examination of a few more topics under this head shall suffice.--Indeed amongst the disgusting details of falsehood and meanness with which that production abounds; you find many remarks imputed to the Journal which it never made, while those which it has made, on examination will be found strictly true.

The writer of that pamphlet is guilty of falsehood in asserting that the _editorial_ remarks of the Journal are not copied into other papers. Not to mention others, they have been copied the year past in several instances, by the _National Intelligencer_ at Washington, and by _Niles' Weekly Register_ at Baltimore, two of the ablest papers in the _Union_. The remarks which the book falsely calls a _scurrilous attack_ upon the _Governor_, instead of being an attack on him, it so happens that they were merely calculated to let the public know what every republican had a right to expect, and which they in fact _realized_ from our worthy chief magistrate in the season of peril which dictated them.--They were such as he would himself approve, while he would frown contemptuously on the _little fry_ who attempt so base a slander in his name. Would to God the conduct of some of the governor's fawning and pretended admirers could endure investigation like that of this great and good man--the pride and ornament of his country!

As to the charge against the Journal for asserting that the first judge and others had combined to domineer and rule the people of this county, you already have a taste of the judge's fondness for domineering over some of the people, and over their press; and that other persons named have _acted_ in concert with him is equally true and notorious;--And it is hardly necessary to enquire whether they combined for the purpose, or instinctively assembled like birds of the same feather, from a common spirit of domination. It is false, however, that the Journal ever made such a charge. This and a number of these remarks are only suffering them to wear a coat which they themselves have cut out of whole cloth, and which seems to fit them so exactly. That paper never charged Mr. Young with any management or compromise with the federalists, further than what justly resulted from his being chosen _supervisor_ in _Ballston_ by _federalists_, contrary to the _regular town nomination_, and his afterwards being complimented by the federal paper as a modern political _Luther_, on account of his having quit his own party in that town and submitted to federal policy, not denied by the _book_--from his having _aided_ in the election of the _federal candidate for Congress_ in the fall of 1812; and from his "at least" conniving at _federal aid_, in the spring of 1815--all of which are facts of too general notoriety to be denied.

But the Journal did charge some of Mr. Young's friends with a _political understanding_ between them and the federalists, which is not only passed over in silence by the _book_, but proved by the foregoing estimates and certificates.

On seeing Mr. Young supporting, and supported in his turn by a Senator or Senators of this state for office, the Journal did ask the question, whether it was pursuant to an _arrangement_ on the subject between them? This question was put in the Journal directly to Mr. Young--taking it for granted that Mr. Young has adopted the language in the book on this question as his own, this might be received as an _answer_, had not a mere _question_ been first perverted into a charge.

The Journal did also ask him the question, whether he intended to make _one Joel Lee, clerk of this county?_ To which the book, replies that he never promised any office to any man whatever. It is perhaps necessary, in justice to the Editor of the Journal, to introduce the following certificate, and leave this part of the subject without farther comment.

"I hereby certify, that shortly after the appointment of Wm. Stillwell, as a clerk, of this county, I was in the city of Albany, and conversed with Mr. Young on the subject of that appointment, in which conversation I expressed my surprise at his appointment, to which Mr. Young replied, it was not his fault, that there was a petition for him from some of the most respectable men in the county, and it would not do for him to oppose it, but that his mind was the strongest on _Joel Lee_ for that office.--ELI BEARDSLEE. _Milton, March 1816_."

Among others to whom Lee admitted he had been promised of _offered_ the Clerk's office by Young, is Mr. Nicholas Smith, but it is thought unnecessary to multiply certificates on this head.

The writer of that pamphlet also displays his characteristic ignorance, or stupid disregard to truth, when he says that the Journal ever charged Young with receiving pay in three capacities, during the _extra session_ of 1815. It never made the charge as it respected _that_, or any other _year_;--but it so happens that during the _extra, session_ of 1814, Mr. Young did receive $5 per day, which was the pay for a member of the house, and $2.25 per day, which was the _extra allowance_ on account of his being speaker. See New Revised Laws, Vol. I. p. 528, and the act of April 18th 1815, called the _supply bill_, Sec. 15, by which two acts, the wages of the Assembly are fixed at _$5_, and those of the speaker at $7.25, and extended to the extra session of 1814. Altho' the Journal _never_ made the charge imputed to it, yet you see how easily and conclusively that charge might have been supported, had the assertion ever been made.

With regard to Mr. Young's receiving the pay of a Col. he never was charged with having done this during any _extra session_. That paper did insinuate that he at one time as aid to the governor received that pay. And it is hardly worth stopping to enquire whether he did or not, so long as we have _his word_ that the Governor _offered_ it to him, in consequence of which he _agreed_ to serve. Whether he got the _cash_ and gave a _receipt_ for it;--or it was absorbed in his _expences_;--or laid it out to buy another press;--or yet _remains due_, is altogether immaterial, so long as an answer is substantially made out to a question raised by his _good friends_, and to which the public may expect a reply: The following certificate is therefore given without comment.

"I certify, that a day or two previous to Samuel Young's accompanying his excellency the Governor to New-York, in conversation with Mr. Young at his house, he informed me that while he was at Albany, from where he had but just returned, he called on his excellency, who then informed him of his intended expedition to New-York, and pressed him, Mr. Young to accompany him; that he objected, and said that he should be much pleased with the jaunt, but his business was such, as to render it impossible; that the Governor urged him still stronger, and he replied that he was wholly unprepared for leaving home any length of time, and the Governor calculated to go the next day or day but one--that the Governor told him if he would accompany him, he would make him _an aid_ with the _pay_ of a _colonel_, and _bear his expences_, and that he would defer going until the next steam boat; that he wished to take time to consider the Governor's proposals as he informed the Governor--and soon after told him he would accompany him.--SETH C. BALDWIN, Junior. _Warren County, March 1816_."

The Journal never charged Young with having informed Merrill that he "was not now Secretary, but should be to-morrow." At it again Merrill. Will you certify that you did not give a friendly hint to a gentleman who was going to Albany, that you had a connexion who would make an excellent clerk in the Secretary's office, and request his name to be given to Mr. Young, to whom Young replied, _I am not now Secretary but shall be to-morrow_? I believe an intimation to this effect was given in the Journal, which you blink with as much ingenuity as though you had been bred in the same school with Mr. Young's colleagues. Amongst the great number to whom Mr. Young _did give_ the information that he was shortly to be Secretary, _you_, then it seems were omitted!

The facts disclosed in the following certificate, cannot fail to remind one of the fable of the "Country maid, and her milk pail."

"I hereby certify, that while riding in company with Samuel Young from Ballston to Albany, when going to the _winter session_ of 1815, the day before the legislature met, the said Young informed me that he expected to be Secretary of State when the republican council should be chosen; that he could be a member of the _legislature_ and _Secretary of State at the same time_, and _could reside at the Springs_ or Ballstown in the summer, and do the business of Secretary in Albany by Deputy, and that _these two_ offices would give him a _pretty good living_, or words to that effect.--JESUP RAYMOND. _Ballston, April 1816_."

"Green--let me consider; yes, green becomes my complexion best, and green it shall be."