from tJtica Mottling Herald, Jan. 13,1897.
WITH THE HISTORIANS.
ANNUAL MEETINGS OF THE ONEIDA
AND HERKIMER SOCIETIES.
George D. Dimon .Elected President of the
First and Hon. Robert Earl of the
Second—Business Transacted—Reports of
Officers—Annual Addresses—Rev. E. P.
Powell on “The Federal Party in
American History.”
The Oneida historical society held its
annual meeting in the Munson-Williams
memorial building at four o’clock yester-
day afternoon. The membership was
well represented. Vice President Thom-
as R. Proctor presided. Thomas E. Kin-
ney was named as temporary recording
secretary in the absence of W. Pierre-
pont White. Dr. M. M. Bagg, the libra-
rian, reported the donations to the so-
ciety during the past month. A por-
trait of General Herkimer was presented
to the society by iMrs. Wheadon. At one
time the portrait was in the possession
of Governor Seymour. Numerous bound
volumes and pamphlets, mostly works
of reference, were received. Dr. Bagg
also reported the receipt of photographs
of the Seymour family, the flags of the
Adjutant Bacon cadets, and also the gifts
from Judge Alfred C. Coxe of a certifi-
cate of the admission of his grandfather,
Judge Conkling, as a solicitor and coun-
selor at law, and a certificate dated in
1777 worth $2 in continental currency.
Judge Coxe also presented a number of
letters belonging to his grandfather,
Judge Conkling, to the society. Among
the letters is a notice of Judge Conkling’s
appointment as minister plenipotentiary
to Mexico. Dr. G. Alder Blumer pre-
sented the society with a copy of the
London Times, dated Nov. 9, 1796. The
paper contains some interesting adver-
tisements. A portrait of Spencer Kel-
logg was presented by C. C. Kellogg.
General Darling reported the receipt of
a fac simile of the account kept by
George * Washington with the United
States from 1775 to 1783, a period of
eight years. A bust of Benjamin Frank-
lin was presented by John F. Hughes.
The thanks of the society were tendered
the donors.
General Darling read a communication
from the secretary of the Herkimer his-
torical society stating that by resolu-
tion the society had given the active of-
ficers of the Oneida historical society
the privileges of honorary members.
The communication was received and
the thanks of the society were extended
for the courtesy.
A request from the Oneida chapter
daughters of the American revolution for
the use of the Munson-Williams memor-
ial building for a lecture by Rev. Dr.
Terrett was referred to the committee
in charge of the building. The commit-
tee reported in favor of granting the re-
quest.
Invitations were received from the De-
troit museum of art, Old Colony his-
torical society and the Rochester his-
torical society to attend anniversaries.
The request of Mrs. Mitchell to give a
lecture in the Munson-Williams me-
morial building on Feb. 10 was granted.
General Darling, chairman of the com-
miittee on publications, reported that the
committee thought it advisable in the
publication of the forthcoming volume
that it consist entirely of matters relat-
ing ,to the Munson-Williams memorial
building, its corner-stone laying and
dedication.
Daniel Ballou, chairman of the mem-
bership committee, reported that there
had been a large accession to the mem-
bership during the year. The society
has gained largely and it has made
healthful progress in the right direction.
Warren C. Rowley, the treasurer, pre-
sented the following report:
Building Fund—Balance on hand last
report, $136.17; gift from Philip D. Ar-
mour, $100. Total, $236.17.
By resolution of the society at a meet-
ing held OcJ. 13, 1896, the above amount
was ordered transferred to the perma-
nent fund.
Permanent Fund—This fund was es-
tablished by virtue of an amendment to
the constitution adopted at a meeting of
the society held April 15,1896.
Total receipts from life memberships,
etc., $1,038.55. This amount stands to
the credit of the society in the Savings
bank of Utica.
General Fund—Receipts, $1,887.82; dis-
bursements, $837.55; balance, $1,050.37.
This amount is deposited in the Oneida
National bank.
Herkimer Monument Fund—This
fund remains as at date of last
annual report, $37.70, which amount is
deposited in the Oneida National bank.
At the date of my last annual report,
the apparent total resident member-
ship was 155. By virtue of an amend-
ment to the constitution, adopted April
14, 1896, the names of 37 ladies were
voted to the resident membership list.
In response to an invitation from yourtreasurer to qualify by payment of the
prescribed dues, 15 have not yet respond-
ed, 2 have declined to accept member-
ship, 2 have been recently voted to the
honorary list and 18 have paid the $5
fee and their names now appear on the
resident membership list. From this
source and also thro a systematic effort
on the part of the membership commit-
tee, a considerable accession has been
made to both the resident and life mem-
bership lists during the past year, the
results of which make the present mem-
bership list as follows:
Total resident membership, males, in-
cluding 15 members who have not yet
paid for 1896, but are considered good,
186; resident membership, females, 34:
total resident membership, male and fe-
male, 220, or an apparent total increase
during the year of 65 members. The life
membership also shows an increase of
16 names.
The records further contain the
names of three members who are in ar-
rears to the society for five years, seven
for four years, three for three years,
and eight for two years. The report was
received and filed.
Alexander Seward of the board of man-
agers presented the annual report of the
managers. The historical society was
incorporated Nov. ,19, 1878, under the
statutes of this state. The report gave
in detail the provisions of the member-
ship incorporation law and in accordance
with the provision of that law a report
of the amount of real and personal prop-
erty was filed in the county clerk’s office.
The report was received and* filed.
Dr. M. M. Bagg, the librarian, report-
ed that the total number of bound vol-
umes owned by the society was 6,623 and
the whole number of pamphlets was
6,986. During the past month 27 bound
volumes and 72 pamphlets have been
received and during the year 108 bound
volumes and 171 pamphlets have been
received. The librarian spoke of the
need of binding the pamphlets and the
matter was referred to the board of man-
agers.
The corresponding secretary, General
C. W. Darling, presented the following:
The annual report which your corre-
sponding secretary now presents for the
year ending in January, 1897, shows that
2,549 communications have been sent
out. The number received will proba-
bly be about the same, altho it can not
be estimated with the same accuracy.
Two well known ladies of this city,
whose names can never be forgotten,
carrying out the wishes of their noble
hearted mother, now deceased, have
brought into existence the beautiful
building which is now the home of the
Oneida historical society.
This historical society in the career of
larger usefulness which is open to it,
should certainly receive the material
support of the cultured people of this
city. This society is not only an insti-
tution of learning, but it has for its ob-
ject the collection and preservation of
memorials of its founders and benefac-
tors. We would carefully preserve the
historical evidences of the progressive
settlement and population of this and
adjoining counties. We would note the
arts, improvements and institutions
which distinguish a civilized commun-
ity. The time has come when the minds
of men must look beyond and above the
work of paving streets with asphalt,
and building bridges over canals.
Men must pay some attention to the
sustenance of those permanent institu-
tions that have been organized to meet
higher educational, social and benevo-
lent interests of the community. Such,
institutions are largely dependent for
their development and permanence on
the contribution of individual citizens.
The objects of this society to be accom-
plished, as declared in the constitution,
are to institute and encourage historical
inquiry, to collect and preserve the ma-
terials of history, and to spread histori-
cal information.
To properly develop such an institution
requires the co-operation of three
classes. First, a sufficient number of
educated, liberal minded men, with wis-
dom to plan and patience to execute, and
a full comprehension of the benefits to
be conferred upon the whole community
by the successful prosecution of their
work. Second, a smaller number of
equally enlightened men, with large in-
come of wealth to furnish the legacies
needed for maintaining the building so
generously given. Third, a still smaller
number of enthusiastic students cf hu-
man history, who are ever on the watch
for every item of reliable history or of
materials illustrative of historical
events, and who constitute the untiring
agents for collecting the books, manu-
scripts, relics, maps, etc., that fill the
shelves, cases, drawers and rooms of this
most useful institution.
The society already has much valuable
historical material gathered by the joint
labors of its officers and members, and
it accumulated so rapidly that the rooms
until recently occupied in the Arcade
were so overcrowded that many boxes of
books had to be stored in safe and con-
venient places outside. These books are
now all safely stored in the noble build-
ing we are in, together with rich treas-ures in the form of curios, relics, paint-
ings and statuary, for the enligktmemt
of generations yet to come.
The work already done has not only
made the past secure, but it has also as-
sured its future, and it has started an
impulse which will without doubt con-
tinue to be in force long after the pres-
ent generations of men shall have passed
away.
Judge A. C. Coxe presented an amend-
ment to the constitution. The amend-
ment was in relation to the annual dues,
and it provides that the annual dues be
$5 for resident members and $3 for non-
resident members and, that , persons liv-
ing six miles from the Munson-WilliamS
memorial building be considered non-
resident members.
The election of officers resulted as fol-
lows: President, George D. Dimon; first
•vice president, Thomas R. Proctor; sec-
ond vice president, Hon. C. D. Prescott,
Rome; third vice president, Judge. A.
0. Coxe; recording secretary, William
Pierrepont White; corresponding secre-
tary, General Charles W. Darling;
librarian, Dr. M. M. Bagg; treasurer,
Warren C. Rowley; executive commit-
tee, Dr. M. M. Bagg, Rev. Dana W. Bige-
low, George C. Sawyer, Alexander Sew-
ard. and N. Curtis White.
The following were elected councilors
to fill vacancies: D. N. Crouse, G. Alder
Blumer and Thomas W. Spencer.
The meeting then adjourned until eve-
ning.
Tlie Annual, Address.
Rev. E. P. Powell of Clinton delivered
tfie annual address before the society at
tfye Munson-Williams memorial last
evening. His subject was “The federal
party in American history.” His nar-
rative was delightfully entertaining.
He said:
American history falls naturally into
three periods. (1) That of the struggle
between English and French factions to
establish special alliance and friendship
between the young nation and their spe-
cial favorites. This era lasted from 1778
to 1814. (2) That of the Struggle of the
twfo sections north and south to establish
their diverse policies and institutions as
national, lasting from 1820 to 1860.	(3)
The present struggle of capital and labor
to control production and distribution.
Perhaps more exactly the first era should
be termed a struggle to perpetuate party
power ; the second to establish sectional
power; the third to establish class power.
The first ended, not without war, in
1812-14; the second with war in 1861-65;
as for the third, we hope for a peaceful
solution. Sharp m TO t}w* controversy
between north and south, it did not ap-
proach the virulence of that hate with
which federals wrestled with anti-fed-
erals under Washington and Adams;
and again in the desperation of defeat
undertook with Burr to split the union in
1804, and once more in 1814. That our
republic came very near a reign of ter-
rorism and treading in the tracks of the
French revolution is little considered at
the present day.
Mr. Powell described the long struggle
between the French and English factions
and the unhappy conditions resulting
from it. The treaty with England in
1794, the alien and sedition acts in 1797
were referred to. The speaker thus
graphically pictured the times: Had the
federals in power used rational measures
and shown a true love for the federalism
of which they claimed to be peculiarly
representatives, the country would have
been pacified and the people unified. But
they did nothing of the sort. Legislation
was made to bear with terrible weight
on all who did not pronounce their shib-
boleth. Courts sat with packed federal
juries. Federal judges delivered polit-
ical harangues instead of impartial
charges. Marshals were ordered to put
none but federals on the juries.
The people were tortured into mad-
ness. Then came in 1797 the alien and
sedition acts. It was made a crime to
sympathize with France; or to criticize
the Anglicans. * * * Herein was de-
termination on the part of the newly
made central government to muzzle the
press; and to prevent all such criticism
as is common in political campaigns.
Under the provisions of the act one con-
gressman, Lyon of Vermont, while
stumping his district for re-election, was
arrested, imprisoned and fined. Many
years later the United States paid back
this fine to the heirs of the man who
dared to say about John Adams and his
cabinet, and the leading federals, pre-
cisely what all students of history to-
day say of them freely. A resident of
central New York, Judge Peck of Otsego
county, circulating a petition asking con-
gress to repeal the odious act, was in-
dicted and taken to New York for trial.
The choler of the people rose so high
that the trial never took place. His im-
prisonment, however, was quite as great
an outrage.
The prosecution of Lyon requires a
fuller statement to illustrate the pre-
cise animus of the federal party. He
was an Irishman, resident in Vermont.
He had shown a peculiar independence
of character, altho its manifestations
were sometimes comical and annoying.
In an adfir^ss to ftis constituents hecharged Adams with “unbounded thirst
for ridiculous pomp and foolish adula-
tion:- and with selfish avarice.’" He was
arrested, tried in a federal court, and
sentenced to four months in jail and a
fine of one thousand dollars. While still
in prison his constituents re-elected him
to congress. Cofined as a prisoner, the
Vermont congressman, of course, could
not take his seat. The people were
growing less and less patient with such
outrages. Several thousand persons pe-
titioned to have Lyon’s fine remitted—
as he was a poor man. Adams demanded
“penitence before pardon,” and left him
to endure to the full the penalty inflict-
ed. When his four months’ sentence was
at last over, and he reappeared in con-
gress, the federalists undertook to ex-
clude him on the score that he had been
convicted of sedition.
It was not simply that the trial and
punishment of Lyon was shameful, but
the proof that it developed that the
courts were as partisan as congress. The
judge abused the prisoner, and refused
to allow him to challenge members of the
jury, which was evidently packed to
make sure of conviction. The jail in
which he was confined was fireless and
windowless—a den unfit for thieves.
Those who tried to befriend him were
themselves imprisoned.
From one end of the land to the other
there was a tendency to mob law and
violence. Liberty poles and liberty caps
were denounced by the federals as sym-
bols of Jacobinism. The poles were cut
down; but others were raised. Black
cockades were the British symbol. They
were in turn assaulted. Gallatin was
mobbed in Pennsylvania and burned in
effigy in New Jersey, as a foreigner and
Frenchman. In turn Adams While pass-
ing thro New York was tendered the use
of the barge of a British frigate; where-
upon the gunners who manned the bat-
tery to salute him threw down their
matches. Republicans retaliated abuse
for abuse. A vast amount of nonsense
was reported and believed by both par-
ties. But steadily the British party lost
ground. Liberty poles became universal;
black cockades were out of sight. Elec-
tion after election in 1799 went for the
republicans. The. people revived to the
full the memory of Benjamin Franklin
and drank toasts to the honor of Thomas
Jefferson.
Ten printers and editors were prose-
cuted for sedition. Among these were
Benjamin Franklin, Bache, Abijah
Adams, Thomas Frothingham, Thomas
Cooper and William Duane. The case
of James Thomson Callender caused the
greatest excitement. The already no-
torious Judge Chase harangued against
the accused and ordered the marshal to
put none but federalists oh the jury. He
threatened to take the lawyers of Cal-
lender over his knees and spank them.
The Allen acts were twin monsters.
They gave the president power to banish
any aliens suspected by him to be. dan-
gerous to the safety and peace of the
states. * * *
If called to name the meanest man in
American history, I should select Major
General Wilkinson, the man who mated
Burr .in his worst crimes, and then be-
trayed him; the man who, while com-
manding our troops in the Mississippi
valley, received an annual stipend from
the king of Spain, to use his influence to
create in that section a spirit hostile to
the union and favorable to Spain. But
as a close second it would not be diffi-
cult to settle upon Timothy Pickering,
a man who was in both the cabinet of
Washington and that of Adams, but was
treacherously false to Adams from first
to last. A narrow Puritan, bom one-
sided, and incapable of seeing a whole
united country or any fellowship between
those of diverse faiths; the leader in a
plot to break the union and create a New
England confederacy; this Timothy was
above all men instigator of vicious fed-
eral legislation. He insistently urged
Adams to execute the alien and sedition
acts to the extreme of his power. He
■wished delegated to himself and the
other heads of departments power to act
for the president while the latter wa&
absent from the seat of government. No
Adams was ever a bigot, however vio-
lent his political prejudices. John
Adams was. by all odds the most honest
statesman of his party. He refused to
make Pickering his substitute for evil or
for good. More than this he was very
slow in using the dictatorial power con-
ferred upon him by congress. But un-
der the sedition act his vanity got its
revenges. Passing thro Newark in 1799)
his friends greeted him with cannon..
A man named Baldwin wished the wad-
ding of the gun might hit the president
in the backside. He was arrested and!
had to pay one hundred dollars. If we-
had blue laws in the church he had black
laws in the state.
While Hamilton plotted, Jefferson acted.
Meanwhile our foreign relations were not im-
prdved. England crowded upon us with in-
tolerable insults. Our war vessels were over-
hauled and seamen forcibly taken into their
own service by British commanders. Adams
alone of the federals had the grit Of true
Americanism. He sent word to our command-
ers not to submit to search, but to resist to
the utmost. “If overpowered, strike your
flag, and yield, you£ vessel;,, hut not the memWithout the vessel. * * With France also war
seemed immiment.
During this excitement the federals under-
took the creation of a provisional army. They
proposed to augment the army that existed
to 13,000; to be officered by Washington, and
by three major generals and-four brigade gen-
erals. The selection of the three major gen-
erals was left to Washington, who named
Hamilton, Charles Pinckney and Knox. Pick-
ering and others hastened to urge that Ham-
ilton be placed second in command. Later
events make no question why it was specially
desired to have this advocate of centralization
practically at the head of an army. Adams
nominated the three men named by Washing-
ton, and they were confirmed by the senate.
Knox was senior by rank in the revolutionary
army; and justly claimed his seniority.
Adams agreed to the justice of the' demand.
■ Bu-t Hamilton had intrigued -with Washing-
ton and in every possible direction to over-
ride the decision of the president. Washing-
ton was induced to ask that Knox be de-
graded in favor of Hamilton. The president
yielded with ill grace and with indignant
anger; while Knox refused his commission al-
together. Adams privately remarked that
Hamilton had no claims whatever to high mil-
itary rank; he was a foreigner, a person of
comparatively low rank in the late army,
with no popularity anywhere in America; and
of merits which were estimated as diversely
as those of Calvin.
The object of Hamilton v in desiring to
stand next in military rank to Washington
may have been simply vanity. It does not
look like that to a careful student. While
Jefferson was a candidate for president, Ham-
ilton cast all his weight with Pinckney. On
one occasion, speaking to the toast, “A strong
government,” hb said publicly: “If Mr. Pinck-
ney is not elected president a revolution will
be the consequence; and within tlie next four
years I will lose my head or be the leader of
a triumphant army.” Did he intend to estab-
lish his favorite “strong government’ ’ by
force? There is no question > about his
contempt for common people; and utter dis-
trust of them as factors in government.
But apart from this general purpose of us-
ing the army as he had used bur finances, for
securing an aristocratic government, Hamil-
ton with Pickering, had on foot a plot with
Great Britain, to engage in a joinj; plundering
expedition against Spanish- possessions in
America. The proposition was for the United
States to.furnish an army, while England fur-
nished a navy for the conquest, of Florida,
Louisiana and Mexico; the two powers to di-
vide the spoils. This would bring us into
collision with France as well as $pain; while
we were an ally of Great Britain. What
would thus become of the petted policy of
neutrality? Plainly it was not neutrality only,
when France asked for sympathy.
“Vaulting ambition doth overleap itself and
fail the other side.” Hamilton had made, a
breach in federal unity that was; impassable.
From this time Adams began to Suspect him
and Pickering to be leaders of an unscrupu-
lous following; and he watched them with
lynx-eyed hatred. The plot thickened. Mir-
anda, the London agent, wrote to Hamilton;
“All is ready for your president to give the
word.” But the president would not give the
word. Indeed, he stood as far as possible In
the way of every effort of a filibustering sort.
Hamilton, never subdued however balked,
turned to an effort to crush the states, by se-
curing an amendment to the constitution al-
lowing congress to subdivide the large states
at will He also favored a large extension of
the federal judiciary. A third proposition was
to keep the army on a war footing, with a mil-
itary academy, and manufactories of all
kinds of army supplies. War with France
was, however, what Hamilton desired. It
looked In the early part of 1799 as if war
would surely break out very soon. But Tal-
leyrand and Napoleon did not intend to have
war on this continent. Adams sent a commis-
sion to France to negotiate; and it must be
said that he not only completely baffled the
conspirators at home, but pacified France,
while yielding nothing of our honor. In fact,
the cordial intent between the two nations
was restored, and from that time to the pres-
ent has never been broken.
Hamilton still pressed on his machinations,
urging that even tho matters with France
were quieted, the army should be kept on a
war footing. Besides the eventual security
against invasion, “we ought to look,” he
urged, “at the possession of the Flofidas and
Louisiana; and we ought to squint at South
America.” It seems as tho the work of Na-
poleon had stirred this western creole to an
idea of continental conquest.
The first act in American history, as full of
comedy as of tragedy, was about to close.
The people had no interest in Hamilton’s buc-
caneering ambitions. The federal leaders had
not trusted the populace; the populace had
learned slowly to suspect their leaders. The
elections of 1799 went overwhelmingly, against
them.
Of the leaders of the federal party, Wash-
ington had labored sincerely for a united peo-
ple. His predilections and convictions led
him to favor a stronger central government.
His military life had given him a bias for that
sort of authority which controls in time of
war. But it is the unanimous testimony of all
parties that Washington was faithful to the
people and to the union which he had helped
to create. John Adams, the second president,
was by heredity, a believer in the rights of the
few to govern the many, but he had gone
slowly over to democracy; finally becoming
the most ardbut friend and supporter of
Thomas Jefferson. Of Hamilton it is difficult
to speak in terms which recognizes at the
same time his brilliant intellect and his rest-
less ambition. He quarreled with Washing-
ton. He quarreled with and maligned John
Adams. He plotted against Jefferson. He
broke with Madison. He lost the
confidence of John Jay. He crowded
Burr to the wall, and at last he lost his life as
the result of ungoverned ambition and
wretched political intrigues. He seemed to
have been bewitched with the idea of becom-
ing the Napoleon of the western continent.
From first to last he was never satisfied with
the honors wh»ch he received. As late as
1802 he propose^ to quit the states. He wrote
“Everp day proves to me more and more thattills American world was not made for me.”
Alas for him, it did not seem certain that
any world was made for him. He referred
to the constitution as “a frail and worthless
fabric.” But he asserted his intention to prop
it us as long as possible. Mr. Powell then de-
scribed the events following the election of
Jefferson. He concluded as follows:
In October of 18i4, treason culminated in
the famous Hartford convention. In this
convention delegates from Massachusetts,
Rhode Island and Connecticut participated.
The Boston Sentinel spoke of these states as
“the first three pillars iii a hew federal edi-
fice.” The resolutions passed by this con-
vention proposed a separate treaty with Eng-
land to demand of congress separate control
of taxes. Pickering wrote: “If the British
succeed against New Orleans, and I see no
doubt of their success, I shall considerer the
union severed.” >	:
Delegates started for Washington to lay
their demands before congress. When they
got there, they met two astounding facts. (1.)
A peace with England had been signed, in
which the United States were from every
standpoint magnificently victorious. England
had yielded everything. (2.) Instead of the
British troops taking New Orleans, they had
had the worst whipping any army ever had
had on this continent, if not in the world.
The fiasco was charmingly complete. The
brave committee never made known their er-
rand; but slunk back homeward, to endure
the chaff of their neighbors, and the scorn of
posterity. So went out the rule of “the best. ”
So was finally established the rule of the peo-
ple in America.
“The people, sir, are not always right,
The people, Mr. Gray, are seldom wrong.”
The officials of the Oneida historical
society desire to announce that the pub-
lic is cordially welcome to inspect the
Munson-Williams memorial building at
any time.Production Note
Cornell University Library produced this
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