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JElberfeld: Created page with "During the period of the war public improvements and important public acts, aside from war measures, almost wholly ceased in all Northern cities, while in villages and rural..."

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Created page with "During the period of the war public improvements and important public acts, aside from war measures, almost wholly ceased in all Northern cities, while in villages and rural..."

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During the period of the war public improvements and important
public acts, aside from war measures, almost wholly ceased in all
Northern cities, while in villages and rural districts the frequent calls
to arms, the great sacrifices demanded in men and money, and the sad
news that came from scores of bloody battlefields, all served to distract
public attention from the ordinary affairs of life. With the advent of
peace all this was changed. The welcome event was properly cele-
brated in all communities, and the people, so long oppressed by the
terrors of civil war, turned joyfully and full of hope to the energetic
prosecution of public improvements and private business. In spite of
the enormous cost of the war — a financial drain that reached every
hamlet in the land — there was seeming prosperity throughout the
North during the several years succeeding the close of the conflict.
The great demands of the government for war materials, which had
for five years promoted many industries and afforded various avenues
for speculation and wealth-making, the abundance of monej' which had
poured from the national treasury in payment for supplies, and for the
vast armies whose rank and file seldom hoarded it, the high prices
ruling for all products, created by an inflated currency, were all causes
of an era of prosperity such as the country had not before experienced.
Albany county had its share in this tide of prosperity, though not to
the extent of many cities where manufacturing was more extensive.
Many private projects of importance were launched, river commerce
was active, building operations were extensive, mercantile business
was greatly extended and banks and other institutions of financial
character multiplied. The agricultural interests of the county shared
also in the general prosperity; farmers realized high prices for their
products, and many were led to purchase farms at prices which a few
years later would have been ruinous.

It was inevitable that such a state of affairs could not long continue
in a time of peace. With the gradual contraction of currency, the de-
creasing demand for many kinds of products, with contemporaneous
over-production, and the fear of financial disaster through anticipated
return to specie payment, there came a reaction which culminated in

114

ISTx'-o, causing much financial distress and many business failures.
Albany county, however, as has been the case in all times of depres-
sion, suffered less than many other localities; the county had gained
less and was not so much affected by the inflation caused by the war,
and hence suffered less in returning to normal conditions.

To preserve its chronological place in this work, the subject of the
anti-rent struggle should have been taken up in the ]u-eceding chapter,
but as its effects were felt through the period of the war and even
later, its brief consideration is left for this place. Anti-rentism came
into existence very soon after the death of Stephen Van Rensselaer,
the last holder of the Manor of Rensselaerwyck under the British
crown. He died January 26, 1839. He had inherited the great manor
under the law of primogeniture, as the eldest son, which had existed
here through the colonial period. The American laws following the
Revolution worked a radical change in this respect, and in order to
keep his vast landed interests in possession of his sons and their de-
scendants, Stephen Van Rensselaer, on arriving at his majority, adopted
the plan of selling his land in fee, reserving to himself and his assigns
all minerals, streams of water for mills, and some of the old feudal
rents in wheat, fowls, service with horses, etc., and finally, the reserva-
tion of one-quarter of "the purchase price on every vendition of land.
It is said that Alexander Hamilton drew this form of conveyance and
advised his client that he could adopt it. But there was at that time
an English statute in opposition to such a method of sale, such right
belonging to the crown alone. It is believed that Mr. Hamilton as-
sumed that the English statute had not been in force in this colony,
and that therefore it had no real force here. In any event the patroon
sold his lands, warranting the title, his deeds containing the feudal
reservations above mentioned.

While this system of sale worked satisfactorily during his life and
generally during the lives of the first purchasers, trouble began soon
afterward. The patroon devised all his interest in the lands thus sold in
fee to his two eldest sons, William P. and Stephen. To the latter, who
was the older of the two, were given the rents in Albany county, and to
the other those in Rensselaer county. The old patroon was a kindly
man and doubtless his many favors to those who had purchased from
him served to pacify them under the onerous burdens. But when the
sons came into their estate, either their different treatment of the

115

landholders, or changes in the business and agricultural relations of
the time, led to complaints and later to more serious trouble. Litiga-
tion began and continued many years. " The counsel consulted were
either ignorant of that [EnglishJ statute or they dismissed considera-
tion of it on the assumption that it was never the law of the colony or
of the State. Had that statute, at the time of the anti-rent outbreak,
been recognized as the law of the State, it is not too much, probably,
to assert and believe that, before the distinguished judges who then
adorned the bench, with the Senate composing the court of last resort
— a popular as well as judicial body — the anti-rent controversy would
have been spared more than a quarter of a century of political and
legal conflict, and the feudal-burdened counties have become as en-
lightened, prosperous and free as their sister counties in the State." ^

Early in the spring of 1839 the anti-renters held a meeting for the
purpose of deciding upon some equitable basis of settlement of the dis-
pute. A committee was appointed to call upon vStephen Van Rensse-
laer, the elder son, and learn upon what terms they could purchase the
soil outright. The committee was composed of the foremost men of
the district involved ; they called at the manor office in Watervliet on
May 22, 1839, and met Mr. Van Rensselaer, who refused to recognize
them in any manner. They then passed into the inner office, occupied
by the agent, Douw B. Lansing, while the latter held a lengthy con-
versation with Mr. Van Rensselaer, after which the committee were
informed that they would be communicated with in writing. The com-
mittee felt that this was an insult, and went away. Subsequently Mr.
Van Rensselaer sent a letter to Lawrence Vandusen, of Berne, who
was chairman of the committee, in which he declined to sell on any
terms; this letter was read throughout the manor during that year.
The landholders now began active opposition to the collection of rents;
agents were insulted and their personal safety endangered; bodies of
masked men resisted and attacked sheriffs in discharge of their duties
and other demonstrations of force were made in various localities. In
December, 1839, Sheriff Michael Artcher called to his aid the/oj-iv
coniitatus; with a body of about 600 men he started from Albany on the
3d day of December, 1839, for Reidsville, in the Helderbergs. Arriv-
ing near the place, the sheriff selected about seventy-five of the most
courageous of his men and continued towards Reidsville, where it was

116

known many of the anti-renters had gathered. Just before reaching
the place the}- encountered a force of 1,500 mounted men, who barred
the road and ordered the sheriff and his party back. There was no al-
ternative but to obey, and the whole party hastened back to Albany.
When, on the following day, the sheriff acquainted Governor Seward
with the outcome of his brief campaign, the governor called out the
military in numbers sufficient to have captured every person in the
western part of the county. The military force comprised the Albany
Birrgesses Corps, Albany Union Guards, Albany Republican Artillery,
First Company and Second Company Van Rensselaer Guards, Troy
Artillery, Troy Citizens Corps, and the Troy City Guards. The com-
mand of this force was given to Major William Bloodgood, and, headed
by Sheriff Artcher, the march was taken up towards Reidsville on De-
cember 9. No resistance was met with before Reidsville was reached,
and even then no enemy was found. It was a ridiculous sight — a great
body of armed troops upon a long and weary march, to meet not even
a single landholder upon whom to expend their ardor. The return
was made amid a pitiless rain storm. Resistance to rent collections
continued against various methods of compulsion, without much advan-
tage to either side. The landholders hoped by petty and threatened
acts of resistance to force the proprietors into an acknowledgment of
their position, while the latter seemed to think that by military and legal
action they could compel the landholders to pay whatever was demanded.
At last the controversy was made a political issue, and a paper, the
Freeholder, was started in Albany in support of the cause of the land-
holders. Both the Whig and the Democratic parties strove to obtain
the advantage of alliance with the anti-rentei's, but the former party had
the largest number of them in its ranks. Their power was soon mani-
fested in the political field. Eleven counties promptly elected represen-
tatives with anti-rent proclivities to the Legislature, and Albany county
elected Ira Harris to the Assembly in 1845 by more than 3,000 majority.
Silas Wright, who had been considered invincible, was defeated by John
Young for governer in 184(; through the influence of the anti-renters,
and the strife went on. As far as its political features were concerned,
little was accomplished and in that respect the cause soon lost its in-
fluence.

Among the conditions of the manorial grants in fee was a provision
that the grantee, or his heirs, was to pay to the ]3roprietor on every
sale of the land, ad iiijbiitinn, one-quarter of the purchase price ; so

117

that if a farm worth say $2,000, on which all the improvements had been
made by the purchaser, was sold iowr times at that price, the proprie-
tor would g-et the whole value of the farm, including the improvements,
in four payments of $500 each. Litigation began in the courts on this
quarter-sale provision in 1848 and in 1853 went to the Court of Appeals.
Without here attempting to follow the details of the decision, let it
suffice to say that it was in favor of the oppressed landholders. The
Court of Appeals was then comprised of Charles H. Ruggles, chief
judge, Addison Gardner, Freeborn G. Jewett, Alexander S. Johnson,
John W. Edmonds, Malbone Watson, Philo Gridley, and Henry Welles.
After this decision was rendered the manor proprietors were advised
by counsel to sell, and this was done in some cases prior to 1852. With
the changed conditions under the decision of the court, and the low
prices at which lands were now offered by the proprietors, speculators,
and adventurers came into the field and made many purchases. The
principal buyer was Walter S. Church, then of Allegany county, who
during the succeeding thirty or forty years, was responsible for end-
less trouble for himself and the landholders. Litigation continued and
in many instances families were dispossessed of their farms amid dis-
tressing conditions.

One of the first cases that went to the Court of Appeals after the de-
cision in the quarter- sale case before described, was that of Van Rens-
selaer vs. Ball in 1858. In the decision in that case the right of the
manor proprietors, or purchasers of their interest, to maintain actions
of ejectment was put upon a statute passed by the Legislature in 1805,
authorizing grantors of lands to have the same remedies for the recov-
ery of rent as if the reversion had remained in them ; this opinion was
written by Judge Denio, who then proceeded to apply the statutes of
landlord and tenant to the cases. This decision so shocked the public
conscience that the Legislature of 18ti0 repealed the statute of 1805, so
far as conveyances executed after that time were concerned. After
that statute was repealed the feudal rent litigation was renewed, and
other cases which had passed through the lower courts were carried to
the Court of Appeals where they were decided in 1863. That court
then took new ground and held that the statute of 1805 was not neces-
sary to the maintenance of the actions, but that the statute of 1840
abolishing distress for rent (a statute pa.ssed in the interest of landhold-
ers) supplied the place of the statute of 1805; this opinion was written
by Judge Henry R. Seklen. After relying on the statute of 184(J, as

118

Judge Denio had on that of 1805, to sustain the actions, Judge Selden
undertook to uphold them on the strength of an ojjinion expressed bv
Sugden in his work on Vendors and Purchasers, and on a few contro-
verted English cases. But neither Sugden nor the disputed cases even
hint that there can be a forfeiture of land for non-payment of rent, out-
side of the relation of landlord and tenant. It may be broadly and
safely stated that no case can be found, English or American, where
re entry, or ejectment for default in the payment of rent, has been had
or allowed, except where the relation of landlord and tenant existed,
or was supposed to exist. Of the eight judges of the Court of Appeals
at the time Judge Selden wrote his opinion in 18G3, it is noticeable that
two of the most distinguished refused to share in the decision. Upon
that remarkable decision hung all the later merciless exactions of the
])roprietors or purchasers of their interest, against the landholders and
the many instances of dispossession and suffering with which citizens
of Albany county are familiar, and for which space cannot here be
spared. The working of this injustice has thus been pictured by
Andrew J. Colvin, who has given much study to the matter:

Ejectment suits are brought to recover one year's rent claimed to be due — gener-
ally the last year — and recovery of possession of the farm for non-payment. The
landholder, on prosecution, goes to the office in Albany to pay the year's rent
sued for, and the costs of the action. Payment will not be accepted unless
he will also pay all rents claimed to be in arrear; it may be for fifteen or twenty,
perhaps thirty years. The landholder remonstrates on the ground, as often hap-
pens, that he has only owned the farm a few years, and should not be asked to pay
longer than he has owned. He is told that that makes no difference ; the fann is lia-
ble, no matter who may have been the owner, and he must pay all rents claimed or
lose the farm. On inquiry as to the amount claimed, he is startled to learn that it
exceeds the value of the farm, perhaps, with all the buildings and other improve-
ments. That result is brought about by charging the fullest prices for the wheat,
the fat fowls, and the days' service with carriage and horses, with annual accumula-
tions of interest on each. It is the old story; the successors of the old patroon chas-
tised the landholders with whips; the adventurers chastise them with scorpions.

This depressing subject inay be concluded with the following sug-
gestive statement of claims made upon the Board of Supervisors for
services in the anti-rent difficulties rendered as late as 18iiG:

Claimed. .Mlnwed.

Leonard & Bradt §1,295 73 §1,268 59

Edward Scannell 1,053 00 576 00

Tenth Regiment, N. G. S. N. Y .-.. 992 25 992 35

Company F, 25th llegiment " 762 24 762 24

Company C, " " " 636 40 (;26 40

/

119

Claimed. Allowed.

Company C. 35th Regiment, N. Y. _ _ 256 93 356 93

L(>rd& Thornton 500 02 498 03

Albany & Susquehanna R. R. Co 2^8 80 238 80

John Cutler... 157 00 150 00

Augustus Brewster... 132 00 80 00

Walter S. Church. -.'- 115 00 Disallowed.

← Older revision		Revision as of 23:44, 3 March 2013
Line 1:		Line 1:
		+	[[File:Tin Horn.jpg\|100px\|right\|link=Anti-rent Wars \|Go to Anti-rent Wars ]][[File:HistoryLogo.jpg\|71px\|right\|link=History\|Go to History]]
	During the period of the war public improvements and important		During the period of the war public improvements and important
	public acts, aside from war measures, almost wholly ceased in all		public acts, aside from war measures, almost wholly ceased in all

@@ Line 105: / Line 105: @@
 masked men resisted and attacked sheriffs in discharge of their duties
 and other demonstrations of force were made in various localities. In
-December, 1839, Sheriff Michael Artcher called to his aid the ''posse
+December, 1839, Sheriff Michael Artcher called to his aid the ''posse comitatus''; with a body of about 600 men he started from Albany on the
 d day of December, 1839, for Reidsville, in the Helderbergs. Arriving near the place, the sheriff selected about seventy-five of the most
 courageous of his men and continued towards Reidsville, where it was

@@ Line 289: / Line 289: @@
 Walter S. Church. -.'- 115 00 Disallowed.
+:[[Landmarks of Albany County, New York]] - (1897) - Parker, Amasa J. (Amasa Junius), 1843-1938, ed
-"AntiRentParkerPage119.jpg" "AntiRentParkerPage114.jpg" "AntiRentParkerPage115.jpg" "AntiRentParkerPage116.jpg" "AntiRentParkerPage117.jpg" "AntiRentParkerPage118.jpg"
+<gallery>