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SILAS WRIGHT (1795-1847)

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Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 847 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SILAS WRIGHT (1795-1847)  ,
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American
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political leader, was born at Amherst, Mass., on the 24th of May 1795 . He graduated at
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Middlebury College,
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Vermont, in 1815, was admitted to the bar in 1819, and began practice at Canton, in
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northern New York . He was appointed surrogate of St Lawrence county in 182o, and was successively a member of the state Senate in 1824–1826, a member of the
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national House of Representatives in 1827–1829,
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comptroller of the state in 1829–1833, U.S. senator in 1833–1844, and governor of New York in 1844–1846 . During his public
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life he had become a leader of the Democratic party in New York, Martin
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Van Buren being his closest associate . He was an influential member of the so-called " Albany Regency," a
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group of Democrats in New York, including such men as J . A . Dix and W . L . Marcy, who for many years virtually controlled their party within the state . Wright's integrity in office was illustrated in 1845, when the " anti-
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rent troubles " (see NEw YORK) broke out and it seemed probable that the votes of the disaffected would decide the coming election . The governor asked and obtained from the legislature the power to suppress the disturbance by armed force, and put an end to what was really an insurrection . When the national Democratic party in 1844 nominated and elected James K .

Polk to the
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presidency, instead of Martin Van Buren, Wright and the state organization took an attitude of, armed
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neutrality towards the new administration . Renominated for governor in 1846, Wright was defeated, and the result was by many ascribed in
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part to the alleged hostility of the Polk administration . He died at Canton on the 27th of August 1847 . The best biography is that by J . D . Hammond, Life and Times of Silas Wright (Syracuse, N.Y., 1848), which was republished as vol. iii. of that author's Political
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History of New York .

End of Article: SILAS WRIGHT (1795-1847)
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