SILAS

See also:

• WRIGHT, CARROLL DAVIDSON (1840-1909)
• WRIGHT, CHAUNCEY (1830-1875)
• WRIGHT, JOSEPH (1734-1797)
• SILAS WRIGHT (1795-1847)
• WRIGHT, THOMAS (1809–1884)
• WRIGHT, THOMAS (1810—1877)
• WRIGHT, WILLIAM ALDIS (1836– )

WRIGHT (1795-1847)  , American political leader, was born at Amherst, Mass., on the 24th of May 1795 . He graduated at Middlebury College, Vermont, in 1815, was admitted to the bar in 1819, and began practice at Canton, in 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 national House of Representatives in 1827–1829, comptroller of the state in 1829–1833, U.S. senator in 1833–1844, and governor of New York in 1844–1846 . During his public life he had become a leader of the Democratic party in New York, Martin Van Buren being his closest associate . He was an influential member of the so-called " Albany Regency," a 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-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 presidency, instead of Martin Van Buren, Wright and the state organization took an attitude of, armed neutrality towards the new administration . Renominated for governor in 1846, Wright was defeated, and the result was by many ascribed in 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 History of New York .