The St. Lmvrence County Historicalassociation
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The St. Lmvrence County HistoricalAssociation Volume XL - Number I - Winter, 1995 The St. Lawrence County Historical Association at the Silas Wright Museum The St. Lawrence County organization based at the Silas Wright Museum in a constitution, by-laws, and Board of at different locations throughout St. 8 8 2 Oficers: Trustees: y President: Patricia Tocatlian, 0 Roselie Bambrey, Canton Vice-President: David Swa , Gary Canfield, Canton $ B Treasurer: Clarke ~a~ednton Ruth Garner, Potsdam $ Secretary: Patricia Canton Becky Harblin, Norwood &N' E. Jane Layo, Waddington $P staft pmP Ellen Magee, Morristown i; Shirley T ontana, Director Cornel Reinhart, Canton $ Thomas d. Price Charles Rornigh, Massena stewarp8 Wilson Carl Stickney, Norwood $ Ad:"'' J. Rebecca Thompson, ~a&awaFalls Peter Van de Water, canto4 :: Robert Wells, Canton i: Cay Zabriskie, ~~densburd :3 2 Our Mission I The St. Lawrence Association is an educational resource center and museum dat researches, collects, preserves, County history through collections development publication, establish the intellectual and cultural connectiobs that expand context, while revealing its uniquqidentity. The County from multiple and diverse r@wces through community partnerships and collaboration. SLCU4yalues quality, integrity, and accessibility andzoperates within established museum standards befitting its Amercian"h~sociation of Museums (AAM) accredited &atus. SLCHA Membership Membership in the St. Lawrence County Historical Association is open to all interested parties. Annual membership dues are: Individual, $25; SeniorIStudent, $20; Family, $35; Contributor, $50; Supporter, $100; Patron, $250; Businesses, $50 to $1,000. Members receive the SLCHA Quarterly, the Historical Association's bi-monthly newsletter, and various discounts on publications, programs and events. St. Lawrence County Historical Association at the Silas Wright Museum P. 0.Box 8,3 East Main Street Canton, New York 13617 (315) 386-8133 Published continuously since 1956 The SLCHA Quarterly is made possible in part with public funds ' The St. Lawrence Countv Historical Association from the New York State Council on the Arts. OUARTERLY Managing Editor: J. Rebecca Thompson Volume XL - Number 1 - Winter 1995 Production Editor ISSN: 0558-1931 Stewart J. Wilson Editorial Board: Melissa A. Barker CONTENTS Don Butters Dennis E. Eickhoff George Gibson Alexander Macomb and His Career Shift: Stanley M. Holberg Jan Shideler Taking the Main Chance David B. Dill, Jr. Copyright O 1995 by the St. Lawrence County Historical Association All rights reserved. 'ho Accounts by Gouverneur Morris d His Except for brief excerpts, no part of this publication may be copied or North Country Ravels 15 reproduced without the express David B. Dill, Jr. written permission of the author and theHistoricalAssociation.The St. Lawrence County Historical Association is not responsible for A Note from the Editors the statements, interpretations, and opinions of contributors to The SLCHA Quarterly. The SLCHA Quarterly is published Winter. Spring, Summer, and Fall each year by the St. Lawrence County Historical Association for Issue Editor: its members and friends. Stewart J. Wilson Additional copies may be obtained from the St. Lawrence County His- Production Assistance: torical Association, P.O. Box 8,3 Thomas E. Price E. Main Street, Canton, NY 13617 at $4.00 each ($2.00 for members). plus $1.00 for postage. Contribntions: The SLCHA Quarterly welcomes Cover: contributions. For further infor- One of the 1787 parchment land charters by the State of mation, or to submit a manuscript, New York to Alexander Macomb, whereby Macomb please contact the editor through came to own large tracts of land in the northern part the St. Lawrence County Historical Association. Please address com- of the state, including St. Lawrence County. munications to: Managing Editor, (From the SLCHA Colkctions) The SLCHA Quarterly, St. Lawrence County Historical Asso- ciation, P.O. Box 8, Canton, New York 13617-0008. Alexander Macomb and His Career Shift: Taking the Main Chance by David B. Dill, Jr. ne consequence of the winners of 1783were nouveau riche, of business associates prominent in American Revolution was andnowhere was this moretrue than New York City after 1783: 0the emergence of a new in the money center of New York Alexander Macomb, William Con- class of unfettered businessmen. City. As East noted, the end of the stable, William Edgar and Daniel Robert A. East has demonstrated war signaled "the transfer of some McConnick. All native Presbyte- that, like other recent wars, the wealth into the hands of a small but rianor Anglican Irishmen, they emi- Revolution bred forces whichinflu- vigorous set of newcomers, invari- grated to provincial New York soon enced economic change, mainly by ably young in years but national in after 1750. Loyalist inname only, if fostering uninhibited enterprise and viewpoint, who were prepared to that, and profit-hungry to the core, stimulating such new concepts as take the business bit in their teeth the men had become wealthy as large business a~sociations.~ and set a faster pace for the future."3 merchant suppliers to the British Despite the disruptions of war- As they marched to a faster pace, army in Detroit (Macomb and time commerce, merchants benefited many succumbed to overly exuber- Edgar), intransatlantictradebetween hugely from the absence of former ant speculation in land and securi- England and British-held American Britishrestraints on credit, currency, ties, for in the new nation they had ports (Constable) and in auctioning trade and land distribution, and lost no experience in recognizing the hid- captured American vessels and their no time discovering innovative den dangers of a free economy. Yet cargoes in New York harbor avenues for entrepreneurship. these undisciplined men contributed (McConnick): Privateering was one example, but to setting America on a course to This study, focusing on Alexander most significant was the custom of new institutions and financial Macomb, discovers that his life, rather trading with the enemy, a practice growth. than consisting of two apparently dis- even encouraged by the British as a There is no lack of models for connected careers, had aunifying ele- way to procure supplies. Further parvenu merchants who had served ment of opportunism entirely typical reflecting the easy morality of the therebel cause. Classic examples of ofhis time. As a youth he left provin- period, merchants doubling as gov- patriot upstarts are Robert Morris of cial New York for the Detroit fur ernment officials had their "gainful Philadelphia and William Duer of trade, which was then a satellite of spirit" whetted by all manner of New York, both of English birth, New York's commercial network, speculative opportunities, legal and both self-made men moving easily as it offered a surpassing field for otherwise, while still serving the in the fields of commerce and gov- advancement. When the War of public interest. Ethically or not, as ernment, and both great speculators Independence called for taking sides, American merchants profited they tothepoint of bankruptcy. Joseph S. Macomb remained behind British also set the stage for postwar eco- Davis has identified Morris as "the lines, yet when postwar opportuni- nomic e~pansion.~ prototype . .'captain of industry"' ties beckoned in New York City, The stronger of the opportunists and Duer as a case study of the early there he went. The study will then elbowed out the weaker for wealth American busine~sman.~ show that in the atmosphere of a and influence, and althoughmany of Less familiar and deserving rec- liberated marketplace, Macomb and the old-line commission merchants ognitionis a class of American new- othzrs like him saw their careers and landed gentry survived,particu- comers who had spent much or all of ending abruptly for their failing to larly men of such energy and intelli- the war under British rule. A fine recognize the pitfalls of headlong gence as Gouverneur Morris, the illustration is a provocative quartet speculation in land and securities. St. Lowrence County Historical Association Quarterly The popular image of Alexander Macomb's son Alexander traveled Affiliation with Phyn & Ellice Macomb has been that of a simple to frontier Detroit entirely on his may have helped land some official fur trader, by implicationanuncouth own and without capital. business. The brothers' petty ledger frontiersman whose interest in ac- Macomb found himself in an in- contained the account "Adventure quiring wilderness lands in northern dustryremarkablefor relentless com- to the Huron River" (a stream near New York derived from observa- petition. New York merchants of Sandusky). The entries totaled tions of fur-buying expeditions up the 1760's held a proprietary inter- $2765 by March 3, 1775, and in- the St. Lawrence River. If he had est in the trading post of Detroit, and cluded such popular Indian items as been such anindividual,there would Michilimackinac beyond it, as the black wampum, brooches, blankets, have been good reason to perceive westernmost links of a trading net- moccasins, horncombs,tobacco and Macomb as only a front for powerful work extending from the port city of rum.1° insiders. But in truth Macomb had New York via the Hudson, Mohawk The "adventure" to the Indian always been a sophisticated imagi- and Niagara water route. In what country across Lake Erie was pre- native man on the make, accustomed amounted to an intercolonial trade sumably a military