William Learned MARCY
Brown Graduate for Whom Adirondack Peak Was Named

People of Southbridge, Sturbridge, Dudley and Oxford are intensely interested in a campaign waged by New York politicians to change the name of Mt. Marcy, the highest peak in the Adirondack Mountains, to Mt. Victory, and the proposal is meeting with protest and opposition from thousands of New York people, writes the Southbridge correspondent in the Worcester Telegram.

The great peak was named for one of Southbridge's most eminent sons, Hon. William Learned Marcy, formerly United States Senator from New York State, a member of the Supreme Court of New York, and one of the most influential men of his time. He was a grandson of Moses Marcy and one of the founders of Southbridge.

Moses Marcy bought a tract of land from Capt. Peter Pappillon, the famous sea captain who was instrumental in the capture of Capt. William Kidd, the chief pirate of the Spanish main, in his day. Capt. Pappillon bought 4000 acrs of land of which the present town of Southbridge was the centre, and erected the first house ever built in the town, about where the Dresser house was built. Pappillon came here about 1700, and died in 1732 in Salem, and Capt. Moses Marcy bought the land from him, according to old deeds placed on record in Worcester after a registry of deeds was formed there, when Worcester county was organized in 1731.

Hon. William L. Marcy got his middle name from Thomas Learned of Oxford, a friend and settler with Moses Marcy. At the apex of Senator Marcy's career, when he was the adviser to such men as Martin Van Buren, James K. Polk and others, and was looked upon as a possible candidate for the presidency, the old mountain in the Adirondacks was named for him. The old name was Tahswus, which in Iroquois language means cloud divider, and the great statesman was immensely gratified to have the everlasting peak named after him.

Marcy was a Jeffersonian Democrat and was instrumental in founding the old-time democracy, not the democratic party of James Buchanan and Woodrow Wilson, but the party that upheld United States principles against the world. He was one of the bitterest political opponents of Henry Clay and Daniel Webster in Congress, although personally their friend, and his power as a leader was so great that, at one time, he was slated for nomination for the presidency. He was Secretary of War under President Polk during the Mexican war and nobody questioned his Americanism or his devotion to the U.S.A.

The two gallant Generals, Winfield Scott and Zachary Taylor, were of the opposing political party and each valiant old warrior had the presidential bee in his bonnet. The result was that they accused Secretary of War Marcy of wilfully hindering their campaign by refusing to furnish naval support for various military operations and hindering them in other ways. The accusations were made druing the height of the Mexican war in 1847 and that summer Secretary Marcy came to Southbridge for a rest, in reality to recuperate his energies and forces for a reply to the tough old soldiers who certainly had his goat. When Marcy returned to Washington he questioned the two Generals as to time, place and incidents they alleged wherein he had hindered them in their campaign, and the two warriors withdrew from the inquisition very angry. But the quick work of the Secretary was effective and all censure was stilled.

William Learned Marcy was born in Southbridge, Dec. 12, 1786, in the Marcy mansion, built by his grandfather, Capt. Moses Marcy, in 1740, parts of which are still in existence. He died at Ballston Spa, N.J., July 4, 1857, after taking part in a great Fourth of July celebration.

Marcy was the first American statesman to urge that to the victor belongs the spoils. That famous sentence was fired by him in a speech in the United States Senate against Henry Clay.

Marcy was a great reader and fitted for Brown University and graduated in 1808.

He studied law with an old squire in Oxford and then went to Troy, where he had relatives, and was admitted to the bar.

In 1812, when England began taking United States malis and United States sailors off American vessels and war was declared, young Marcy went to war as a Lieutenant in a New York infantry.

He was given command of his company and on Oct. 23, 1812, he attacked the English at the fortress St. Regis, in northern New York State, and captured the whole garrison, Canadians and English. Gen. Henry Dearborn cited him for valor and for excellent military strategy, and he was promoted.

In 1816, in honor of his service in the army against the English, he was appointed recorder of Troy, but DeWitt Clinton, the big political chief of that time, was opposed to him and he was removed from office without any charge being brought against him. Marcy started a newspaper called the Troy Budget, and the way he whacked Clinton and the rest of his political foes attracted attention to the young warrior-lawyer and he became a power in the Democratic party. He supported Martin Van Buren for President and was made Adjutant General of New York by the politicians. In 1832 he became Comptroller of the State and had much to do with the expenditure of money for the Erie canal and other great undertakings. In 1829 he was appointed an associate justice of the New York Supreme Court and presided at some of the most important trials of that time.

He was elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate and took his seat Dec. 5, 1831. He came to Southbrige from Washington and thence to Worcester in 1825, with President John Adams, who visited the Worcester cattle show and he later came to Worcester county to be present as the guest of another great Worcester county man, Genery Twitchell, at the opening of the first railroad from Worcester to Boston. Marcy urged a big line canal from Boston through the centre of Massachusetts to Albany, and the Government went so far as to survey the proposed route.

In 1833, Marcy resigned from the Senatorship to become Governor of New York, to which he was elected while in the Senate, and he filled that office for three terms until 1839. He was nominated for the fourth time in 1839, but was defeated by William H. Seward, who later became a member of Abraham Lincoln's cabinet. In 1839, President Van Buren appointed him a member of the commisson to decide American claims against the Government of Mexico, and he was so engaged until 1842.

He presided over the Democratic State convention in Syracuse in September 1843, and used his influence to swing the convention in support of James K. Polk, by whom, after his election, he was invited to be Secretary of the Navy. During his term of office he was brought in touch with Eli Thayer, Congressman, of Worcester, and they worked together on the Oregon question.

In 1853 he was appointed Secretary of State under President Franklin Pierce. While in this office he carried on a lengthy diplomatic correspondence with Austria regarding the release of Martin Kosta by Capt. Duncan N. Ingraham. The questions that were brought forth in this remarkable internation case were new and affected all nations that recognized the law of nations. England tried to widen the beach that threatened to cause friction between the United States and Austria, but a sharp note sent by the hand of the English Ambassador silenced that "good friend."

He retired from public life at the close of the Van Buren administration and was found dead on July 4, 1857, in his library with an open book before him. He was rated as one of the shrewdest statesmen of his time, and had the esteem of all political parties for his great diplomatic ability.


The Providence Sunday Journal
Providence, Rhode Island
August 10, 1919

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