Sunday, May 25, 2008

The Choctaws


A couple of posts ago, I referred to a number of the names borne by political factions in the Byzantine world of antebellum New York politics -- Barnburners and Hunkers, Softs, Hards and Silver Greys.

Well, here's one more: the Choctaws. No they were not Indians. The Choctaws were a dissident group of pro-Seward Know Nothings. In 1854, when the KN-Silver Greys nominated Daniel Ullmann for governor, the Choctaws bolted the KNs and endorsed the Dry Weed Whig, Myron H. Clark.

In early 1855, Thurlow Weed curried favor with the Choctaws as part of his strategy to obtain Seward's reelection to the Senate. Weed selected as speaker of the New York assembly DeWitt Clinton Littlejohn, a KN allied with the Choctaws.

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