WRIGHT. Silas. American statesman Amherst, Mass., 24 May 1795; d. Canton, N Y. 27 Aug. 1847. He was graduated at Middle bury College. Vermont, in 1815. studied law. was admitted to the bar in 1819, and established himself as an attorney at Canton, N, Y. In 1823 he entered the State senate, where be steadily opposed the political advancement of De Witt Clinton, which he regarded as dan gerous to the Democratic party, of whidi throughout his life he was a firm adherent He sat in Congress 1827-29, and there ad vocated and voted for the protective tariff of 1828. He also voted for the appointment of a committee to enquire into the expediency of abolishing slavery and the slave trade in the District of Columbia. He was comptroller of New York 1829-33. and • United States senator 1833-44. He supported Clay's compromise WI in 1833; voted against receiving a petition for abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia. and in favor of excluding from the mails all °printed matter calculated to excite the pre judices of the Southern States is regard to the question of slavery,' voted for the tariff of 1842, though most of his political associates In the Senate voted against it; and voted for the annexation of Texas to the Union. In IS$4, against his will, he was nominated by his to be governor of New York, and was el= President Polk offered him the office of Secre tary of the Treasury in 1845, but he declined it, as he had previously declined a seat on the Supreme Court bench. As governor he vetoed
a bill appropriating money for works on the canals, on the ground that the effect of the bi:1 was to resume the enlargement of the canals. which had been suspended by law in 1842. out of regard for the financial safety of the State. recommended legislation against the anti-renters, and on occasion of disturbances produced 14 them in Delaware County in 1845 proclaimed the county to be in a state of insurrection and called out a military force. Nominated for re election in 1846, he was defeated by the Who; candidate. \\'hen the application of the Wilma proviso to the territories ofvtained from hfex:cts was tinder discussion, Wright emphatically de clared that the arms and the money of the Union ought never to be used to acquire tere‘ tory then free for the purpose of planting slavery upon it. On the expiration of his term as governor he returned to his farm at Cannes Consult 'Lives' by Jenkins (Auburn 1847N: Hammond (Syracuse 1848); Gillet (Alive, 1874).