constitution, state or federal; that free trade is
essential to human brotherhood; that women should have full
political rights, and that alcoholic liquors should be prohibited
by state and federal enactments. He resigned at the end of his
first session and gave away numerous farms of 50 acres each to
indigent families; attempted to colonize tracts in Northern N.Y.
with free negroes; assisted fugitive slaves to escape--Peterboro,
his home village, 22 miles southwest of Utica, became a station
on the "Underground railroad"--and established a nonsectarian
church, open to all Christians of whatever shade of belief, in
Peterboro. He was an intimate friend of John Brown of Osawatomie,
to whom he gave a farm in Essex County. His total benefactions
probably exceeded $8,000,000.

Utica is situated on ground rising gradually from the river. There are
many fine business and public buildings, especially on Genesee St., the
principal thoroughfare, and the city is known for the number of its
institutions, public and private. It has some fine parks. In the Forest
Hill Cemetery are the graves of Horatio Seymour and Roscoe Conkling.

Horatio Seymour (1810-1886) was a member of the N.Y. Assembly
(1842-1845), Mayor of Utica (1843) and Governor of the State
(1854-1855). In 1854 he vetoed a bill prohibiting intoxicating
liquors in the state. In 1863-1865 he was again governor and
opposed Lincoln's policy in respect to emancipation, military
arrests and conscription. He was nominated as the Democratic
presidential candidate against Grant in 1868, but carried only
eight states. He died at Utica at the home of his sister, who was
the wife of Roscoe Conkling.

Roscoe Conkling (1829-1888) was a lawyer and political leader
who attracted attention in public life because of his keenness
and eloquence in debate, his aggressive leadership, and his
striking personality. He was born in Albany and was admitted to
the bar at Utica in 1850. Having joined the Republican party at
the time of its formation, he served for several years as
representative in Congress, and in 1867 was elected senator from
N.Y. He labored for the impeachment of President Johnson and was
one of the senatorial coterie that influenced Grant. He was
disappointed in his ambition to be nominated for president in
1876, and in 1880 he was one of the leaders