Thurlow Weed signs Buffalo and State Line Rail Road Co. - Stock Certificate

Stock issued to and signed on back by Thurlow Weed. Very Rare!

Thurlow Weed (1797-1882) A New York political boss. While he never held national office himself, he was the principal political advisor to the prominent New York politician William H. Seward and was instrumental in the presidential nominations of William Henry Harrison (1840), Henry Clay (1844), Zachary Taylor (1848), Winfield Scott (1852), John Charles Frémont (1856) and Abraham Lincoln (1860).

Weed was a vocal member of the Anti-Masonic movement. In 1825, he bought the Rochester Telegraph, but was forced out in 1828 by Masonic interests. Subsequently, he founded the Antimasonic Enquirer, which became the voice of the Antimasonic movement in New York. That year, Weed again supported John Quincy Adams and worked to align the strong anti-Masonic movement in New York with the national Adams organization. Adams' political supporters were key players in the development of the Whig Party, and that party soon absorbed the Anti-masonic movement in New York, giving Weed a new home in a more mainstream and larger political organization.

Weed skilfully blamed the Panic of 1837 on Martin van Buren and the Democrats, and in 1838, he pushed his friend and fellow Whig Seward for the governor's race, and was largely credited with Seward's victory. Seward thus owed Weed favors throughout his governorship, which only increased Weed's power in the state. Weed then put the power of the New York Whig party behind William Henry Harrison's presidential bid in 1840. By this time, Weed had the power to bend the Whig party to his will.

Weed was disappointed in John Tyler's actions as president after the death of Harrison, and throughout much of the 1840s felt stymied in his attempts to bend national politics to his will. After the Mexican-American War, however, Weed became enamored with Zachary Taylor and supported his successful bid for the White House. Once again, however, a Whig general proved unable to survive a presidential term and the presidency of Millard Fillmore and passage of the Compromise of 1850 convinced him that the Whig party was on its last legs. In 1852, he took an extended trip to Europe, visiting England, France, and Germany among other places and remaining abroad for over a year.

In 1863, Weed came out against the Emancipation Proclamation on the grounds that emancipation should be more gradual. He soon lost favor with the administration. Then he threw in with Andrew Johnson and his Reconstruction policies, which essentially ended Weed's political career in the Republican Party. He retired from public life not long after the Civil War and moved to New York City in 1867. There he briefly edited a newspaper, but while he remained engaged in politics he never sought or held another office and never exerted the sort of influence he had had in the past. He died in New York in 1882.

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