It Happened Here -- A Man of "Public Usefulness"

 and "Private Worth"

The headstone of Jedediah Peck displays the epitaph, "The annals of the State bear record of his public usefulness, and the recollection of virtues bear testimony of his private worth."

Jedediah Peck was born on a family farm in 1748 in Lyme Connecticut and learned to read and write from his mother and during brief attendance to a local common school when he was a child. He went to sea in his late teens or early twenties, returning in 1771 to discover both parents and two brothers and a sister had died in his absence.   Deeply depressed, Peck threw himself into the study and memorization of large parts of the bible, becoming an eloquent, if unpolished, writer, orator, and unaffiliated evangelical preacher. He enlisting for four years in the Continental Army, and in 1790 he moved to Burlington, New York, in Otsego County.  Peck's outspokenness  soon brought him to the attention of Judge William Cooper, founder of Cooperstown and a major landowner/developer in Otsego. Peck became the first Town Supervisor of Burlington and soon after, Cooper supported his appointment as an associate Judge in the Court of Common Pleas of Otsego County.  (In the early days of the Republic, formal legal training counted for less than confidence that the men who were candidates for judge-ships possessed good morals, intelligence, and abundant common sense.)

NYS 80, west of Salamacha Rd., Burlington

While the American Revolution had been a triumph for democracy, the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation pointed to the need for greater centralization and power in a national government that would be outlined by the Constitution. Those supporting this movement became known as Federalists. Both Cooper and Peck saw themselves as Federalists, but over time, this would change for Peck.

A continuing  legacy of British rule was the notion that the higher offices of government should be dominated by "gentlemen," men of "good breeding" whose manners, successful accumulation of wealth,  formal educations, and connections to other "gentlemen" would guarantee they would be good and judicious rulers. The common man's roll in this was to choose between "gentlemen", then defer to their "superior judgment" once they were in office.  Federalists, by in large, supported this contention, and some federalists, like William Cooper struggled mightily to aspire to the ranks of "gentlemen."

Between River & Prospect Sts., Rte 20, Richfield Sprs.*

Elected to the State Assembly in 1798, Peck found himself at increasing odds with the Federalists and his mentor, William Cooper. As attacks from the "gentleman" legislators, who looked down Peck as a common man, (small farmer, carpenter, surveyor, millwright and preacher) multiplied, Peck increasingly cast himself as the friend of the common man. Unlike his gentlemanly enemies who pretended to be aloof from the "degrading business" of electioneering, Peck actively campaigned for public office. Instead of campaigning through a host of surrogates, Peck campaigned in person and door to door--activities that dovetailed nicely with his profession/calling as an evangelical preacher.  Instead of promoting himself as an honorable gentleman in whose hands the electorate could responsibly leave matters of governance, Peck advocated specific issues and positions he would promote as a legislator that would favor the farmer and the tradesman.  Instead of writing private letters to surrogates, coyly revealing the gentleman-candidate's character and dispositions, meant to be shared by his surrogates to members of the public,  Peck boldly wrote letters and position papers and published them in local papers. Through them he attempted to portray himself not as a "father" to his constituents as Cooper did, but as a "servant" of the people.  Proudly acknowledging his roots, he signed many of them, "the Plough-Jogger.**" Jedediah Peck became one of a new group of politicians, practicing a new kind of politics, that would sweep into power in the 1790's, and become known as the Democratic-Republicans.

In 1798 as the revolutionary government in France became more radical and aggressive toward other nations and it appeared that the United States was drifting into an undeclared war with Jacobin France, the Federalists worried that political dissension would hamper the Country's efforts to defend itself.  Congress passed the Sedition Act of 1798. Following its passage many critical newspapers were forcibly closed and several outspoken critics of the Adams presidency were arrested.  Jedediah Peck reacted by writing and circulating a petition calling for Congress to repeal the law.  Judge Cooper had him arrested under the act and he was brought to to New York City (then capital of N.Y.) for trial. The five day spectacle of this small, humble and aging man being brought in chains for attempting to petition his government helped galvanized opposition to the law and helped sweep Thomas Jefferson into power. Peck was released, and the law was allowed to expire in 1800.

Burgeoning success!  Rte 443, Berne at High School

Peck was a member of the New York assembly from 1798 to 1804 and the New York State Senate from 1804 to 1808. He sponsored bills to divide the state into election districts to facilitate the election of state Senators by the people, rather than by the legislature, and for the popular election of presidential electors. Ahead of their time, the measures died in the Senate. Another bill to do away with debtors prison for those who fell behind in their debts, except in cases of fraud was successful. But Peck's most important legacy was legislation that established the common school system. Peck declared-- 'Knowledge in the people is absolutely necessary to support Representative Government, but ignorance in them overthrows it.'  Putting forth unsuccessful bills in 1800, 1803 and 1804 it would not be until 1811, after Peck retired, that Governor Daniel Tompkins asked the Burlington farmer to head a commission to draft a law to facilitate public education. The Public Education Act of 1812 divided each township in New York into school districts and established a public fund to support each school district based on population, requiring local governments to match state monies. Local school boards would hire teachers and create facilities. It became his proudest achievement.  A year and a half before he died, the 72 year old "Plough-jogger" asked a new friend, and up-and-coming politician, Martin Van Buren, about the health of his state education fund and it effectiveness.

*This NYSHM paraphrases a quote of Levi Beardsley, Reminiscences; Personal and other Incidents; Early Settlement of Otsego County. (New York, 1852)
**A plough-jogger was a farmer who walked behind his plow, wrestling it to the left or right to avoid rocks and to keep it plowing a straight furrow.

Sources: Taylor, Alan.  William Cooper's Town:  Power and Persuasion on the Frontier of the Early American Republic.
                         New York, 1995
               Wilder, Throop.  "Jedidiah Peck, Statesman, Soldier, Preacher." New York History,  vol. 22, no. 3, July 1941. 
                         pp. 290-300.

Marker of the Week --   Dependent on the Kindness of Strangers  

Many, if not most NYSHMs were erected 40 to 80+ years ago so many, if not all, the people who researched them, planned them, fund raised and erected them have passed on or at least are no longer active members of their communities, so when an accident or act of vandalism happens to these markers there is often no ready community to see that they are replaced/restored. Instead, they are dependent on the "kindness of strangers." Recently (7/28/16)  I passed the Leesville NYSHM whose picture I had taken on 7 /27/13.  Sadly,  it had suffered the fate of so many other NYSHMs. Hopefully it will find a community of strangers willing and able to restore it.