274 



HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY, NEW YORK. 



that unless he acted diiferently at Baltimore, he knew the 

 consequences." 



Mr. Walker responded that he " satisfied his constitu- 

 ents, if not the President, and to them alone held himself 

 responsible." 



He went to Baltimore and stood by his friends and by the 

 Democratic organization. He was almost immediately re- 

 moA^ed. 



The Democratic party of the then Twenty-seventh Con- 

 gressional District (Steuben and Livingston Counties) nomi- 

 nated him their candidate for Congress in that campaign. 

 The district being overwhelmingly Republican, there was 

 no chance for his election ; yet he ran far ahead of his ticket, 

 notwithstanding the opposition of the administration, who 

 sought to punish him for his course at Charleston and 

 Baltimore. 



It is a significant fact that, although a postmaster, he was 

 then arrayed against the Federal office-holders. He stood 

 boldly for the rights of the people, and denounced the arro- 

 gance of the administration which sought to enforce ob- 

 noxious measures and defeat the will of the people through 

 corrupt means. The following extract from an address to 

 his constituents, shortly after the nomination of Stephen 

 A. Douglas, will better explain the principles he advocated : 



" There is a principle pervading the entire Union that 

 the people ought to be and are the depository of power, and 

 that they are vested with the right, subject only to the 

 Constitution, to determine for themselves and to provide by 

 legislation, without foreign interference, what they may need 

 or want." 



He was also a delegate to the National Democratic Con- 

 vention of 1 872, and was active in support of the principles 

 of the Cincinnati platform, and the nomination of Horace 

 Greeley, of whose talents and integrity he was an ardent 

 admirer. 



In April, 1861, at the breaking out of the Rebellion, 

 Gov. Morgan appointed him assistant quartermaster-gen- 

 eral, with rank as colonel, and he was detailed to the ren- 

 dezvous at Elmira. In two weeks he provided quarters for 

 fifteen thousand soldiers. His energy and efficiency in this 

 work called forth special commendation from the Governor 

 and high praise from the United States officers. His stay 

 at Charleston during the convention of the previous year 

 had given him an opportunity of judging of the people who 

 had appealed to the " arbitrament of the sword," and he 

 constantly urged the most vigorous prosecution of the war. 

 In 1861, at the meeting of the Democratic State Committee, 

 he was the only one who urged the policy of a Union ticket, 

 for he realized what the war was, and was anxious to show 

 the South an undivided North. 



When, in 1862, the President issued his call for three 

 hundred thousand more. Col. Walker was appointed a mem- 

 ber of the War Committee by Gov Morgan, giving his time, 

 money, and best energies to fill the call, and it was largely 

 due to his efforts that Col. Van Yalkenburgh and Lieut.- 

 Col. Diven marched into Washington with the first regiment 

 raised under that call. In all the stirring incidents of the 

 Rebellion, Col. Walker was found side by side with the 

 most patriotic, aiding the needy families of the soldiers, and 

 those who became the sole support of aged parents. 



In politics, he early imbibed those principles which had 

 for their advocates such statesmen as Michael Hoffman, Silas 

 Wright, W. L. Marcy, and Horatio Seymour. His ardent 

 nature made him an effective worker as well as a wise coun- 

 sellor. For the last twenty years he has served his party as 

 a member of the State committee with rare fidelity and gen- 

 eral acceptance. 



In 1858 he was chosen supervisor of Corning, against 

 great odds, but his numerous cares compelled him to refuse 

 a re-election. 



In 1870, Governor Hoffman appointed him a member of 

 the first commission for the Elmira Reformatory. He was 

 chosen chairman, and devoted much time and study in de- 

 veloping the policy finally adopted for that institution, and 

 to perfecting building plans as well as the erection of the 

 buildings. He continued a member of the commission 

 until the Legislature changed the management of the Re- 

 formatory to favor party friends. 



He represented the Twenth-ninth Congressional District 

 in the Forty-fourth Congress of the United States, and at 

 the time of election, although his party was in the minority 

 of from four to five thousand, he received a majority of 

 some three thousand ; and in his own town, of a poll of 

 seventeen hundred, his majority was some nine hundred 

 and eighty. He served on the committee on the Post-office 

 and Post-roads, also that on Expenditures in the Post-office 

 Department. 



His course in Congress was marked by a close and intel- 

 ligent attention to his duties ; his decisive and complete 

 defense of the military rendezvous at Elmira against 

 charges of neglect and cruelty ; and for his effective sup- 

 port of all measures for the welfare of the country, also 

 measures for the relief of the soldiers and others whom the 

 Federal government was in duty bound to protect. His 

 record in that memorable Congress reflected alike honor to 

 himself and credit to his district. The approval was gen- 

 eral, and the expression for his re-election so universal that 

 a public declination was deemed necessary, in which he re- 

 iterated his feelings of two years before, intensified by an 

 experience of two years, "that he much preferred the 

 pleasures of home and its associations to any honors which 

 a possible election might bring him." 



His whole career has been marked by his strong sym- 

 pathy with the agricultural and mechanical interests. 

 Farmers, manufacturers, lumbermen, mechanics, and labor- 

 ing men, by the hundreds, can testify to the timely aid 

 given in the past. 



In the year 1854, March 2, he married Maria D., 

 daughter of Edward S. and Maria Townsend, of Palmyra, 

 N. Y. Her father was a native of Palmyra, and her 

 grandfather. Rev. Jesse Townsend, was a Presbyterian 

 minister, and among the early settlers of that place. 



Their children are Alvah (deceased), Mrs. James A. 

 Drake, of Corning, Charles E., Hattie E., and Edwin S. 



Col. Walker, with his family, spends much of his time 

 durini^ the summer months at his beautiful farm residence , 

 at Palmyra, to which he intends to retire when he with- 

 draws from active business. 



At present the firm of Walker & Lathrop is extensively 

 engaged in the lumber, manufacturing, and hardware busi- 



