Newburgh Heritage

Newburgh, 1866: on the cusp of change

By Mary McTamaney
Posted 2/25/21

One hundred fifty-five years ago this month, in 1866, Newburgh elected its first mayor. His name was George Clark and he was a native son who had trained as a house painter, later expanded his …

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Newburgh Heritage

Newburgh, 1866: on the cusp of change

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One hundred fifty-five years ago this month, in 1866, Newburgh elected its first mayor. His name was George Clark and he was a native son who had trained as a house painter, later expanded his business into New York City, and then was elected to the state Assembly.
At the end of his tenure in Albany, he returned to Newburgh and invested in local businesses. Our city hadn’t been leaderless for the century and a half before George Clark’s election, but it hadn’t been a city with a mayor either. Since 1800, it had been incorporated as a Village within the Township of Newburgh and acted as a busy port for a large town where government and services were integrated.
In 1865, feeling optimistic as the Civil War ended, America set many new priorities for itself. Newburgh village did as well. Its citizens decided to split from the Town of Newburgh and establish a totally separate and self-governing municipality. The voters agreed and set an election date for a new slate of leaders with a mayor replacing the former village president who had led the village in collaboration with the town supervisor.
If I had been asked to guess, I would have thought George Clark was a Republican since I know he supported Abraham Lincoln and he later hosted President Ulysses Grant at his home here in Newburgh in an effort to lobby the federal government for better transportation access for his new city. Yet, local history books reveal that George Clark was a Unionist. Rather like today, there was great political upheaval as a new government was established after years of conflict. America had several political parties in the years leading up to secession and throughout the war as regions aligned with various goals and fears. The National Union Party was one group. The Unionists endorsed President Lincoln in the 1864 election and joined with the Republicans to campaign for his continued presidency. Opposing Lincoln in 1864 was former General George McClellan whom Lincoln had relieved of command of the Union Army. McClellan ran as a Democrat. It is easy to lose track of the many ideologies and political parties that shaped American thought in the 19th century. Democrats were not the same party as Southern Democrats and Republicans were not the same as Radical Republicans.
Newburgh’s George Clark, a former state assemblyman and convention delegate, chose to embrace the platform of the National Union Party and its precepts likely guided his thinking as he convened and presided over Newburgh’s first City Council. A Unionist in Mayor Clark’s time believed:

It is the highest duty of every American to maintain the integrity of the union and the authority of the constitution and laws of the United States. Slavery must be always and everywhere hostile to the principles of justice and national safety. A vigorous and just system of taxation sustains the national goals. The memory of those who have fallen in defense of their country shall be held in grateful and everlasting remembrance and their survivors deserve ample and permanent provision for their welfare. The great duty of the President is to defend the nation against its open and secret foes. Foreign immigration, having added so much to the wealth and development of America, the asylum of the oppressed of all nations should be fostered by a liberal and just policy. The attempts of any European power to overthrow by force or supplant by fraud the institutions of any republican government on the western continent can never be regarded with indifference.
In summary, the National Union Party of 1864 stated this in their platform: “It essential to the general welfare that harmony should prevail in the National Councils, and we regard as worthy of public confidence and official trust those only who cordially endorse the principles proclaimed in these resolutions.”
Mayor George Clark had much more on his mind than our local history books reveal that day in March 1866 when he raised his hand and swore to lead Newburgh into a new era of government. The bumpy road he and all his fellow politicians traveled to reach peace and compromise is a model for the path we find ourselves on in 2021.