Edward Thurlow Weed (November 15, 1797 – November 22, 1882) was an American printer, newspaper publisher, and Whig and Republican politician. He was the principal political advisor to prominent New York politician William H. Seward and was instrumental in the presidential nominations of William Henry Harrison (1840), Zachary Taylor (1848), and John C. Frémont (1856).
Born in Cairo, New York, Weed apprenticed as a printer under William Williams and served with him in the War of 1812 before winning election to the New York State Assembly. He met Seward in the assembly, and they formed a close political alliance that lasted for several decades. Weed and Seward became leaders of the New York Anti-Masonic Party, and Weed established the Albany Evening Journal as the party's main newspaper. Weed supported the American System of Henry Clay and helped establish the Whig Party in the 1830s. He helped Seward win election as Governor of New York and supported the successful presidential candidacies of Harrison and Taylor.
Weed led New York's Whigs for much of the 1830s and 1840s but abandoned the party following the passage of the Kansas–Nebraska Act. He helped organize the Republican Party and supported Frémont's nomination at the 1856 Republican National Convention. He led the effort to nominate Seward at the 1860 Republican National Convention, but the convention nominated Abraham Lincoln. After the Civil War, Weed and Seward allied with President Andrew Johnson and supported Johnson's approach to Reconstruction. Weed retired from public life in 1867 and died in 1882.
Early life Edward Thurlow Weed was born on November 15, 1797, in the hamlet of Acra, part of the town of Cairo in Greene County, New York. His father, Joel Weed (1773–1819) and mother Mary (Ellis) Weed (1771–1841) were Connecticut natives who moved to New York to farm, and Weed was the eldest of five siblings, three brothers and two sisters. Neither of his sisters reached adulthood. His brother Orrin was apprenticed to a New York City shipbuilder, Henry Eckford, and died in 1823 during a yellow fever epidemic. His brother Osborn moved to Tennessee, where he was a successful merchant and hotelier before he died in 1851. Weed was christened Edward Thurlow Weed, named for a presumed family connection to Edward Thurlow, England's Lord Chancellor. As a boy, Weed dropped his first name; as an adult, he attempted to document the family connection during a visit to England, but was unsuccessful.
Weed's father later moved the family to the village of Catskill where he operated a business hauling freight by wagon from the Hudson River docks. Joel Weed's business suffered reverses because of his ill health, the sickness of his horses, accidents, and occasional non-payment by his customers, so his family struggled financially. Joel Weed was eventually sentenced to debtors' prison, but friends and customers signed bonds on his behalf. These guarantees permitted him to take advantage of the freedom of the prison, which allowed debtors to travel within permitted limits to earn money to satisfy their obligations, and to spend Sundays with their families. Thurlow Weed received about a year of formal education in Catskill before beginning to work so he could help support his family. At age eight, he was hired to operate a blacksmith's bellows for six cents a day. He later worked as an errand boy at a Catskill tavern and hotel, then at a print shop, after which he spent much of his youth working as a cabin boy on boats that traveled the Hudson River.
In 1808, Joel Weed's family moved to Cincinnatus, New York, where he worked as a woodcutter, maple syrup maker, and farm laborer with Thurlow's assistance. While living in Cincinnatus, Weed attended a local school for a brief period before the family moved again, this time to Onondaga. In both Cincinnatus and Onondaga, Weed worked to improve on his formal education by diligent self-study, sometimes walking several miles to visit neighbors who would allow him to borrow books. In Onondaga, Joel Weed earned a living by cutting wood for a potash maker, again with his son's aid. Thurlow Weed later worked at an Onondaga iron forge, where his task was to temper the sand used in casting and molding. During a period when the forge was not in operation, Weed obtained a position as a groomsman and gardener for the Onondaga County Clerk, which included his room and board, as well as the promise of additional schooling. For several months, Weed was able to attend a private academy run by the Reverend Caleb Alexander. When the forge resumed operations, Weed returned to his position there.
Start of career Printer Weed learned in 1810 that Thomas Chittenden Fay intended to start a newspaper in Onondaga, the Lynx. Having decided on a career in printing and publishing, Weed and his father convinced Fay to take Weed on as a second apprentice. His first tasks included cutting wood and stoking fires, as well as preparing the sheepskins used in making ink balls. Weed soon began to take on additional responsibilities, including building and maintaining files of newspapers with which the Lynx exchanged stories, which enabled Fay to develop a network of affiliated newspapers. In 1812, Fay left the newspaper after a dispute with his creditors; Weed printed a handful of issues to publish advertisements that had already been paid for, after which the Lynx became defunct. He then moved to Scipio, where he worked briefly on another newspaper, the Tocsin, before it too went out of business. Weed then returned to the forge in Onondaga, the owner of which had received a contract to produce round shot iron cannonballs for use by U.S. forces during the War of 1812. After earning enough money to resume searching for work as a printer, Weed traveled to Utica, where he was employed in the printing shop of Seward & Williams.
Military service In February 1813, Weed was working for and residing in the home of William Williams in Utica, New York. During the War of 1812, he joined a volunteer militia company that Williams commanded as a captain, which responded to threat of a British invasion from Canada, and briefly served near Sackets Harbor. The alarm soon passed, and Weed returned to Utica, where he began work on the Columbian Gazette, a newspaper published by Thomas Walker. When the militia again called for recruits to respond to the threat of an invasion from Canada, Weed obtained Walker's permission to go, and joined a company in the regiment commanded by Elijah H. Metcalf, which performed duty in and around Sackets Harbor.
When the second alarm passed in October 1813, Weed returned to Utica. He soon left for Albany, where he was employed at Webster & Skinner, book publishers and publishers of the Albany Gazette. When his work in Albany ended, Weed lived briefly in Herkimer, then moved to Cooperstown, where he continued to work as a printer. After several months in Cooperstown, he returned to Herkimer to take charge of his former employer's business while the owner traveled to Connecticut to attend a political convention.
In October 1814, Weed again joined the militia and was appointed quartermaster sergeant of the 40th Regiment of the New York State Militia under quartermaster officer George Petrie. Weed's regiment performed duty in Sackets Harbor, and twice successfully paraded to dissuade British commanders on Lake Ontario from landing troops. In January 1815, Weed's regiment was mustered out of the service and he returned to Utica.
Arrest and trial While residing in Cooperstown in July 1814, Weed was one of five men arrested the day after a Sunday evening Methodist religious service and accused of harassing several women who had departed the village by wagon after leaving the church. Newspaper publisher Israel W. Clark posted a bond to secure Weed's release, while attorney Ambrose L. Jordan volunteered to act as his counsel. Unbeknownst to Weed, Catherine Ostrander, the daughter of the owners of the Cooperstown rooming house where Weed had been staying, had arranged for his bail and legal representation.
The trial was postponed several times because of events surrounding the war, and took place in early 1815. District attorney Charles P. Kirkland decided to try Weed first, separately from the other defendants. Three of the girls who had been in the wagon denied seeing Weed after the church service. The fourth was Catherine Ostrander, who testified that after leaving the church, she had walked through the village with Weed until they reached the road that led to her home, where she boarded the wagon, after which she had not seen Weed again that night. Jordan opted not to call any witnesses, while Kirkland apologized for not having investigated the story of the initial complainant more fully and offered to dismiss the case. The judge told Jordan he would dismiss the case unless Weed preferred that the jury decide. Wanting his innocence on the record, Weed opted for a jury verdict, and the jurors immediately acquitted him, not even rising from their seats to leave the courtroom for deliberations. The charges against the other defendants were soon dismissed. Weed included the details of his arrest and trial in his autobiography because his political opponents had previously attempted to use it against him. (Weed and Ostrander married in 1818.)
Continued printing career
After Weed's trial, he again enlisted in the militia, but when news of the passage of the Treaty of Ghent that ended the War of 1812 made its way to central New York, Weed's militia company was disbanded. He then traveled to Albany, where he obtained employment running the printing presses for the Albany Register, which was published by Henry C. Southwick and edited by his brother Solomon Southwick. In 1816, Weed moved to the Albany Argus, published by Jesse Buel, whose lucrative appointment as state printer required him to publish state reports, legislative manuals, and legal notices. The additional responsibility Buel delegated to Weed enabled Weed to more than double his salary, and also kindled an interest in politics, since Weed had to set type for or proofread state documents. Weed began attending sessions of the state legislature, and was an early supporter of DeWitt Clinton.
In early 1817, Weed took advantage of a lull in state printing to travel to New York City, where he obtained employment with the Winkle and Wiley book publishing firm. He then moved to a position with the Political Register, which was published by William Cobbett after Cobbett fled England to avoid prosecution for sedition. After leaving Cobbett, Weed worked for several other publishers in New York City, including Jonathan Seymour, James Harper, and William A. Mercien. During his hours away from work, Weed attended the theater frequently and continued to observe political meetings.
In mid-1817, Israel W. Clark, a Cooperstown newspaper editor, purchased the Albany Register from Henry C. Southwick and offered Weed the job of press foreman, so Weed returned to Albany. In addition to running the presses, Weed began to try his hand at composing editorials on the political topics of the day; under Clark's tutelage, he worked to improve his grammar, spelling, and writing style. Over time, he became adept at composing editorials and articles as he set them in type, rather than first preparing a manuscript, which gave him a competitive advantage by enabling him to publish them more quickly than could rival editors.