VOTE EARLY VOTE OFTEN

    Everybody knows that quote. Who said it? John Van Buren. How do I know that? Because both sides (Osterhout and Jennings) of my family had legal and political dealings with the Van Burens throughout the 19th century in New York State. We nativists are linked through hundreds of years of local history and voter fraud. Every day this becomes more apparent. 

    The more familiar Van Buren would be John's father former U.S. President Martin Van Buren. Well before he was elected President, in 1819 Martin Van Buren, known as the Little Magician, for his ability to pull fat contracts and  political graft out of his hat, was the Attorney General of New York State. Martin is credited with inventing "machine politics" in NY with his powerfully corrupt Albany Regency "Bucktail" Party. When then NY Gov. Dewitt Clinton heard about a murder conspiracy that unfolded just down the road from his family home in Little Britain, Orange County, NY, he assigned the high profile prosecution of the conspirators to AG Van Buren. The murder victim in this case was my mother's ancestor Richard Jennings. Jennings' sister Mary was married to Dr. Samuel Sweezey Seward, a Goshen magistrate and the father of Lincoln's future Secretary of State William Henry Seward. The Sewards (and eventually the Osterhouts) were also entwined for decades with the Van Burens. Digging into history is like trying to unravel a big ball of writhing snakes without being bit. Bear with me. 

    AG Martin Van Buren convicted four men in the conspiracy to murder Richard Jennings in 1819--sentencing them all to hang-- pardoning Hannah Teed, the one woman involved in the plot. Gov. Clinton then spared two of the conspirators, David Conklin and Jack Hodges (a rich white farmer and a black sailor), almost at the gallows steps. The poor farm hand David Dunning and head conspirator, Jennings nephew James Teed, would hang for the crime; while Hodges and Conklin would both serve ten years in prison. Go to www.fancestor.blogspot.com for more details. 

   Twenty-five years later, in the midst of the Rent Wars in upstate NY, Calico Indian insurgents Elias and David Osterhout would also face off with then NY AG John Van Buren in court in Delhi, NY, on charges of murder and kidnapping of Sheriff Osman "lead can't hurt steel" Steele. They would lose. The Osterhouts (along with many others) were convicted and sent off to the brand new state prison at Dannemora, named for the ex governor Dewitt Clinton. When administrations changed once again in Albany the Calico Indians at Dannemoran were all pardoned from Clinton Correctional. That's politics. 

    A few years after the Delhi trials ex NY governor, then a high profile lawyer in private practice, William H. Seward, would also face AG John Van Buren in court in Auburn, NY, in the case of the People vs. William Freeman. His client, the mixed race (indigenous and black) Freeman, who had been wrongly convicted of horse thievery, tortured and abused during his time in the State Prison at Auburn, had viciously murdered the white Van Nest family just after his release. Seward's defense was revolutionary- not guilty by reason of insanity. The man who years later would be stabbed and almost killed the same night President Lincoln was assassinated, in another murder conspiracy, would put the NY prison system on trial, arguing that the state had turned young William Freeman into a senseless killer. Defeating AG Van Buren, Seward would be rewarded with a hung jury. Never exonerated or freed, Bill Freeman died in the Auburn jail (from head injuries sustained in prison) before he could be retried. After surviving his own assassination attempt and buying Alaska from the Russians, Henry Seward would die peacefully in bed.

     New York State is a microcosm of US politics at large, traditionally crooked and steeped in dirty money. Trump may be voting in Florida now, but he's a quintessential New Yorker- dirty to the core. Like resisting my urge to trespass, now is the time to play by the rules. I shot my first legal bow buck years ago on election day. I feel lucky. That's my plan for this year- get up early and vote only once in Woodridge on Nov. 3. By then the brewing rut should be heating up, so I'll hunt the rest of the day, secure that I'm obeying ALL the laws. If there's any MAGA poll watchers watching my pole, step aside. Democracy is at stake.