A county judge, a campaign attack and a con artist

This gift to a sitting judge did not appear to raise any red flags from 19th century ethics watchdogs.

“County Judge Whitman returned yesterday from Whitehall with a nice mess of frogs’ legs, which were presented him,” The Washington County Advertiser reported on June 15, 1887.

Later in the year, however, as Whitman, a Democrat from Sandy Hill, was running for election to the seat he had been appointed to near the end of 1886, The Granville Sentinel, a staunchly Republican newspaper, accused Whitman of corruption, alleging he had conducted a “midnight naturalization mill” to curry political favor.

It is not clear if the allegation was true or if it was a case of partisan mudslinging, which was as common in that era as it is today. A recent search of several historical newspaper archives did not turn up any reporting on the incident other than an unsigned letter to the editor of The Troy Press that made the same claim the Sentinel had.

The Sentinel alleged that late on a Thursday night, Whitman had visited Granville and signed naturalization papers for about 30 individuals — with the stipulation that they vote the Democratic line in November.

Granville in that era was a magnet for immigrants, especially from Wales, who came to work in local slate quarries.

The Sentinel claimed that, rather than providing citizenship papers directly to the immigrants, those organizing the event placed the papers in the care of a Democratic operative until after the election.

“What damnable outrage and political manipulation; what tyranny is this,” the Sentinel wrote. “Just to become a citizen of the United States, a man is forced to support a certain political ticket!”

The Sentinel suggested that such shenanigans did not fit with Whitman’s character.
“Mr. Whitman is a brilliant lawyer, a popular gentleman,” the paper wrote. “None questions his fitness for the office he holds and to which he aspires.”

Indeed, Whitman had a reputation as a great orator who handed out firm but fair sentences.
“He has made many friends during his short stay in Troy,” The Troy Times wrote when Whitman handled some cases in Rensselaer County Court in March 1887. “He has dispatched the business of the court with promptness. … Judge Whitman has punctuated the evil career of Frank, alias ‘Spot,’ Cavenaugh by sending him to Dannemora for three years on a plea of guilty of maiming.”

Whitman also gave a stern lecture to a “number of prominent men” from Sandy Hill who pleaded guilty to disrupting a Salvation Army meeting, The Argus of Albany reported on Feb. 23, 1887.
Whitman fined the leader of the group $25 — the equivalent of about $800 today — and the rest of the men $10 each, with each man jailed until his fine was paid.

“The court desires to impress on your minds the fact that, according to the Constitution and the laws of your country, every one has a right to worship according to the dictates of his own heart,” Whitman said. “Any religious body has a right to worship as they please, whether with the use of chorus music and elaborate ceremonies or, if they see fit, with the drum and fife.”

Whitman graduated Albany Law School in 1872, and moved to Washington County to set up his practice. He quickly earned a reputation as a skilled criminal defense lawyer.

“Once or twice, he has been the Democratic candidate for district attorney, but as Democrats are seldom elected in that county, he failed of election,” The Troy Times reported in an article republished March 23, 1887 in the Washington County Advertiser.

Gov. David Hill, a Democrat, appointed Whitman judge in November 1886 after the death of Judge Royal C. Betts, a Republican.

Not surprisingly, given the Republican enrollment advantage in Washington County, Whitman lost the 1887 election to Republican Thomas A. Lillie. Lillie won by a plurality of either 1,500 or 500 votes, depending on which news reports are accurate.

In January 1888, Whitman became a partner in a prominent law firm in Troy.
He continued to be known by the honorary title of “Judge,” as is seen in this humorous anecdote a few years later.

“A good story is told at the expense of Judge Whitman,” The Morning Star of Glens Falls reported on Dec. 8, 1890.

Whitman had struck up a brief conversation with Warden Fuller of the Dannemora prison as Whitman was boarding a southbound train at Fort Edward.

“Shortly after, a well-dressed young man walked up to where the judge was sitting,” the Star recounted. “’You are Judge Whitman, are you not? … I have often heard my friend Warden Fuller speak of you.’”

The two men chatted cordially and had lunch together during a layover at Albany.
When they boarded a train to continue on to New York City, “presently Warden Fuller, who perchance, was also going to the metropolis, came into the car where the ex-Washington County judge was earnestly engaged in conversation with the smooth-tongued, newfound friend.”
Fuller took Whitman aside and warned him that the man who’d befriended him was a confidence man who had just been released from Dannemora that morning.

“The judge said naught to this, but the expression on his face spoke volumes. He went back to where the ex-convict sat, gave him a lecture on moral ethics, and then sought other companionship.”
Whitman died in 1904.

Maury Thompson was a reporter for The Post-Star of Glens Falls for 21 years before retiring in 2017. He now is a freelance writer focusing on the history of politics, labor and media in the region.