ARCE: Albany Rural Cemetery Explorer

William L. Marcy (1786-1857) [Section 62 Lot 94]

11th Governor of New York, namesake to Mt. Marcy, U.S. Secretary of State, 20th Secretary of War, NYS Comptroller, U.S. Senator from New York, Associate Justice on NYS Supreme Court, a founder and board member of Albany Rural Cemetery, Key negotiator for the Canadian-American Reciprocity Treaty, and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, namesake for the Marcy Note

William Learned Marcy was born on December 12, 1786, to Jedidiah Marcy and Ruth Learned in Sturbridge, Massachusetts. He attended Brown University, graduating in 1808. After teaching in Dedham, MA and later Newport, RI, he moved to Troy, NY where he studied law. He was admitted to the New York Bar in 1811 and began his law practice.

During the War of 1812, he served as a Second Lieutenant, or Ensign, with the 155th New York Regiment. He later became a captain of volunteers and was part of the storming of the British post at St. Regis, Canada on October 22, 1812.

After the war, Marcy works for the City of Troy as a recorder but was removed in 1818 by political opponents. Marcy was part of the Bucktails, the Anti-Clinton faction of the Democratic-Republican Party.

On May 15, 1824, he married Cornelia Knower, the eldest daughter of Benjamin Knower, third president for of the Mechanics and Farmers’ Bank in Albany, and Secretary of the Treasury of New York. The Village of Altamont was once known as the Village of Knower in his honor. Their family home still stands on Route 146 in Guilderland Center. Together they had three children; Samuel, Edmund, and Cornelia.

Before their marriage, Marcy became active in politics becoming a part of the Albany Regency, a group of Anti-Clintonian lead by Martin Van Buren. From 1821 – 1823 Marcy became Adjutant General of New York, from 1823 – 1829 he served as the New York State Comptroller, and from 1829 – 1831 he served as an associate justice on the New York Supreme Court.

In 1831 Marcy was elected U.S. Senator from New York by the state legislature but resigned on January 1, 1833. The prior year he ran for governor and won, assuming office in January of 1833. He served as governor until 1838. During Marcy’s tenure as governor he authorized the survey that explored and recorded the High Peaks region of the Adirondacks. This survey gave us the current name for the highest peak in New York; Mt. Marcy.

From 1839 - 1842, Marcy was appointed by President Martin Van Buren as a member of the Mexican Claims Commission, which investigated claims of U.S. citizens against Mexico. From 1845 – 1849 he served as U.S. Secretary of War, a cabinet position of President James Polk. As the Mexican American War he helped end the war by negotiating the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848. The Treaty gave the Rio Grande the boundary of Texas and U.S. ownership of present-day California, Nevada, Utah, and portions of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Wyoming.

He returned to public life for a couple of years, but in 1853 President Franklin Piece appointed him U.S. Secretary of State. During his time he negotiated 24 treaties, including the 1853 Gadsen Purchase, a tract of land in what would later become southern Arizona and New Mexico. The tract purchased also made possible a southern transcontinental railroad. He also was a key negotiator with the United Kingdom in the Canadian-American Reciprocity Treaty, which moved to a free trade agreement between Canada and the United States.

Marcy stayed on as Secretary of State until Pierce’s term ended in March of 1857. Marcy died away a few months later on July 4 in Ballston Spa at the age of 70. He is buried in Albany Rural Cemetery. He served as a founder and board member, selling some of the lands of his father-in-law’s estate to the cemetery. The monument is designed by Erastus Dow Palmer and sits on the site of the old estate where Marcy is said to enjoy views of the Hudson River.

In 1891 the Marcy was put on be the face of a $1,000 Silver Certificate, known as the Marcy note. Only 8,000 were issued, today it has been referred to as a unicorn only a few are known to exist. One is in the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, one is in the National Numismatic Collection at the Smithsonian Institution, and one is in private collection. In 2013 it was sold for $2.6 million, the world record for the highest price ever paid for a paper bill. It went to auction in February of 2019 at Stack’s Bowers Gallery in Baltimore was estimated to fetch $3 million.