Program

NYS Historic

Subject

People, Site

Location

2038 New Scotland Rd, Slingerlands, NY 12159, USA

Lat/Long

42.630965, -73.907987

Grant Recipient

New Scotland Historical Association

Born in New Scotland on March 29^th, 1807, Samuel Dickson would spend much of his life in the community where he was born, working there as a physician before a brief foray into politics following the Kansas-Nebraska Act, when he was elected to the 34^th Congress.

According to a biographical sketch published in the 1864 “Annals of the Medical Society of the County of Albany: 1806 – 1852” written by Sylvester D. Willard, Dickson, at the age of sixteen, entered the junior class of Union College, where he graduated from in 1825. Following this, he continued the study of medicine until receiving his diploma from the Censors of Medical Society of the State of New York in 1829, after which, he returned to New Scotland to open a practice.

Towards the end of his life, a seismic change to the geo-political landscape of the United States resulted in Dickson running for congress; that being the 1854 “Nebraska Bill.” The Kansas-Nebraska Act, as it has since been referred to, contradicted the Missouri Compromise, allowing the two new territories to vote as to whether they’d allow slavery. The aftermath saw increased tensions between northern and southern states, “Bleeding Kansas” and political unrest, in many ways setting the stage for the Civil War.

The backlash was immediate. Those against the expansion of slavery viewed it as an attempt to extend the institution westward. Included in this uproar was Dickson, who not long after it passed began his campaign for Congress, referring to the Kansas-Nebraska Act as the “Nebraska Swindle” in ads. Dickson’s campaign proved successful, and he was elected to serve as a congressman from 1855 – 1857.

His tenure in congress occurred amidst a political vacuum, as the Whig Party collapsed—largely due to the Nebraska-Kansas act which drove a wedge in the party—and the formation of the Republican Party. Historians place Dickson in the “Opposition Party,” which formed briefly amidst this uncertainty and consisted of several interests organized loosely, yet unified against the expansion of slavery.

Sadly, Dickson’s stint in politics was short. Following a fall, his health worsened, and, after returning to New Scotland and his medical practice, he succumbed to the injury passing away in May 1858 at the age of 51.

The Physician and Congressman is interred in the New Scotland Presbyterian Church Cemetery.