42nd New York State Legislature

42nd New York State Legislature
The Old State Capitol (1879)
Duration: July 1, 1818 – June 30, 1819
President of the State Senate:	Lt. Gov. John Tayler (Dem.-Rep.)
Temporary President of the State Senate:
Speaker of the State Assembly:	Obadiah German (Clint.)
Members:	32 Senators 126 Assemblymen
Senate Majority:	Bucktail plurality
Assembly Majority:	Clintonian plurality
Sessions
1st: January 5 – April 13, 1819
<41st 43rd>

The 42nd New York State Legislature, consisting of the New York State Senate and the New York State Assembly, met from January 5 to April 13, 1819, during the second year of DeWitt Clinton's governorship, in Albany.

Contents 1 Background 2 Elections 3 Sessions 4 State Senate 4.1 Districts 4.2 Members 4.3 Employees 5 State Assembly 5.1 Districts 5.2 Assemblymen 5.3 Employees 6 Notes 7 Sources

Background

Under the provisions of the New York Constitution of 1777, amended by the Constitutional Convention of 1801, 32 Senators were elected on general tickets in the four senatorial districts for four-year terms. They were divided into four classes, and every year eight Senate seats came up for election. Assemblymen were elected countywide on general tickets to a one-year term, the whole Assembly being renewed annually.

In 1797, Albany was declared the State capital, and all subsequent Legislatures have been meeting there ever since. In 1818, the Legislature enacted that future Legislatures meet on the first Tuesday of January of each year unless called earlier by the governor.^[1]

In 1816, Hamilton County was split from Montgomery County, but both remained together in one Assembly district. Also in 1816, Oswego County was formed from parts of Oneida and Onondaga counties, and Oswego and Oneida remained together in one Assembly district.

In 1818, Joseph Ellicott resigned from the Erie Canal Commission, due to ill health. On June 18, during the recess of the Legislature, Gov. DeWitt Clinton appointed State Senator Ephraim Hart to fill the vacancy temporarily.

At this time the politicians were divided into two opposing political parties: the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans.^[2] The Democratic-Republican Party was split into two factions: the Clintonians (supporters of Gov. DeWitt Clinton and his Erie Canal project) and the Bucktails (led by Att. Gen. Martin Van Buren, and including the Tammany Hall organization in New York City).

Elections

The State election was held from April 28 to 30, 1818. Senators Darius Crosby (Southern D.) and William Ross (Middle D.) were re-elected. Moses Austin (Middle D.), Levi Adams (Eastern D.), Perry G. Childs, David E. Evans (both Western D.), and Assemblymen George Rosecrantz (Eastern D.) and Gamaliel H. Barstow (Western D.) were also elected to the Senate.

Sessions

The Legislature met at the Old State Capitol in Albany on January 5, 1819, and adjourned on April 13.

On January 4, a Democratic-Republican Assembly caucus met to nominate a candidate for Speaker. 75 members attended, including almost all Bucktails elected, but 10 to 15 Clintonians had not arrived yet. William Thompson (Bucktail) received 42 votes, Obadiah German (Clintonian) 33. The Clintonians refused to "make the nomination unanimous", and refused to support Thompson in the Assembly on the next day.

On January 5, the Assembly met and took four ballots for Speaker without anybody receiving a majority, and adjourned.

On January 6, the vote on the fifth ballot stood: German 55, Thompson 38, William A. Duer (Fed.) 20. Then Erastus Root offered a resolution that Thompson be appointed Speaker which was lost with a vote of 41 to 73. Then a resolution was offered that Duer be appointed Speaker which was lost too, with a vote of 31 to 84. Then a resolution was offered that German be appointed Speaker which was adopted with a vote of 67 to 48.

The refusal of the Clintonians to support the caucus nominee for Speaker led to the permanent split of the New York Democratic-Republicans into Clintonians and Bucktails. The last time both factions caucused together was when a candidate for U.S. Senator was to be nominated, and the meeting broke up after much mutual verbal abuse without having had any ballot.^[3] At the same time, the Federalists were split into a Pro-Clinton majority (led by Thomas J. Oakley) and an Anti-Clinton minority (led by William A. Duer).

On February 7, the Legislature failed to elect a successor for U.S. Senator Rufus King (Fed.) and the seat became vacant on March 4. The vote stood: in the Senate, State Senator Samuel Young (Buckt.) 13, Congressman John C. Spencer (Clint.) 10 and the incumbent King 4; in the Assembly, Spencer 51, Young 43 and King 28.

On February 8, Erastus Root (Buckt.) offered a resolution for the call of a State "Convention with unlimited powers to revise, alter or modify the Constitution." After much debate, this resolution was rejected, like a similar one during the previous session, but the issue was pursued further by the Bucktails, and led to the New York State Constitutional Convention of 1821, and a new Constitution.

On March 24, the Legislature rejected the recess appointment of Ephraim Hart (Clint.) as Erie Canal Commissioner, and elected State Senator Henry Seymour (Buckt.) to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Joseph Ellicott. Seymour was chosen by joint ballot of the Legislature with a majority of a single vote. This gave the Bucktails a majority of 3 to 2 in the Commission, and instead of opposing the Canal project itself, the Bucktails now—the construction being well under way—supported it, for both political and financial reasons.

State Senate

Districts

• The Southern District (6 seats) consisted of Dutchess, Kings, New York, Putnam, Queens, Richmond, Rockland, Suffolk and Westchester counties.
• The Middle District (9 seats) consisted of Albany, Chenango, Columbia, Delaware, Greene, Orange, Otsego, Schoharie, Sullivan and Ulster counties.
• The Eastern District (8 seats) consisted of Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Hamilton, Herkimer, Jefferson, Lewis, Montgomery, Rensselaer, St. Lawrence, Saratoga, Schenectady, Warren and Washington counties.
• The Western District (9 seats) consisted of Allegany, Broome, Cattaraugus, Cayuga, Chautauqua, Cortland, Genesee, Madison, Niagara, Oneida, Onondaga, Ontario, Oswego, Seneca, Steuben, Tioga and Tompkins counties.

Note: There are now 62 counties in the State of New York. The counties which are not mentioned in this list had not yet been established, or sufficiently organized, the area being included in one or more of the abovementioned counties.

Members

The asterisk (*) denotes members of the previous Legislature who continued in office as members of this Legislature. George Rosecrantz and Gamaliel H. Barstow changed from the Assembly to the Senate.

District	Senators	Term left	Party	Notes
Southern	Peter R. Livingston*	1 year	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail
	Walter Bowne*	2 years	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail
	John D. Ditmis*	2 years	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail
	Stephen Barnum*	3 years	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail	elected to the Council of Appointment
	Jonathan Dayton*	3 years	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail
	(Darius Crosby*)	4 years	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail	died November 18, 1818, before the Legislature met
Middle	Isaac Ogden*	1 year	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail
	Abraham Van Vechten*	1 year	Federalist
	John Noyes*	2 years	Dem.-Rep./Clintonian
	Peter Swart*	2 years	Dem.-Rep./Clintonian
	Martin Van Buren*	2 years	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail	also New York Attorney General
	Jabez D. Hammond*	3 years	Dem.-Rep./Clintonian
	John Lounsbery*	3 years	Dem.-Rep./Clintonian
	Moses Austin	4 years	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail
	William Ross*	4 years	Dem.-Rep./Clintonian	elected to the Council of Appointment
Eastern	David Allen*	1 year	Federalist
	Henry J. Frey*	1 year	Federalist
	Ralph Hascall*	1 year	Federalist	also D.A. of Essex Co.
	Roger Skinner*	3 years	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail	also U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York
	Henry Yates Jr.*	3 years	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail
	Samuel Young*	3 years	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail	also an Erie Canal Commissioner
	Levi Adams	4 years	Dem.-Rep./Clintonian
	George Rosecrantz*	4 years	Dem.-Rep./Clintonian	elected to the Council of Appointment
Western	Stephen Bates*	1 year	Dem.-Rep./Clintonian	elected to the Council of Appointment
	Henry Seymour*	1 year	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail	from March 24, 1819, also an Erie Canal Commissioner
	Ephraim Hart*	2 years	Dem.-Rep./Clintonian	until March 24, 1819, also an Erie Canal Commissioner
	John Knox*	2 years	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail
	William Mallery*	2 years	Dem.-Rep.
	Isaac Wilson*	3 years	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail
	Gamaliel H. Barstow*	4 years	Dem.-Rep./Clintonian	also First Judge of the Tioga County Court
	Perry G. Childs	4 years	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail[4]
	David E. Evans	4 years	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail

Employees

• Clerk: John F. Bacon

State Assembly

Districts

Note: There are now 62 counties in the State of New York. The counties which are not mentioned in this list had not yet been established, or sufficiently organized, the area being included in one or more of the abovementioned counties.

Assemblymen

The asterisk (*) denotes members of the previous Legislature who continued as members of this Legislature.

District	Assemblymen	Party	Notes
Albany	William A. Duer*	Federalist	leader of the Anti-Clintonian Federalists
	William D. Houghtaling	Federalist
	Cornelius H. Waldron	Federalist
	John Van Ness Yates	Dem.-Rep.	also Secretary of State of New York
Allegany and Steuben	John Dow	Federalist
	James McCall*	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail
Broome	Chester Patterson	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail
Cattaraugus, Chautauqua and Niagara	Philo Orton
	Isaac Phelps*
Cayuga	William Allen
	Elijah Devoe
	Henry Polhemus
Chenango	Obadiah German	Dem.-Rep./Clintonian	elected Speaker
	Thomas Humphrey	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail
	Ebenezer Wakley	Dem.-Rep.
Clinton and Franklin	Ebenezer Brownson
Columbia	Henry Livingston	Federalist
	Jonathan Lapham	Federalist
	Barent Van Buren	Federalist
	Jacob R. Van Rensselaer	Federalist
Cortland	Joseph Reynolds	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail
Delaware	James Ells	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail
	Erastus Root*	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail
Dutchess	John Beadle	Federalist
	James Ketchum	Federalist
	Thomas J. Oakley*	Federalist	leader of the Pro-Clintonian Federalists
	Jesse Thompson	Federalist
	David Tomlinson	Federalist
Essex	John Hoffnagle*	Dem.-Rep./Clintonian
Genesee	Gilbert Howell*	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail
	Abraham Matteson*
	Isaac Sutherland*
Greene	James G. Foster	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail	contested by Platt Adams (Fed.) who withdrew his claim
	Isaac Van Loon	Federalist
Hamilton and Montgomery	Robert Hall
	Jacob Hees	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail
	Aaron Haring	Dem.-Rep.
	Samuel Jackson*	Dem.-Rep.
	Duncan McMartin Jr.	Dem.-Rep./Clintonian
Herkimer	Jonas Cleland	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail
	Nicoll Fosdick*	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail
	Henry Gros	Dem.-Rep.
Jefferson	George Brown Jr.
	John Cowles
Kings	Teunis Schenck	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail
Lewis	Levi Robbins
Madison	Solomon Beebe	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail
	Thomas Greenly*
	Dennis Palmer
New York	Clarkson Crolius*	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail
	Alexander Hamilton	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail
	Richard Hatfield	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail
	Cornelius Heeney*	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail
	Robert R. Hunter*	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail
	John T. Irving	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail
	John J. Morgan	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail
	Samuel B. Romaine	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail
	Peter Sharpe*	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail
	Michael Ulshoeffer*	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail
	Samuel Watkins	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail
Oneida and Oswego	Ezekiel Bacon	Dem.-Rep./Clintonian
	Luther Guiteau
	David P. Hoyt
	George Huntington	Federalist
	Theor Woodruffe*
Onondaga	Henry Case	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail
	Elisha Litchfield	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail
	David Munro*	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail
	Nathan Williams[5]	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail
Ontario	William Billinghurst
	Byram Green
	Eli Hill	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail
	William McCartney
	Elijah Spencer	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail
	John A. Stevens
	Asahel Warner	Dem.-Rep.
Orange	John Blake	Dem.-Rep./Clintonian
	Nathaniel P. Hill	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail
	Hezekiah Moffat	Dem.-Rep.
	Andrew Wilson	Dem.-Rep.
Otsego	John Blakeley	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail
	Seth Chase
	Caleb Eldred	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail
	Thomas Howes	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail
	William Nichols	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail
Putnam	Hart Weed	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail
Queens	Stephen Carman*	Federalist
	John A. King	Federalist
	Daniel Kissam*	Federalist
Rensselaer	George R. Davis	Federalist
	Andrew Finch*	Federalist
	Henry Platt	Federalist
	Daniel Simmons	Federalist
	Stephen Warren	Federalist
Richmond	Harmanus Guyon	Federalist
Rockland	Abraham Gurnee*	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail
St. Lawrence	Joseph York	Dem.-Rep.
Saratoga	Abner Carpenter
	William Hamilton	Federalist
	Joel Keeler
	John Rogers Jr.
Schenectady	James Frost	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail
	Simon A. Groot	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail
Schoharie	Aaron Hubbard
	Jedediah Miller	Dem.-Rep./Clintonian
	Peter Swart Jr.	Dem.-Rep./Clintonian
Seneca	William Thompson*	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail
	Ananias Wells	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail
Suffolk	Isaac Conklin	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail
	John P. Osborn*	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail
	Daniel Youngs	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail
Sullivan and Ulster	Daniel Clark	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail
	John Crispell
	Joseph Deyo	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail
	Elisha Ostrander
Tioga	Henry Wells
Tompkins	Samuel Crittenden*
	John Sutton*
Warren and Washington	William K. Adams
	John Doty
	Norman Fox	Dem.-Rep./Clintonian
	John Gale	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail
	William McFarland
Westchester	William Barker*	Federalist
	James Guyon	Dem.-Rep./Bucktail
	William Requa*	Federalist

Employees

• Clerk: Aaron Clark
• Sergeant-at-Arms: Caleb Benjamin
• Doorkeeper: Benjamin Whipple

Notes

1. ^ Laws of the State of New York (41st Session, 1818; pg. 237
2. ^ The Anti-Federalists called themselves "Republicans." However, at the same time, the Federalists called them "Democrats" which was meant to be pejorative. After some time both terms got more and more confused, and sometimes used together as "Democratic Republicans" which later historians have adopted (with a hyphen) to describe the party from the beginning, to avoid confusion with both the later established and still existing Democratic and Republican parties.
3. ^ see Hammond, pg. 484ff
4. ^ Childs and Evans had been elected as Clintonians, but changed sides soon after taking their seats.
5. ^ Nathan Williams, sometime Postmaster of Manlius

Sources

• The New York Civil List compiled by Franklin Benjamin Hough (Weed, Parsons and Co., 1858) [see pg. 108f for Senate districts; pg. 123 for senators; pg. 148f for Assembly districts; pg. 194f for assemblymen]
• The History of Political Parties in the State of New-York, from the Ratification of the Federal Constitution to 1840 by Jabez D. Hammond (4th ed., Vol. 1, H. & E. Phinney, Cooperstown, 1846; pages 470-502)
• Election result Assembly, Albany Co. at project "A New Nation Votes", compiled by Phil Lampi, hosted by Tufts University Digital Library
• Election result Assembly, Broome Co. at project "A New Nation Votes"
• Partial election result Assembly, Clinton and Franklin Co. at project "A New Nation Votes" [gives only vote of Clinton Co.]
• Election result Assembly, Dutchess Co. at project "A New Nation Votes"
• Partial election result Assembly, Greene Co. at project "A New Nation Votes"
• Election result Assembly, Hamilton and Montgomery Co. at project "A New Nation Votes"
• Election result Assembly, Kings Co. at project "A New Nation Votes"
• Election result Assembly, Onondaga Co. at project "A New Nation Votes" [gives doubtful result, does not mention Williams]
• Election result Assembly, Orange Co. at project "A New Nation Votes"
• Election result Assembly, Richmond Co. at project "A New Nation Votes"
• Election result Assembly, St. Lawrence Co. at project "A New Nation Votes"
• Election result Assembly, Schenectady Co. at project "A New Nation Votes"
• Election result Assembly, Suffolk Co. at project "A New Nation Votes"
• Election result Assembly, Tompkins Co. at project "A New Nation Votes"
• Election result Assembly, Westchester Co. at project "A New Nation Votes"
• Partial election result Senate, Southern D. at project "A New Nation Votes" [gives only votes from Dutchess, Kings, Putnam, Richmond, Suffolk and Westchester Co.]
• Partial election result Senate, Middle D. at project "A New Nation Votes" [gives only votes from Albany, Greene and Orange Co.]
• Partial election result Senate, Eastern D. at project "A New Nation Votes" [gives only votes from St. Lawrence Co.]
• Partial election result Senate, Western D. at project "A New Nation Votes" [gives only votes of Broome, Onondaga and Tompkins Co.]
• Election result, Speaker at project "A New Nation Votes"
• Election result, Council of Appointment at project "A New Nation Votes"
• Election result, U.S. Senator at project "A New Nation Votes"

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