16th New York State Legislature

16th New York State Legislature
← 15th 17th →
The Old New York City Hall, where the Legislature met in 1784. From January 1785 to August 1790, the Congress of the Confederation and the 1st United States Congress met here, and the building was renamed Federal Hall. From 1791 to 1793, the State Legislature met again here, and the building was demolished in 1812. (1798)
Overview
Legislative body	New York State Legislature
Jurisdiction	New York, United States
Term	July 1, 1792 – June 30, 1793
Senate
Members	24
President	Lt. Gov. Pierre Van Cortlandt
Party control	Democratic-Republican (13-11)
Assembly
Members	70
Speaker	John Watts (Fed.)
Party control	Democratic-Republican
Sessions
1st November 6, 1792 – March 12, 1793

The 16th New York State Legislature, consisting of the New York State Senate and the New York State Assembly, met from November 6, 1792, to March 12, 1793, during the sixteenth year of George Clinton's governorship, in New York City.

Background

Under the provisions of the New York Constitution of 1777, the state senators were elected on general tickets in the senatorial districts, and were then divided into four classes. Six senators each drew lots for a term of 1, 2, 3 or 4 years and, beginning at the election in April 1778, every year six Senate seats came up for election to a four-year term. Assemblymen were elected countywide on general tickets to a one-year term, the whole assembly being renewed annually.

In March 1786, the legislature enacted that future legislatures meet on the first Tuesday of January of each year unless called earlier by the governor. No general meeting place was determined, leaving it to each Legislature to name the place where to reconvene, and if no place could be agreed upon, the legislature should meet again where it adjourned.

On February 7, 1791, the Legislature re-apportioned the Senate and Assembly districts, according to the figures of the 1790 United States Census.

State Senator Peter Schuyler died on January 4, 1792, leaving a vacancy in the Western District.

At this time the politicians were divided into two opposing political parties: the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans. ^[1] Since the first appearance of the political parties, many politicians changed sides for a variety of reasons, but the highly controversial gubernatorial election of 1792 re-aligned the politicians more clearly.

Elections

The State election was held from April 24 to 26, 1792. Gov. George Clinton and Lt. Gov. Pierre Van Cortlandt were re-elected to a sixth term after the Canvass Committee ^[2] rejected the votes of Otsego, Clinton and Tioga counties on technicalities.

Henry Cruger, John Schenck, Selah Strong (all three Southern D.), John Livingston, Robert Woodworth (both Eastern D.) and Assemblyman Joseph Hasbrouck (Middle D.) were elected to full terms in the Senate. Assemblyman John Frey was elected to fill the vacancy in the Western District.

Sessions

This time, the legislature was called to meet early to elect presidential electors. Both Houses met at Federal Hall in New York City; assembled a quorum on November 6, 1792; and adjourned on March 12, 1793.

On November 20, 1792, the legislature chose 12 presidential electors: William Floyd, Samuel Osgood, Edward Savage, Stephen Ward, John Bay, Jesse Woodhull, David Van Ness, Johannes Bruyn, Volkert Veeder, Abraham Yates Jr., Samuel Clark and Abraham Ten Eyck. All were Democratic-Republicans, elected on the first ballot in both Houses, and all cast their votes for George Washington and Gov. George Clinton. ^[3]

After the 1790 United States Census, Congress re-apportioned the seats, increasing New York's representation from 6 to 10 seats. This required the legislature to re-apportion the congressional districts in the State what was belatedly done on December 18, 1792. Subsequently, the congressional elections were held in January 1793.

State Senate

Districts

• The Southern District (8 seats) consisted of Kings, New York, Queens, Richmond, Suffolk and Westchester counties.
• The Middle District (6 seats) consisted of Dutchess, Orange and Ulster counties.
• The Eastern District (5 seats) consisted of Washington, Clinton, Columbia and Rensselaer counties.
• The Western District (5 seats) consisted of Albany, Montgomery, Herkimer, Ontario, Otsego, Saratoga and Tioga 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. Joseph Hasbrouck and John Frey changed from the Assembly to the Senate.

The party affiliations follow the vote on the contested election of John Livingston. The Democratic-Republicans voted to seat Livingston, affirming that the decision of the Canvass Committee was final for both the governor's and the senators' vote. The Federalists voted against this, supporting the claim of Thomas Jenkins, the Federalist candidate who had lost the election after the rejection of the ballots from Clinton County, affirming that under the Constitution it was the right and duty of the Senate to revise the decision of the Canvass Committee concerning the election of senators. ^[4]

District	Senators	Term left	Party	Notes
Southern	Philip Livingston* [5]	1 year	Federalist
	David Gelston*	2 years	Dem.-Rep.	also Surrogate of New York County; elected to the Council of Appointment
	Philip Van Cortlandt*	2 years	Dem.-Rep.	elected in January 1793 to the 3rd United States Congress
	Samuel Jones*	3 years	Federalist	also Recorder of New York City
	Joshua Sands*	3 years	Federalist
	Henry Cruger	4 years	Federalist
	John Schenck	4 years	Dem.-Rep.
	Selah Strong	4 years	Federalist
Middle	John Cantine*	1 year	Dem.-Rep.
	James Carpenter*	1 year	Dem.-Rep.
	David Pye*	2 years	Dem.-Rep.
	Thomas Tillotson*	3 years	Dem.-Rep.
	Jacobus Swartwout*	3 years	Dem.-Rep.
	Joseph Hasbrouck*	4 years	Dem.-Rep.	elected to the Council of Appointment
Eastern	Alexander Webster*	1 year	Dem.-Rep.
	John Williams*	2 years	Dem.-Rep.
	William Powers*	3 years	Federalist
	John Livingston [6]	4 years	Dem.-Rep.
	Robert Woodworth	4 years	Dem.-Rep.	elected to the Council of Appointment
Western	Volkert P. Douw*	1 year	Federalist
	Leonard Gansevoort	1 year	Federalist
	John Frey*	2 years	Federalist	elected to fill vacancy, in place of Peter Schuyler; elected to the Council of Appointment
	Stephen Van Rensselaer*	2 years	Federalist
	Philip Schuyler*	3 years	Federalist

Employees

• Clerk: Abraham B. Bancker

State Assembly

Districts

• The City and County of Albany (7 seats)
• Columbia County (6 seats)
• Dutchess County (7 seats)
• Herkimer County (1 seat)
• Kings County (1 seat)
• Montgomery County) (4 seats)
• The City and County of New York (7 seats)
• Ontario County (1 seat)
• Orange County (3 seats)
• Otsego County (1 seat)
• Queens County (3 seats)
• Rensselaer County (5 seats)
• Richmond County (1 seat)
• Saratoga County (4 seats)
• Suffolk County (4 seats)
• Tioga County (1 seat)
• Ulster County (5 seats)
• Washington and Clinton counties (4 seats)
• Westchester County (5 seats)

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.

County	Assemblymen	Party	Notes
Albany	Leonard Bronck	Federalist
	Johannes Dietz	Federalist
	Jellis A. Fonda*	Federalist
	Stephen Lush*
	Francis Nicoll*	Federalist
	John Ten Broeck*
	Cornelius A. Van Slyck
Columbia	Matthew Adgate	Dem.-Rep.
	Benjamin Birdsall*
	Jared Coffin*
	Philip Frisbee
	Stephen Hogeboom
	Samuel Ten Broeck
Dutchess	Jonathan Akins*	Dem.-Rep.
	Josiah Holly
	James Kent	Federalist
	Ebenezer Mott
	Matthew Patterson*
	Barnabas Payen
	William Radclift
Herkimer	Michael Myers*	Federalist
Kings	Aquila Giles
Montgomery	Jacob Eaker
	David McMasters*
	Silas Talbot*	Federalist	elected in January 1793 to the 3rd United States Congress
	Simon Veeder
New York	William Cock
	John DeLancey
	William W. Gilbert
	Josiah Ogden Hoffman*	Federalist
	William S. Livingston*
	John Watts*	Federalist	re-elected Speaker; elected in January 1793 to the 3rd United States Congress
	John Wylly*
Ontario	Isaac Chapin		or Israel Chapin
Orange	Reuben Hopkins	Dem.-Rep.
	John Smith*
	Daniel Thew
Otsego	Jacob Morris	Federalist
Queens	Samuel Clowes*
	Whitehead Cornwell*	Dem.-Rep.
	Jacob Hicks
Rensselaer	Benjamin Hicks	Federalist
	Christopher Hutton
	Josiah Masters	Dem.-Rep.
	Jonathan Niles
	Nicholas Staats
Richmond	Gozen Ryerss*	Federalist
Saratoga	Adam Comstock
	Beriah Palmer	Dem.-Rep.
	vacant
	vacant
Suffolk	John Gelston*
	Jonathan N. Havens*	Dem.-Rep.
	Ebenezer Platt
	John Smith*	Dem.-Rep.
Tioga	John Paterson	Dem.-Rep.
Ulster	John Addison	Dem.-Rep.
	Philip D. Bevier	Dem.-Rep.
	Severyn T. Bruyn	Dem.-Rep.
	John C. DeWitt	Dem.-Rep.
	Nathan Smith	Dem.-Rep.
Washington and Clinton	Daniel Curtis
	Zina Hitchcock*	Federalist
	David Hopkins*	Dem.-Rep.
	Stanton Tifft
Westchester [7]	Hezekiah Brown
	Richard Hatfield	Federalist
	Elias Newman*
	Thomas Thomas
	vacant

Employees

• Clerk: John McKesson
• Sergeant-at-Arms: Robert Hunter
• Doorkeeper:Richard Ten Eyck

Notes

1. 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.
2. The Canvass Committee at the time consisted of 6 state senators and 6 assemblymen; however, Hammond lists only 11 names: 7 Democratic-Republicans (Senators David Gelston and Thomas Tillotson; Assemblymen Melancton Smith, Daniel Graham, Pierre Van Cortlandt Jr., David McCarty and Jonathan N. Havens) and 4 Federalists (Senators Samuel Jones, Isaac Roosevelt, Leonard Gansevoort and Joshua Sands)
3. At the time all votes, of which each elector had two, were cast for President, the most voted taking the office of President and the runner-up the office of Vice-President. Washington received one vote of each elector from all States; the second votes were split among four men: John Adams 77; George Clinton 50, Thomas Jefferson 4 and Aaron Burr 1. George Clinton was eventually elected Vice-President in 1804.
4. 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; pg. 74f)
5. Philip Livingston, son of Peter Van Brugh Livingston
6. John Livingston, fifth son of Robert Livingston (1708–1790), 3rd Lord of the Manor
7. The Civil List of 1858 lists only Newman and Thomas; the Documents of the Assembly of 1852 list only Brown and Hatfield.

Sources

• The New York Civil List compiled by Franklin Benjamin Hough (Weed, Parsons and Co., 1858) [see pg. 108 for Senate districts; pg. 114 for senators; pg. 148f for Assembly districts; pg. 167 for assemblymen; pg. 320 and 323 for presidential election]
• Election result Assembly, Dutchess Co. at project "A New Nation Votes", compiled by Phil Lampi, hosted by Tufts University Digital Library
• Election result Assembly, Herkimer Co. at project "A New Nation Votes"
• Election result Assembly, Kings Co. at project "A New Nation Votes"
• Election result Assembly, Montgomery Co. at project "A New Nation Votes"
• Election result Assembly, Orange Co. at project "A New Nation Votes"
• Election result Assembly, Otsego Co. at project "A New Nation Votes"
• Election result Assembly, Rensselaer Co. at project "A New Nation Votes"
• Election result Assembly, Ulster Co. at project "A New Nation Votes"