20th New York State Legislature

The 20th New York State Legislature, consisting of the New York State Senate and the New York State Assembly, met from November 1, 1796, to April 3, 1797, during the second year of John Jay's governorship, first in New York City, then in Albany.

20th New York State Legislature
← 19th 21st →
The Old New York City Hall, where the Legislature first 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, and from 1795 to 1796, the State Legislature met again here. The building was demolished in 1812. (1798)
Overview
Legislative body	New York State Legislature
Jurisdiction	New York, United States
Term	July 1, 1796 – June 30, 1797
Senate
Members	43
President	Lt. Gov. Stephen Van Rensselaer (Fed.)
Party control	Federalist (36-6)
Assembly
Members	108
Speaker	Gulian Verplanck (Fed.)
Party control	Federalist
Sessions
1st November 1 – 11, 1796 2nd January 3 – April 3, 1797

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 July 1, 1795, Stephen Van Rensselaer took office as Lieutenant Governor of New York, leaving a vacancy in the Western District.

On March 4, 1796, the Legislature re-apportioned the Senate and Assembly districts, based on the figures of the New York State Census of 1795. The number of State Senators was increased from 24 to 43, adding 1 to the Southern D.; and 6 each to the other three districts. The number of assemblymen was increased from 70 to 108, double-county districts were separated, and several new counties were created.

At this time the politicians were divided into two opposing political parties: the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans.^[1]

Elections

The State election was held from April 26 to 28, 1796. Senator Selah Strong (Southern D.) was re-elected. Assemblymen James Watson (Southern D.), Thomas Morris, Johannes Dietz, Jacob Morris, Leonard Bronck and Francis Nicoll (all five Western D.) were elected to the Senate. Samuel Haight, Andrew Onderdonk (both Southern D.), Robert Sands, Christopher Tappen, William Thompson (all three Middle D.), Ebenezer Clark, Moses Vail, James Savage, Peter Silvester, Anthony Ten Eyck (all five Eastern D.), Jedediah Sanger, James Gordon, Leonard Gansevoort, Thomas R. Gold, John Richardson, Vincent Mathews, Joseph White and Abraham Arndt (all eight Western D.) were also elected to the Senate. All, except Christopher Tappen, were Federalists.

Upon taking their seats, the new senators were classified: Ebenezer Clark, Anthony Ten Eyck, Thomas Morris and John Richardson drew 1-year terms; James Watson, Leonard Gansevoort, Francis Nicoll, Abraham Arndt, Johannes Dietz and Thomas R. Gold drew 2-year terms; Christopher Tappen, Moses Vail, Vincent Mathews and Joseph White drew 3-year terms; and Samuel Haight, Andrew Onderdonk, Selah Strong, Robert Sands, James Savage, Peter Silvester, William Thompson, Leonard Bronck, Jacob Morris, James Gordon and Jedediah Sanger drew 4-year terms.

Sessions

 

The Old Albany City Hall

The Legislature met at Federal Hall in New York City on November 1, 1796, to elect presidential electors, and both Houses adjourned on November 11. This was the last session not held in Albany.

Federalist Gulian Verplanck was elected Speaker.

To balance the representation of the senatorial districts, the re-apportionment was amended, transferring Columbia Co. from the Eastern to the Middle District; and Albany and Saratoga counties from the Western to the Eastern D. Thus senators Spencer, Savage and Silvester moved from the Eastern to the Middle; and Bronck, Gansevoort, Gordon, Nicoll, Schuyler and Van Schoonhoven from the Western to the Eastern District.^[2]

On November 7, 1796, the Legislature elected 12 presidential electors, all Federalists: Lewis Morris, Abijah Hammond, Richard Thorne, Peter Cantine Jr., Robert Van Rensselaer, Johannes Miller, Abraham Ten Broeck, Abraham Van Vechten, St. John Honeywood, William Root, Peter Smith and Charles Newkirk. They cast their votes for John Adams and Thomas Pinckney.

On November 9, 1796, the Legislature elected U.S. District Judge John Laurance to the U.S. Senate, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Rufus King.

The Legislature met for the regular session on January 3, 1797, at the Old City Hall in Albany, New York; and both Houses adjourned on April 3.

On January 24, 1797, the Legislature elected Senator Philip Schuyler to the U.S. Senate, to succeed Aaron Burr, for a 6-year term beginning on March 4, 1797.

Among the legislative acts of this session were: the declaration of Albany as the State capital, and plans to build a State capitol; the creation of the office of New York State Comptroller; and the creation of Delaware County, with 2 seats in the Assembly.

State Senate

Districts

• The Southern District (9 seats) consisted of Kings, New York, Queens, Richmond, Suffolk and Westchester counties.
• The Middle District (12 seats) consisted of Dutchess, Orange, Ulster and Columbia counties.
• The Eastern District (11 seats) consisted of Washington, Clinton, Rensselaer, Albany and Saratoga counties.
• The Western District (11 seats) consisted of Montgomery, Herkimer, Ontario, Otsego, Tioga, Onondaga and Schoharie 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. James Watson, Leonard Bronck, Francis Nicoll, Johannes Dietz, Jacob Morris and Thomas Morris changed from the Assembly to the Senate.

Note: The table shows the Districts as re-apportioned after the election.

District	Senators	Term left	Party	Notes
Southern	Ezra L'Hommedieu*	1 year	Federalist
	Richard Hatfield*	2 years	Federalist
	Philip Livingston*^[3]	2 years	Federalist
	James Watson*	2 years	Federalist
	Samuel Jones*	3 years	Federalist	until March 15, 1797, also Recorder of New York City, from March 15, 1797, also New York State Comptroller
	Joshua Sands*	3 years	Federalist	vacated his seat on April 26, 1797, upon appointment as Collector of the Port of New York
	Samuel Haight	4 years	Federalist
	Andrew Onderdonk	4 years	Federalist	elected to the Council of Appointment
	Selah Strong*	4 years	Federalist
Middle	John Cantine*	1 year	Dem.-Rep.
	Reuben Hopkins*	1 year	Dem.-Rep.
	vacant^[4]	1 year
	John D. Coe*	2 years	Dem.-Rep.
	Ambrose Spencer*	2 years	Federalist	also Assistant Attorney General (3rd D.); Spencer lived in Columbia Co., and had been elected in the old Eastern D. in 1795; elected to the Council of Appointment
	Abraham Schenck*	3 years	Dem.-Rep.
	Christopher Tappen	3 years	Dem.-Rep.
	Thomas Tillotson*	3 years	Dem.-Rep.
	Robert Sands^[5]	4 years	Federalist
	James Savage	4 years	Federalist
	Peter Silvester	4 years	Federalist
	William Thompson	4 years	Federalist
Eastern	Ebenezer Clark	1 year	Federalist
	Zina Hitchcock*	1 year	Federalist
	Anthony Ten Eyck	1 year	Federalist
	Jacobus Van Schoonhoven*	1 year	Federalist	Van Schoonhoven lived in Saratoga Co., and had been elected in the old Western D. in 1793
	Leonard Gansevoort	2 years	Federalist	elected to the Council of Appointment
	Francis Nicoll*	2 years	Federalist
	Ebenezer Russell*	3 years	Federalist
	Philip Schuyler*	3 years	Federalist	Schuyler lived in Albany Co., and had been elected in the old Western D. in 1795; elected on January 24, 1797, to the U.S. Senate
	Moses Vail	3 years	Federalist
	Leonard Bronck*	4 years	Federalist
	James Gordon	4 years	Federalist
Western	Thomas Morris*	1 year	Federalist	elected to the Council of Appointment
	Michael Myers*	1 year	Federalist
	John Richardson	1 year	Federalist
	Abraham Arndt	2 years	Federalist
	Johannes Dietz*	2 years	Federalist
	John Frey*	2 years	Federalist
	Thomas R. Gold	2 years	Federalist	also Assistant Attorney General (7th D.)
	Vincent Mathews	3 years	Federalist
	Joseph White	3 years	Federalist
	Jacob Morris*	4 years	Federalist
	Jedediah Sanger	4 years	Federalist

Employees

• Clerk: Abraham B. Bancker

State Assembly

Districts

• Albany County (10 seats)
• Clinton County (1 seat)
• Columbia County (6 seats)
• Dutchess County (10 seats)
• Herkimer County (7 seats)
• Kings County (1 seat)
• Montgomery County (6 seats)
• The City and County of New York (13 seats)
• Onondaga County (2 seats)
• Ontario County (2 seats)
• Orange County (3 seats)
• Otsego County (5 seats)
• Queens County (4 seats)
• Rensselaer County (6 seats)
• Richmond County (1 seat)
• Saratoga County (5 seats)
• Schoharie County (1 seat)
• Suffolk County (4 seats)
• Tioga County (2 seats)
• Ulster County (8 seats)
• Washington County (6 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	James Bill
	Philip Conine Jr.
	James C. Duane
	Jacob Hochstrasser*
	James Holcomb
	Nathaniel Ogden
	John Prince
	Philip P. Schuyler
	Dirck Ten Broeck*	Federalist
	John H. Wendell
Clinton	Charles Platt
Columbia	Caleb Benton
	Palmer Cady
	John C. Hogeboom	Dem.-Rep.
	John McKinstry
	Peter I. Vosburgh
	Jonathan Warner
Dutchess	Samuel A. Barker	Federalist
	Jacob Bockée	Federalist
	Joseph Crane Jr.
	Richard Davis*
	Jesse Oakley*	Federalist
	William Pearce
	Jacob Smith*
	Jesse Thompson*	Federalist
	William B. Verplanck	Federalist
	William Wheeler
Herkimer	Isaac Brayton
	Arthur Breese
	Matthew Brown Jr.
	Ludwick Campbell
	Gaylord Griswold	Federalist
	Joshua Leland
	Henry McNeil	Federalist
Kings	Peter Vandervoort*	Federalist
Montgomery	Jacob Eaker
	Frederick Gettman*	Federalist
	George Metcalfe		from February 16, 1797, also Assistant Attorney General (5th D.)
	John C. Van Eps
	Peter V. Veeder
	Simon Veeder
New York	Leonard Bleecker
	Richard Furman*	Federalist
	Josiah Ogden Hoffman	Federalist	also New York State Attorney General
	James Kent	Federalist	previously a member from Dutchess Co.; from March 28, 1797, also Recorder of New York City
	Alexander Lamb*	Dem.-Rep.
	Herman LeRoy
	Jonathan Little
	Jacob Morton*	Federalist
	Jotham Post Jr.*	Federalist
	James Roosevelt	Federalist
	James Tylee
	Gulian Verplanck	Federalist	elected Speaker
	Henry Will
Onondaga	Silas Halsey
	Comfort Tyler
Ontario	Lemuel Chipman
	Charles Williamson
Orange	Isaac Blanch
	Jonathan Cooley
	Seth Marvin*
Otsego	Joshua H. Brett
	Francis Henry	Federalist
	Timothy Morse
	Isaac Nash
	Abraham C. Ten Broeck
Queens	Lewis Cornwall
	David Kissam	Federalist
	William Pearsall	Federalist
	John M. Smith	Federalist
Rensselaer	John Bird*	Federalist
	John Carpenter	Federalist
	Jacob A. Fort	Federalist
	Daniel Gray*	Federalist
	James McKown	Federalist
	Hosea Moffitt	Federalist
Richmond	Lewis Ryerss*
Saratoga	Seth C. Baldwin
	Samuel Clark
	Adam Comstock*	Dem.-Rep.
	John McClelland*
	John Taylor
Schoharie	John Rice	Federalist
Suffolk	Jared Landon*
	Abraham Miller*
	Joshua Smith Jr.*
	Silas Wood*	Federalist
Tioga	Emanuel Coryell*	Federalist
	vacant
Ulster	Johannes Bruyn	Dem.-Rep.
	John Burr
	Francis Crawford
	John C. DeWitt	Dem.-Rep.
	Ebenezer Foote*	Federalist	from March 20, 1797, also Delaware County Clerk
	Josiah Hasbrouck	Dem.-Rep.
	James Oliver*	Federalist
	Benjamin Sears
Washington	Anthony I. Blanchard*		also Assistant Attorney General (4th D.)
	Gerrit G. Lansing
	Timothy Leonard*
	Daniel Mason
	Edward Savage*	Dem.-Rep.
	Andrew White
Westchester	John Barker	Federalist
	Joseph Carpenter*	Federalist
	Mordecai Hale*	Federalist
	Charles Teed*	Federalist
	Samuel Youngs	Federalist

Employees

• Clerk: James Van Ingen
• 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 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 99ff)
3. Philip Livingston, son of Peter Van Brugh Livingston
4. It is unclear what caused this vacancy, since none of the sources mention any other person elected to the Senate. The Civil List of 1858 states that the number of Senators was 43 (page 108), and subsequent Legislatures had 43 members, until the re-apportionment by the Constitutional Convention of 1801.
5. Original owner of Robert Sands Estate in Rhinebeck, Dutchess Co.

Sources

• The New York Civil List compiled by Franklin Benjamin Hough (Weed, Parsons and Co., 1858) [see pg. 108f for Senate districts; pg. 116 for senators; pg. 148f for Assembly districts; pg. 170f for assemblymen; pg. 323 for presidential electors]
• at project "A New Nation Votes", compiled by Phil Lampi, hosted by Tufts University Digital Library
• at project "A New Nation Votes"
• at project "A New Nation Votes"
• at project "A New Nation Votes"
• at project "A New Nation Votes"
• at project "A New Nation Votes"
• at project "A New Nation Votes"
• at project "A New Nation Votes" [gives votes only from Queens Co.]