26th New York State Legislature

The 26th New York State Legislature, consisting of the New York State Senate and the New York State Assembly, met from January 25 to April 6, 1803, during the 2nd year of George Clinton's second tenure as Governor of New York, in Albany.

26th New York State Legislature
← 25th 27th →
The Old Albany City Hall (undated)
Overview
Legislative body	New York State Legislature
Jurisdiction	New York, United States
Term	July 1, 1802 – June 30, 1803
Senate
Members	32
President	Lt. Gov. Jeremiah Van Rensselaer (Dem.-Rep.)
Party control	Democratic-Republican (19-11)
Assembly
Members	100
Speaker	Thomas Storm (Dem.-Rep.)
Party control	Democratic-Republican
Sessions
1st January 25 – April 6, 1803

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 1799, the Legislature enacted that future Legislatures meet on the last Tuesday of January of each year unless called earlier by the governor.

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 27 to 29, 1802. Senators John Schenck (Southern D.) and Solomon Sutherland (Middle D.) were re-elected. Joseph Annin, Matthias B. Tallmadge, George Tiffany (all three Western D.); and Assemblymen Abraham Adriance (Middle D.), Asa Danforth and Jacob Snell (both Western D.) were also elected to the Senate. All eight were Democratic-Republicans.

Sessions

The Legislature met at the Old City Hall in Albany on January 25, 1803; and adjourned on April 6.

Dem.-Rep. Thomas Storm was re-elected Speaker. Solomon Southwick (Dem.-Rep.) was elected Clerk of the Assembly with 42 votes against 31 for the incumbent James Van Ingen (Fed.).

On February 1, 1803, the Legislature elected Theodorus Bailey (Dem.-Rep.) to the U.S. Senate, to succeed Gouverneur Morris (Fed.).

On February 8, 1803, the Legislature elected Abraham G. Lansing (Dem.-Rep.) State Treasurer, to succeed Robert McClellan (Fed.).

State Senate

Districts

• The Southern District (6 seats) consisted of Kings, New York, Queens, Richmond, Suffolk and Westchester counties.
• The Middle District (8 seats) consisted of Dutchess, Orange, Ulster, Columbia, Delaware, Rockland and Greene counties.
• The Eastern District (7 seats) consisted of Washington, Clinton, Rensselaer, Albany, Saratoga and Essex counties.
• The Western District (11 seats) consisted of Montgomery, Herkimer, Ontario, Otsego, Tioga, Onondaga, Schoharie, Steuben, Chenango, Oneida, Cayuga and Genesee 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. Abraham Adriance, Asa Danforth and Jacob Snell changed from the Assembly to the Senate.

District	Senators	Term left	Party	Notes
Southern	Richard Hatfield*	1 year	Federalist
	William Denning*	2 years	Dem.-Rep.
	Benjamin Huntting*	2 years	Dem.-Rep.
	Ebenezer Purdy*	2 years	Dem.-Rep.	elected to the Council of Appointment
	Ezra L'Hommedieu*	3 years	Dem.-Rep.
	John Schenck*	4 years	Dem.-Rep.
Middle	John Hathorn*	1 year	Dem.-Rep.
	John Suffern*	1 year	Dem.-Rep.
	John C. Hogeboom*	2 years	Dem.-Rep.	elected to the Council of Appointment
	James W. Wilkin*	2 years	Dem.-Rep.
	Jacobus S. Bruyn*	3 years	Dem.-Rep.
	Peter A. Van Bergen*	3 years	Dem.-Rep.
	(Solomon Sutherland*)	4 years	Dem.-Rep.	died September 10, 1802, before the Legislature met
	Abraham Adriance*	4 years	Dem.-Rep.
Eastern	Zina Hitchcock*	1 year	Federalist
	Ebenezer Russell*	1 year	Federalist
	Edward Savage*	1 year	Dem.-Rep.
	James Gordon*	2 years	Federalist
	Jacobus Van Schoonhoven*	3 years	Federalist	elected to the Council of Appointment
	Abraham Van Vechten*	3 years	Federalist	also Recorder of the City of Albany
	(Christopher Hutton*)	3 years	Dem.-Rep./Fed.
Western	Vincent Mathews*	1 year	Federalist
	Moss Kent*	1 year	Federalist
	Robert Roseboom*	2 years	Dem.-Rep.
	Jedediah Sanger*	2 years	Federalist	also First Judge of the Oneida County Court
	Lemuel Chipman*	3 years	Federalist
	Isaac Foote	3 years	Federalist
	Joseph Annin	4 years	Dem.-Rep.
	Asa Danforth*	4 years	Dem.-Rep.
	Jacob Snell*	4 years	Dem.-Rep.	elected to the Council of Appointment
	Matthias B. Tallmadge	4 years	Dem.-Rep.
	George Tiffany	4 years	Dem.-Rep.

Employees

• Clerk: Henry I. Bleecker

State Assembly

Districts

• Albany County (6 seats)
• Cayuga County (3 seats)
• Chenango County (4 seats)
• Clinton County (1 seat)
• Columbia County (4 seats)
• Delaware County (2 seats)
• Dutchess County (7 seats)
• Essex County (1 seat)
• Genesee and Ontario counties (3 seats)
• Greene County (2 seats)
• Herkimer County (3 seats)
• Kings County (1 seat)
• Montgomery County (5 seats)
• The City and County of New York (9 seats)
• Oneida County (4 seats)
• Onondaga County (2 seats)
• Orange County (4 seats)
• Otsego County (4 seats)
• Queens County (3 seats)
• Rensselaer County (5 seats)
• Richmond County (1 seat)
• Rockland County (1 seat)
• Saratoga County (4 seats)
• Schoharie County (2 seats)
• Steuben County (1 seat)
• Suffolk County (3 seats)
• Tioga County (1 seat)
• Ulster County (4 seats)
• Washington County (6 seats)
• Westchester County (4 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. Stephen Lush changed from the Senate to the Assembly.

District	Assemblymen	Party	Notes
Albany	Johann Jost Dietz*	Federalist
	John Frisby
	Stephen Lush*	Federalist
	Maus Schermerhorn
	Peter S. Schuyler*	Federalist
	Jacob Ten Eyck*	Federalist
Cayuga	Salmon Buell*
	Silas Halsey	Dem.-Rep.
	Thomas Hewitt
Chenango	James Green
	Stephen Hoxie
	Joel Thompson	Federalist	previously a member from Albany Co.
	Uri Tracy	Dem.-Rep.	also Chenango County Clerk
Clinton	Peter Sailly	Dem.-Rep.
Columbia	Samuel Edmonds	Federalist
	Aaron Kellogg	Federalist
	Moncrief Livingston	Federalist
	Peter Silvester	Federalist
Delaware	John Lamb
	Elias Osborn	Dem.-Rep.
Dutchess	Joseph C. Field	Dem.-Rep.
	John Jewett	Dem.-Rep.
	John Martin	Dem.-Rep.
	Thomas Mitchell	Dem.-Rep.
	Philip Spencer Jr.	Dem.-Rep.
	Theodorus R. Van Wyck	Dem.-Rep.
	James Winchell	Dem.-Rep.
Essex	Thomas Stower
Genesee and Ontario	Thaddeus Chapin
	Augustus Porter	Dem.-Rep.
	Polydore B. Wisner
Greene	George Hale	Federalist
	Martin G. Schuneman	Dem.-Rep.	previously a member from Ulster Co.
Herkimer	Stephen Miller	Dem.-Rep.
	George Widrig*	Dem.-Rep.
	Samuel Wright	Dem.-Rep.
Kings	John Hicks
Montgomery	Henry Kennedy
	John Roof
	Alexander Sheldon*	Dem.-Rep.
	Daniel Walker
	Charles Ward*	Dem.-Rep.
New York	John Brower
	John Burger
	William Few*	Dem.-Rep.
	William W. Gilbert	Dem.-Rep.
	Peter Irving
	Cornelius C. Roosevelt
	Ezekiel Robins*	Dem.-Rep.
	Thomas Storm*	Dem.-Rep.	re-elected Speaker
	Daniel D. Tompkins	Dem.-Rep.
Oneida	James Dean Sr.
	Abel French*	Federalist
	John Lay
	Aaron Morse
Onondaga	John Lamb	Dem.-Rep.
	John McWhorter	Dem.-Rep.
Orange	James Burt*	Dem.-Rep.
	William A. Clark
	James Finch Jr.
	Reuben Neely
Otsego	Daniel Hawks
	James Moore
	Jedediah Peck*	Dem.-Rep.
	Luther Rich
Queens	Stephen Carman	Federalist
	Abraham Monfoort*	Dem.-Rep.
	Henry O. Seaman	Dem.-Rep.
Rensselaer	John Green*	Dem.-Rep.
	Jonathan Rouse	Dem.-Rep.
	John Ryan	Dem.-Rep.
	John Woodworth	Dem.-Rep.
	vacant		Nicholas Staats (Dem.-Rep.) and Arent Van Dyck (Fed.) were tied in fifth place with 1,271 votes each, so there was "no choice".^[2]
Richmond	Paul I. Micheau*	Federalist
Rockland	Peter Denoyelles*	Dem.-Rep.
Saratoga	Samuel Clark*
	Adam Comstock*	Dem.-Rep.
	Gideon Goodrich	Dem.-Rep.
	Othniel Looker	Dem.-Rep.
Schoharie	Henry Becker	Dem.-Rep.
	Lawrence Lawyer Jr.*	Dem.-Rep.
Steuben	James Faulkner	Dem.-Rep.
Suffolk	Israel Carll*	Dem.-Rep.
	Jonathan Dayton	Dem.-Rep.
	Josiah Reeve
Tioga	Caleb Hyde*	Dem.-Rep.
Ulster	Moses Cantine Jr.	Dem.-Rep.
	James Kain
	Cornelius Low	Federalist
	Elnathan Sears*	Dem.-Rep.
Washington	David Austin	Dem.-Rep.
	Kitchel Bishop*	Dem.-Rep.
	Alexander Cowan*	Dem.-Rep.
	Jason Kellogg*	Dem.-Rep.
	John McLean*	Dem.-Rep.
	Isaac Sargent*	Dem.-Rep.
Westchester	Abijah Gilbert*	Dem.-Rep.
	Abraham Odell*	Dem.-Rep.
	Thomas Thomas*	Dem.-Rep.
	Joseph Travis*	Dem.-Rep.

Employees

• Clerk: Solomon Southwick
• Sergeant-at-Arms: Ephraim Hunt
• Doorkeeper: Benjamin Whipple

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. Staats claimed the seat, but was not admitted; see A Compilation of Cases of Contested Elections to Seats in the Assembly of the State of New York (1871; pg. 18f)

Sources

• The New York Civil List compiled by Franklin Benjamin Hough (Weed, Parsons and Co., 1858) [see pg. 108f for Senate districts; pg. 118 for senators; pg. 148f for Assembly districts; pg. 176 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 184ff)
• 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"
• at project "A New Nation Votes"
• at project "A New Nation Votes"
• at project "A New Nation Votes" [gives only votes from Richmond and Westchester co.]
• at project "A New Nation Votes" [gives only votes from Columbia, Delaware, Dutchess and Greene co.]
• at project "A New Nation Votes" [gives only votes from Schoharie and Steuben co.]