34th New York State Legislature

The 34th New York State Legislature, consisting of the New York State Senate and the New York State Assembly, met from January 29 to April 9, 1811, during the fourth year of Daniel D. Tompkins's governorship, in Albany.

34th New York State Legislature
← 33rd 35th →
The Old Albany City Hall (undated)
Overview
Legislative body	New York State Legislature
Jurisdiction	New York, United States
Term	July 1, 1810 – June 30, 1811
Senate
Members	32
President	Lt. Gov. John Broome (Dem.-Rep.; died August 8, 1810)
Temporary President	John Tayler (Dem.-Rep.; elected January 29, 1811)
Party control	Democratic-Republican (25–6)
Assembly
Members	112
Speaker	Nathan Sanford (Dem.-Rep.; elected January 29) William Ross (Dem.-Rep.; elected February 12)
Party control	Democratic-Republican (65–37)
Sessions
1st January 29 – April 9, 1811

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 24 to 26, 1810. Gov. Daniel D. Tompkins and Lt. Gov. John Broome (both Dem.-Rep.) were re-elected.

Senator Nathan Smith (Western D.) was re-elected. Ebenezer White (Southern D.), Ex-Gov. Morgan Lewis, James W. Wilkin (both Middle D.), Henry Yates Jr. (Eastern D.), Reuben Humphrey, Philetus Swift and Henry A. Townsend (all three 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 29, 1811; and adjourned on April 9.

Nathan Sanford (Dem.-Rep.) was elected Speaker with 64 votes against 33 for Samuel A. Barker (Fed.). Samuel North (Dem.-Rep.) was elected Clerk of the Assembly with 64 votes against 37 for the incumbent James Van Ingen (Fed.). Sanford soon became ill, and could not attend the session anymore, and on February 12,^[2] William Ross (Dem.-Rep.) was elected Speaker for the remainder of the session with 65 votes against 24 for Barker (Fed.).

Lt. Gov. Broome died on August 8, 1810, leaving the presidency of the State Senate vacant. The senators elected John Tayler (Dem.-Rep.) as president pro tempore (vote: Tayler 21, Lewis 2, blank 2).

On January 30, the Dem.-Rep. Assembly majority elected a new Council of Appointment which removed almost all Federalist office-holders, most of whom had been appointed during the previous year.

At this session, the Legislature passed a bill incorporating the Mechanics and Farmers Bank of Albany, and Solomon Southwick became its first President.

On April 8, 1811, the Legislature appointed a new Erie Canal Commission to continue the planning and eventually the construction of the Erie Canal. The previous commissioners Gouverneur Morris, Stephen Van Rensselaer, William North, Thomas Eddy, State Senator DeWitt Clinton, Surveyor General Simeon DeWitt and Congressman Peter B. Porter were re-appointed; and Ex-Chancellor Robert R. Livingston and Robert Fulton, who were running a steamboat service between New York City and Albany, were added to the commission.

State Senate

Districts

• The Southern District (5 seats) consisted of Kings, New York, Queens, Richmond, Suffolk and Westchester counties.
• The Middle District (7 seats) consisted of Dutchess, Orange, Ulster, Columbia, Delaware, Rockland, Greene and Sullivan counties.
• The Eastern District (8 seats) consisted of Washington, Clinton, Rensselaer, Albany, Saratoga, Essex, Montgomery, Franklin and Schenectady counties.
• The Western District (12 seats) consisted of Herkimer, Ontario, Otsego, Tioga, Onondaga, Schoharie, Steuben, Chenango, Oneida, Cayuga, Genesee, Seneca, Jefferson, Lewis, St. Lawrence, Allegany, Broome, Madison, Niagara and Cortland 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.

District	Senators	Term left	Party	Notes
Southern	DeWitt Clinton*	1 year	Dem.-Rep.	also an Erie Canal Commissioner; from February 1, 1811, also Mayor of New York City
	Benjamin Coe*	2 years	Dem.-Rep.	elected to the Council of Appointment
	William W. Gilbert*	2 years	Dem.-Rep.
	Israel Carll*	3 years	Dem.-Rep.
	Ebenezer White	4 years	Dem.-Rep.
Middle	Joshua H. Brett*	1 year	Dem.-Rep.
	Robert Williams*	1 year	none^[3]
	Edward P. Livingston*	2 years	Dem.-Rep.
	Johannes Bruyn*	3 years	Dem.-Rep.
	Samuel Haight*	3 years	Dem.-Rep.
	Morgan Lewis	4 years	Dem.-Rep.
	James W. Wilkin	4 years	Dem.-Rep.	elected to the Council of Appointment
Eastern	Isaac Kellogg*	1 year	Dem.-Rep.
	John McLean*	1 year	Dem.-Rep.	elected to the Council of Appointment
	Charles Selden*	1 year	Dem.-Rep.
	John Tayler*	1 year	Dem.-Rep.	elected President pro tempore
	David Hopkins*	2 years	Federalist
	Daniel Paris*	3 years	Federalist
	John Stearns*	3 years	Federalist
	Henry Yates Jr.^[4]	4 years	Dem.-Rep.
Western	Alexander Rea*	1 year	Dem.-Rep.
	Francis A. Bloodgood*	2 years	Dem.-Rep.
	Walter Martin*	2 years	Dem.-Rep.
	Luther Rich*	2 years	Dem.-Rep.
	Sylvanus Smalley*	2 years	Dem.-Rep.
	Amos Hall*	3 years	Federalist
	Seth Phelps*	3 years	Federalist
	Jonas Platt*	3 years	Federalist
	Reuben Humphrey	4 years	Dem.-Rep.
	Nathan Smith*^[5]	4 years	Dem.-Rep.
	Philetus Swift	4 years	Dem.-Rep.	elected to the Council of Appointment
	Henry A. Townsend	4 years	Dem.-Rep.

Employees

• Clerk: Sebastian Visscher

State Assembly

Districts

• Albany County (4 seats)
• Allegany and Steuben counties (1 seat)
• Broome County (1 seat)
• Cayuga County (3 seats)
• Chenango County (3 seats)
• Clinton and Franklin counties (1 seat)
• Columbia County (4 seats)
• Cortland County (1 seat)
• Delaware County (2 seats)
• Dutchess County (6 seats)
• Essex County (1 seat)
• Genesee County (1 seat)
• Greene County (2 seats)
• Herkimer County (3 seats)
• Jefferson County (2 seats)
• Kings County (1 seat)
• Lewis County (1 seat)
• Madison County (3 seats)
• Montgomery County (5 seats)
• The City and County of New York (11 seats)
• Niagara County (1 seat)
• Oneida County (5 seats)
• Onondaga County (2 seats)
• Ontario County (5 seats)
• Orange County (4 seats)
• Otsego County (4 seats)
• Queens County (3 seats)
• Rensselaer County (4 seats)
• Richmond County (1 seat)
• Rockland County (1 seat)
• St. Lawrence County (1 seat)
• Saratoga County (4 seats)
• Schenectady County (2 seats)
• Schoharie County (2 seats)
• Seneca County (1 seat)
• Suffolk County (3 seats)
• Sullivan and Ulster counties (4 seats)
• Tioga County (1 seat)
• Washington County (5 seats)
• Westchester County (3 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.

District	Assemblymen	Party	Notes
Albany	Asa Colvard	Federalist
	David Delong	Federalist
	Johann Jost Dietz	Federalist
	Abraham Van Vechten*	Federalist	until February 1, 1811, also New York Attorney General
Allegany and Steuben	John Knox*	Federalist
Broome	none		no election returns from this county
Cayuga	Stephen Close*	Dem.-Rep.
	Elisha Durkee	Dem.-Rep.
	Ebenezer Hewitt	Dem.-Rep.
Chenango	Peter Betts
	Thompson Mead
	Joseph Simonds	Dem.-Rep.
Clinton and Franklin	Gates Hoit*	Federalist	unsuccessfully contested by William Steward
Columbia	Thomas P. Grosvenor*	Federalist	until February 15, 1811, also District Attorney of the 3rd District
	Augustus Tremain
	James Vanderpoel	Federalist
	Jacob R. Van Rensselaer	Federalist
Cortland	Billy Trowbridge
Delaware	Daniel Fuller
	David St. John
Dutchess^[6]	Samuel A. Barker	Federalist
	Lemuel Clift*	Federalist
	Koert Dubois*	Federalist
	Alexander Neely*	Federalist
	Shadrach Sherman	Federalist
	Isaac Van Wyck*	Federalist
Essex	Delevan Delance Jr.
Genesee	Chauncey Loomis*	Dem.-Rep.
Greene	William Beach
	Jonas Bronk
Herkimer	Christopher P. Bellinger*	Dem.-Rep.
	Robert Burch	Dem.-Rep.
	Hosea Nelson	Dem.-Rep.
Jefferson	Corlis Hinds	Dem.-Rep.
	Ethel Bronson*	Federalist	contested; seat vacated
	William Hunter		seated on February 4, 1811, in place of Ethel Bronson^[7]
Kings	John C. Vanderveer	Dem.-Rep.
Lewis	Nathaniel Merriam
Madison	John W. Bulkley*	Federalist
	Henry Clark Jr.
	Zebulon Douglass
Montgomery	Daniel Cady*	Federalist
	Jacob Eaker	Dem.-Rep.
	Daniel Hurlbut
	James McIntyre	Dem.-Rep.
	George H. Nellis
New York	Robert Bogardus
	Thomas Carpenter	Federalist
	Thomas Farmar*
	John Gelston
	Samuel Lawrence	Dem.-Rep.	from February 19, 1811, also New York County Clerk
	Jonas Mapes
	Thomas R. Mercein	Federalist
	Nathan Sanford	Dem.-Rep.	elected Speaker; did not attend after February 12; also United States Attorney for the District of New York^[8]
	Isaac Sebring	Federalist
	Solomon Townsend*		died March 27, 1811
	John Vanderbilt Jr.
Niagara	Archibald S. Clarke*	Dem.-Rep.	also Surrogate of Niagara County
Oneida	Isaac Brayton	Federalist
	George Doolittle
	George Huntington	Federalist
	Henry McNeil	Federalist
	John Storrs*	Federalist
Onondaga	Robert Earll
	Jasper Hopper	Dem.-Rep.
Ontario	Septimus Evans
	Robert Hart
	Hugh McNair
	Stephen Phelps
	Asahel Warner	Dem.-Rep.
Orange	John Blake Jr.	Dem.-Rep.
	Anthony Davis	Dem.-Rep.
	Seth Marvin
	William Ross	Dem.-Rep.	on February 12, elected Speaker
Otsego	Daniel Hawks
	Isaac Hayes	Dem.-Rep.
	Elijah H. Metcalf	Dem.-Rep.
	Robert Roseboom	Dem.-Rep.
Queens	Stephen Carman*	Federalist
	Daniel Kissam	Federalist
	William Townsend*	Federalist
Rensselaer	William M. Bliss
	Daniel Hull Jr.
	Cornelius I. Schermerhorn*	Federalist
	Cornelius Van Vechten
Richmond	James Guyon, Jr.	Dem.-Rep.	contested; seat vacated
	Richard Connor	Federalist	seated on March 21, 1811, in place of James Guyon, Jr.^[9]
Rockland	Peter S. Van Orden*	Dem.-Rep.
St. Lawrence	Roswell Hopkins*	Federalist
Saratoga	John Cramer
	Jesse Mott	Dem.-Rep.
	Jeremy Rockwell
	David Rogers	Dem.-Rep.
Schenectady	James Boyd	Dem.-Rep.
	John Young	Dem.-Rep.
Schoharie	Henry Becker	Dem.-Rep./Fed.	Becker was a Democratic-Republican who ran on both tickets
	Henry Hager	Dem.-Rep.
Seneca	Robert S. Rose	Dem.-Rep.
Suffolk	Jonathan S. Conklin	Dem.-Rep.
	Thomas S. Lester	Dem.-Rep.
	Tredwell Scudder*	Dem.-Rep.
Sullivan and Ulster	John Conklin*	Dem.-Rep.
	Samuel Hawkins	Dem.-Rep.
	John Lounsbery	Dem.-Rep.
	Nehemiah L. Smith	Dem.-Rep.
Tioga	Thomas Floyd
Washington	John Baker	Dem.-Rep.
	John Richards	Dem.-Rep.
	Isaac Sargent	Dem.-Rep.
	Reuben Whallon	Dem.-Rep.
	David Woods	Dem.-Rep.
Westchester	Darius Crosby	Dem.-Rep.
	Abraham Miller	Dem.-Rep.
	Jacob Odell	Dem.-Rep.

Employees

• Clerk: Samuel North
• Sergeant-at-Arms: Thomas Donnelly
• 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. This date is given by the Civil List, other sources state February 10 (Lampi) or 14 (Hammond)
3. Williams had been elected as a Democratic-Republican in 1807, but combined with the Federalists at the previous session: He was elected to the Council of Appointment in 1810 by the Federalist majority, and then joined the other two Federalist councillors to outvote Carll and Gov. Tompkins. Since there were no Federalists from the Southern and the Middle districts, the Federalist Assembly majority had to choose 2 Democratic-Republicans who with Gov. Tompkins would have retained a majority in the Council. With Williams's help the Federalists proceeded to remove most of the Dem.-Rep. office-holders, and Williams's son-in-law Thomas J. Oakley was appointed Surrogate Dutchess Co. to succeed James Tallmadge, Jr. Afterwards Williams was considered a traitor, was ostracized by both parties and disappeared from politics.
4. Henry Yates (1770–1854), brother of Gov. Joseph C. Yates, see bio in Schenectady History
5. Nathan Smith (c. 1769 – 1836), of Fairfield, First Judge of the Herkimer County Court 1814–1821; see bio in A History of Herkimer County by Nathaniel S. Benton (pages 357ff)
6. The 6 Fed. assemblymen were unsuccessfully contested by Joseph C. Field and the other 5 Dem.-Rep. nominees; see A Compilation of Cases of Contested Elections to Seats in the Assembly of the State of New York (1871; pg. 27ff)
7. see A Compilation of Cases of Contested Elections to Seats in the Assembly of the State of New York (1871; pg. 26f)
8. The 13th New York State Legislature had resolved on January 27, 1790, that it was "incompatible with the U.S. Constitution for any person holding an office under the United States government at the same time to have a seat in the Legislature of this State..." At this time, nobody complained, and Sanford held both a federal office and an Assembly seat at the same time.
9. see A Compilation of Cases of Contested Elections to Seats in the Assembly of the State of New York (1871; pg. 29ff)

Sources

• The New York Civil List compiled by Franklin Benjamin Hough (Weed, Parsons and Co., 1858) [see pg. 108f for Senate districts; pg. 121 for senators; pg. 148f for Assembly districts; pg. 184f 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 285-290)
• 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" [the result was not filed with the Secretary of State]
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