96th New York State Legislature

The 96th New York State Legislature, consisting of the New York State Senate and the New York State Assembly, met from January 7 to May 30, 1873, during the first year of John A. Dix's governorship, in Albany.

96th New York State Legislature
← 95th 97th →
The Old State Capitol (1879)
Overview
Legislative body	New York State Legislature
Jurisdiction	New York, United States
Term	January 1 – December 31, 1873
Senate
Members	32
President	Lt. Gov. John C. Robinson (R)
Temporary President	William B. Woodin (R)
Party control	Republican (21-4-4-2)
Assembly
Members	128
Speaker	Alonzo B. Cornell (R)
Party control	Republican (92-34-2)
Sessions
1st January 7 – May 30, 1873

Background

Under the provisions of the New York Constitution of 1846, 32 Senators and 128 assemblymen were elected in single-seat districts; senators for a two-year term, assemblymen for a one-year term. The senatorial districts were made up of entire counties, except New York County (five districts) and Kings County (two districts). The Assembly districts were made up of entire towns, or city wards,^[1] forming a contiguous area, all within the same county.

In his annual message to the 95th Legislature, Gov. John T. Hoffman suggested that a bi-partisan Constitutional Commission of 32 members should be formed. The commission had four members from each judicial district, appointed by the Governor, and confirmed by the State Senate, equally divided between Democrats and Republicans. The Constitutional Commission met on December 4, 1872.

At this time there were two major political parties: the Republican Party and the Democratic Party. A faction of the Republican Party assumed the name of Liberal Republican Party and nominated a fusion ticket with the Democrats, supporting Horace Greeley for president. The Democratic/Liberal Republican state ticket had Francis Kernan (D) for Governor and Chauncey M. Depew (LR) for Lieutenant Governor.

Elections

The 1872 New York state election was held on November 5. Republicans John A. Dix and John C. Robinson were elected Governor and Lieutenant Governor. The other three statewide elective offices up for election were also carried by the Republicans. The approximate party strength at this election, as expressed by the vote for Governor, was: Republicans 446,000 and Democrats/Liberal Republicans 392,000.

Sessions

The Legislature met for the regular session at the Old State Capitol in Albany on January 7, 1873; and adjourned on May 30.

Alonzo B. Cornell (R) was elected Speaker with 91 votes against 35 for John C. Jacobs (D).

William B. Woodin (R) was elected president pro tempore of the State Senate.

On January 21, the Legislature re-elected U.S. Senator Roscoe Conkling (R) to a second six-year term, beginning on March 4, 1873.^[2]

The Constitutional Commission adjourned sine die on March 15, 1873. The proposed amendments to the Constitution were then debated by the Legislature, and those approved were submitted to the voters for ratification at the next state elections. At the New York state election, 1873, the voters were asked if the Judges of the Court of Appeals, and the County Judges throughout the State, should be appointed instead of being elected, which was answered in the negative.

State Senate

Districts

• 1st District: Queens, Richmond and Suffolk counties
• 2nd District: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 7th, 11th, 13th, 15th, 19th and 20th wards of the City of Brooklyn
• 3rd District: 6th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 12th, 14th, 16th, 17th and 18th wards of the City of Brooklyn; and all towns in Kings County
• 4th District: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 13th and 14th wards of New York City
• 5th District: 8th, 9th, 15th and 16th wards of New York City
• 6th District: 10th, 11th and 17th wards of New York City
• 7th District: 18th, 20th and 21st wards of New York City
• 8th District: 12th, 19th and 22nd wards of New York City
• 9th District: Putnam, Rockland and Westchester counties
• 10th District: Orange and Sullivan counties
• 11th District: Columbia and Dutchess counties
• 12th District: Rensselaer and Washington counties
• 13th District: Albany County
• 14th District: Greene and Ulster counties
• 15th District: Fulton, Hamilton, Montgomery, Saratoga and Schenectady counties
• 16th District: Clinton, Essex and Warren counties
• 17th District: Franklin and St. Lawrence counties
• 18th District: Jefferson and Lewis counties
• 19th District: Oneida County
• 20th District: Herkimer and Otsego counties
• 21st District: Madison and Oswego counties
• 22nd District: Onondaga and Cortland counties
• 23rd District: Chenango, Delaware and Schoharie counties
• 24th District: Broome, Tompkins and Tioga counties
• 25th District: Cayuga and Wayne counties
• 26th District: Ontario, Seneca and Yates counties
• 27th District: Chemung, Schuyler and Steuben counties
• 28th District: Monroe County
• 29th District: Genesee, Niagara and Orleans counties
• 30th District: Allegany, Livingston and Wyoming counties
• 31st District: Erie County
• 32nd District: Cattaraugus and Chautauqua 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.

Note: Palmer, Harrower and Allen had been elected as Republicans in 1871, but had joined the Liberal Republicans in 1872, and were barred from the Republican caucus.

District	Senator	Party	Notes
1st	Townsend D. Cock*	Democrat
2nd	John C. Perry*	Republican
3rd	Henry C. Murphy*	Democrat
4th	(William M. Tweed)*	Democrat	did not take his seat; unsuccessfully contested by Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa^[3]
5th	Erastus C. Benedict*	Republican
6th	Augustus Weismann*	Republican
7th	James O'Brien*	Reform Democrat
8th	Daniel F. Tiemann*	Reform Democrat
9th	William H. Robertson*	Republican
10th	Edward M. Madden*	Republican
11th	Abiah W. Palmer*	Liberal Rep.	voted for Conkling as U.S. Senator
12th	Isaac V. Baker Jr.*	Republican
13th	Charles H. Adams*	Republican
14th	William F. Scoresby*	Lib. Rep./Dem.
15th	Webster Wagner*	Republican
16th	Samuel Ames*	Republican
17th	Wells S. Dickinson*	Republican
18th	Norris Winslow*	Republican
19th	Samuel S. Lowery*	Republican
20th	Archibald C. McGowan*	Republican
21st	William Foster*	Republican
22nd	Daniel P. Wood*	Republican
23rd	James H. Graham*	Republican
24th	Thomas I. Chatfield*	Republican
25th	William B. Woodin*	Republican	elected President pro tempore
26th	William Johnson*	Democrat
27th	Gabriel T. Harrower*	Liberal Rep.	voted for Henry R. Selden as U.S. Senator
28th	Jarvis Lord*	Democrat
29th	George Bowen*	Republican
30th	James Wood*	Republican
31st	Loran L. Lewis*	Republican
32nd	Norman M. Allen*	Liberal Rep.	voted for William M. Evarts as U.S. Senator

Employees

• Clerk: Charles R. Dayton
• Assistant Doorkeeper: James Franklyn Jr.
• Stenographer: H. C. Tanner

State Assembly

Assemblymen

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

District		Assemblymen	Party	Notes
Albany	1st	Peter Schoonmaker	Republican
	2nd	Henry R. Pierson	Republican
	3rd	John W. Van Valkenburgh	Democrat
	4th	George B. Mosher*	Democrat
Allegany		William W. Crandall*	Republican
Broome		William L. Ford*	Republican
Cattaraugus	1st	Commodore P. Vedder*	Republican
	2nd	John Manley	Republican
Cayuga	1st	Leonard F. Hardy	Republican
	2nd	Elijah E. Brown*	Republican
Chautauqua	1st	Francis B. Brewer	Republican
	2nd	John D. Hiller	Republican
Chemung		Seymour Dexter	Republican
Chenango		Russell A. Young	Republican
Clinton		Smith M. Weed	Democrat
Columbia	1st	Benjamin Ray*	Democrat
	2nd	Milton M. Tompkins*	Democrat
Cortland		George W. Phillips	Republican
Delaware	1st	William Lewis Jr.*	Republican
	2nd	Matthew Griffin*	Republican
Dutchess	1st	James Mackin	Democrat
	2nd	Jacob B. Carpenter	Democrat
Erie	1st	John O'Brien	Republican
	2nd	George Baltz*	Republican
	3rd	Franklin A. Alberger*	Republican
	4th	John Nice	Republican
	5th	Robert B. Foote	Republican
Essex		Franklin W. Tobey*	Republican
Franklin		John P. Badger	Republican
Fulton and Hamilton		Willard J. Heacock	Republican
Genesee		Elbert Townsend	Republican
Greene		Augustus Hill*	Democrat
Herkimer		Eleazer C. Rice*	Republican
Jefferson	1st	Elam Persons	Republican
	2nd	Horatio S. Hendee	Republican
Kings	1st	James F. Donahue	Democrat
	2nd	David C. Van Cott	Republican
	3rd	Dominick H. Roche*	Democrat
	4th	James Watt	Republican
	5th	Albion P. Higgins	Republican
	6th	Jacob Worth	Republican
	7th	Frederick Cocheu	Republican
	8th	Adrian M. Suydam	Republican
	9th	John C. Jacobs*	Democrat
Lewis		Sidney Sylvester	Republican
Livingston		Archibald Kennedy*	Republican
Madison	1st	Edward C. Philpot	Republican
	2nd	Joseph F. Crawford	Republican
Monroe	1st	George A. Goss*	Republican
	2nd	Henry L. Fish	Independent	voted for Cornell as Speaker
	3rd	Leonard Burritt*	Republican
Montgomery		William J. Van Dusen*	Republican
New York	1st	James Healey*	Democrat
	2nd	Dennis Burns	Democrat
	3rd	James Hayes*	Democrat
	4th	James Ryan	Democrat
	5th	Michael Norton	Democrat
	6th	Timothy J. Campbell*	Democrat
	7th	George W. Clarke	Republican
	8th	Solon B. Smith	Republican
	9th	Stephen Pell*	Republican
	10th	Jacob M. Patterson	Republican
	11th	Alonzo B. Cornell	Republican	elected Speaker
	12th	William W. Cook*	Democrat
	13th	Charles Blackie	Republican
	14th	Charles G. Cornell	Democrat
	15th	Joseph Blumenthal	Democrat
	16th	Peter Woods	Democrat
	17th	Andrew Blessing	Democrat
	18th	Bernard Biglin	Republican
	19th	James A. Deering	Democrat
	20th	William S. Opdyke	Republican
	21st	Charles Crary	Democrat
Niagara	1st	Isaac H. Babcock*	Republican
	2nd	George M. Swain*	Republican
Oneida	1st	Nicholas A. White	Republican
	2nd	Henry J. Coggeshall	Republican
	3rd	Patrick H. Costello	Republican
	4th	Daniel Walker	Republican
Onondaga	1st	William H. H. Gere	Republican
	2nd	George Raynor	Republican
	3rd	John I. Furbeck	Republican
Ontario	1st	Ambrose L. Van Dusen*	Republican
	2nd	Cyrillo S. Lincoln*	Republican
Orange	1st	Augustus Denniston	Republican
	2nd	Frank Abbott*	Dem./Lib. Rep.^[4]
Orleans		Elisha S. Whalen	Republican
Oswego	1st	Daniel G. Fort*	Republican
	2nd	Willard Johnson	Democrat
	3rd	J. Lyman Bulkley	Republican
Otsego	1st	James Stewart	Democrat
	2nd	John Cope	Republican
Putnam		William S. Clapp	Independent	voted for Cornell as Speaker
Queens	1st	L. Bradford Prince*	Republican
	2nd	James M. Oakley*	Democrat	contested by Theodore J. Cogswell^[5]
Rensselaer	1st	William V. Cleary	Democrat
	2nd	John L. Snyder*	Republican
	3rd	Castle W. Herrick*	Republican
Richmond		John Blake Hillyer	Republican
Rockland		William Voorhis	Republican
St. Lawrence	1st	Darius A. Moore*	Republican
	2nd	Dolphus S. Lynde*	Republican
	3rd	Parker W. Rose*	Republican
Saratoga	1st	George West*	Republican
	2nd	George S. Batcheller	Republican
Schenectady		Daniel P. McQueen	Republican
Schoharie		Peter Couchman*	Democrat
Schuyler		Jeremiah McGuire	Democrat
Seneca		William W. Van Demark	Democrat
Steuben	1st	Thomas M. Fowler*	Republican
	2nd	Stephen F. Gilbert	Republican
Suffolk		John S. Marcy*	Republican
Sullivan		George M. Beebe	Democrat
Tioga		Jerome B. Landfield	Republican
Tompkins		Anson W. Knettles*	Republican
Ulster	1st	Michael A. Cummings	Democrat
	2nd	James H. Brown	Republican
	3rd	Daniel D. Elting	Republican
Warren		James G. Porteous	Republican
Washington	1st	Edmund W. Hollister*	Republican
	2nd	Eleazer Jones	Republican	died on February 10, 1873
		William H. Tefft	Republican	elected to fill vacancy
Wayne	1st	Edward B. Wells*	Republican
	2nd	Lucien T. Yeomans*	Republican
Westchester	1st	William Herring	Republican
	2nd	Amherst Wight Jr.	Republican
	3rd	James W. Husted*	Republican
Wyoming		John N. Davidson*	Republican
Yates		Morris B. Flinn	Republican

Employees

• Clerk: John O'Donnell
• Assistant Clerk: Samuel P. Allen
• Sergeant-at-Arms: Edward M. Goring
• Doorkeeper: Eugene L. Demers
• Journal Clerk: Edward M. Johnson

Notes

1. Except New York City where the wards were apportioned into election districts, and then some whole wards and some election districts of other wards were gerrymandered together into Assembly districts.
2. ALBANY.; Nomination of Roscoe Conkling as United States Senator in NYT on January 22, 1873
3. Tweed did not claim the seat, and his chair remained empty throughout the whole term. A resolution to vacate the seat, and then call a special election to fill the seat, was proposed, but no action was taken. O'Donovan Rossa, who had lost the senatorial election to Tweed, claimed the seat, but was not admitted; see THE STATE LEGISLATURE; Tweeds Empty Chair in NYT on March 5, 1873; and ALBANY; AN ASPIRANT TO TWEED'S SEAT in NYT on April 15, 1873
4. Abbott had been in the previous Assembly as a Republican. He joined the Liberal Republicans and was re-elected on the Democratic/Liberal Republican fusion ticket.
5. The Assembly Contest in the Second District of Queens County in NYT on January 14, 1873

Sources

• Civil List and Constitutional History of the Colony and State of New York compiled by Edgar Albert Werner (1884; see pg. 276 for Senate districts; pg. 290 for senators; pg. 298–304 for Assembly districts; and pg. 373f for assemblymen)
• Life Sketches of Executive Officers and Members of the Legislature of the State of New York by William H. McElroy & Alexander McBride (1873)
• THE ASSEMBLY in NYT on November 7, 1872
• ALBANY; Organization of Both Houses of the Legislature in NYT on January 8, 1873