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.
In 1808, Cattaraugus and Chautauqua counties had been split from Genesee County, but no county governments were organized for some time. In 1811, both counties were joined with Niagara in one Assembly district with 1 seat.
Lt. Gov. John Broome died on August 8, 1810, and a special election was required to fill the vacancy. State Senator and Mayor of New York City DeWitt Clinton was nominated by the Democratic-Republican majority. Nicholas Fish was nominated by the Federalists, and Marinus Willet was nominated by the Tammany organization in New York City which, although being the local affiliate of the Democratic-Republican Party, was opposed to Clinton.
Senator John Tayler (Eastern D.) was re-elected. Erastus Root, William Taber (both Middle D.), Elisha Arnold, Kitchel Bishop, Ruggles Hubbard (all three Eastern D.), Casper M. Rouse (Western D.), and Assemblyman Nathan Sanford (Southern D.) were also elected to the Senate. All eight were Democratic-Republicans.
Sessions
The Legislature met at the Old State Capitol[3] in Albany on January 28, 1812; was prorogued by the Governor on March 27; met again on May 21; and adjourned on June 19.
On February 5, the Assembly passed a bill (vote 50 to 42) to re-appoint David Thomas (Dem.-Rep.) as New York State Treasurer in place of Abraham G. Lansing (Fed.). The Senate concurred on February 8 by a vote of 19 to 5.
The main political controversy during this session was the chartering of the Bank of America with a capital of $6,000,000. The bankers offered to pay a bonus of $600,000, to be divided as follows: $400,000 to the Common-School Fund, $100,000 to the Literature Fund and $100,00 to the State Treasury if during the next 20 years no other bank would be chartered. Besides, the bankers offered a loan of $1,000,000 to the State at 5% interest p.a. to be used for the Erie Canal construction; and a loan of $1,000,000 at 6% interest to the farmers who were losing money because of the Embargo. State Treasurer David Thomas and Solomon Southwick were the main lobbyists for the chartering; Gov. Daniel D. Tompkins, Supreme Court Justice Ambrose Spencer and State Senator John Tayler "declared open war against the bank."[4] Lt. Gov. DeWitt Clinton told his brother-in-law, and close political ally of many years, Ambrose Spencer that he would, if necessary, vote against the charter (as Lt. Gov. he had only a casting vote in the Senate), but that he would not make the issue a question of party discipline, leaving it to the Democratic-Republican legislators to vote as they thought fit. This led to Spencer's joining the Anti-Clintonians shortly thereafter. The Assembly passed the bill to charter the bank in second reading with a vote of 52 to 46. The bill then went to the Senate, and a motion was made to reject it, but was voted down 15 to 13. To avoid the bill going through, on March 27, Gov. Tompkins prorogued the Legislature[5] until May 21, saying that proof had been furnished that the bankers had bribed legislators to vote for the charter. After the Legislature met again, the bank charter was passed in the Senate by a vote of 17 to 13, and in third reading in the Assembly by a vote of 58 to 39. In 1813, the bank asked the Legislature to cancel the payment of the bonus, which had been a condition sine qua non of the charter, and only $100,000 were actually paid into the Common School Fund.[6]
On May 28, a caucus of Dem.-Rep. legislators, presided over by James W. Wilkin, nominated DeWitt Clinton for U.S. president. On June 18, the United States declared War against Great Britain, and the Legislature adjourned on the next day.
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. Nathan Sanford changed from the Assembly to the Senate.
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.
^This is the vote for the members of the Council of Appointment; Hammond gives "73 to 39", see page
^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.
^The Old CapitolArchived December 15, 2010, at the Wayback Machine transcribed from The Centennial Celebrations of the State of New York (issued by the Secretary of State, 1879; Weed, Parsons & Co. Printers, Albany)
^This was the first and only time a New York governor prorogued the Legislature, the governor's right to prorogue was abolished by the New York Constitution of 1821.
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. 185f for assemblymen]
