Description

Journal of the Senate. STATE OF NEW YORK Senate Chamber, City of Albany 1824 * Oversized8 ½ x 14 inches, 762 pages. Hard cover, leather corners and spine. Considerable damage to covers where rounded imprints have been made, leather is chipped/rubbed on spine, corners are nearly rubbed off entirely. All contents are bright, and readable. Text is good, some shadowing, water stains with rippling. Printed on heavy rag paper. Signature of previous owner is of great significance. Henry W. Livingston This is his actual signature. (see his biographical sketch at bottom of page) The 47th New York State Legislature, consisting of the New York State Senate and the New York State Assembly, met from January 6 to November 27, 1824, during the second year of Joseph C. Yates's governorship, in Albany. Under the provisions of the New York Constitution of 1821, 32 Senators were elected on general tickets in eight 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. Jacob Sutherland declined to take his seat in the State Senate at the beginning of the previous session, leaving a vacancy in the Third District. State Senator Joseph Spencer died on May 2, 1823, leaving a vacancy in the Eighth District. The previous session had been dominated by the Bucktails faction of the Democratic-Republican Party. The opposing Democratic-Republican faction, the "Clintonians" had almost disappeared after DeWitt Clinton decided not to run in the New York gubernatorial election, 1822. In 1823, a major controversy arose concerning the presidential succession. Martin Van Buren supported William H. Crawford and was sure to get New York's presidential votes by electing a Bucktail majority to the Legislature which at that time elected the presidential electors. This scheme was opposed not only by the Clintonians, but also by a very large part of the Bucktails and led to a breakdown of party lines. The Anti-Crawford factions, favoring at this time John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, Andrew Jackson, and John C. Calhoun as possible presidential candidates, proposed to have the presidential electors elected by the people in districts, similar to the congressional elections, and became known as the "People's Party". The rump Bucktail faction (which followed Van Buren) was called the "Regency Party" by their opponents, a reference to the Albany Regency. Elections The State election was held from November 3 to 5, 1823. David Gardiner (1st D.), William Nelson (2nd D.), Jacob Haight (3rd D.), Silas Wright Jr. (4th D.), Perley Keyes (5th D.), Latham A. Burrows (6th D.), Jedediah Morgan (7th D.) and Assemblyman James McCall (8th D.) were elected to full terms in the Senate. Senator Edward P. Livingston (3rd D.) and Assemblyman John Bowman (8th D.) were elected to fill the vacancies. Gardiner and Haight were elected on the People's Party ticket; Nelson and Burrows were elected unopposed but joined the People's Party during the session; Morgan sided also with the People's Party; and the other five were Bucktails and sided with the Regency Party. Sessions The Legislature met for the regular session at the Old State Capitol in Albany on January 6, 1824, and adjourned on April 24. On January 5, pro-Crawford and anti-Crawford Bucktail assemblymen caucused together to nominate a candidate for Speaker. Richard Goodell (Buckt.) defeated James Tallmadge Jr. (PP) with a vote of 70 to 40 and was elected the next day with 116 votes out of 125. On January 6, Henry Wheaton (PP) announced in the Assembly that he would later propose a bill to have the people elect the presidential electors. Azariah C. Flagg (Buckt.) then offered a resolution to refer the question to a Committee of Nine. This was opposed by the People's Party men, denouncing it as a maneuver to defeat the change, but the resolution was carried after much debate by a vote of 76 to 47. Appointed to the committee were Assemblymen Flagg, Van Alstyne, Bellinger, Brown, Bowker, Ells (all six pro-Crawford), Mullett, Finch and Wheaton (anti-Crawford). After several meetings, the Committee of Nine reported a bill giving the power to choose presidential electors to the people but requiring a majority of all the votes to be elected, although in New York history all elections have been, and still are, made by plurality. With at least four strong candidates, it was evident that no choice would be made in this manner. The proposed bill provided for choosing presidential electors by the Legislature if there was no choice by the people, which confirmed Wheaton's original suspicion. Isaac Finch proposed an amendment, to elect by plurality instead, which was lost with a vote of 52 to 64. On February 4, the bill was passed in the Assembly, to elect by popular vote requiring a majority, but without provisions on how to proceed in case of no choice. The bill then went to the Senate and was referred to a select committee chaired by Charles E. Dudley (Buckt.). After some time without action by the committee, Isaac Ogden offered a resolution, requiring the committee to report, which was postponed indefinitely by a vote of twenty-one to nine. After some time, the committee submitted a written report, concluding that "it would not be expedient" to pass this bill, or any other, to change the mode of choosing presidential electors. On March 10, this report was debated in the Senate. John Cramer moved to change the original conclusion, saying that "it was expedient to pass a law, at the present session of the Legislature," giving to the people the choice of presidential electors by general ticket. A resolution to amend this with "and by a plurality of votes" was lost with a vote of 14 to 17. Then Cramer's resolution was carried with a vote of 16 to 15. However, after much debate, Edward P. Livingston offered a resolution to postpone the bill until the first Monday in November, which was carried by a vote of 17 to 14. On April 3, a caucus of Bucktail legislators, consisting of the Regency men and a minority of People's men, nominated Samuel Young (pro-Clay) for Governor. Young was proposed by the People's men, and was nominated in opposition to Gov. Yates, who had been proposed by the Regency men for re-election. However, considering the enormous unpopularity of the rejection of the new electoral law, and Yates being identified with these proceedings, most Regency men were sure that Yates had no chance to be re-elected, and were willing to abandon him in favor of any other candidate. Young had been originally considered to be put on the People's Party ticket, but this was dropped by the majority of the People's men after he was nominated by the Regency Party. On April 7, the People's Party legislators held a caucus, of which Isaac Ogden was Chairman and David Gardiner Secretary. They protested against the rejection of the electoral law, and against the choice of nominees for Governor and Lieutenant Governor by legislative caucus. They issued a call for a State convention of the People's Party, to be held on September 21 at Utica to make the nominations. On April 9, at a meeting in New York City, of which Ex-Gov. Morgan Lewis was Chairman and Cadwallader D. Colden Secretary, nominated Andrew Jackson for U.S. president. On April 24, John Bowman submitted in the Senate a resolution for the removal of DeWitt Clinton from the Erie Canal Commission, which was carried with only three contrary votes (Cramer, Morgan, and McIntyre). The resolution then went to the Assembly and was carried by a vote of 64 to 34. Most People's men voted for the removal, while some Regency men did not. The plan, hatched by the Regency, was to affect a breach between the Clintonians and the anti-Crawford Bucktails who together would have constituted a majority. However, the scheme backfired since the removal created a great wave of indignation throughout the State. James Tallmadge Jr. (PP), who at the time was expected to be nominated for Governor by the Clintonians, voted for the removal and thus was dropped from consideration. Instead, DeWitt Clinton himself was proposed to run, and thus be vindicated. On June 2, Gov. Yates issued a call for a special session of the Legislature to convene on August 2, to reconsider the enactment of a new electoral law. On August 2, the Legislature met for a special session. Before the governor's message could be read, Byram Green offered a resolution in the Senate to censure Gov. Yates for having called this session. Azariah C. Flagg offered a resolution in the Assembly saying that the special session was unwarranted which was carried. After some debate, the Legislature adjourned on August 6 without any action taken. On September 21, a state convention "in favor of a new electoral law", consisting of about 30 People's Party men and the remainder Clintonians, met at Utica with 122 delegates present. Ex-Gov. John Tayler (Clint.) was Chairman; Alexander Coffin (PP), of Hudson, was Vice-Chairman; and Samuel Stevens (PP) was Secretary. On September 22, DeWitt Clinton was nominated for Governor with a large majority, and Tallmadge was unanimously nominated for Lieutenant Governor. The People's Party men then walked out, reconvened elsewhere chaired by Alexander Coffin, and repudiated the nomination of Clinton but vowed support for the election of Tallmadge as Lt. Gov. On November 2, the Legislature met again, to elect presidential electors; and adjourned on November 27. On November 3, the Legislature appointed Abraham Keyser Jr. to succeed Benjamin Knower as New York State Treasurer. On November 3, a caucus of Bucktail legislators consisting of both Regency and People's men, was held to nominate electors. The meeting was chaired by Lt. Gov. Erastus Root who directed that those members, who had participated in the meeting of April 7 which called the Utica convention, be omitted from the roll call. This was opposed by these members and the meeting broke up in confusion without any action taken. On November 10, the Senate nominated Crawford electors with a vote of 17 (the same who voted for the postponement of the electoral law) against seven for the Clay ticket and seven for the Adams ticket. In the Assembly, on the first ballot the Adams ticket had fifty votes, the Crawford ticket forty-three and the Clay ticket thirty-two. The Adams and the Clay men then combined and nominated a joint ticket of some electors who would vote for Adams and some who would vote for Clay. On November 11, on the first joint ballot of the Legislature, 32 Adams-Clay electors were chosen, there being no choice of the other four due to three blank ballots. On the second joint ballot, 4 Crawford electors were chosen. The 36 electors chosen were: Nathan Thompson, Darius Bentley, Micah Brooks, Pierre A. Barker, Joseph Sibley, Timothy H. Porter, Samuel Russell, Marinus Willett, Ebenezer Sage, Richard Blauvelt, Abraham Stagg, John Drake, James Drake, Isaac Sutherland (of Dutchess Co.), William Walsh, Alexander J. Coffin, Benjamin Smith, Elisha Dorr, William Townsend, Thomas Lawyer, Edward B. Crandall, Samuel Hicks, Edward Savage, Benjamin Mooers, Chester Patterson, Phinehas Coon, Azariah Smith, Eleazer Barnum, Solomon St. John, Elisha B. Strong, Clark Crandall, Isaac Sutherland (of Genesee Co.), John Lansing Jr., Benjamin Bailey, Samuel Smith and Henry Cady. Porter and Sage did not attend the meeting of the electoral college, and John Tayler and Willam Mann were appointed to fill the vacancies. They cast twenty-six votes for John Quincy Adams, five for William H. Crawford, four for Henry Clay and one for Andrew Jackson for president; and twenty-nine votes for John C. Calhoun, and seven for Nathan Sanford for vice president. * Henry Walter Livingston (June 12, 1768 – December 22, 1810) was a United States Representative from the state of New York. Early life Livingston was born in Livingston, New York, to Continental Congressman Walter Livingston and Cornelia Schuyler.] He was baptized on June 12, 1768, and had probably been born on the same day. His sister, Gertrude Livingston, who married William Cutting, was the mother of Francis Brockholst Cutting, also a U.S. Representative from New York's 8th congressional district. His youngest sister, Harriet Livingston, was married to Robert Fulton. His paternal grandfather was Robert Livingston, the 3rd Lord of Livingston Manor. His mother was the granddaughter of Pieter Schuyler, the 1st Mayor of Albany. From October 2, 1787, to September 11, 1789, Livingston was a clerk in the office of Alexander Hamilton, who issued a "certificate of clerkship" for him on April 29, 1790, stating that "he is of good moral Character." From 1792 to 1794 he was private secretary to Gouverneur Morris, who was then Minister to France. Livingston was then Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Columbia County. He was a member of the New York State Assembly in 1802 and again in 1810. He was elected as a Federalist to the 8th and 9th Congresses, holding office from March 4, 1803, to March 3, 1807. Personal life In 1796,[9] he married Mary Masters Allen (1776–1855), the daughter of James Allen (1742–1778), and granddaughter of William Allen (1704–1780), the Chief Justice of Pennsylvania, and great-granddaughter of Andrew Hamilton (c.1676–1741), a Speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, members of a prominent Pennsylvania family. They were the parents of Henry Walter Livingston (1798–1848), who married Caroline de Grasse de Pau (1806–1871), daughter of Francis De Pau, a French shipping magnate and slaver, and Silvie de Grasse, daughter of a French count, in 1823. Walter Livingston (1799–1872), who married Mary Livingston Greenleaf (1802–1886), daughter of James Greenleaf, in 1828 James Allen Livingston (1801–1825), who died unmarried in Rouen, France Mary Livingston (1803–1880), who married James Thomson, Jr. (d. 1847), in 1825 Elizabeth Livingston (1807–1860), who married William Denning Henderson (1803–1852), in 1828 Cornelia Livingston (1808–1884), who married Carroll Livingston (1805–1867), son of Henry Brockholst Livingston, in 1828 Anne Greenleaf Livingston (1809–1887), who married Anson Livingston (1807–1873), another son of Henry Brockholst Livingston, in 1829 He died at his home in Livingston, New York on December 22, 1810. This home in Livingston, known as "The Hill," was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. From this book: Letters from Six Nations, who adopted Christianity, in desperation reaches out for assistance “You are no doubt well acquainted with the fact, that our fat her, the president, gives his sanction to the religious institutions amongst us, by an appropriation of $10,000 for their support and encouragement. We are either so wicked or so ignorant, that we cannot see the propriety of taking away those privileges, which our great father, the president, has so often and so warmly recommended to our notice and blessings too, which your Enlighted predecessor has thought proper to advise us, in the strongest terms, to receive, in a talk which we now hold in our hands, from him. Yet, we are prevented from enjoying these blessings, by the rigor of laws. Brother, we will still live in hopes that our friend and father, the Governor, will use his influence in befriending his feeble and unworthy red children’s so far to suffer the blessings of the gospel to continue among us, on all our reservations; and that the will, as far as possible, relieve our already desponding hearts of this additional trouble, of parting with those friends, the missionaries, who have pitied our low estate, and are actually relieving the miseries of our condition.” As usual, this is forwarded to a committee.