37th New York State Legislature explained

Number:	37th
Imagename:	The Old State Capitol
Imagedate:	1879
Start:	July 1, 1813
End:	June 30, 1814
Vp:	Lt. Gov. John Tayler (Dem.-Rep.)
Speaker:	James Emott (Fed.)
Senators:	32
Reps:	112
S-Majority:	Dem.-Rep. (26–5)
H-Majority:	Federalist (58–48)
Sessionnumber1:	1st
Sessionstart1:	January 25
Sessionend1:	April 15, 1814
Previous:	36th
Next:	38th

The 37th New York State Legislature, consisting of the New York State Senate and the New York State Assembly, met from January 25 to April 15, 1814, during the seventh year of Daniel D. Tompkins's governorship, in Albany.

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.

In 1812, Putnam County was split from Dutchess County, and in 1813 was apportioned 1 seat in the Assembly, taken from Dutchess. In 1813, Warren County was split from Washington County, but both remained together in one Assembly district.

On February 4, 1813, a caucus of 48 Democratic-Republican legislators nominated unanimously Gov. Daniel D. Tompkins for re-election. State Senator John Tayler was nominated for Lieutenant Governor with 32 votes against 16 for the incumbent DeWitt Clinton.

On February 11, 1813, a Federalist caucus, presided over by Egbert Benson, nominated Stephen Van Rensselaer for Governor, and Assemblyman George Huntington for Lieutenant 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, 1813. Gov. Daniel D. Tompkins was re-elected; and State Senator John Tayler was elected Lieutenant Governor; both were Democratic-Republicans.

Jonathan Dayton (Southern D.), Lucas Elmendorf, Samuel G. Verbryck (both Middle D.), James Cochran, Samuel Stewart (both Eastern D.), Henry Bloom, Perley Keyes and Farrand Stranahan (all three Western D.) were elected to the Senate. Cochran and Stewart were Federalists, the other six were Democratic-Republicans.

Sessions

The Legislature met at the Old State Capitol in Albany on January 25, 1814; and adjourned on April 15.

James Emott (Fed.) was elected Speaker with 58 votes against 48 for William Ross (Dem.-Rep.). John F. Bacon (Dem.-Rep.) was elected Clerk of the Senate.

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, Sullivan and Putnam counties.
• The Eastern District (8 seats) consisted of Washington, Clinton, Rensselaer, Albany, Saratoga, Essex, Montgomery, Franklin, Schenectady and Warren 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, Cortland, 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.

District	Senators	Term left	Party	Notes
Southern	Ebenezer White	1 year		Dem.-Rep.
	Nathan Sanford	2 years		Dem.-Rep.	also United States Attorney for the District of New York
	Elbert H. Jones	3 years		Federalist	elected to the Council of Appointment
	Peter W. Radcliff	3 years		Federalist
	Jonathan Dayton	4 years		Dem.-Rep.
Middle	Morgan Lewis	1 year		Dem.-Rep.	elected to the Council of Appointment
	James W. Wilkin	1 year		Dem.-Rep.
	Erastus Root	2 years		Dem.-Rep.
	William Taber	2 years		Dem.-Rep.
	Martin Van Buren	3 years		Dem.-Rep.
	Lucas Elmendorf	4 years		Dem.-Rep.
	Samuel G. Verbryck	4 years		Dem.-Rep.
Eastern	Henry Yates Jr. ^[2]	1 year		Dem.-Rep.
	Elisha Arnold	2 years		Dem.-Rep.
	Kitchel Bishop	2 years		Dem.-Rep.
	Ruggles Hubbard	2 years		Dem.-Rep.
	vacant	2 years		John Tayler was elected Lieutenant Governor of New York
	Gerrit Wendell	3 years		Federalist
	James Cochran	4 years		Federalist
	Samuel Stewart	4 years		Federalist	elected to the Council of Appointment
Western	Reuben Humphrey	1 year		Dem.-Rep.
	Nathan Smith ^[3]	1 year		Dem.-Rep.
	Philetus Swift	1 year		Dem.-Rep.
	Henry A. Townsend	1 year		Dem.-Rep.	elected to the Council of Appointment
	Casper M. Rouse	2 years		Dem.-Rep.
	Russell Attwater	3 years		Dem.-Rep.
	Francis A. Bloodgood	3 years		Dem.-Rep.
	Archibald S. Clarke	3 years		Dem.-Rep.
	Henry Hager	3 years		Dem.-Rep.
	Henry Bloom	4 years		Dem.-Rep.
	Perley Keyes	4 years		Dem.-Rep.
	Farrand Stranahan	4 years		Dem.-Rep.

Employees

• Clerk: John F. Bacon

State Assembly

Districts

• Albany County (4 seats)
• Allegany and Steuben counties (1 seat)
• Broome County (1 seat)
• Cattaraugus, Chautauqua and Niagara counties (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 (5 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)
• Oneida County (5 seats)
• Onondaga County (2 seats)
• Ontario County (5 seats)
• Orange County (4 seats)
• Otsego County (4 seats)
• Putnam County (1 seat)
• 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)
• Warren and Washington counties (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	Harmanus Bleecker		Federalist
	Johann Jost Dietz		Federalist
	Moses Smith		Federalist
	John L. Winne
Allegany and Steuben	Daniel Cruger		Dem.-Rep.
Broome	John H. Avery
Cattaraugus, Chautauqua and Niagara	Jonas Williams		Dem.-Rep.
Cayuga	William C. Bennet		Dem.-Rep.
	Silas Bowker
	William Satterlee		Dem.-Rep.
Chenango	James Houghteling
	John Noyes		Dem.-Rep.
	Hascall Ransford
Clinton and Franklin	Allen R. Moore		Federalist
Columbia	Henry Rockefeller
	John L. Van Alen Jr.
	Jacob R. Van Rensselaer		Federalist	also Secretary of State of New York
	Elisha Williams		Federalist
Cortland	William Mallery		Dem.-Rep.
Delaware	John T. More
	Isaac Ogden		Dem.-Rep.
Dutchess	William Alexander Duer		Federalist
	James Emott		Federalist	elected Speaker
	Samuel Mott		Federalist
	Joseph Potter		Federalist
	Jesse Thompson		Federalist
Essex	Levi Thompson		Federalist
Genesee	James Ganson		Dem.-Rep.
Greene	William Fraser
	Abraham Van Dyck
Herkimer	Christopher P. Bellinger		Dem.-Rep.
	Jonas Cleland		Dem.-Rep.
	Aaron Hackley, Jr.		Dem.-Rep.
Jefferson	Clark Allen		Federalist
	Ethel Bronson		Federalist
Kings	Jeremiah Lott		Federalist
Lewis	Chillus Doty
	Stephen F. Blackstone
	Elisha Carrington
	Abraham D. Van Horne
	Samuel A. Gilbert
	James Knox
	Gabriel Manny
	Sylvanus Wilcox
	Andrew Zabriskie
New York	John B. Coles		Federalist
	Isaac S. Douglass		Federalist
	Gabriel Furman		Federalist
	Richard Hatfield Jr.
	Samuel Jones Jr.		Federalist
	Charles King		Federalist
	Elisha W. King
	David B. Ogden		Federalist
	James Palmer
	Abraham Russell		Federalist
	James Smith		Federalist
Oneida	Isaac Brayton		Federalist
	Laurens Hull
	James Lynch		Federalist
	Henry McNeil		Federalist
	Theodore Sill		Federalist
	Barnet Mooney		Dem.-Rep.
	Moses Nash		Dem.-Rep.
	Hugh McNair
	Stephen Phelps
	David Sutherland
	Joshua Vanfleet
	Asahel Warner		Dem.-Rep.
	William Ross		Dem.-Rep.
	Joshua Sayre
	Benjamin Strong
	Benjamin Webb
Otsego	Erastus Crafts
	Abel DeForest
	Samuel Griffin
	James Hyde		Federalist
Putnam	Joshua Barnum Jr.
Queens	Stephen Carman		Federalist
	John Fleet		Federalist
	Daniel Kissam		Federalist
Rensselaer	William Bradley		Federalist
	Burton Hammond		Federalist
	Bethel Mather		Federalist
	Barent Van Vleck		Federalist
Richmond	James Guyon, Jr.		Dem.-Rep.
Rockland	Peter S. Van Orden		Dem.-Rep.
St. Lawrence	Louis Hasbrouck		also Clerk of St. Lawrence Co.
Saratoga	Nicholas W. Angle
	John Dunning
	Avery Starkweather
	Samuel Young		Dem.-Rep.
Schenectady	Abraham Van Ingen		Federalist
	Lawrence Vrooman		Federalist
Schoharie	William C. Bouck		Dem.-Rep.
	William Dietz
Seneca	James McCall
Suffolk	Jonathan S. Conklin		Dem.-Rep.
	Thomas S. Lester		Dem.-Rep.
	Nathaniel Potter		Dem.-Rep.
Sullivan and Ulster	Coenrad Bevier		Dem.-Rep.
	Daniel Clark		Dem.-Rep.
	John Kiersted
	Green Miller
Tioga	Caleb Baker		Dem.-Rep.
Warren and Washington	Paul Dennis
	Samuel Gordon
	John Richards		Dem.-Rep.	contested; seat vacated
	John Savage		Dem.-Rep.	also District Attorney of the 4th District
	Charles Starbuck
	John White		seated on February 17, 1814, in place of John Richards^[4]
Westchester	William Barker		Federalist
	Abraham Miller		Dem.-Rep.
	Richard Valentine Morris		Federalist

Employees

• Clerk: James Van Ingen
• Sergeant-at-Arms: David Olmstead
• 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. Henry Yates (1770–1854), brother of Gov. Joseph C. Yates, see bio in Schenectady History
3. Nathan Smith (c. 1769 – 1836), of Fairfield, First Judge of the Herkimer County Court 1814–21; see bio in A History of Herkimer County by Nathaniel S. Benton (pages 357ff)
4. see A Compilation of Cases of Contested Elections to Seats in the Assembly of the State of New York (1871; pg. 31–36)

Sources

• The New York Civil List compiled by Franklin Benjamin Hough (Weed, Parsons and Co., 1858) [see pg. 108f for Senate districts; pg. 122 for senators; pg. 148f for Assembly districts; pg. 188 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 354–375)
• Election result Assembly, Broome Co. at project "A New Nation Votes", compiled by Phil Lampi, hosted by Tufts University Digital Library
• Partial election result Assembly, Clinton and Franklin Co. at project "A New Nation Votes" [gives only votes from Clinton Co.]
• Election result Assembly, Cortland Co. at project "A New Nation Votes"
• Election result Assembly, Dutchess Co. at project "A New Nation Votes"
• Election result Assembly, Essex Co. at project "A New Nation Votes"
• Election result Assembly, Greene Co. at project "A New Nation Votes"
• Election result Assembly, Herkimer Co. at project "A New Nation Votes"
• Election result Assembly, Kings Co. at project "A New Nation Votes"
• Election result Assembly, Onondaga Co. at project "A New Nation Votes"
• Election result Assembly, Queens Co. at project "A New Nation Votes"
• Election result Assembly, Rensselaer Co. at project "A New Nation Votes"
• Election result Assembly, Richmond Co. at project "A New Nation Votes"
• Election result Assembly, Suffolk Co. at project "A New Nation Votes"
• Partial election result Senate, Southern D. at project "A New Nation Votes" [gives only votes of Queens, Richmond and Suffolk Co.]
• Partial election result Senate, Middle D. at project "A New Nation Votes" [gives only votes of Dutchess and Greene Co.) * [https://web.archive.org/web/20120928111940/http://dl.tufts.edu/view_votingrecord.jsp?pid=tufts:ny.statesenateeastern.1813 Partial election result Senate, Eastern D.] at project "A New Nation Votes" [gives only votes of Rensselaer Co.]
• Partial election result Senate, Western D. at project "A New Nation Votes" [gives only votes of Broome, Herkimer and Onondaga Co.]
• Election result, Speaker at project "A New Nation Votes"
• Election result, Council of Appointment at project "A New Nation Votes"