21st New York State Legislature

21st New York State Legislature
← 20th 22nd →
The Old Albany City Hall (undated)
Overview
Legislative body	New York State Legislature
Jurisdiction	New York, United States
Term	July 1, 1797 – June 30, 1798
Senate
Members	43
President	Lt. Gov. Stephen Van Rensselaer (Fed.)
Party control	Federalist (33-7)
Assembly
Members	108
Speaker	Dirck Ten Broeck (Fed.)
Party control	Federalist
Sessions
1st January 2 – April 6, 1798

The 21st New York State Legislature, consisting of the New York State Senate and the New York State Assembly, met from January 2 to April 6, 1798, during the third year of John Jay's governorship, in Albany.

Background

Under the provisions of the New York Constitution of 1777, amended by the re-apportionment of March 4, 1796, Senators were elected on general tickets in the senatorial districts for four-year terms. They were divided into four classes, and every year about one fourth of the 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 March 1786, the Legislature enacted that future Legislatures meet on the first Tuesday of January of each year unless called earlier by the governor. In 1797, Albany was declared the State capital, and all subsequent Legislatures have been meeting there ever since.

On January 24, 1797, State Senator Philip Schuyler was elected to the U.S. Senate, leaving a vacancy in the Eastern District.

In 1797, Delaware County was created from parts of Ulster and Otsego counties, and was apportioned two seats in the Assembly, one each taken from Ulster and Otsego.

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 25 to 27, 1797. Senators Ezra L'Hommedieu (Southern D.), Ebenezer Clark, Anthony Ten Eyck, Jacobus Van Schoonhoven (all three Eastern D.), Thomas Morris and Michael Myers (both Western D.) were re-elected. John Addison, Peter Cantine Jr., James G. Graham (all three Middle D.) and Seth Phelps (Western D.) were also elected to full terms in the Senate. Senator Zina Hitchcock (Eastern D.) was re-elected, but only to a two-year term to fill the vacancy.

Sessions

The Legislature met on January 2, 1798, at the Old City Hall in Albany, New York; the Senate adjourned on April 5, the Assembly on April 6.

Federalist Dirck Ten Broeck was elected Speaker with 59 votes against 42 for Dem.-Rep. William Denning.^[2]

On January 3, 1798, Philip Schuyler (Fed.) resigned from the U.S. Senate. On January 11, the Legislature elected New York Supreme Court Justice John Sloss Hobart (Fed.) to fill the vacancy. Hobart vacated his seat on April 16, 1798, when he was appointed to the United States District Court for the District of New York, and on May 5 Gov. John Jay appointed William North (Fed.) to the U.S. Senate to fill the vacancy temporarily.

State Senate

Districts

• The Southern District (9 seats) consisted of Kings, New York, Queens, Richmond, Suffolk and Westchester counties.
• The Middle District (12 seats) consisted of Dutchess, Orange, Ulster, Columbia and Delaware counties.
• The Eastern District (11 seats) consisted of Washington, Clinton, Rensselaer, Albany and Saratoga counties.
• The Western District (11 seats) consisted of Montgomery, Herkimer, Ontario, Otsego, Tioga, Onondaga, Schoharie and Steuben 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	Richard Hatfield*	1 year	Federalist
	Philip Livingston*[3]	1 year	Federalist
	James Watson*	1 year	Federalist
	Samuel Jones*	2 years	Federalist	also New York State Comptroller
	vacant	2 years		Joshua Sands vacated his seat on April 26, 1797, upon appointment as Collector of the Port of New York
	Samuel Haight*	3 years	Federalist
	(Andrew Onderdonk*)	3 years	Federalist	died September 24, 1797, before this Legislature met
	Selah Strong*	3 years	Federalist
	Ezra L'Hommedieu*	4 years	Dem.-Rep.[4]	elected to the Council of Appointment
Middle	John D. Coe*	1 year	Dem.-Rep.
	Ambrose Spencer*	1 year	Federalist	also Assistant Attorney General (3rd D.)
	Abraham Schenck*	2 years	Dem.-Rep.
	Christopher Tappen*	2 years	Dem.-Rep.
	Thomas Tillotson*	2 years	Dem.-Rep.
	Robert Sands*[5]	3 years	Federalist
	James Savage*	3 years	Federalist
	Peter Silvester*	3 years	Federalist
	William Thompson*	3 years	Federalist	elected to the Council of Appointment
	John Addison	4 years	Dem.-Rep.
	Peter Cantine Jr.	4 years	Federalist
	James G. Graham	4 years	Dem.-Rep.
Eastern	Leonard Gansevoort*	1 year	Federalist
	Francis Nicoll*	1 year	Federalist
	Zina Hitchcock*	2 years	Federalist	elected to fill vacancy, in place of Philip Schuyler
	Ebenezer Russell*	2 years	Federalist
	Moses Vail*	2 years	Federalist	elected to the Council of Appointment
	Leonard Bronck*	3 years	Federalist
	James Gordon*	3 years	Federalist
	Ebenezer Clark*	4 years	Federalist
	Anthony Ten Eyck*	4 years	Federalist
	Jacobus Van Schoonhoven*	4 years	Federalist
	Abraham Van Vechten	4 years	Federalist	also Recorder of the City of Albany
Western	Abraham Arndt	1 year	Federalist
	Johannes Dietz*	1 year	Federalist
	John Frey*	1 year	Federalist
	Thomas R. Gold*	1 year	Federalist	also Assistant Attorney General (7th D.)
	Vincent Mathews*	2 years	Federalist
	Joseph White*	2 years	Federalist	elected to the Council of Appointment
	Jacob Morris*	3 years	Federalist
	Jedediah Sanger*	3 years	Federalist	from March 22, 1798, also First Judge of the Oneida County Court
	Thomas Morris*	4 years	Federalist
	Michael Myers*	4 years	Federalist
	Seth Phelps	4 years	Federalist

Employees

• Clerk: Abraham B. Bancker

State Assembly

Districts

• Albany County (10 seats)
• Clinton County (1 seat)
• Columbia County (6 seats)
• Delaware County (2 seats)
• Dutchess County (10 seats)
• Herkimer County (7 seats)
• Kings County (1 seat)
• Montgomery County (6 seats)
• The City and County of New York (13 seats)
• Onondaga County (2 seats)
• Ontario and Steuben counties (2 seats)
• Orange County (3 seats)
• Otsego County (4 seats)
• Queens County (4 seats)
• Rensselaer County (6 seats)
• Richmond County (1 seat)
• Saratoga County (5 seats)
• Schoharie County (1 seat)
• Suffolk County (4 seats)
• Tioga County (2 seats)
• Ulster County (7 seats)
• Washington County (6 seats)
• Westchester County (5 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	Thomas E. Barker	Federalist
	Johann Jost Dietz	Federalist
	Andrew N. Heermance
	Nathaniel Ogden*
	John Prince*
	Philip P. Schuyler*
	Dirck Ten Broeck*	Federalist	elected Speaker
	Joel Thompson	Federalist
	John H. Wendell*
	Peter West	Federalist
Clinton	Daniel Ross
Columbia	Caleb Benton*
	John C. Hogeboom*	Dem.-Rep.
	Killian Hogeboom	Dem.-Rep.
	Elisha Jenkins	Federalist[6]
	Samuel Ten Broeck	Dem.-Rep.
	Peter I. Vosburgh*
Delaware	William Horton
	Nathaniel Wattles		died on January 2, 1798, in Albany
Dutchess	William Barker	Dem.-Rep.
	Lemuel Clift	Federalist
	Luther Holley
	Joseph Potter	Federalist
	Philip J. Schuyler	Federalist
	Jacob Smith*
	John Thomas
	Jesse Thompson*	Federalist
	Samuel Towner	Dem.-Rep.
	William B. Verplanck*	Federalist
Herkimer	Benjamin Bowen
	Matthew Brown Jr.*
	Ludwick Campbell*
	Isaac Foote	Federalist
	Gaylord Griswold*	Federalist
	Henry McNeil*	Federalist
	Nathan Smith
Kings	Peter Vandervoort*	Federalist
Montgomery	Frederick Gettman*	Federalist
	James Hildreth
	Robert McFarland
	George Metcalfe		also Assistant Attorney General (5th D.)
	Jacob Snell	Dem.-Rep.
	Philip Van Alstyne	Dem.-Rep.
New York	Philip I. Arcularius	Dem.-Rep.
	William Boyd	Dem.-Rep.
	Ebenezer S. Burling	Dem.-Rep.
	Aaron Burr	Dem.-Rep.
	DeWitt Clinton	Dem.-Rep.
	Jacob De La Montagnie	Dem.-Rep.
	William Denning	Dem.-Rep.
	James Fairlie	Dem.-Rep.
	James Hunt	Dem.-Rep.
	Samuel L. Mitchill	Dem.-Rep.
	Ezekiel Robins	Dem.-Rep.
	Thomas Storm	Dem.-Rep.	previously a member from Dutchess Co.
	George Warner	Dem.-Rep.
Onondaga	Silas Halsey*
	Comfort Tyler*
Ontario and Steuben	Amos Hall	Federalist
	Charles Williamson*
Orange	James Burt	Dem.-Rep.
	Benjamin Coe
	Moses Hatfield
Otsego	Joshua Dewey
	Francis Henry*	Federalist
	Elijah Holt
	Timothy Morse*
Queens	Stephen Carman	Federalist
	Whitehead Cornwell
	William Pearsall*	Federalist
	John I. Skidmore	Dem.-Rep.
Rensselaer	John Bird*	Federalist	in April 1798, elected to the 6th United States Congress
	Jacob A. Fort*	Federalist
	Daniel Gray*	Federalist
	Jonathan Hoag
	Hosea Moffitt*	Federalist
	Israel Thompson
Richmond	Paul I. Micheau	Federalist
Saratoga	Seth C. Baldwin*
	Samuel Clark*
	Adam Comstock*	Dem.-Rep.
	Douw I. Fonda
	Aaron Gregory
Schoharie	John Rice*	Federalist
Suffolk	John Howard
	Abraham Miller*	Dem.-Rep.
	Josiah Reeve
	Silas Wood*	Federalist
Tioga	Emanuel Coryell*	Federalist
	Benjamin Hovey
Ulster	John Barber
	Philip D. Bevier	Dem.-Rep.
	Phineas Bowman
	Jacobus S. Bruyn	Dem.-Rep.
	John A. DeWitt
	John C. DeWitt*	Dem.-Rep.
	Andrew McCord	Dem.-Rep.
Washington	Charles Kane
	Daniel Mason*
	Reuben Pride
	Edward Savage*	Dem.-Rep.
	Thomas Smith
	Melancton Wheeler
Westchester	William Adams
	John Barker*	Federalist
	Elijah Lee
	Abel Smith	Dem.-Rep.
	Charles Teed*	Federalist

Employees

• Clerk: James Van Ingen
• Sergeant-at-Arms: Robert Hunter
• Doorkeeper: Peter Hansen

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. 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; page 110)
3. Philip Livingston, son of Peter Van Brugh Livingston
4. L'Hommedieu changed sides, see Hammond, page 108
5. Original owner of Robert Sands Estate in Rhinebeck, Dutchess Co.
6. Jenkins was a close political friend of Ambrose Spencer and both changed sides in 1798.

Sources

• The New York Civil List compiled by Franklin Benjamin Hough (Weed, Parsons and Co., 1858) [see pg. 108f for Senate districts; pg. 116 for senators; pg. 148f for Assembly districts; pg. 171 for assemblymen]
• Election result Assembly, Dutchess Co. at project "A New Nation Votes", compiled by Phil Lampi, hosted by Tufts University Digital Library
• Election result Assembly, Montgomery Co. at project "A New Nation Votes"
• Election result Assembly, Rensselaer Co. at project "A New Nation Votes"
• Election result Assembly, Saratoga Co. at project "A New Nation Votes"
• Election result Assembly, Washington Co. at project "A New Nation Votes"
• Election result Assembly Speaker at project "A New Nation Votes"