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974.7 N422 1886 2027484
M. L.
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
. 3 1833 01176 9590
Gc 974 N42 188 202
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2013
http://archive.org/details/newyorkcivillist00alba
SIVIL LIST
AND
CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY . OF THE
EXCELSIOR
COLONY AND STATE OF
YORK
BY
EDGAR A.WERNER.
RG. 974.7
SECOND EDITION.
ALBANY: WEED, PARSONS & CO., PUBLISHERS.
8190 154 1886
PK
127
974.7 W
. Civil list-new york (State_) New york (State)- History
Recicle Jan 4-1979
Entered, according to act of Congress, in the year eighteen hundred and eighty-six, BY WEED, PARSONS AND COMPANY, In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.
2027484 GENEALOC
. €
V. L
PREFACE.
THE NEW YORK CIVIL LIST, in its enlarged form, is substantially a new work, a more comprehensive plan having been adopted, which includes, with lists of officers connected with the public service of the State, a constitutional history of the Commonwealth. The growth of each department of government is traeed, with the pur- pose of showing the changes and development of the constitutional system of the State, and of demonstrating the fact that the govern- ment of New York is the model system of organic liberty in the world, the natural growth of our own soil, the work of our own people, in a field in which they were pioneers. In the earlier editions of the enlarged Civil List this plan was imperfectly realized in some respects, particularly with reference to the administrative departments of government. This defect has since been partially remedied, and further improvements are contemplated, which will render the work complete as a sketch of the growth of the organic law of New York. The alphabetical index has been carefully revised, but is still imperfect. It includes all the names in the Lists, with the residences as far as known, and the pages on which they appear. The advantage of this index in enabling those who consult it to trace the official history of every person at any time connected with the Colonial or State goverment, or who has held a county office, is manifest. Corrections are invited with regard to names and residences. The Civil List for the year 1887, now in course of preparation, will contain important new matter, including, with the names of all officers entering upon their duties during the winter and spring of the year, valuable additions to the text, with respect to the various departments of the State Government.
CONTENTS.
NEW NETHERLAND:
PAGE.
discovery and settlement. 3-6
CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY:
origin
7
village communities
8,9
clanships
10, 11
Italian political system
11-13
German reorganization 13-15
mediaval governments 15-20
problems of the seventeenth century 20-2
American colonial systems
22-5
superiority of the Dutch ideal
25-7
development in New Netherland. 27-45
45-56
PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENTS:
origin 57
manorial system 57-8
advisory councils 58-61
municipal system 61,2
representative conventions
62-4
Dutch and English difficulties
64-7
Dongan's assembly
67,8
Leisler's assembly .
68
English jurisdiction.
68
CONSTITUTION OF TIIE COLONY:
charter of liberties 69
legislative authority.
70
religious liberty .
:1
rights of the assembly
72-80
liberty of the press.
81, 2
conflicts with the executive 82-98
political foundations of the colony
iv
CONTENTS.
CONSTITUTION OF THE COLONY - Continued.
PAGE.
control of the judiciary
99-101
usurpation by parliament 101-3
agent of the colony . 103, 4
COLONIAL CONFEDERACIES :
from 1690 to 1765.
105-7
origin of union
106
conflicts with the crown
107-10
parties in New York
111
union consummated
112
provincial convention.
113
committee of one hundred
114, 15
birthday of the State.
115
·
continental congress. 116
CONSTITUTIONS OF THE STATE :
origin .
117,18
first organic law
118-21
federal union
121-5
convention of 1801
125
convention of 1821
126-8
questions submitted, 1825-46
128, 9
convention of 1846. 129, 30
questions submitted, 1849-65
131
convention of 1867.
131-33
questions submitted, 1869-73
133, 4
constitutional commission. 135, 6
the matured system 136
THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE. 137-43
ARMS AND SEALS OF THE STATE.
141-51
FINANCES OF THE STATE.
152-9
THE EXECUTIVE :
160, 1,3
colonial governors
161-4
State governors
165
staff
166-8
lieutenant-governor
165, 6
private secretaries
secretary of the Province and State. 168-70
comptroller. 170, 1
V
CONTENTS.
THE EXECUTIVE - (Continued).
PAGE
State treasurer.
171, 2
attorneys-general. 123, 4
State engineer and surveyor. 174-6
customs department
176, 7
Indian affairs.
178, 9
department of public works
180-6
canal fund.
181
canal board.
181
canal commissioners.
182. 3
superintendent of public works
183-5
anditor of canal department.
185, 6 186
State prisons.
187-93
prison labor commission
191, 2
prison labor reform commission.
192, 3 193-5
State assessments
193 196, 7 197
railroad commissioners
197, 8
public instruction department.
199, 200 200-3
State library
204
State museum.
205
revision and codification of the laws of the State.
205-9
quarantine 209-17
health officer of the port. 215-7
217-21
harbor masters
221-4
captain of the port.
224, 5 225-8 228-31
commissioners of emigration
civil service commission
231, 2
board of claims.
232, 3
boundaries of the State
234, 5 236, 7 237-9
State survey.
239-41
Adirondack survey
241-3
State parks
243-5
forest commission .
reservation at Niagara
245, 6
canal appraisers.
banking department.
insurance department
land office
regents of the university
port wardens.
Onondaga salt springs
geological survey
vi
CONTENTS.
THE EXECUTIVE - (Continued). PAGE.
the capitol 246-9
superintendent of public buildings 249
commissioners of public accounts
State board of charities. 249,50
250-2
State board of health.
253, 4
commissioners of fisheries; game protectors
commissioners of statistics of labor
factory inspector. 257,8
dairy commissioner
258, 9 259-61
commission to determine position of New York troops at Gettysburg 261
board of arbitration
261-3
commission to determine most humane mode of execut- ing the death sentence 263
storing headwaters of Hudson river 263, 4
agricultural experiment station 264 265
weights and measures
State commissioner in lunacy
265, 6
public printing 266
State board of pharmacy . 266, 7
inspection of gas meters
267
THE JUDICIARY:
the judicial system 268, 9
court of assizes 269
court for correction of errors and appeals 270
court for trial of impeachments
270-2
court of appeals.
272-5
court of admiralty.
275, 6 277-9
supreme court
280-96
circuit courts and courts of oyer and terminer. 289-93
orphans' court .. 296
297
court of probates
298, 9
surrogate's court.
county courts 299, 300
301
court of common pleas
302, 4
city courts
superior city courts 302-4
town and justices' courts 304, 5
254-6 256-7
Soldiers' and Sailors' Home
court of chancery
prerogative court. 298
CONTENTS. vii
THE JUDICIARY - (Continued). PAGE.
courts of justices of the peace 305
courts of special sessions. . . . 305
district courts of New York city 305
police courts.
305
THE LEGISLATURE :
powers of 306-9
councils. .
310-13
committee of safety 313-14
council of safety.
314
council of revision.
315
council of appointment. 316
senate
317-34
assembly
335, 427
CIVIL DIVISIONS:
general 429
430, 2
county judges 433-40
surrogates. 441-6
district attorneys.
147-54
sheriffs .
155-67
county clerks.
468-76
registers of deeds.
470
county treasurers.
477-80
superintendents of common schools 481
school commissioners 482-5
cities. 486
mayors. 487-92
metropolitan district
493, 4
towns. 494, 507-13, 14
villages. 508-13-15
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.
presidential electors 516-22
the president. 523-4
vice-president. 524-5
senators. 526
representative apportionment. 526
congressional districts 528-30
speaker, house of representatives 530
representatives in congress 531-6
appointments from New York 537-40
counties.
THE
NEW YORK CIVIL LIST.
NEW NETHERLAND.
New York bay, it is probable, was first entered by a European vessel in the year 1524 A. D. Four vessels, which had been fitted ont by the French government, sailed from some port in Brittany, in 1523. Two were soon disabled and lost ; and afterwards a third. The remaining vessel was the Daljina (Dauphine), and was under command of Giovanni da Verrazano, a native of Florence. It sailed from the Madeiras in January, 1524, crossed the Atlantic and ernised up the American coast. From the account of the com- mander, contained in a letter to Francis II, King of France, under date of July 8, 1524, it is inferred that in the spring of that year he entered New York bay.
The attention of the Dutch was called very early to the advantages to be gained by encouraging trade with the Americas. A sugges- tion was made by William Usselinex, an enterprising merchant of Antwerp, in 1604, to organize a West India Company, for the pur- pose of reaping the benefits of commerce, and as the best means to annoy Spain. The proposition was received with favor, and the draft of a charter was prepared and informally approved. Secret overtures for peace, however, postponed the project for some time.1
On the 10th of April, 1606, James I, King of Great Britain, for the planting of two colonies, granted the great North and South Virginia patent, by which leave was given to Sir Thomas Gates to begin a plantation between the 34th and 41st degrees of latitude, and to Thomas Henham a like privilege was conferred, between the 38th and the 45th parallels. The former began a settlement in Chesa- peake bay in 1607, and the latter planted Plymouth in 1620.
The Dutch were very anxious to find a north-west passage around
1 These proposals resulted in an armistice, May 4, 1607. A truce for twelve years was agreed upon at Antwerp, April 9, 1609, at the expiration of which period, in 1621, war was renewed and the West India Company was organized.
4
NEW NETHERLAND.
the American continent, which they thought would facilitate their trade with the East Indies. They accordingly secured the services of Hendrick Hudson, an English commander, who sailed from Amster- dam in the Half Moon, April 4, 1609, in the employ of the East India Company. On the 3d of September he anchored just within Sandy Hook. On the 4th a boat's crew put out to fish ; and, accord- ing to an Indian tradition, landed on the long beach of Congee (Coney island), the first Europeans who trod the shore of the great harbor. On the 19th he anchored near Albany, and on the 23d returned down the river, sailing out to sea October 4, and reaching Dartmouth November 7.
At the time of the discovery of the great " River of the Moun- tains," the Manhattan Indians occupied the island called after them, and the Monatons Staten island. Long island was known by the name of Sewan-hack from Sewan (shells ; wampum) and hacky or hacking (the land) thus called because the Indians of that island were the chief manufacturers of the aboriginal currency. The Indians of the island were called Matouwacks. Two Algonquin tribes were the chief inhabitants of the valley of the Hudson, the Mincees on the west, and the Mahicans on the east. These tribes were frequently at war between themselves, but always united against the Iroquois, or Confederacy of the Five Nations, who inhabited the country from the Hudson and Lake Champlain to Lakes Erie and Ontario and the St. Lawrence. South of the Iroquois were the Lenni Lenape, or Delawares. The North river was called the Caho- hatatea by the Iroquois, and Mahicun-ittick (place of the Mahicans) by the Delawares and other Southern tribes. The Mohegans or Mahicans, however, called it the Shatemuc. The Dutch first called it the Mauritius, in honor of the Stadtholder, Maurice of Orange.
The discovery of the " River of the Mountains " was received in Holland iu characteristic manner. The States General made no effort for a long time to appropriate its territorial advantages, but a few shrewd merchants were quick to seize upon the opportunities for trade it afforded. For three years after Hudson's return the little round-prowed vessels of the Dutch busily traversed the Mauritius. The chief station was on Manhattan island ; though only a fort and one or two small buildings had been erected -and perhaps not even these until 1613.
Foremost in these trading enterprises were Hendrick Christensen, Adriaen Block and Cornelis Jacobsen May. Christaensen and Block equipped a vessel together in 1611. In 1612, several mer-
5
DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT.
chants fitted out the ships Fortune and Tiger, and placed them under their commands, respectively. Other merchants joined in the trade in 1613. Block spent the winter of 1613-14 on Manhattan island, where he built a yacht of sixteen tons, the Onrust (Restless) - the first vessel built by white men in its waters. In the spring (1614) he sailed through Hellegat,' and discovered the Honsatonie and Connectient rivers, going up the latter a long distance, and naming it the Varsche (Fresh Water) river. Ile then thoroughly explored the Sound, demonstrated for the first the the insular character of Long island, discovered the great Narragansett bay, and made his way up the New England coast as far as the bay of Nahant, which he called " the limit of New Netherland." Block island derives its name from him; but was called " Visscher's Haeck " by the Dutch. This island was seen by May before Block visited it. May, also, in 1614, explored the southern shore of Long island, and the Atlantic coast to Delaware bay. The same year Captain John De Witt, in the Little Fox, sailed up the North river, and gave his name to one of the islands near Red Hook. In this year, also, Christaensen established the first great trading post upon the river. It was built upon Castle island, near Albany, and was called Fort Nassau, in honor of the family of the Stadtholder.
Meantime, the English asserted their title to all the territory covered by the Virginia patent, and in 1613 Captain Argel was sent out by Sir Thomas Dale, Governor of Virginia, to dispossess the French at Port Royal and St. Croix. On his return, in the month of November, he " visited the Dutch on Hudson's river, who pru- dently submitted for the present ; " > Christensen, the Superintendent, agreeing to pay tribute in token of dependence on the English crown.
The States General, for the purpose of protecting the merchants engaged in the trade with Mauritius river, granted a decree March 27, 1614, framed in general terms, by which any discoverers of " new passages, havens, lands or places " should have "the exclusive right of navigating to the same for six voyages," provided they reported their discoveries within fourteen days after their return to Holland. On the 11th of October following, the United New Netherland Company wasgiven by charter the monopoly of the trade to the American region, "between New France and Virginia, being the sea coasts between 40° and 45°," then first officially called New Netherland ; and no other Dutch citizens were to be permitted to "frequent or navigate " those " newly discovered lands, havens or
1 East river : named Hellegat (corrupted Into Hell Gate) by Block, after a branch of the Scheld. 2 Smith's History of New York.
6
NEW NETHERLAND.
places," on " penalty of the confiscation of vessel and cargo, besides a fine of fifty thousand Netherlands ducats." The charter expired of its own limitation January 1, 1618. The three years were pros- perous, but trade rather than the country was developed.
Hendrick Christensen was murdered by an Indian soon after he had finished the trading house and defenses at Fort Nassau, and was succeeded in command by Jacob Eelkens, who had been a clerk in Amsterdam. A serious freshet on the island in the spring of 1618 caused Eelkens to remove the trading post, early in the summer, to the month of the Tawasentha (place of the many dead) where was an ancient Mohawk village and burial place of their dead.' A fort was built by Eelkens on the bluff, called by the natives Tardesrun- shea, and here a little later he concluded the first formal treaty of friendship and alliance with the Indians. The treaty of Tawasentha was faithfully observed by the Iroquois, Mahicans, Delawares, and North River Indians who were parties to it.
The great West India Company was chartered' June 3, 1621. Its patent forbade any and all inhabitants of the United Netherlands, for twenty-four years after the first of July, 1621, to sail to the coasts of Africa between the tropic of Cancer and the cape of Good Hope, or to those of America between the banks of Newfoundland . aud the straits of Magellan, except in the service of the West India Company. It could exercise all the functions of government in the Datch territory of America ; and was only responsible to the States General for its acts as shown through its own reports. The affairs of all the region of New Netherland were placed in charge of the Amsterdam chamber ; and the company formally " took possession " of the country in the spring of 1622. The managers adopted arti- les of internal regulation, which were approved by the States Gen- eral June 21, 1623, whereupon the subscription books were closed. Meantime, Sir Dudley Carleton, English ambassador at the Hagne, protested against the encroachments of Dutch fur traders upon the new Colony of Plymouth. The protest was stifled.
Under its charter, the company was required to "advance the peopling of those fruitful and unsettled parts." This was com- menced in March, 1623, when a number of thrifty . Walloons" sailed from Holland in the ship New Netherland, under command of the company's first regularly appointed Director, Captain Corneli- Jacobsen May.
1 Albert Andriessen Bradt, a native of Denmark, surnamed the Norman, settled there in 1620 ; and hence the Dutch came to call the little stream, the Norm in's kill.
2 For the charter in full see O'Callaghan's New Netherland I, vol. I. Appendix A
CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY.
In order that we may rightly understand the growth of free insti- tutions, it is desirable to consider the origins' of the systems of local and general administration which prevailed under the Dutch government, the extent and manifestations of popular power in New Netherland, and the legacy of liberty bequeathed to the col- ony of New York. This cannot be done without tracing the con- stitution of Aryan society back to its beginning in Central Asia, and following the streams which, pouring thence, flowed along the natu- ral channels of migration until they reached the valley of the Hudson and the plains of Long island, and there mingled and crystallized their accumulations. Our argument is based on a theory of political evolution, which renders it necessary to summarize familiar historical facts, in order better to enforce both theory and argument. The theory is, that political systems, like individuals and other natural organisms, have grown, matured and died ; that during this develop- ment and dissolution, seed was produced, deriving its character, like other germs, from that upon which it fed during the period of its inclosure, the seed becoming in its turn the nucleus of another organism. As the perfection of humanity consists in the due development of each faculty, and the correlation of all in one har- monious unity, so the perfection of political organization consists in like development of each function of goverment and their con- solidation in one harmonious and indivisible whole, to the end that every individual and all classes may find complete security and ample room for growth under the protecting care of Law. This perfection was first attained in New York, through the operation of the law of political evolution we have formulated, and the system thus evolved is unique in this, that while under all other forms of goverment oppression is possible through the operation of their methods, it is impossible here without destroying the system itself.
1 It is due that special indebtedness be acknowledged to Maine's Village Communities, Mommsen's History of Rome, becky's History of European Morals, Hallam's History of the Mille Az, Green's History of the English People, Motley's Rise of the Dutch Republic, History of the United Netherlands. and Life of John of Barneveld, O'Callaghan's History of New Netherland, and Brodhead's History of New York. Many other works have also been consulted.
8
INDIAN VILLAGE COMMUNITIES.
The family is the social unit. Only by recognizing the fact that the patriarchal preceded the village system, can we understand the jealousy with which the privacy of home is preserved in India, the sacredness of the German home, with the sanctions of despotie power in its head, and the English proverb that a man's house is his castle. These are all remains of the time when families gathered in com- munities, and the community guaranteed the sovereignty of the patriarch who ruled absolutely, yet as a father over family and ser- vants. The village community was an aggregation of these social units.
India is to-day divided into a vast number of these independent, self-acting organized social groups. Indian customs have for their object the security of these organizations, not only for the community as a whole, but for the various trades and callings which are pursued therein-the trading and manufacturing guilds, as well as cultivating associations. It is pertinent to our inquiry to note that in those parts of India in which the village community is the most perfect, and the clearest signs of original equality of proprietorship in the soil prevail, authority is lodged with the village council, which is always viewed as a representative body, and not as a body possessing original and inherent power. Whatever the real number of mem- bers, the village council always bears a name which recalls its ancient constitution of Five persons. No such thing is known as command or law. The council of village elders merely declares what has always been. It does not decree or enforce what some one else has com- manded, either by divine or human authority. Custom is the only law. Antiquity is sufficient reason for obedience. No penalties are inflicted, the general disapprobation being regarded as sufficient pin- ishment for disobedience, in the rare cases in which the conclusions of the elders are not accepted.
The ancient German cultivating community held a district of country divided into three parts-the village, the commons and the cultivated area, appropriated in lots to the several families, but tilled under direction of the community and periodically re-distributed. There is no country inhabited by an Aryan race in which traces of this redistribution do not exist. It has continued to our own day in the Russian villages. The Hindus preserve traditions of it. It was the source of usages which have survived until the present time in England and Germany. If very general language is employed, a description of the German and Scandinavian village communities might serve as a description of the same institution in India. Hindu
9
GERMAN VILLAGE ASSEMBLIES.
and ancient European systems are substantially identical in all essen- tial particulars, except one.
The most advanced radicalism springs out of the most stubborn conservatism, and re-acts into it. The veneration for ancient tradi- tions and jealous protection of ancient customs, which characterized our Aryan ancestors, forms the sentiment from which all our liber- ties have originated, and indieates the manner in which they have been preserved. The primitive Aryan community would permit no variation from the ways of the fathers, except such departure as was forced by exterior power or internal necessity ; of the latter of which the land-owners, and not the elders, were the judges. Thus, the will of the conqueror and the will of the freemen were the only forces competent to effeet a change from time-honored methods. The necessities of their situation forced the Germans to abandon the con- servatism still maintained in India, and to enter upon a new line of progress, which has had the most important results in the elevation of the human race. So long as the village council had no other duty than the judicial one of interpreting and explaining the customs of the fathers, there was obviously no call for a deliberative assembly. But when new conditions compelled the consideration of change, the freemen were assembled to decide upon it. India has nothing like the German popular assembly, because India has no need of it, in the opinion of the people. The Germans had their own assemblies, because the problems connected with migrations, war and settlement presented questions which only the entire community could deter- mine. Land-owners only were freemen, although no man was a slave; land-owners only had political rights, and these rights were jealously protected. Absolute sovereignty inhered only in the body of freemen in each of their independent villages, who met together from time to time to frame laws and administer justice. While the Witan, or Wise Men, were by common consent left to determine formally the questions of war and peace, and of internal administra- tion, they were necessarily controlled by public opinion ; that is, by the conclusions reached in the popular assembly.
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