USA > New York > History of the state of New York, for the use of common schools, academies, normal and high schools, and other seminaries of instruction > Part 29
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10. The reorganization of the Judiciary occupied a large share of its deliberations, and elicited much able discussion. The regulation of the franchise, the powers and duties of the Executive and the Legislature, and various other proposed modifications of the Constitution, were considered ; and the session was prolonged to the termination of the year.
11. In July and August the Anti-Rent disturbances again broke out in Albany County, rendering it necessary to call out a strong military force for their repression. By this prompt action of the executive authorities all further opposition to the collec- tion of rents from the refractory manorial tenants was suppressed. and the principal offenders were arrested and committed for trial.
12. At the November election, HOMER A. NELSON, of Dutch- ess, was elected Secretary of State ; WILLIAM F. ALLEN, of Oswego, Comptroller ; and MARSHALL B. CHAMPLAIN, of Alle- gany, Attorney-General. A majority of the members elected to the Assembly were Democrats, while the Senate remained Republican.
1868. 13. The Legislature reassembled on the first Tuesday in January, 1868. WILLIAM HITCHMAN, of New York, was elected Speaker. Governor FENTON informed the Legis- lature that the debt of the State, deducting the balance of the sinking fund for the discharge of the canal debt, was $ 44,114,592. The aggregate valuation of its real and personal estate was stated at $ 4,500,000,000, that of real estate alone being estimated at upwards of nine hundred millions. Of the
Constitutional Convention. - Renewal of Anti-Rent disturbances. - State officers. - Governor's message. - State debt. - Valuation of real and per- sonal estate.
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THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION.
entire area of the State, consisting of 28,297,142 acres, sixteen million of acres were under cultivation.
14. The amount of public funds applicable to common-school education was about one and a half millions of dollars, to which were added, from local taxation and other sources, about seven and a half millions, making an aggregate of about nine millions of dollars. About five millions of dollars were annually paid for teachers' wages ; nearly two millions for the purchase of sites and the building of school-houses ; twenty-five thousand for school libraries ; and upwards of two hundred thousand for apparatus, text-books, and supplies for the various schools. Early in February, ABRAM B. WEAVER, of Oneida, was elected Superintendent of Public Instruction in place of Victor M. Rice.
15. The Constitutional Convention reconvened carly in Janu- ary at the City Hall in Albany, which had been placed at its disposal during the session of the Legislature, and resumed its discussions and deliberations. Various proposed amendments to the Constitution were considered and adopted, and the entire instrument, as modified, reported to the Convention for its final adoption and submission to the people through the action of the Legislature.
16. By the provisions of the proposed Constitution, the right of suffrage was conferred on all male inhabitants of the age of twenty-one years and upwards, without distinction of color ; the payment of the Canal and other State debts secured ; the term of office of Senators extended to four years ; the Assembly in- creased to one hundred and thirty-nine members ; the Court of Appeals organized with a Chief Justice and six Associate Judges ; the existing Supreme Court organization retained, with certain additional provisions for the despatch of business, - the judges to be chosen by the people, and to hold their offices for fourteen years, or until they attain the age of seventy years. Provision was also made for submitting to the people, in 1873, the question whether such judges should continue to be elected, or whether the position should be filled by appointment. The remaining provisions were substantially the same as those of the Constitu- tion of 1846.
Educational statistics.
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EIGHTH PERIOD.
17. During the summer of this year, the Cornell University, the charter of which was obtained in 1862, and which was en- dowed by Congress with the avails of one million of acres of public lands, and by liberal benefactions from its founder, EZRA CORNELL, chiefly for the purpose of a practical education in agri- cultural and mechanical science, was opened under favorable auspices at Ithaca.
18. At the November election, JOHN T. HOFFMAN, Mayor of New York, was elected Governor, and ALLEN C. BEACH, of Erie, Lieutenant-Governor, by a majority of nearly thirty thousand votes over John A. Griswold, of Rensselaer, and the Republican candidate for Lieutenant-Governor. The Republicans, however, secured a majority of the Legislature. ULYSSES S. GRANT, of Illinois, was elected President, and SCHUYLER COLFAX, of Indiana, Vice-President, of the United States, by large electoral majorities, over HORATIO SEYMOUR, of New York, and FRANK P. BLAIR, of Missouri, the candidates of the Democratic party.
CHAPTER IX.
ADMINISTRATION OF GOVERNOR HOFFMAN. - FINANCES AND CONDITION OF THE STATE. - COMMON SCHOOLS. - PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND GOV- ERNMENT OF NEW YORK CITY. - REJECTION OF THE NEW CONSTITU- TION. - JUDICIARY OF THE STATE.
1. GOVERNOR HOFFMAN, in his annual message to the Legis- lature of 1869, reviewed the financial condition of the State 1869. and that of its various literary and charitable institu- tions, and suggested such alterations and modifications of the laws as in his judgment the public interest required. The bal- ance due on the State debt, after applying the avails of the sinking fund, was $ 38,864,448.74, and would probably be ex- tinguished within a few years.
2. The Common-School Fund amounted to $ 10,500,000, of
Election of Governor Hoffman and Lieutenant-Governor Beach. - Elec- tion of President and Vice-President. - Legislature of 1869. - Governor Hoffman's message. - Finances of the State.
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COMMON SCHOOLS.
which five and a half millions had been applied during the past year to the payment of teachers' wages, $ 26,726 for libraries, $ 234,432 for school apparatus, $ 64,765 for the support of col- ored schools, and two millions of dollars for school-houses and sites. Nine hundred and seventy-one thousand five hundred children were educated in eleven thousand seven hundred and thirty-one districts during the year, and twenty-seven thousand teachers employed, of whom nearly twenty-two thousand were females. Upwards of one million volumes were in the several school libraries.
3. On the second Tuesday in February, REUBEN E. FENTON, of Chautauque, was elected United States Senator in place of Edwin D. Morgan, whose term of office had expired. The Fifteenth Amendment to the National Constitution, prohibiting to the several States all discrimination in the exercise of the elective franchise on account of color, was adopted by the Legis- lature, and a bill passed for the submission of the new Consti- tution to the people at the ensuing fall election, the suffrage and judiciary clauses to be separately voted upon.
4. During the session an important change was made in the Public-School system of the city of New York. The Board of Commissioners, consisting of three members, chosen by the peo- ple from each of the seven districts into which the city had been divided by a previous legislative enactment, was disbanded, and a new board substituted, to consist of twelve persons to be ap- pointed by the Mayor, the political majority of the city to bo represented by seven and the minority by five members, and to hold their respective offices until the year 1871, after which their successors were to be elected by general ticket, preserving the same relative political aspect.
5. At the charter election in December of the previous year, the late District-Attorney A. OAKEY HALL had been elected Mayor of the city in place of Governor Hoffman. Twelve Com- missioners of Common Schools were accordingly appointed by him under the act referred to, and early in May organized themselves as a board by the election of RICHARD L. LARRE- MORE as President, and WILLIAM HITCHMAN, late Speaker of the Assembly, as Clerk.
Statistics of the Common Schools.
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EIGHTH PERIOD.
6. The financial affairs of the city had been committed to the charge of RICHARD B. CONNOLLY as Comptroller, and PETER B. SWEENEY as Chamberlain, by whom they were ably and faith- fully administered. SAMUEL B. GARVIN, late an Associate Judge of the Superior Court, was appointed District-Attorney in place of Mayor HALL,
7. At the November election, the Democratic State officers were re-elected by a majority of upwards of twenty thousand votes, together with a majority in both branches of the Legisla- ture. The provision in the new Constitution conferring equal- ity of suffrage on the blacks was rejected by a heavy vote, as was also the Constitution itself, with the single exception of the article on the Judiciary, which was incorporated into the existing Constitution as Article Sixth.
1870. 8. The Legislature assembled on the 4th of January, and WILLIAM HITCHMAN, of New York, was re-elected Speaker of the Assembly. Governor HOFFMAN, in his message, stated the balance due on the State debt on the 30th of September last, the end of the fiscal year, at $ 34,848,000, of which $ 12,- 725,211 existed previous to the Rebellion, and the remaining $ 22,000,000 was the unpaid portion of the bounty debt in- curred during the war. He anticipated its entire extinguish- ment within eight years.
9. The State tax levied during the year amounted to 55 mills on the dollar, on the total valuation of the real and personal estate of the State, distributed as follows : 1} mills for schools, { of a mill for canals, 2} for bounties, and 1} for the gene- ral expenses of the State government ; amounting in all to $ 10,463,179.33. The canals yielded a surplus revenue during the year of $ 3,854,944.59.
10. The value and importance of the canals to the best and highest interests of the State were dwelt upon, not only in refer- ence to our own interests, but to those of the European States, which were beginning to direct their attention to this mode of internal improvement. They were, in his judgment, especially serviceable as a check upon exorbitant charges of railroad cor-
Meeting of the Legislature. - Governor's message. - Finances of the State. - Canal revenues.
313
COMMON SCHOOLS.
porations in the transportation of merchandise and agricultural products.
11. More than six millions of dollars had been paid during the year for teachers' wages in the Common Schools, and nearly two and a half millions for school-houses, sites, repairs, and furniture. There were in the State nearly 1,500,000 chil- dren of school age, one million of whom attended the public schools during some portion of the year, and 26,000 were in private schools. 4,200 pupils were in attendance at the six Nor- mal schools. The number of school-houses in the State was 11,698.
12. " These facts," the Governor observes, " show the great proportions to which our common-school system has grown. There may be defects in it, but, taken as a whole, it commands and receives the hearty commendation and the cordial support of the great body of the people. Under our form of government, in which the voice of the people is so potential, the State has a direct interest in so educating the masses that they may in- telligently understand their duty as citizens ; and no tax should be paid more cheerfully than that which enables all, without reference to station or condition, to acquire the rudiments of a good English education."
13. The number of savings' banks in the State was stated at one hundred and twenty-eight, with an aggregate capital of $ 180,000,000. The subjects of prison discipline and insane hospitals were dwelt upon at considerable length. The number of immigrants during the year, landed at the port of New York, was 260,000, being an increase of 46,314 over the year 1868. Special legislation was discountenanced, and several recom- mendations were submitted for general purposes.
14. A complete revision of the statutes of the State was recom- mended, as were also amendments of the Registry and Election Laws, the Criminal Code, the Excise Laws, and the various pro- visions for commissions in the cities. The message closed with a general and very able discussion of the legislation of Congress on federal affairs, the tariff, and national finances.
Common schools. - Savings' banks. - Prison discipline. - Insane hospi- tals. - Immigrants. - Special legislation. - Registry and Election Laws. - Excise Laws. - City commissions. - National affairs.
314
EIGHTH PERIOD.
15. The report of the Adjutant-General showed that the militia or " National Guard " of the State numbered 25,085 offi- cers and privates, comprising three regiments, one battalion, and four troops of cavalry, three battalions and eight batteries of artillery, and forty-seven regiments and three battalions of in- fantry. A reduction of the force to 20,000 was ordered by the last Legislature, and three regiments had already been mustered out of service.
16. Joint resolutions at an early period of the session were introduced and passed by a strict party vote, withdrawing the consent of the State to the Fifteenth Constitutional Amend- ment, and bills introduced for the accomplishment of the va- rious objects recommended in the Governor's message.
17. Towards the close of the session an act was passed amending and revising the charter of the city of New York, reorganizing the Police and Fire Departments, and creating a Department of Public Works, a Department of Public Parks, and a Department of Public Charities and Corrections. An act incorporating the Female Normal College of the city of New York was also passed.
18. During the summer of this year Admiral FARRAGUT died, while on a visit to his friends in Maine. His remains were brought to the city of New York, where his funeral obsequics were performed, and appropriate respect was paid to his mem- ory in all parts of the country.
19. At the fall elections, Governor HOFFMAN and Lieutenant- Governor BEACH were re-elected by upwards of thirty thousand majority, both houses of the Legislature remaining Democratic by a small majority. The proposed Constitutional Amendment, foaning the credit of the State for the payment of the Canal Debt, was defeated by a large majority.
20. The Legislature was organized on the 3d of January, 1871, by the re-election of WILLIAM HITCHMAN, of New York, as Speaker.
National Guard - Fifteenth Constitutional Amendment. - Charter of New York City. - Female Normal College. - Death of Admiral Farragut. - Re-election of Governor Hoffinan. - The Legislature.
View in Central Park.
CONCLUSION. - GENERAL RECAPITULATION.
1. HAVING now completed our labors, we turn to a general survey of the ground over which we have travelled, and a com- prehensive summary of the grand results which during a period of about two centuries and a half have been accomplished within the domains of what is now not improperly termed the " EMPIRE STATE" of the American Union.
2. From a pathless wilderness, trodden only by the scattered and stealthy footprints of a savage and barbarous race, we have seen it, at first by slow degrees, and then by a rapid progress, covered by the traces of a civilization which has converted the deep primeval forests into cities, towns, villages, and flourish- ing farms, the abodes of luxury, wealth, refinement, and enjoy- ment.
3. From a little handful of emigrants from Holland, number- ing less than a hundred souls, gathered in two small and ill-
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CONCLUSION. - GENERAL RECAPITULATION.
defended forts and block-houses, separated from each other by an interval of a hundred and fifty miles, and surrounded by forty thousand savages, we have seen a population of nearly four millions of inhabitants spring up, clearing the vast wilder- ness from the ocean to the Lakes, and driving before them its primeval possessors, until scarcely a trace of their former great- ness remains.
4. We have witnessed the failure of the well-meant efforts of the original colonists to impress upon the virgin soil of the western continent the comparatively indolent and apathetic civilization of the " fatherland," with all its sturdy honesty and indomitable integrity, and the reins of empire seized upon by the strong hands and stout hearts of the English invaders, whose vanguards had already reclaimed the bleak and barren coasts of New England.
5. Then ensued the long and gallantly maintained struggle on the part of the new colonists, aided and strengthened by their predecessors whose supremacy they had so recently displaced, to assert and maintain their rights, liberties, and privileges against a dominant aristocracy, supported and sustained by the wealth, power, and influence of the greatest and most haughty government in the Old World.
6. Through a protracted series of difficulties, embarrassments, and obstacles the aroused spirit of liberty steadily maintained its ground against the most fearful odds, until after a century of colonial vassalage, continually protesting and contending against the systematic invasion of their most cherished rights, the hour arrived for the complete disruption of the galling bond- age under which they had so long and impatiently struggled, and the thirteen united colonies, after a war of seven years with their formidable oppressors, became a free and independent nation.
7. In this great contest for national existence, New York led the van, and precipitated by her boldness and determined energy the inevitable issue. It was in her metropolis that the sturdy and irrepressible "Sons of Liberty " hurled defiance against the minions of tyranny and oppression ; in her tribunals of justice that the freedom of the press was triumphantly vindicated ; and in defence of her towering "Liberty Pole," that, on the
317
TWO WARS WITH GREAT BRITAIN.
heights of Golden Hill, the first blood of the Revolution was shed.
8. And when the contest came, and the trained battalions of European conscripts, commanded by the experienced veterans of English warfare, overran our land, it was the Provincial Con- gress of New York which, driven from town to town by the in- vading army, steadily and unflinchingly rallied the brave de- fenders of their homes and hearths to the bloody battle-field, sustained their sinking spirits amid reverses, privations, and the severest suffering, and, while exhausting their means in provid- ing for the wants of their own citizens in the field, freely pledged their resources for the future in behalf of the common cause.
9. Independence achieved, and its cost to be met in the midst of divided and distracted counsels, with a government hastily improvised and utterly unable to conmand obedience to its dic- tates except by consent of each of its members, it was New York, the wealthiest and most powerful of all, and, looking only to her own interest, best able to dispense with any other gov- ernment than her own, that promptly came forward, through her most accomplished citizens, to secure the adoption of a Con- stitution which indissolubly linked her destinies with those of her sister States.
10. Then, and not till then, when, through her unwavering patriotism and noble magnanimity, the Union was placed upon a permanent basis and the future existence of the nation se- cured, did she turn her attention to the development of her own resources, the administration of her own government, and the organization of suitable institutions for the promotion and advancement of her material, moral, civil, and social well-being.
11. During this period three great statesmen and patriots towered prominently over all their associates, directing, guiding, and energizing public affairs, and contributing beyond all others to the great results of the war of Independence. GEORGE CLIN- TON, the first Governor, during a period of over twenty years, by his ability, sterling integrity, and indomitable perseverance, surrounded by innumerable difficulties and embarrassments, successfully conducted the Ship of State to its destined harbor, and laid the foundations for its future greatness.
12. ALEXANDER HAMILTON, by his transcendent talents, elo-
318
CONCLUSION. - GENERAL RECAPITULATION.
quence, and energy, threw himself into the breach against the fiercest waves of faction ; and in conjunction with JOHN JAY saved the Constitution, and with it the Union, from the im- minent perils by which it was surrounded. Upon the organiza- tion of the government, both these distinguished men rendered the most important services to their country, in its civil and diplomatic service ; and their memory will ever be cherished as the founders and supporters of the American Union.
13. Governor CLINTON availed himself of the earliest op- portunity to recommend the establishment of a common-school system, and the initiation of measures for developing the re- sources and adding to the wealth of the State by the improve- ment of its navigable waters and their connection by artificial canals. Both these measures were destined to be afterwards fully realized through the genius and executive ability of his great kinsman and successor, DE WITT CLINTON.
14. At this time - between 1790 and 1800 - the entire population of the State did not exceed five hundred thousand, chiefly concentrated in the city of New York, and on the banks of the Hudson and Mohawk. The extensive and fertile valleys and plains of the western section of the State, from Utica to Lake Erie, were still an unbroken wilderness, and a few scat- tered hamlets only diversified the region between Albany and the sources of the Mohawk.
15. The administrations of DANIEL D. TOMPKINS and DE WITT CLINTON, extending, with a brief interval, over a period of nearly twenty years, constituted the most brilliant portion of the annals of the State. The former by his persistent, de- voted patriotism and self-sacrificing exertions, carried us tri- umphantly through the second war with Great Britain ; and the latter, by his commanding talents and far-seeing statesmanship, laid the foundations of our magnificent common-school system, and conceived and carried into execution, amid the most for- midable obstacles, the greatest work of internal improvement the world had ever known.
16. Their distinguished successors, VAN BUREN, MARCY, SEW- ARD, and WRIGHT, and the more recent occupants of the executive chair, built nobly upon these solid foundations of greatness and wealth, enlarging, expanding, and adorning the
319
DISTINGUISHED MEN.
superstructure of political and social prosperity ; steadily de- veloping and applying the immense resources of the State in all its departments, and maintaining its high position and character as the imperial member of the confederacy.
17. Nor must the long and splendid array of her jurists, legislators, and statesmen occupying subordinate positions in the executive administration of the State, and representing her interests in the councils of the nation, be overlooked in this connection. The illustrious names of SPENCER, KENT, VAN NESS, PLATT, THOMPSON, WOODWORTH, and YATES in her earlier, and SAVAGE, SUTHERLAND, MARCY, NELSON, BRONSON, and COWEN in her later judiciary, adorned the bench of the Supreme Court; while her Chancery was graced by the comprehensive learning and great ability of LANSING, KENT, JONES, and WALWORTHI.
18. In the ranks of the legal profession were to be found the great names of HAMILTON, BURR, VAN VECHTEN, VAN BUREN, THOMAS ADDIS EMMETT, ELISHA WILLIAMS, BENJAMIN F. BUTLER, JOHN C. SPENCER, JOSHUA A. SPENCER, SAMUEL STEVENS, AM- BROSE L. JORDAN, OGDEN HOFFMAN, JAMES T. BRADY, JAMES W. GERARD, FRANCIS B. CUTTING, CHARLES O'CONOR, CHARLES P. KIRKLAND, and WILLIAM M. EVARTS, with a long list of contem- poraries and successors worthy of such high association. In her legislative halls were to be heard such men as CLINTON, SPENCER, YOUNG, ROOT, VAN BUREN, SHARP, OGDEN, LIVINGS- TON, DUER, TALLMADGE, SUYDAM, WRIGHT; and, at a later period, SEWARD, SEYMOUR, HUMPHREY, BRADISH, PATTERSON, HULBURD, CUTTING, KING, and a host of others of greater or less ability, influence, and worth.
19. In the Senate of the United States she has been worthily represented by PHILIP SCHUYLER, AARON BURR, GOUVERNEUR MORRIS, OBADIAH GERMAN, NATHAN SANFORD, MARTIN VAN BUREN, CHARLES E. DUDLEY, NATHANIEL P. TALLMADGE, RUFUS KING, DE WITT CLINTON, WILLIAM L. MARCY, SILAS WRIGHT, JOHN A. DIX, DANIEL S. DICKINSON, WILLIAM H. SEWARD, PRESTON KING, HAMILTON FISH, IRA HARRIS, EDWIN D. MOR- GAN, ROSCOE CONKLING, and REUBEN E. FENTON. In the House of Representatives, JOHN W. TAYLOR, for two terms, filled the Speaker's chair, and among the delegations from New York a long list of eminent and distinguished names might be cited.
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CONCLUSION. - GENERAL RECAPITULATION.
20. In the Cabinet of the United States, ALEXANDER HAMIL,- TON, MARTIN VAN BUREN, JOHN C. SPENCER, SMITH THOMPSON, GIDEON GRANGER, JAMES K. PAULDING, WILLIAM L. MARCY, BENJ. F. BUTLER, JOHN A. DIX, WM. H. SEWARD, WM. M. EVARTS, and HAMILTON FISH, have occupied various positions. Two Pres- idents only, MARTIN VAN BUREN and MILLARD FILLMORE, have filled the executive chair of the nation ; while the Vice-Presidency has been conferred upon AARON BURR, GEORGE CLINTON, DANIEL D. TOMPKINS, MARTIN VAN BUREN, and MILLARD FILLMORE.
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