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int ro duct ion In the first half-century of independence New York developed more rapidly than any of her sister states. When the Revolutionary constitution of 1777 was framed, two-thirds of the state’s inhabitants lived on both sides of the Hudson River between Albany and New York City; by 1820 two-thirds of the people lived on lands farther west and north—the old Iroquois lands— reaching to the Great Lakes and the St.Lawrence River.With a population of one million four hundred thousand, four times the number in 1 790,New York was the fastest growing, wealthiest, and most populous of the states. The city of New York, which had gr own at the same rate , was already a “melting pot” and such a center of commercial, financial, and manufacturing enterprise that men were calling it the future London of America. To connect this metropolis with the vast agr icultural interior, the state had embarked upon the most ambitious pr oject of internal impr ovement yet undertaken in the United States, the Erie Canal. This amazing progress produced havoc in the state government and made its defects painfully evident. The defects were inseparable from the constitution of 1777. Considering the condition of the state in 1777—hemmed in by the Indians in the west, occupied by the British in the south,everywhere harassed by Tories—it was perhaps remarkable that the Revolutionary convention ,from its refuge in Kingston,succeeded in framing any kind of constitution at all.The instrument adopted,though it contained liberal featur es, as in the provision for religious freedom and a bold exper iment in ballot voting,reflected the conservative opinions of its framers,of whom the most important was John Jay . The constitution maintained the f reehold f ranchise but lowered the qualification somewhat. Renters of tenements worth 116 The New York Convention forty shillings annually, freeholders worth £20, and f reemen—merchants, artisans, and the like—of the cities of Albany and N ew York made up the electorate for the assembly (house) of the state legislature.Only freeholders worth £100 voted for members of the senate and for gov ernor. Representation in the tw o chambers was appor tioned according to the number of electors of each found in the counties, for the assembl y; and in the four great districts—Southern, Middle, Eastern, and Western—for the senate. An elected official for the term of thr ee years and uninhibited in day-today operations by an executive council, the New York governor had greater power than most state executives. He was, of course, commander-in-chief of the military forces, and the convention sought to give him the necessary strength to wage the infant state’s war for survival. But in their effort to combat anarchy and defeat, the framers also wished to avoid the risk of falling bac k into monarchy. Two institutions of their devising were destined to cheapen the executive office and bring contempt upon every branch of the gov ernment. The first of these institutions, the Council of Revision,associated the governor with the chancellor—the state’s judicial head with exclusive jurisdiction in cases of equity—and the judges of the supreme court in the exer cise of a negativ e on the legislatur e. The council reviewed legislative bills and vetoed those it deemed “improper” on constitutional or other gr ounds. It therefore united two functions, judicial review and executive veto, which most states separated.Whatever its intent, whether to restrain the governor or to reinforce the check on the legislature, the Council of Re vision placed the judiciar y in the cr ossfire between the other two branches of the gov ernment and plunged the judges deep into politics. The arrangement flouted the principle of separation of powers and in time furnished seemingly irrefutable evidence of its wisdom. Even more damaging was the Council of Appointment,surely one of the worst political contrivances ever invented. Annually, at each session of the legislatur e, the assembly elected one senator from each district to sit with the governor,who presided and held the c asting vote, for the purpose of filling all the offices not otherwise provided for.These were always numerous, and in an expanding state they m ultiplied like rabbits. In 1821fifteen thousand offices, civil and military, were at the disposal of the Council of Appointment.Politics in New York, always...

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