The Democratic Party of the State of New York (Volume 1); A History of the Origin, Growth, and Achievements of the Democratic Party of the State of New York, Including a History of Tammany Hall in Its Relation to State Politics (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IV. From 1800 to 1810: The Constitutional Convention of 1801?The Strife between Aaron Burr and the Clintonian faction and the Livingstons?The Downfall of Burr?the New York State Bank and the Merchants Bank Company?Ascendancy of the Republican Party?Regime of Governor Lewis?European Affairs in American Politics?The Election of Governor Tomp- kins?The Embargo on American Shipping. In April, 1801, an act was passed in the Legislature providing for a convention to amend the State Constitution, and in August following the election of delegates took place. The tendency of this convention was strongly Republican, the Federalists making a poor showing on election day. Aaron Burr, William P. Van Ness, John V. Henry, De Witt Clinton, Smith Thompson, and Daniel D. Tompkins were notable members of this body. On October 13, 1801, the delegates met at Albany and Aaron Burr was unanimously elected president of the convention. This convention was restricted to the determination of two questions only. The first was to decide upon the number of Senators and members of Assembly, the other was to get at "the true construction of the 23d Article of the Constitution." They readily agreed as to the limitation of the numbers of the two Houses of the Legislature. Regarding the second question, they were merely authorized to declare "the true construction of the 23d Article of the Constitution," but not to alter the terms of that article, or to abolish, or to make a new one to take its place; that is, they were to interpret the intent of the convention of 1777. The convention decided that the Council possessed a concurrent right of nomination with the Governor, only fourteen members voting against this construction. John V. Henry voted with the minority andmade an argument in favor of t...