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NOTE 48. The Rise and Decline of Conservatism in New York

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Volume 4, Chapter 48, The Rise and Decline of Conservatism in New York

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If Pennsylvania provided the paradigm in the revolutionary period of a radical Constitution, New York provided the model of a highly conservative one.

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The Provincial Congress or Convention, meeting in July 1776, appointed a committee to draft a Constitution for New York.

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The major drafters on the committee proved to be three arch-conservative oligarchs, John Jay, the young son-in-law of William Livingston, Gouverneur Morris, the young lord of Morrisania Manor, and Robert R. Livingston.

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The drafting was delayed by New York's military troubles and the occupation of New York City, but by March the draft was ready.

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The conservative drafters proved to be heavily influenced by John Adams' thoughts on government.

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The conservatives had to consider mass opinion in New York and were divided on how many concessions to make.

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Governor Morris led an ultra-right assault on the committee draft on the floor of the convention and succeeded in restoring property requirements which the draft had eliminated.

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The property qualifications for voting for the assembly were, it is true, lower than in colonial times, and at Jay's instigation this part of the suffrage was amended to include all free men of Albany and New York City.

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This was not a momentous concession, however, since only a small fraction of the urban adult populace were freemen.

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But New York provided a unique example of a conservative schema in splitting property qualifications for voting,

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setting far higher property requirements over twice the amount of the colonial freehold provision for voting for governor and for senators than for other officeholders.

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This, presumably, was to ensure an aristocratic executive and upper house.

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Morris succeeded in striking from the draft the provision for a secret ballot, but his usual ally, Jay, led a drive that succeeded in obtaining at least a constitutional endorsement for it.

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The New York Constitution established a bicameral legislature, and after a struggle, an electoral

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college for the election of senators was replaced by direct election of senators every four

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years.

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Property qualifications for most office holders were low, but were high for senators.

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The judiciary was made an oligarchy independent of the electorate by providing indefinite

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terms on good behavior, that is, virtually for life. A particularly important conservative

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provision was the Constitution's validation of all royal land grants, thus fascinating

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the quasi-feudal land system in the Hudson Valley upon the tenets of the state. Jay and

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Morris could not persuade the Convention to provide for the abolition of slavery in New

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New York. The most important and pioneering conservative provision, however, was the aggrandizement

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of executive power. Morris pressed for massive power in the elected governor, who was to

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have a long term of three years, but his veto power was diluted into a plural executive

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consisting of the governor, chancellor and the three Supreme Court judges in a council

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of Revision. The Council had veto power over legislation, which could only be overridden

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by a vote of two-thirds of both Houses. This Governor was to be Commander of the State's

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Armed Forces, and was empowered to convene and dissolve the legislature, and even to

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recommend legislation. Patronage of executive appointments was vested in a Council of Appointments

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that included the governor and four senators. New York's unique executive veto powers, so

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redolent of the power of royal governors, provided inspiration for the executive veto

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power later inserted in the U.S. Constitution. The Constitution provided for full religious

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freedom and clergymen were not eligible for office. But this provision was only secured

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by the deist Morris over the objections of John Jay, who fought for the virtual outliery

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of the practice of Roman Catholicism in New York State. Ulster, Orange and Tryon Counties

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upstate supported Jay, but the more sophisticated and populated counties of Albany, New York

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and Dutchess backed Morris. Apart from religion and provision of trial by jury, a bill of

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rights for the individual was conspicuously absent in the New York Constitution.

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This Constitution was finally adopted on April 20, 1777, with only Peter R. Livingston dissenting

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to it as dangerously radical.

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The Convention appointed the top executive officials in the State, and the right wing

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The two men triumphed as J. was chosen Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and Robert R. Livingston Chancellor, both by a close vote over the erratic John Moran Scott, who had again veered to the leadership of the radical forces.

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For the June elections for governor, the conservatives nominated one of their least attractive leaders, General Philip Shuler.

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Scott was the candidate of the left, and in the left center there rose a war hero and veteran leader of upstate pre-war radicalism, the blunt General George Clinton, yeoman and lawyer from Ulster County.

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The election results were of momentous import, for Clinton's victory meant that for the first time in a century, the landed oligarchy was no longer in control of New York State.

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Now, with the mighty financial oligarchies of Pennsylvania and New York suddenly out of control of their states, these oligarchs became committed to a drive for a powerful national government, which they hoped to control and exploit.

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Ironically, Shuler's defeat may be attributed to the defection of the tenants of Livingston Manor.

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Their revolt crushed the previous month. They demonstrated that no longer could their votes be taken for granted.

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The tenants certainly had no use for either Clinton or Scott, both their long-time enemies.

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But on Election Day, they abstained and Moss, and Schuler attributed his defeat to the low vote in his supposed stronghold of Albany County.

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With the monumental victory of Clinton, there came to the fore throughout the state a resurgent new left, a radical movement considerably to the left of the Governor.

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In landlord-ridden Dutchess County, for example, more polling places and a secret ballot helped carry Clinton to an unexpected and large victory over Shuler.

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It also led to a social and political revolution within Dutchess County.

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Since the beginning of the 1770s, the top post in the county had gone, by appointment of the royal governor, to the right.

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Sheriff had been Philip J. Livingston and Chief Justice of the County, Beverly Robinson of Virginia, one of the leading landlords in South Dutchess County who quickly became a Tory.

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These were ousted in the 1777 elections and replaced by Melanchthon Smith and the Reverend Ephraim Payne, leaders of the embattled left in Dutchess County.

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In contrast to their predecessors, Young Smith had begun life as a retail clerk, and Payne was a self-educated son of a farmer and blacksmith.

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No one can deny that this was a true internal social upheaval.

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Moreover, these two cases were not exceptions. For 11 years after, not a single member of the old landlord ruling class either sought or held an appointed or elective office in Dutchess County.

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Also typical of the new men of the left emerging with the Clinton Revolution of 1777 was Abraham Yates of the city of Albany.

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of Albany. A typical radical of the middle class, this lawyer saw himself as a spokesman

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of the independent yeoman as well as of the town burghers. His becoming chairman of the

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Albany Committee and member of the New York Senate challenged the dominion of the landed

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oligarchs of Albany County, appropriately headed by Philip Shuler, who sneered at him

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as an Old Booby and a Mere Cobbler.

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Yeats was a highly articulate intellectual of this internal revolution in New York.

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In an unpublished paper, he squarely demonstrated how the Patroon and later land grants had

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stolen the land of the Albany settlers, and he saw a similarity in the revolutions of

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1688 and that of 1776.

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An historian of the revolution, Yeats maintained that the democratic features of the New York

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Constitution of 1777 were forced upon the convention by mass pressure. Had it not been

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for that pressure, the Constitution would have been far more conservative. Much of the

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pressure came from the great disaffection of the New York militia. This was particularly

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Stay true of the feudal tenant militia of South Dutchess and of Livingston Manor. While

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militia colonels earned a salary of $75 a month, privates received less than $7. This

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wage amounted to little more than slave labor, with the greatest hardships being suffered

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by the poor. Heavy desertions ensued, forcing the draft rate to be cut in 1777 and concessions

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was to be made to the masses in the Constitution.

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The characteristic form of right and left in New York State was now taking shape.

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The conservative forces were wealthy, influential, educated and articulate, cohesive, interrelated and tightly knit,

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all of which made for influence and effectiveness far beyond their number.

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The more numerous radicals, on the other hand, were far less wealthy and locally based.

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While strong and well organized within each county, there was no real organization or

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cohesion between the counties or regions.

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That was their chief disadvantage, which would be exploited in later years.