Εικόνες σελίδας
PDF
Ηλεκτρ. έκδοση

The sixty counties of the State were awarded Assemblymen upon the basis of a ratio of 57,909. Thirty-five of them on this basis were granted only one Assemblyman, while Fulton and Hamilton, as before, had to share one Assemblyman between them.

The three exhibits given below show the principle of the division of the Assemblymen and the population of each county:

EXHIBIT 1 - ASSEMBLY.

Statement showing population of counties having less than 57,909, or a ratio and a half :

[blocks in formation]

EXHIBIT 2 - ASSEMBLY,

Statement showing population of counties having more than

57,909, or a ratio and a half, and having each two members:

[blocks in formation]

Statement showing population of counties having more than two ratios and a half and each having three or more members:

[blocks in formation]

GOVERNORS OF NEW YORK.

GEORGE CLINTON.

GEORGE CLINTON, first Governor of | nial Legislature from Ulster county. He New York, was born in 1739, in what was took an active part among the patriots then called "Little Britain," in Orange who brought about the American Revo county, New York. He was probably | lution and as a member of the Provincial

[graphic][merged small]

named after Admiral George Clinton, | Congress in 1775, voted for the Declara son of the Earl of Lincoln, and Colonial Governor of New York from 1743 to 1753. He was educated to be a lawyer, and in 1765 was elected a member of the Colo

tion of Independence. The invasion of New York by a British army led him to return to his home in Ulster county and there organize a force of militia for service in the American army. He was appointed a general of brigade and assumed a leading position as a defender of the infant State. A Provincial Gov. ernment was formed and Mr. Clinton, in 1777, was chosen Governor, and was Bworn into office at Kingston, which was then the Capital of the State and the place of meeting of its Legislature. Gov. ernor Clinton was then in command of the militia of the State and continued to hold this position until after the sur. render of General Burgoyne at Saratoga. He fought at the head of the State troops at Fort Montgomery, on the Hudson river, when that fort was captured by Sir Henry Clinton. George Clinton was re-elected as Governor in 1780, 1783, 1786, 1789, 1792, and in 1801. It was under his chief direction that the first Constitution of the State was adopted in 1777. He also had a strong Influence over the convention which

[ocr errors]

Cumberland

counties which now forms Windham and Windsor counties, Vermont. Governor Clinton took the lead in internal improvements and in building up the public schools. It was in pursuance of his recommendations that the Board of Regents of the Univer. sity was established in 1784. In 1789 lands were by law set aside in each new township for the support of the common schools and the literature fund, which still exists. Governor Clinton also recom. mended, in 1791, the organization of a society for the promotion of agriculture. He further suggested, in 1792, that canals be constructed between the Hud. son and Lake Ontario and the Hudson and Lake Champlain. Legislative acts were therefore passed, organizing two canal companies, the Northern Canal Company and the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company. These companies were authorized to improve the naviga.

amended the Constitution in 1801. This ❘tion of the Hudson and Mohawk rivers,

the Hudson river and Lake Champlain. Such were the first steps toward a grand system of canals.

convention said that the number of State and to form connections between the Senators should be thirty-two, and the upper waters of the Mohawk and Oneida number of Assemblymen one hundred. ❘ and Ontario lakes, as well as between It was also during Governor Clinton's long administration that the citizens liv. ing in what was known as "the Hamp shire Grants" were permitted to separate themselves from the State of New York and to organize the present State of Vermont. New York thus lost one of its

In 1804 Governor Clinton was elected Vice-President of the United States, and it was while holding that office that he died in Washington, on April 20, 1812.

[blocks in formation]

JOHN JAY, the second Governor of | committee of fifty formed especially to New York, and the descendant of a Huguenot family, was born in New York city on December 12, 1745, and was graduated from Kings College, now Columbia College, on May 15, 1764. He then entered a law office and was ad. mitted to practice law in 1768, forming a partnership with Robert R. Livingstone, the future Chancellor. From the first Mr. Jay sympathized with the American patriots in their resistance to English tyranny, and in 1774 he became one of a

link together the colonies by correspond.
ence into a united effort for the common
cause, He was elected a member of the
first Continental Congress, and as such
drafted the address to the people of
Great Britain. He also was a member
of the second Continental Congress,
and took an active part in prepar.
ing the United States for war.
1777 he drafted the first Constitution
of the State and under it was him.
self appointed Chief Justice of the

In

« ΠροηγούμενηΣυνέχεια »