New York Constitution - Constitutional Convention 1801

Constitutional Convention 1801

The Constitutional Convention of 1801 was not convened to propose a new constitution. Instead, it formed purely to resolve differences of interpretation of §23 of the 1777 Constitution, which provided for a Council of Appointment. Governor Jay sent a special message to the New York State Assembly on February 26, 1801, and the same message to the New York State Senate on the following day, in relation to the Council of Appointment, reciting the differences which had existed between council and governor, not only during his own term, but during the term of his predecessor, Governor Clinton. Governor Jay claimed that under the Constitution the governor had the exclusive right of nomination. Some members of the Council of Appointment claimed a concurrent right of nomination. This the Governor denied, and in this message he recommends that it be settled in some way.

Since the original Constitution had no provisions as to how to amend it, on April 6, the legislature passed a law with the title An Act Recommending a Convention for the purpose of considering the question of the interpretation of §23 of the Constitution, and also that part of the Constitution relating to the number of members of both Senate and Assembly. The Senate was originally composed of twenty-four members, and the Assembly of seventy members, and provision was made for an increase in each branch at stated periods, until the maximum should be reached, which was fixed at one hundred senators and three hundred members of assembly. The increase in membership had apparently been more rapid than was at first anticipated. At that time the Senate had increased to forty-three members, and the Assembly to one hundred and twenty-six members.

The election of the delegates took place in August, and the Convention met on the second Tuesday in October at Albany. It ended on October 27, 1801.

Among the delegates were DeWitt Clinton, James Clinton, William Floyd, Ezra L'Hommedieu, Smith Thompson, Daniel D. Tompkins, John Vernon Henry, William P. Van Ness, and U.S. Vice President Aaron Burr who presided. Tompkins was one of the 14 who voted against the right of nomination being given to the members of the Council of Appointments and the Governor concurrently, a minority which was defeated by 86 votes for this compromise. Previously, both motions, to vest the right of nomination either exclusively in the gorvernor or exclusively in the council members, were defeated.

The changes in this version of the constitution were:

• The number of senators was permanently fixed at thirty-two.
• The assembly was given one hundred members, and provision was made for a possible increase to one hundred and fifty, by additions to be made after each census.
• The right of nomination, formerly vested in the governor only (as John Jay, the author of the Constitution, meant it), was given now to each member of the Council of Appointment and the Governor concurrently.

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