The 1851 New York state election was held on November 4, 1851, to elect the
Secretary of State, the
State Comptroller, the
State Attorney General, the
State Treasurer
In the state governments of the United States, 48 of the 50 states have the executive position of treasurer. New York abolished the position in 1926; duties were transferred to New York State Comptroller. Texas abolished the position of Texas ...
, the
State Engineer, a Judge of the
New York Court of Appeals
The New York Court of Appeals is the highest court in the Unified Court System of the State of New York. The Court of Appeals consists of seven judges: the Chief Judge and six Associate Judges who are appointed by the Governor and confirmed by t ...
, a
Canal Commissioner and an
Inspector of State Prisons, as well as all members of the
New York State Assembly
The New York State Assembly is the lower house of the New York State Legislature, with the New York State Senate being the upper house. There are 150 seats in the Assembly. Assembly members serve two-year terms without term limits.
The Assem ...
and the
New York State Senate
The New York State Senate is the upper house of the New York State Legislature; the New York State Assembly is its lower house. Its members are elected to two-year terms; there are no term limits. There are 63 seats in the Senate.
Partisan com ...
.
Background
The Democratic state convention met on September 10 in
Syracuse
Syracuse may refer to:
Places Italy
*Syracuse, Sicily, or spelled as ''Siracusa''
*Province of Syracuse
United States
*Syracuse, New York
**East Syracuse, New York
**North Syracuse, New York
*Syracuse, Indiana
* Syracuse, Kansas
*Syracuse, Miss ...
. The Whig state convention met on September 11 in Syracuse.
Horace Wheaton
Horace Wheaton (February 24, 1803 – June 23, 1882) was an American businessman and politician who served as a United States representative for New York's 24th congressional district from 1843 to 1847.
Early life and education
Born in New M ...
, candidate for Canal Commissioner, was the sitting
Mayor of Syracuse.
Results
Six out of eight state offices were won by the Democrats, the most important ones by margins of a few hundred votes out of about 400,000 cast. The incumbent Chatfield was re-elected. The incumbents Seymour, Foot and Wells were defeated.
Six Democrats and four Whigs were elected to the district benches of the
New York State Supreme Court.
Contested election
The Whig candidate James M. Cook was declared elected state treasurer with a majority of only 228 votes, but Attorney General Chatfield contested the result in the
New York Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the trial-level court of general jurisdiction in the New York State Unified Court System. (Its Appellate Division is also the highest intermediate appellate court.) It is vested with unlimited civ ...
in favor of Welch, claiming that ballots with a name similar to that of the candidate Benjamin Welch, Jr., had been counted as "scattering" but had been intended for Welch. In fact the official state canvass shows ballots for "Benjamin Welch" in Chemung (68), Kings (1), Saratoga (1) and Tompkins (47), "B. Welch" in Chenango (1), Livingston (1) and New York (1), "B. J. Welch" in Livingston (1), and "Benjamin C. Welch, Jr." in Ontario (32); a total of 153. On the other side, the official canvass also shows votes for "J. M. Cook" in Kings (1), "J. W. Cook" in Livingston (2), "Cook" in New York (2), "James Cook" in Saratoga (1), "James A. Cook" in Suffolk (15) and "John M Cook" in Yates (1), a total of 22. Besides, votes from several election districts were disallowed on technicalities (49 for Welch and 24 for Cook in
Chesterfield
Chesterfield may refer to:
Places Canada
* Rural Municipality of Chesterfield No. 261, Saskatchewan
* Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut United Kingdom
* Chesterfield, Derbyshire, a market town in England
** Chesterfield (UK Parliament constitue ...
,
Essex County, New York; 332 for Welch and 66 for Cook in the second election district of the 14th Ward in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
). On September 30, 1852, the election result was reversed by the Supreme Court, but Cook refused to deliver the office and the books. Welch sued for the delivery of the books, but the motion was denied. After some more legal proceedings, Welch took office as Treasurer for the remainder of the term on November 20, 1852.
Sources
*Result i
''Official State Canvas'' ''
New-York Daily Times''. January 1, 1852. p. 7.
''Harpers New Monthly Magazine''(June–November 1851, pages 693ff)
''The People vs. James M. Cook''in ''Reports of Cases in Law and Equity in the Supreme Court of the State of New York'' by Oliver Lorenzo Barbour (Gould, Banks & Gould, 1853; pages 259 to 328)
''Welch agt. Cook''in ''Practice Reports in the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals'' by Nathan Howard & Rowland M. Stover (Joel Munsell, 1852; pages 173 to 181)
Notes
See also
*
New York state elections
The results of elections in the state of New York have tended to be more Democratic-leaning than in most of the United States, with in recent decades a solid majority of Democratic voters, concentrated in New York City and some of its suburbs, i ...
{{New York state elections
1851
Events
January–March
* January 11 – Hong Xiuquan officially begins the Taiping Rebellion.
* January 15 – Christian Female College, modern-day Columbia College, receives its charter from the Missouri General Assembly.
...
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...