The 109th New York State Legislature, consisting of 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 comp ...

and 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 Ass ...

, met from January 5 to May 20, 1886, during the second year of David B. Hill's governorship, in Albany.

Background

Under the provisions of the New York Constitution of 1846, 32 Senators and 128 assemblymen were elected in single-seat districts; senators for a two-year term, assemblymen for a one-year term. The senatorial districts were made up of entire counties, except New York County (seven districts) and Kings County (three districts). The Assembly districts were made up of entire towns, or city wards,Except New York City where the wards were apportioned into election districts, and then some whole wards and some election districts of other wards were gerrymandered together into Assembly districts. forming a contiguous area, all within the same county. At this time there were two major political parties: the Democratic Party and the

Republican Party Republican Party is a name used by many political parties around the world, though the term most commonly refers to the United States' Republican Party. Republican Party may also refer to: Africa * Republican Party (Liberia) *Republican Party ...

. 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 ...

the Democrats were split into three factions:

Tammany Hall Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was a New York City political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789 as the Tammany Society. It became the main loc ...

, "Irving Hall" and the "County Democrats". The

Prohibition Party The Prohibition Party (PRO) is a political party in the United States known for its historic opposition to the sale or consumption of alcoholic beverages and as an integral part of the temperance movement. It is the oldest existing third party ...

and the

Greenback Party The Greenback Party (known successively as the Independent Party, the National Independent Party and the Greenback Labor Party) was an American political party with an anti-monopoly ideology which was active between 1874 and 1889. The party ran ...

also nominated tickets.

Elections

The New York state election, 1885 was held on November 3. Governor David B. Hill was re-elected; and Edward F. Jones was elected lieutenant governor. The other five statewide elective offices up for election were also carried by the Democrats. The approximate party strength at this election, as expressed by the vote for Governor, was: Democrats 501,000; Republicans 490,000; Prohibition 31,000; and Greenback 2,000.

Sessions

The Legislature met for the regular session at the State Capitol in Albany on January 5, 1886; and adjourned on May 20. James W. Husted (R) was again elected

Speaker Speaker may refer to: Society and politics * Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly * Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture * A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially: ** In ...

, against William F. Sheehan (D). Edmund L. Pitts (R) was elected president pro tempore of the State Senate.

State Senate

Districts

Note: There are now 62 counties in the State of

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. The counties which are not mentioned in this list had not yet been established, or sufficiently organized, the area being included in one or more of the abovementioned counties.

Members

The asterisk (*) denotes members of the previous Legislature who continued in office as members of this Legislature. Edward F. Reilly, Francis Hendricks, Charles F. Barager and John Raines changed from the Assembly to the Senate.

Employees

* Clerk: John W. Vrooman * Sergeant-at-Arms: James C. Murray * Doorkeeper: John H. Houck * Stenographer: Harris A. Corell

State Assembly

Assemblymen

The asterisk (*) denotes members of the previous Legislature who continued as members of this Legislature.

Employees

* Clerk: Charles A. Chickering * Sergeant-at-Arms: Edward H. Talbott * Doorkeeper: Michael Maher * Stenographer: Emory P. Close

Notes

Sources

''The New York Red Book''
compiled by Edgar L. Murlin (published by James B. Lyon, Albany NY, 1897; see pg. 384f for senate districts; pg. 403 for senators; pg. 410–417 for Assembly districts; and pg. 504f for assemblymen)
Biographical sketches of the members of the Legislature
in ''The Evening Journal Almanac'' (1886) {{NYLegislatures 109 1886 in New York (state) 1886 U.S. legislative sessions