The 81st New York State Legislature, consisting of the
New York State Senate and the
New York State Assembly, met from January 5 to April 19, 1858, during the second year of
John A. King
John Alsop King (January 3, 1788July 7, 1867) was an American politician who was Governor of New York from 1857 to 1858.
Life
John Alsop King was born in the area now encompassed by New York City on January 3, 1788, to U.S. Senator Rufus King ...
's governorship, in
Albany.
Background
Under the provisions of the
New York Constitution
The Constitution of the State of New York establishes the structure of the government of the State of New York, and enumerates the basic rights of the citizens of New York. Like most state constitutions in the United States, New York's constitut ...
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 (four districts) and Kings County (two districts). The Assembly districts were made up of entire towns, or city wards, forming a contiguous area, all within the same county.
On April 13, the Legislature re-apportioned the Senate districts, and the Assembly seats per county. Cayuga, Dutchess, Genesee, Greene, Montgomery, Onondaga, Orange, Otsego, Schoharie and Tompkins counties lost one seat each; New York, Oswego, Queens, Ulster and Westchester counties gained one seat each; Kings County gained four seats; and the new
Schuyler County was apportioned one seat.
At this time there were two major political parties: the
Democratic Party and the
Republican Party. The
Know Nothing movement ran in the election as the "American Party."
Elections
The
New York state election, 1857 was held on November 3. All eight statewide elective offices were carried by the Democrats. The approximate party strength at this election, as expressed by the vote for Secretary of State was: Democratic 195,000; Republican 177,000; and American 67,000.
Sessions
The Legislature met for the regular session at the Old State Capitol in
Albany on January 5, 1858; and adjourned on April 19.
On January 12,
John B. Halsted (R) was elected president pro tempore of the State Senate..
On January 26, after three weeks of deadlock,
Thomas G. Alvord (D) was 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:
** I ...
on the 53rd ballot.
[Under ordinary circumstances, the result of the last ballot would have been "no choice", the vote being a tie of 57 for Alvord and 57 for all other candidates together but, between the 52nd and the 53rd ballot, a resolution was adopted that the person receiving the largest number of votes on the next ballot would be elected.]
State Senate
Districts
* 1st District:
Queens
Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...
,
Richmond and
Suffolk counties
* 2nd District: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 7th, 11th, 13th and 19th wards of the City of
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
* 3rd District: 6th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 12th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th and 18th wards of the City of Brookland; and all towns in Kings County
* 4th District: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th and 14th wards of New York City
* 5th District: 10th, 11th, 13th and 17th wards of New York City
* 6th District: 9th, 15th, 16th and 18th wards of New York City
* 7th District: 12th, 19th, 20th, 21st and 22nd wards of New York City
* 8th District:
Putnam,
Rockland and
Westchester counties
* 9th District:
Orange
Orange most often refers to:
*Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis''
** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower
*Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum
* ...
and
Sullivan counties
* 10th District:
Greene
Greene may refer to:
Places United States
*Greene, Indiana, an unincorporated community
*Greene, Iowa, a city
*Greene, Maine, a town
** Greene (CDP), Maine, in the town of Greene
*Greene (town), New York
** Greene (village), New York, in the town ...
and
Ulster
Ulster (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label= Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional Irish provinces. It is made up of nine counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kin ...
counties
* 11th District:
Columbia and
Dutchess counties
* 12th District:
Rensselaer and
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
counties
* 13th District:
Albany County
* 14th District:
Delaware
Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...
,
Schenectady
Schenectady () is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2020 census, the city's population of 67,047 made it the state's ninth-largest city by population. The city is in eastern New Y ...
and
Schoharie counties
* 15th District:
Fulton
Fulton may refer to:
People
* Robert Fulton (1765–1815), American engineer and inventor who developed the first commercially successful steam-powered ship
* Fulton (surname)
Given name
* Fulton Allem (born 1957), South African golfer
* Fult ...
,
Hamilton,
Montgomery and
Saratoga counties
* 16th District:
Clinton,
Essex
Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...
and
Warren counties
* 17th District:
Franklin and
St. Lawrence
Saint Lawrence or Laurence ( la, Laurentius, lit. " laurelled"; 31 December AD 225 – 10 August 258) was one of the seven deacons of the city of Rome under Pope Sixtus II who were martyred in the persecution of the Christians that the Roma ...
counties
* 18th District:
Jefferson and
Lewis
Lewis may refer to:
Names
* Lewis (given name), including a list of people with the given name
* Lewis (surname), including a list of people with the surname
Music
* Lewis (musician), Canadian singer
* "Lewis (Mistreated)", a song by Radiohead ...
counties
* 19th District:
Oneida County
* 20th District:
Herkimer and
Otsego counties
* 21st District:
Oswego County
Oswego County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 117,525. The county seat is Oswego. The county name is from a Mohawk-language word meaning "the pouring out place", referring to the point at ...
* 22nd District:
Onondaga County
Onondaga County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 476,516. The county seat is Syracuse.
Onondaga County is the core of the Syracuse, NY MSA.
History
The name ''Onondaga'' derives from ...
* 23rd District:
Chenango,
Cortland and
Madison counties
* 24th District:
Broome,
Tompkins and
Tioga counties
* 25th District:
Cayuga and
Wayne counties
* 26th District:
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...
,
Seneca
Seneca may refer to:
People and language
* Seneca (name), a list of people with either the given name or surname
* Seneca people, one of the six Iroquois tribes of North America
** Seneca language, the language of the Seneca people
Places Extrat ...
and
Yates counties
* 27th District:
Chemung,
Schuyler Schuyler may refer to:
Places United States
* Schuyler County, Illinois
* Schuyler County, Missouri
* Schuyler, Nebraska, a city
* Schuyler County, New York
* Schuyler, New York, a town
* Schuyler Island, Lake Champlain, New York
* Schuyler C ...
and
Steuben counties
* 28th District:
Monroe County
* 29th District:
Genesee
Genesee, derived from the Seneca word for "pleasant valley", may refer to:
Geographic features Canada
*Genesee, Alberta, an unincorporated community
United States
*Genesee, California
*Genesee, Colorado
*Genesee County, Michigan
*Genesee Co ...
,
Niagara and
Orleans counties
* 30th District:
Allegany,
Livingston and
Wyoming
Wyoming () is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the southwest, and Colorado to the s ...
counties
* 31st District:
Erie County
* 32nd District:
Cattaraugus and
Chautauqua
Chautauqua ( ) was an adult education and social movement in the United States, highly popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Chautauqua assemblies expanded and spread throughout rural America until the mid-1920s. The Chautauqua br ...
counties
Note: There are now 62 counties in the State of
New York. 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. James Noxon, John E. Paterson, John B. Halsted, James Wadsworth and John P. Darling were re-elected. George G. Scott and Ralph A. Loveland changed from the Assembly to the Senate.
Party affiliations follow the vote for Senate officers.
Employees
* Clerk:
Samuel P. Allen
* Deputy Clerk: Henry J. Sickles
* Sergeant-at-Arms: Henry W. Dwight
* Assistant Sergeant-at-Arms: Simeon Dillingham
* Doorkeeper: Richard U. Owens
* First Assistant Doorkeeper: Henry W. Shipman
* Second Assistant Doorkeeper: Samuel Ten Eyck
* Third Assistant Doorkeeper: James P. Clark
* Journal Clerk: James Terwilliger
* Engrossing Clerks: A. N. Cole, Charles G. Fairman
State Assembly
Assemblymen
The asterisk (*) denotes members of the previous Legislature who continued as members of this Legislature.
Party affiliations follow the original vote for Speaker.
Employees
*
Clerk
A clerk is a white-collar worker who conducts general office tasks, or a worker who performs similar sales-related tasks in a retail environment. The responsibilities of clerical workers commonly include record keeping, filing, staffing service ...
:
David Wilson
* Assistant Clerk:
Edwin O. Perrin
* Sergeant-at-Arms: Philip H. Lasher
* Doorkeeper: Peter J. Cook
* First Assistant Doorkeeper: John Davis
* Second Assistant Doorkeeper: James Swarthout
* Journal Clerk:
Joseph B. Cushman
Notes
Sources
''The New York Civil List''compiled by Franklin Benjamin Hough, Stephen C. Hutchins and Edgar Albert Werner (1867; see pg. 439 for Senate districts; pg. 442 for senators; pg. 450–462 for Assembly districts; and pg. 485ff for assemblymen)
''Journal of the Senate'' (81st Session)(1858)
''Journal of the Assembly'' (81st Session)(1858)
''Biographical Sketches of the State Officers and Members of the Legislature of the State of New York in 1858''by William D. Murphy
''The Evening Journal Almanac''(Senate and Assembly members with party affiliations and election endorsements, pg. 21–35)
{{NYLegislatures
081
1858 in New York (state)
1858 U.S. legislative sessions