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1798 New York gubernatorial election

The 1798 New York gubernatorial election was held in April 1798 to elect the Governor and Lieutenant Governor of New York. Incumbent Governor John Jay was elected to a second term in office over Robert Livingston.

Background

Governor John Jay was sworn into office on July 1, 1798 but quickly became personally unpopular throughout the country when news of the treaty he negotiated with Great Britain became public in the United States. Public displays of violent opposition to the treaty erupted, including a burning effigy of Governor Jay in Philadelphia. Opposition was so strong that Jay's Federalist Party lost a congressional election in their stronghold of New York City.[1] Jay also proposed a bill for the gradual abolition of slavery, but the legislature rejected his proposal in favor of a resolution favoring the rights of property owners.[2] Though a latent Tory strain in the state's politics and outrage at the conduct of the First French Republic sustained the Federalists in the spring 1796 state elections, the party lost seats in the fall 1796 congressional and spring 1797 state elections.[3]

The Federalist Party of New York was also divided by the presidential election of 1796, in which most Federalists, including Jay, supported Vice President John Adams, but Alexander Hamilton supported Thomas Pinckney of South Carolina.

Qualifications

Under Article VII of the New York Constitution of 1777, only certain male freeholders and certain freemen of Albany or New York City could vote:[4]

VII. That every male inhabitant of full age, who shall have personally resided within one of the counties of this State for six months immediately preceding the day of election, shall, at such election, be entitled to vote for representatives of the said county in assembly; if, during the time aforesaid, he shall have been a freeholder, possessing a freehold of the value of twenty pounds, within the said county, or have rented a tenement therein of the yearly value of forty shillings, and been rated and actually paid taxes to this State: Provided always, That every person who now is a freeman of the city of Albany, or who was made a freeman of the city of New York on or before the fourteenth day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five, and shall be actually and usually resident in the said cities, respectively, shall be entitled to vote for representatives in assembly within his said place of residence.

General election

Candidates

Jay was renominated at a legislative caucus of the Federalist Party on March 6.[5]

Robert Livingston had been one of the most ardent advocates of the United States Constitution at the Poughkeepsie ratifying convention of 1788, but by 1790, his family identified with the Jeffersonian faction in politics, ostensibly over opposition to Alexander Hamilton's plan for the establishment of a national bank and federal assumption of state debts. Livingston may also have personally left the Federalists out of resentment of Hamilton and Jay's authority within the party and of being passed over for Chief Justice of the United States in favor of Jay.[6] On February 6, 1797, he attended a public anniversary celebration for the Franco-American alliance, at which he made his opposition to the Jay Treaty known.[7]

Results

The election passed uneventfully; Jay was re-elected by an increased majority, though Republicans gained in the legislature.[5]

References

  1. ^ Jenkins 1846, p. 56.
  2. ^ Jenkins 1846, p. 58.
  3. ^ Jenkins 1846, pp. 60–63.
  4. ^ Jenkins 1846, p. 36.
  5. ^ a b Jenkins 1846, p. 66.
  6. ^ Jenkins 1846, pp. 62–63.
  7. ^ Jenkins 1846, p. 62.
  8. ^ The Tribune Almanac 1841

Bibliography

See also


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