corporations.[1] The elections were held whenever the assembly was dissolved, sometimes at such short notice that the total voting population, such as it was, could not be got to the polls.[2] But the whole voting population, on account of the limitations of the suffrage, was small. In 1790 the proportion of voters for assemblymen to the total population was approximately twelve per cent.[3] Using this as a percentage previous to the Revolution the voting population increased from 2,168 in 1698 to 20,256 in 1771.[4] This is a liberal estimate too, because the percentage of people of African birth was less in 1791 than during the pre-revolutionary period."[5] But even so, the voting population was small and therefore proportionately easy to manage. A voting population of from two to twenty thousand, scattered over twelve counties, gave no great difficulty to an aristocracy as coherent and well organized as that of New York province. And this was made easier still by the personal relation of the aristocracy to a portion of the voting population, and by the method of voting. That tenant voters would be largely influenced by lords of manors is perhaps sufficiently obvious. The method of voting, too, contributed to the same end. It was
- ↑ "Every freeholder within the province and free man in any corporation shall have
his free choice and vote in the election of the representatives." Colonial Laws of New York, I. iii. Freeholders were defined, by the act of May 16, 1699, to be those who " have lands or tenements improved to the value of forty pounds in freehold free from all
incumbrance and have possessed the same three months before the test of the said writ" Colonial Laws of New York, I. 405. Quoted in Dawson's Westchester County during the American Revolution, 4, note 3. The date given by Dawson is May 8, 1699. Freemen of the New York Corporation were such as had permission to "use any art, trade, mystery, or manual occupation," within the city save in " times of Faires. " Extract from Dongan's Charter, April 20, 1686, quoted in The Burghers of New Amsterdam and the Freemen of New York, 1675-1866, in New York Historical Society Collections, 1885, p. 48. By this charter such persons were to pay, if merchant traders or shop-keepers, three pounds, twelve shillings ; if handicraftsmen, one pound, four shillings. Ibid., 49. But at the Common Council for April 24, 1686, the "fee for freedomes" was made five
pounds. Ibid., 48. This seems to have been the law until 1784 when a slight modification was made. Ibid., 239, 240. For the list of freemen admitted in New York City from 1686 to 1776, see Ibid., 53-238.
Besides the counties, the manors of Rensselaerwick, Livingston, and Cortlandt, and the borough of Westchester, enjoyed the privilege of sending representatives.
- ↑ "As to the present election it was appointed so suddenly by the sheriff that it was impossible to collect the votes of this extensive county, particularly as the roads are so bad and the rivers impassable." William Johnson to Dr. Auchmuty, Jan. 25, 1769. Johnson's MSS., XVII. 51.
- ↑ Based upon "a census of the electors and inhabitants of the State of New York taken in the year 1790." (Broadside in the Library of the New York Historical Society, Vol. I. of the collection) and a " List of electors in New York state for the assembly, reported by a committee of the House, Jan. 27, 1791." (Greenleaf's Journal, Jan. 27, 1791.)
- ↑ This estimate is made on the basis of statistics presented in the Documentary History of New York (1849), I- 689-697.
- ↑ Ibid.
