NEW YORK. 



545 



The Legislature of 1868 met on the first 

 Tuesday in January, and continued in session 

 121 days, and finally adjourned on the 6th of 

 May. A majority of the members of the As- 

 sembly were Democrats, while in the Senate 

 the Republicans had a majority. The question 

 of controlling certain departments of the ad- 

 ministration of cities by commissions appointed 

 at Albany was introduced by the following 

 resolution, offered by Mr. Kiernan, of New 

 York: 



WJiereas, The city of New York has, through the 

 operation of special commissions created and ap- 

 pointed at Albany, been deprived of many of its cor- 

 porate rights and privileges and made subservient to 

 a government foreign to the provisions of its charter 

 and not identified with its interests ; 



Resolved, That the Committee on the Affairs of 

 Cities be requested to report, at as early a date as 

 possible, what constitutional means may be adopted 

 by the State Legislature to restore to the metropolis 

 its ancient power and independence. 



Nothing, however, was accomplished in this 

 matter. 



The following resolution received a unani- 

 mous vote in the Senate : 



That our Government, recognizing no distinction 

 between native-born and adopted citizens, should de- 

 mand of other nations the immediate and uncondi- 

 tional release of all citizens of the United States ille- 

 gally held in military service, or in custody for pre- 

 tended political oifences, not committed on their soil ; 

 and that it is the duty of the Government to enforce 

 that demand, if necessary, with all the power of the 

 nation. 



On the last day of the session the Commit- 

 tee on the Condition of the Country reported 

 the following, which were adopted in the As- 

 sembly : 



Resolved, That the aggressions of Congress upon the 

 rights of the States and the functions of coordinate 

 branches of the Government indicate a settled purpose 

 to set aside the Constitution and to destroy the lib- 

 erties of the people. 



Resolved, That the independence of the judiciary is 

 essential to the integrity of the Constitution and the 

 rights of citizens, and thai we protest against any act 

 of Congress infringing on it. 



Resolved, That the evidence elicited on the trial of 

 President Johnson before the court of impeachment 

 has established the innocence of that high function- 

 ary, and that his conviction would be regarded by 

 the people as the false Judgment of a partisan court, 

 and as a crime against the form and being of a repub- 

 lican government. 



The general legislation of the session relat- 

 ed in a large measure to railroads, canals, and 

 other matters connected with the commer- 

 cial interests of the people. An attempt was 

 made to abolish the offices of Auditor and Bank 

 Superintendent, but these propositions failed 

 in the Senate after having passed the Lower 

 House. The Assembly also passed a bill re- 

 pealing the Metropolitan Excise Law, but the 

 Senate refused to sanction the proceeding, and 

 three other bills intended to modify that statute 

 were voted* down in the same body. The 

 modifications proposed were: 1. To give ma- 

 gistrates the power to remit the ten days' pen- 

 alty for intoxication ; 2. To exclude the rural 

 towns of Queens County from the operation of 

 VOL. viu. 35 A 



the law ; and, 3. To give the Mayors of New 

 York and Brooklyn authority to grant licenses. 

 The attention of the Legislature was directed 

 to the railroads by the claims which several 

 of them put in for pecuniary aid from the 

 State, in the completion of their respective 

 lines. There were at one time, before one or 

 the other branch of the Legislature, bills for 

 the following railroads : 



"Whitehall & Plattsburg Eailroad, granting $250,000 



Albany & Susquehanna 



Buffalo & "Washington 



Dunkirk & "Warren 



Lake Ontario Shore 



Southern Central 



New York Northern 



Eondout & Oswego 



Utica & Black Eiver, say for forty miles. 



Midland, $5,000, say thirty-five miles, " 



Buffalo, Corry, & Pittsburg road " 



250,000 

 250,000 

 200,000 

 300,000 

 150,000 

 600,000 

 250,000 

 200,000 

 175,000 

 200,000 



The grounds on which their claims for help 

 from the public treasury were based, were the 

 value of the railroads of the State in develop- 

 ing the resources and promoting the material 

 prosperity of the sections of country through 

 which they passed. This generous legislation, 

 however, received a check by the veto of the 

 first of these bills which came before the Gov- 

 ernor for his signature. This was the White- 

 hall and Plattsburg Railroad Aid Bill, which 

 was returned to the Senate with the Gov- 

 ernor's objections, on the 6th of April. The 

 company engaged in constructing this road 

 was organized in the early part of the year 

 1866, for the purpose of completing direct 

 communications between New York City and 

 Montreal, and of opening a way through one 

 of the richest mineral districts in the State. 

 Application for State aid was made at once, 

 and a bill appropriating $450,000 to aid in the 

 construction of ninety miles of the road at ' 

 $5,000 a mile, passed both branches of the 

 Legislature, but was vetoed by the Governor. 

 In 1867 an appropriation of $250,000 was 

 made with the sanction of the Executive, and 

 in 1868 another application came for a quarter 

 of a million dollars to aid in carrying on the 

 work already begun. The Governor's reason 

 for vetoing the bill which proposed to grant 

 the aid desired was, the necessity for retrench- 

 ment and economy. He said : 



It must have come to the attention of all, that dur- 

 ing the past year the people have been more restive 

 under the burdens of taxation than at any previous 

 period since the close of the Avar. Business has been 

 unsettled, trade has been depressed, industry partially 

 paralyzed, and values have become more irregular 

 and less reliable. Profits have diminished, and un- 

 til the great financial questions are firmly decided^ 

 and a permanent policyestablished, the horoscope or 

 the future cannot be surely and confidently cast. This 

 condition, which the repeated lessons of history and ; 

 our past experience as a people might have taught us; 

 to expect would mark the period immediately follow- 

 ing a great war, duty and prudence alike demand shall 

 not be disregarded. The State can no more be pros- 

 perous without economy in the conduct of its affairs 

 than individuals. A continued large debt is danger- 

 ous to our social and republican institutions. Our 

 first care, therefore, should be to ascertain how the- 



