NEW YORK. 



531 



Treasury will no longer exceed the Government's in- 

 come aii'il necositate an increase in the public debt. 



Concerning State issues it said : 



Professing devotion to the principle of home rule, 

 the Republican party prostituted legislative power to 

 political attacks upon Democratic cities, and passed 

 bills legislating out of office nearly l,.">oo Democrats 

 appointed or elected by local authority, thereby out- 

 rageously interfering witli local self-government arid 

 attempting to establish Kepul)licau minority rule in 

 Democratic municipalities. Alleging iniquities in 

 Democratic State oliices.it appointed committees \\ith 

 expensive counsel to ransack every department not 

 occupied by Republicans, and has been obliged re- and sentenced to State s prison for six years. 

 luctantly to confess that there were no iniquities to His associates also suffered. Kenneth F. Suth- 

 expose. ' Hungry for political patronage, it was willing 

 to jeopardize tne annual appropriation bill for the 

 support of government by insisting upon a "rider" 

 requiring a Republican Attorney-General to appoint 

 all counsel employed by Democratic State officers. 



the resignation of Charles T. Saxton, who was 

 elected Lieutenant-Governor. John Raines, of 

 Canandaigua, a Republican, was elected. 



Election Troubles. Under this caption 

 mention was made, in 1893, of the outrages that 

 occurred in Kings County. Early in the year 

 John Y. McKane, who refused to permit the regis- 

 try lists to be inspected as the law required, and 

 who, when the Supreme Court issued a man- 

 damus to compel him to allow copies to be made, 

 seized the messengers, sent them to jail, and re- 

 fused their release on bail, was tried, convicted, 



The Committee on Credentials accepted the 

 protests of the ruling factions of Kings County 

 and New York, and refused to admit certain 

 delegates from Kings led by Edward M. Shepard 

 and the delegates of the New York State Democ- 

 racy led by Charles S. Fairchild. Prior to the 

 convention Roswell P. Flower had announced 

 his unwillingness to accept a renomination, and 

 subsequently during the convention Perry Bel- 

 mont, William J. Gaynor, and William C. Whit- 

 ney publicly expressed their inability to accept 

 the nomination for Governor. The name of John 

 Boyd Thatcher was placed in nomination, and 

 that of David B. Hill, whereupon the convention 

 stampeded in favor of Senator Hill, who became 

 the unanimous choice of the convention. Daniel 

 N. Lockwood and William J. Gaynor were 

 unanimously chosen for the places of Lieuten- 

 ant-Governor and Judge of the Court of Appeals. 

 After providing for the State Committee the 

 convention adjourned on Sept. 27. Subse- 

 quently William J. Gaynor declined the nomi- 

 nation, and Charles F. Brown was named for the 

 place. The rejected ' factions of Kings County 

 afterward named Everett P. Wheeler as candidate 

 for Governor, and adopted the other candidates. 



The Prohibition party placed in nomination 

 the following candidates : Governor, Francis E. 

 Baldwin; Lieutenant-Governor, Justus Miller; 

 and Judge of the Court of Appeals, Zachary P. 

 Taylor. The Socialistic Labor party placed in 

 nomination : For Governor, Charles H. Matchett ; 

 Lieutenant-Governor, William F. Steer; and 

 Judge of the Court of Appeals, Francis Gerau. 

 The People's party named : For Governor, 

 Charles B. Matthews ; Lieutenant-Governor, 

 Robert C. Henson : and Judge of the Court of 

 Appeals, Thaddeus B. Wakeman. Besides the 

 foregoing, local candidates for members of the 

 Assembly and members of Congress were made, 

 who were voted for at the election, as well as the 

 constitutional amendments. 



The election, held on Nov. 6, resulted in a suc- 

 cess for the Republican State candidates by a 

 plurality, in the case of the Governor, of 156,108 

 votes. No Democratic congressmen were elected 

 outside of New York city, and only 14 assembly- 

 men, so that the Assembly will stand Republi- 

 cans 105, and Democrats 23. The constitutional 

 amendments were all carried. On Dec. 20 a 

 special election was held in the Twenty-sixth 

 Senatorial District to fill the vacancy caused by 



erland, after a sentence of one year and $500 fine, 

 ran away to Canada, but after a lew months 

 returned, and received an additional year on 

 another count. R. V. B. Newton was sentenced 

 for nine months and $750 fine ; A. S. Jamieson, 

 eighteen months ; M. P. Ryan, six months and 

 $500 fine ; F. Bader, five months and $500 fine ; 

 and B. Cohen, four months and $500 fine. 



Constitutional Convention. The seventh 

 convention to revise the Constitution opened 

 May 8, 1894, and closed Sept. 29, 1894. The pre- 

 vious conventions had been held, respectively, in 

 1777, 1788, 1801, 1821, 1846, and 1867; while the 

 constitutional commission of 1872 was a body 

 of practically the same character. The Consti- 

 tution of 1777 ratified the new Federal Constitu- 

 tion, and established the first Constitution for 

 the State of New York. By the convention of 

 1801 the Governor and the 'council of appoint- 

 ment were given equal powers, but the conven- 

 tion of 1821 gave the greater part of those powers 

 to the Governor. In 1846 radical changes were 

 made in the Constitution by giving many of 

 those same powers to the people. The work of 

 the convention of 1867 was repudiated by the 

 voters, with the exception of the judiciary article 

 and the removal of the property qualification 

 from colored voters ; so that the convention of 

 1894 began the task of revising an organic law 

 that had been changed but little in nearly fifty 

 years. 



Under the former Constitution the electors 

 were allowed, once in twenty years, to vote on 

 the question of holding a 'convention. They 

 voted in favor of one in 1886, but owing to polit- 

 ical differences between the Governor and the 

 Legislature no law was passed till 1893 ; and 

 this called for the election of delegates in No- 

 vember of that year. The number of delegates 

 was placed at 175. Of these, 160 were elected 

 by the Senate districts, 5 to each district. The 

 15 delegates at large were voted for on the party 

 tickets. The Republicans secured a majority, 

 and controlled the convention. They unseated 

 5 Democrats from the Fifth District on account 

 of frauds in Gravesend, and 2 from the Thirtieth 

 District. By these changes, by deaths, and by 

 resignations,' the total number of delegates was 

 reduced from 175 to 168, of which number the 

 Republicans had 103 and the Democrats 65. It 

 was decided that 85 delegates were required to 

 make a quorum, but that 88 votes were necessary 

 to pass an amendment, as that was just over 

 half of the number originally elected. The law 

 creating the convention was not explicit regard- 

 ing the place where the sessions, after the first 

 session, should be held. An effort was therefore 



