The First Constitution of New York. 



47 



Clinton as governor, he had opportunity to ponder the pernicious 

 workings of his own device. All the offices in the State were then 

 filled with men of Clinton's political bias, and it was not long before 

 a Democratic council was appointed to co-operate with Jay. There- 

 upon, his nominations were one after another rejected, and the council 

 finally refused even to vote upon the names suggested by the Federalist 

 governor, and proceeded to fill the offices with men of their own party. 

 The governor, rather than submit to the obvious infraction of the 

 spirit of the Constitution, summarily adjourned the council, and to 

 the end of his term the civil commissions in eleven counties were un- 

 renewed. Upon his suggestion a popular convention was called to 

 settle the dispute. It fell under the control of the Democrats, and it 

 became a point of honor with them to stand by the action of the 

 Democratic council. Accordingly the convention declared that the 

 power of originating nominations was vested equally in the governor 

 and each of the councillors. Thereafter the governor became a 

 respectable cypher. The four senators annually selected for councillors 

 were the tools and agents of popular leaders. No qualification was 

 required of them but subserviency. The control of the council became 

 the goal of contending factions. With every fluctuation of politics, 

 there was a revolution in the offices all over the State. It frequently 

 happened that some petty office had three incumbents in a single year. 

 DeWitt Clinton was a member of the council which raised this issue 

 against Governor Jay. When Clinton himself became governor he 

 frequently had the mortification of seeing his friends swept out of 

 office in brigades, and of signing the commissions of his inveterate 



To this feature of the first Constitution of New York, history must 

 attribute the fact that under that Constitution the political annals 

 of New York State comprise little else than the wrangles of innumer- 

 able factions — wrangles which thrust men before measures, in- 

 volved no principles, and exceeded in binvrm-ss anything known else- 

 where in the nation. From his New York training, Van Buren im- 

 bibed the doctrine that to the victors belong the spoils. It had flour- 

 ished in the Empire State a quarter of a century before its taint spread 

 to the national administration. DeWitt Clinton was the first man to 

 formally announce that the offices ought to be distributed as rewards 

 to persons in sympathy with the party in power. But before his day 

 the council of revision had been used by the powerful families of 

 Clinton and Livingston to crush out, first the Federalists, and then 

 the following of Aaron Burr. Finally the Clintons overthrew the 



