48 



The First Constitution of New York. 



Livingstons, with the same weapon of attack. The personal character 

 of New York politics thus grew to be a mystery abroad and a scandal 

 at home. The convention of 1821 was chiefly demanded to abolish 

 the council of appointment. Thereafter the scandal grew less and 

 the mystery disappeared. 



Such were the features of the Constitution of 1777 which the people 

 have outgrown and pushed aside. From the date of the convention 

 of 1821, a political spirit and philosophy, widely different from that 

 of Jay and his associates have brought their influence to bear upon 

 the document. Little by little, every thing but the bare skeleton of 

 the government they framed has disappeared. Two tendencies have 

 marked the principal changes — the tendency to concentrate execu- 

 tive responsibility for administration, and the tendency to relegate 

 more and more to the people the control of their own local affairs. 

 The governor of 1777 was a pigmy in power, beside the governor of 

 to-day; and the people were many removes farther from the direct 

 control of their government. 



These tendencies mark the rapid development of the Democratic 

 idea. Their natural accompaniment has been the broadening of 

 the basis of suffrage until every barrier which Jay and his fellow 

 Federalists erected for the protection of property has been ruth- 

 lessly battered down. The convention of 1821 was the first battering 

 ram. The great struggle in that -body was upon the proposition 

 to abolish the property qualification for senators, and to enlarge 

 the basis of suffrage. The power of the landed interest had been 

 steadily decreasing since the Revolution. The old Federalist party, 

 with its chronic distrust of the masses, had well nigh melted out 

 of existence. A few distant counties returned delegates of that 

 obsolete faith. They made a determined effort, under the brilliant 

 lead of Chancellor Kent and Judge Spencer, to preserve the broad dis- 

 tinction between the senate and the popular branch of the legislature 

 in the doomed Constitution. Judge Spencer quoted two such antip- 

 odes as Hamilton and Jefferson, to support the theory that stable 

 government depended upon " a dissimilarity in the genius of the two 

 bodies." The venerable Chancellor Kent accused the convention of 

 bowing before the idol of universal suffrage. " That extreme Demo- 

 cratic doctrine," he said, "has been regarded with terror by the 

 wise men of every age, because in every republic where it has been 

 tried, it has terminated disastrously." "I greatly fear," he added, 

 " that our posterity will have reason to deplore in sackcloth and ashes 

 the delusion of the day." In a spirit of warning prophecy, the Chan- 



