95th New York State Legislature

The 95th New York State Legislature, consisting of the New York State Senate and the New York State Assembly, met from January 2 to May 14, 1872, during the fourth year of John T. Hoffman's governorship, in Albany.

95th New York State Legislature
← 94th 96th →
The Old State Capitol (1879)
Overview
Legislative body	New York State Legislature
Jurisdiction	New York, United States
Term	January 1 – December 31, 1872
Senate
Members	32
President	Lt. Gov. Allen C. Beach (D)
Temporary President	William B. Woodin (R)
Party control	Republican (24-5-2)
Assembly
Members	128
Speaker	Henry Smith (R)
Party control	Republican (98-26-4)
Sessions
1st January 2 – May 14, 1872

Background

Under the provisions of the New York Constitution of 1846, 32 Senators and 128 assemblymen were elected in single-seat districts; senators for a two-year term, assemblymen for a one-year term. The senatorial districts were made up of entire counties, except New York County (five districts) and Kings County (two districts). The Assembly districts were made up of entire towns, or city wards,^[1] forming a contiguous area, all within the same county.

At this time there were two major political parties: the Republican Party and the Democratic Party.

Elections

The 1871 New York state election was held on November 7. All seven statewide elective offices up for election were carried by the Republicans. The approximate party strength at this election, as expressed by the vote for Secretary of State, was: Republicans 387,000 and Democrats 368,000.

Sessions

The Legislature met for the regular session at the Old State Capitol in Albany on January 2, 1872; and adjourned on May 14.

Henry Smith (R) was elected Speaker with 95 votes against 26 for John C. Jacobs (D).

In his annual message to the Legislature, Gov. John T. Hoffman suggested that a bi-partisan Constitutional Commission of 32 members should be formed. The Commission had four members from each judicial district, appointed by the Governor, and confirmed by the State Senate, equally divided between Democrats and Republicans.

William B. Woodin (R) was elected President pro tempore of the State Senate.

On May 1, Supreme Court Justice Albert Cardozo tendered his resignation, just before the report of the Judiciary Committee of the Assembly, which proposed his impeachment, was read. No further action was taken against Cardozo.^[2]

On May 2, the Assembly impeached Supreme Court Justice George G. Barnard.^[3]

On May 23, the Senate set the opening of the trial of Judge John McCunn, of the New York City Marine Court, for June 18.^[4]

On June 18, the Senate met for the trials of Judge McCunn, and Chenango County Judge Horace G. Prindle.^[5]

On July 2, the Senate removed Judge McCunn from office.^[6]

On July 17, the New York Court for the Trial of Impeachments met at Saratoga Springs to open the trial of Justice Barnard.

On August 19, Barnard was convicted by the Impeachment Court, was removed from office, and barred from ever holding public office again.^[7]

On December 4, the Constitutional Commission met.

State Senate

Districts

• 1st District: Queens, Richmond and Suffolk counties
• 2nd District: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 7th, 11th, 13th, 15th, 19th and 20th wards of the City of Brooklyn
• 3rd District: 6th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 12th, 14th, 16th, 17th and 18th wards of the City of Brooklyn; and all towns in Kings County
• 4th District: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 13th and 14th wards of New York City
• 5th District: 8th, 9th, 15th and 16th wards of New York City
• 6th District: 10th, 11th and 17th wards of New York City
• 7th District: 18th, 20th and 21st wards of New York City
• 8th District: 12th, 19th and 22nd wards of New York City
• 9th District: Putnam, Rockland and Westchester counties
• 10th District: Orange and Sullivan counties
• 11th District: Columbia and Dutchess counties
• 12th District: Rensselaer and Washington counties
• 13th District: Albany County
• 14th District: Greene and Ulster counties
• 15th District: Fulton, Hamilton, Montgomery, Saratoga and Schenectady counties
• 16th District: Clinton, Essex and Warren counties
• 17th District: Franklin and St. Lawrence counties
• 18th District: Jefferson and Lewis counties
• 19th District: Oneida County
• 20th District: Herkimer and Otsego counties
• 21st District: Madison and Oswego counties
• 22nd District: Onondaga and Cortland counties
• 23rd District: Chenango, Delaware and Schoharie counties
• 24th District: Broome, Tompkins and Tioga counties
• 25th District: Cayuga and Wayne counties
• 26th District: Ontario, Seneca and Yates counties
• 27th District: Chemung, Schuyler and Steuben counties
• 28th District: Monroe County
• 29th District: Genesee, Niagara and Orleans counties
• 30th District: Allegany, Livingston and Wyoming counties
• 31st District: Erie County
• 32nd District: Cattaraugus and Chautauqua counties

Note: There are now 62 counties in the State of New York. The counties which are not mentioned in this list had not yet been established, or sufficiently organized, the area being included in one or more of the abovementioned counties.

Members

The asterisk (*) denotes members of the previous Legislature who continued in office as members of this Legislature. Isaac V. Baker Jr., Webster Wagner and James H. Graham changed from the Assembly to the Senate.

District	Senator	Party	Notes
1st	Townsend D. Cock	Democrat
2nd	John C. Perry	Republican
3rd	Henry C. Murphy*	Democrat	re-elected
4th	(William M. Tweed)*	Democrat	re-elected; did not take his seat; unsuccessfully contested by Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa[8]
5th	Erastus C. Benedict	Republican
6th	Augustus Weismann	Republican
7th	James O'Brien	Reform Democrat
8th	Daniel F. Tiemann	Reform Democrat
9th	William H. Robertson	Republican
10th	Edward M. Madden	Republican
11th	Abiah W. Palmer	Republican
12th	Isaac V. Baker Jr.*	Republican
13th	Charles H. Adams	Republican
14th	Jacob Hardenbergh*	Democrat	re-elected; died on April 29, 1872
	William F. Scoresby	Lib. Rep./Dem.	elected to fill vacancy; seated on November 22[9]
15th	Webster Wagner*	Republican
16th	Samuel Ames	Republican
17th	Wells S. Dickinson	Republican
18th	Norris Winslow*	Republican	re-elected
19th	Samuel S. Lowery	Republican
20th	Archibald C. McGowan	Republican
21st	William Foster	Republican
22nd	Daniel P. Wood	Republican
23rd	James H. Graham*	Republican
24th	Thomas I. Chatfield	Republican
25th	William B. Woodin*	Republican	re-elected
26th	William Johnson	Democrat
27th	Gabriel T. Harrower	Republican
28th	Jarvis Lord*	Democrat	re-elected
29th	George Bowen*	Republican	re-elected
30th	James Wood*	Republican	re-elected
31st	Loran L. Lewis*	Republican	re-elected
32nd	Norman M. Allen	Republican

Employees

• Clerk: James Terwilliger, resigned February 14
  • Charles R. Dayton, from February 17
• Sergeant-at-Arms: Edwin J. Loomis
• Doorkeeper: Daniel K. Schram
• Assistant Doorkeeper: J. D. Lonergan
• Journal Clerk: Charles R. Dayton, until February 17

State Assembly

Assemblymen

The asterisk (*) denotes members of the previous Legislature who continued as members of this Legislature.

Party affiliations follow the vote for Speaker.

District		Assemblymen	Party	Notes
Albany	1st	Stephen Springsted	Republican
	2nd	Henry Smith	Republican	elected Speaker
	3rd	Daniel L. Babcock	Republican
	4th	George B. Mosher	Democrat
Allegany		William W. Crandall	Republican
Broome		William M. Ely*	Republican	died on February 6, 1872[10]
		William L. Ford	Republican	elected to fill vacancy
Cattaraugus	1st	Commodore P. Vedder	Republican
	2nd	Enoch Holdridge	Republican
Cayuga	1st	Ira D. Brown	Republican
	2nd	Elijah E. Brown	Republican
Chautauqua	1st	Matthew P. Bemus*	Republican
	2nd	Jerome Preston	Republican
Chemung		David B. Hill*	Democrat
Chenango		Andrew Shepardson*	Republican
Clinton		Edmund Kingsland 2d	Republican
Columbia	1st	Benjamin Ray*	Democrat
	2nd	Milton M. Tompkins	Democrat
Cortland		Dan C. Squires	Republican
Delaware	1st	William Lewis Jr.	Republican
	2nd	Matthew Griffin	Republican
Dutchess	1st	Edward M. Goring	Republican
	2nd	Harvey G. Eastman	Republican	also Mayor of Poughkeepsie
Erie	1st	George Chambers*	Democrat
	2nd	George Baltz	Republican
	3rd	Franklin A. Alberger*	Republican
	4th	John Simson	Republican
	5th	John M. Wiley*	Democrat
Essex		Franklin W. Tobey	Republican
Franklin		James H. Pierce*	Republican
Fulton and Hamilton		Samuel W. Buell	Democrat
Genesee		Volney G. Knapp*	Republican
Greene		Augustus Hill	Democrat
Herkimer		Eleazer C. Rice	Republican
Jefferson	1st	Oliver C. Wyman*	Republican
	2nd	William W. Enos	Republican
Kings	1st	David C. Aitken*	Democrat
	2nd	Edward D. White	Republican
	3rd	Dominick H. Roche*	Democrat
	4th	William W. Moseley*	Democrat
	5th	Eugene D. Berri	Republican
	6th	Peter G. Peck	Republican
	7th	Charles B. Morton	Republican
	8th	George C. Bennett	Republican
	9th	John C. Jacobs*	Democrat
Lewis		Amos V. Smiley	Republican
Livingston		Archibald Kennedy	Republican
Madison	1st	John W. Lippitt	Republican
	2nd	Francis A. Hyatt	Republican
Monroe	1st	George A. Goss	Republican
	2nd	George D. Lord*	Democrat
	3rd	Leonard Burritt	Republican
Montgomery		William J. Van Dusen	Republican
New York	1st	James Healey	Democrat
	2nd	James Dunphy	Democrat	contested by Henry G. Leash
	3rd	James Hayes	Democrat
	4th	John J. Blair*	Democrat	contested by William McMahon
	5th	David S. Paige	Reform Democrat
	6th	Timothy J. Campbell*	Democrat
	7th	Horatio N. Twombly	Republican
	8th	Conrad Geib	Republican
	9th	Stephen Pell[11]	Republican
	10th	Henry H. Haight	Reform Democrat
	11th	Rush C. Hawkins	Republican
	12th	William W. Cook*	Democrat
	13th	George H. Mackay	Republican
	14th	John A. Foley	Reform Democrat
	15th	Alexander Frear*	Democrat	contested;[12] seat vacated on March 1
		Frederick Kilian	Republican	seated on March 1[13]
	16th	Nicholas Haughton	Democrat
	17th	Charles A. Flammer	Republican
	18th	Samuel J. Tilden	Reform Democrat
	19th	Thomas C. Fields*	Democrat	unsuccessfully contested[14]
	20th	Severn D. Moulton	Republican
	21st	William A. Whitbeck	Republican
Niagara	1st	Isaac H. Babcock	Republican
	2nd	George M. Swain	Republican
Oneida	1st	Martin L. Hungerford	Republican
	2nd	Eleazer Beckwith	Republican
	3rd	George K. Carroll	Democrat
	4th	Albert L. Hayes	Republican
Onondaga	1st	Thomas G. Alvord*	Republican
	2nd	Peter Burns*	Republican
	3rd	Gustavus Sniper*	Republican
Ontario	1st	Ambrose L. Van Dusen	Republican
	2nd	Cyrillo S. Lincoln	Republican
Orange	1st	Robert H. Strahan*	Republican
	2nd	Frank Abbott	Republican
Orleans		E. Kirke Hart	Republican
Oswego	1st	Daniel G. Fort	Republican
	2nd	Thomas W. Green	Republican
	3rd	Chauncey S. Sage*	Republican
Otsego	1st	Alfred Chamberlain*	Democrat
	2nd	J. Lee Tucker*	Republican
Putnam		James B. Dykeman	Republican
Queens	1st	L. Bradford Prince*	Republican
	2nd	James M. Oakley*	Democrat
Rensselaer	1st	Jason C. Osgood	Republican
	2nd	John L. Snyder	Republican
	3rd	Castle W. Herrick	Republican
Richmond		David W. Judd	Republican
Rockland		Daniel Tompkins	Republican
St. Lawrence	1st	Darius A. Moore	Republican
	2nd	Dolphus S. Lynde*	Republican
	3rd	Parker W. Rose	Republican
Saratoga	1st	George West	Republican
	2nd	Nathaniel M. Houghton	Republican
Schenectady		William Greenhalgh	Republican
Schoharie		Peter Couchman	Democrat
Schuyler		Harmon L. Gregory	Republican
Seneca		Peter Lott	Republican
Steuben	1st	Thomas M. Fowler	Republican
	2nd	James B. Murdock	Republican
Suffolk		John S. Marcy	Republican
Sullivan		Frank Buckley*	Democrat
Tioga		William Smyth	Republican
Tompkins		Anson W. Knettles	Republican
Ulster	1st	Robert Loughran	Republican
	2nd	C. Meech Woolsey*	Republican
	3rd	Allen A. Whitaker	Republican
Warren		Joseph Woodward	Republican
Washington	1st	Edmund W. Hollister	Republican
	2nd	George W. L. Smith	Republican
Wayne	1st	Edward B. Wells	Republican
	2nd	Lucien T. Yeomans	Republican
Westchester	1st	William W. Niles	Republican
	2nd	Albert Badeau	Republican
	3rd	James W. Husted*	Republican
Wyoming		John N. Davidson	Republican
Yates		George P. Lord*	Republican

Employees

• Clerk: Cornelius S. Underwood, died on April 27, 1872
  • Edward M. Johnson, from May 1, 1872^[15]
• Sergeant-at-Arms: Philip J. Rhinehardt
• Doorkeeper: Eugene L. Demers
• First Assistant Doorkeeper: James H. Lee
• Second Assistant Doorkeeper: James Hogan

Notes

1. Except New York City where the wards were apportioned into election districts, and then some whole wards and some election districts of other wards were gerrymandered together into Assembly districts.
2. OUR CORRUPT JUDGES in NYT on May 2, 1872
3. ALBANY; The Impeachment of Judge George G. Barnard in NYT on May 3, 1872
4. THE STATE SENATE; Executive Session on the Accused Judges' Cases in NYT on May 24, 1872
5. TRIAL OF THE JUDGES in NYT on June 19, 1872; Prindle was acquitted in January 1873.
6. EXIT McCUNN in NYT on July 3, 1872
7. Exit Barnard in NYT on August 20, 1872
8. Tweed did not claim the seat, and his chair remained empty throughout the session. A resolution to vacate the seat, and then call a special election to fill the seat, was proposed, but no action was taken. O'Donovan Rossa, who had lost the senatorial election to Tweed, claimed the seat, but was not seated; see THE STATE LEGISLATURE; Tweeds Empty Chair in NYT on March 5, 1873; and ALBANY; AN ASPIRANT TO TWEED'S SEAT in NYT on April 15, 1873
9. see THE STATE SENATE in NYT on November 23, 1872
10. see OBITUARY; William M. Ely in NYT on February 7, 1872
11. Stephen Pell (1822–1896), see DEATH LIST OF A DAY; Stephen Pell in NYT on November 29, 1896
12. see HOW FREAR WAS ELECTED in NYT on February 29, 1872
13. see ALBANY NEWS; Frederick Killian (sic) Accorded His Seat in the Assembly in NYT on March 2, 1872
14. A number of voters from the 19th District petitioned the Assembly to vacate Fields's seat, and then call a special election to fill the vacancy, but no action was taken by the Assembly.
15. see Journal of the Assembly, Vol. 2, pg. 1625

Sources

• Civil List and Constitutional History of the Colony and State of New York compiled by Edgar Albert Werner (1884; see pg. 276 for Senate districts; pg. 290 for senators; pg. 298–304 for Assembly districts; and pg. 372f for assemblymen)
• Journal of the Assembly (95th Session) (1872, Vol. I, January 2 to April 9, 1872)
• Journal of the Assembly (95th Session) (1872, Vol. II, April 9 to May 14, 1872)
• Senators Elected and Assemblymen Elected in Corning Journal on November 16, 1871
• THE ASSEMBLY in NYT on December 1, 1871
• THE REFORM LEGISLATURE in NYT on January 3, 1872