Entered according to an Act of Congress in the year 1842, by JABEZ D. HAMMOND, in the Office of the Clerk of the Northern District of New-York. POLITICAL HISTORY OF NEW-YORK. CHAPTER XXVII. CONVENTION. I AM now to approach a period in the political history of this state when an event occurred, in a measure unprecedented in any other part of the world, but which, highly to the honor of this country, and fortunately for its inhabitants, is not unusual in the United States. The event to which I allude, is a change, by the will of a majority of the people, peaceably and constitutionally expressed, of some of the important and fundamental principles of the government I say important and fundamental principles, because the sovereign power of creating the executive and one branch of the legislative department of the government was, in a measure, transferred from one class of men to another, and because the power of disposing of nearly the whole patronage of the state was actually changed; and, I may add, that one branch of the law making power was abolished, and the functions held and exercised by that department, transferred to an individual. In past ages, in every other country, such a change could only have been effected by physical force, here it was brought about by moral power. 1 The bill to amend and revise the constitution of the state of New-York, became a law on the 13th of March. By this law, which had been sanctioned by an immense majority of the people, delegates to propose alterations and amendments to the constitution, were to be elected on the third Tuesday of June, 1821. The people of the state, in pursuance of this recommendation, which by their vote they had virtually sanctioned at the annual election in April, elected delegates from the several coun ties of the state. In most of the counties the selection of the delegates was made a party question, and a very large majority of those who were chosen belonged to the democratic party. The county of Oneida, however, furnished an exception. to this rule of action. From that county Nathan Williams, Jonas Platt, Henry Huntington and Ezekiel Bacon, were elected. Mr. Williams was a democrat, Judge Platt had been a uniform federalist ever since the election of John Jay as governor, and Mr. Huntington and Mr. Bacon were republican Clintonians. The members of this grand convention assembled at Albany, on the 28th of August. When convened, they presented an array of talent, political experience, and moral worth, perhaps never surpassed by any assemblage of men elected from a single state. The following gentlemen were among the most distinguished of those who were elected by the democratic party: From New-York, Nathan Sanford, Jacob Radcliff, William Paulding, Henry Wheaton, Ogden Edwards and Peter Sharpe; from Oneida, Nathan Williams; from Orange, John Duer; from Cortland, Samuel Nelson, who was then a young man, and, for the first time, made his appearance in public life, but who is now chief justice of the state; from Otsego, Martin Van Buren, who, though not a resident of the county, was elected by the people |