Constitution. (See Anti-Rentism.) The attitude of the Democrats toward such questions as anti-Masonry, State and national banks, and the canal system, was not uniform. Dissensions between the Conservatives (see Hunkers) and the Radicals (see Barnburners) enabled the Whigs to carry the State in 1838. After 1840, when the Liberty Party arose, the anti-slavery feeling was strong in the agricultural parts of the State, and in 1848 the Barnburner Democrats, led by Van Buren, broke away to aid in forming the Free-Soil Party. The Whigs and Know-Nothings gained and lost power in swift succession before the Civil War broke out. The mercantile and manufacturing classes in 1860 advocated peace at any price, but the mass of the people were Unionist. The reaction following upon the disasters of the first year and a half of the war put the Democrats into power. In July, 1863, occurred the draft riots in New York City, (See Draft Riots in New York.) The war measures of President Lincoln were denounced violently by the State authorities, and the election of 1864 was bitterly fought, the outcome being decided in favor of the Republicans by the votes of the men at the front.
The economic development of New York has continued uninterrupted after the war, and has fully justified its title of the ‘Empire State.’ Its history, however, has been characterized by much of that corruption which has marked the postbellum politics of many States. The period in general presents a dead level of partisan rule relieved by occasional spasmodic upheavals of civic virtue. The gubernatorial power, nevertheless, has been repeatedly in the hands of able men, several of whom attained national eminence. From 1863 to 1871 New York City was ruled by the notorious William M. Tweed (q.v.). In 1875, and again in 1899, frauds in connection with the management of the State canals, involving high officials and others, together known as the Canal Ring, were discovered. In the assignment of public contracts much dishonesty was displayed. The State Capitol at Albany and the county court house at New York are monuments of what patient industry may accomplish in the way of nursing a modest estimate into an enormous defalcation. Many attempts, however, were made to remedy political evils by legislation. Laws were passed to check lobbying, to insure honest party primaries, and to reform the civil service. The question of tax reform was an important subject of legislation after 1880, and brought the State into conflict with the powerful railway, gas, and insurance corporations upon the question whether their capital stock and the value of their franchises were subject to taxation or not. The rise of the Labor Party in 1886 was the cause of much important labor legislation. Laws limiting the hours of daily work and protecting women and children in factories and shops were passed in 1892 and subsequently. Much attention has been devoted to the preservation of the Adirondack forests. In 1867 the public schools of the State were made entirely free, and in 1875 primary education was made compulsory.
The Constitution of 1777 was revised in 1821; the councils of revision and appointment were abolished, and the Governor received the veto power. Many offices formerly filled by appointment were made elective, and, in general, the new Constitution represented a great advance toward democracy. This tendency was continued in the Constitution of 1846, which put an end to feudal tenure in lands, abolished the court of chancery, established a court of appeals, and made all judges of the higher courts elective. By amendments adopted in 1869 (when a new Constitution framed in 1867 was rejected by the people), 1874, and 1882, further reforms in the judiciary were carried out, negro voters were freed from the property qualification hitherto imposed upon them, penalties for bribery and corruption in office were established, and the canals were freed from toll. Of the thirty-four amendments submitted to the people by the Constitutional Convention of 1894, the most important among those adopted were concerned with the reform of the judiciary, the shortening of the Governor's term to two years, and the reapportionment of the legislative districts of the State.
New York is an uncertain State both in national and State elections, and the influence exerted by its large electoral vote on the outcome of Presidential contests has given it the well-earned name of the ‘pivotal State.’ Notable cases were the elections of 1844, 1848, and 1884. In the Presidential election of 1844 James K. Polk, the Democratic candidate, received 170 votes in the electoral college as against 105 votes cast for Henry Clay, the Whig candidate. The 30 electoral votes of New York, which Polk carried by a small plurality, were sufficient to decide the election. In 1848 the dissensions in the Democratic Party in the State enabled Taylor to secure the Presidency. In 1884 Cleveland, the Democratic candidate, carried the State by a plurality of 1149 and secured the Presidency. New York voted for the Republican candidates from 1796 to 1808. In 1812 it cast its vote for De Witt Clinton, who had been nominated by the section of the Republican Party opposed to the domination of the Congressional caucus, and had been indorsed by the Federalists. It voted for Monroe in 1816 and 1820, divided its vote among Adams, Crawford, Clay, and Jackson in 1824 (26 out of 36 for Adams), and between Adams and Jackson in 1828 (20 out of 36 for Adams). It was Democratic in 1832, 1830, 1844, and 1852, and Whig in 1840 and 1848. From 1856 to 1864 it was Republican, and then entered on a course of vacillation. It voted for Seymour (Democrat) in 1868, Grant (Republican) in 1872, Tilden (Democrat) in 1876, Garfield (Republican) in 1880, Cleveland (Democrat) in 1884, Harrison (Republican) in 1888, and Cleveland (Democrat) in 1892. The State went decidedly Republican on the money question in 1896 and 1900. The following is a list of the Governors of New York as a colony and a State:
| DIRECTORS-GENERAL OF NEW NETHERLAND | ||
| Cornelis Jacobzen May | 1624-25 | |
| William Verhulst | 1625-26 | |
| Peter Minuit | 1626-33 | |
| Wouter Van Twiller | 1633-38 | |
| William Kieft | 1638-47 | |
| Peter Stuyvesant | 1647-64 | |
| ENGLISH COLONIAL GOVERNORS | ||
| Richard Nicolls | 1664-68 | |
| Francis Lovelace | 1668-73 | |
| DUTCH OCCUPATION | ||
| Anthony Colve | 1673-74 | |
