The Election of 1777 Editorial Note
The Election of 1777
Although the council believed that they did not have the authority to establish a permanent mode of calling elections, necessity dictated that it call for the first election for the offices of governor, lieutenant governor, and members of the legislature. On 9 May, the council ordered the sheriffs of the counties to hold elections in designated places. The occupied southern counties had representatives appointed until they could elect their own.1
While there were no formal nominating conventions, the local Committees of Safety endorsed candidates. Four candidates emerged as contenders in the gubernatorial race: Philip Schuyler, the aristocratic, landowning general from Albany; John Morin Scott, the controversial, often unstable, radical Whig lawyer from New York City; George Clinton, the former assemblyman and brigadier general in the state militia and Continental army, from Ulster County; and John Jay, from Westchester County. Originally, the landed interests had put forward Philip Livingston, delegate to the Continental Congress. However, as his brother William Livingston had been recently elected governor of New Jersey, it was felt that a Livingston candidacy would appear as an unseemly grasp at power by a family already considered too powerful by many. Jay quickly discounted his chances of winning, giving his support to Schuyler, as can be seen in the letters printed below to Leonard Gansevoort and John Ten Broeck. These letters, along with the letter from Peter Yates, indicate the support Jay had in Albany and the active role he took in promoting Schuyler’s interests.
The Schuyler partisans, representing professional and landowning interests, united with the Clinton partisans, representing the small landowners and yeoman farmers of the western counties, forming a coalition against Scott. Clinton, while a relative newcomer to political power, was considered trustworthy and a Patriot by the more conservative Schuyler group, and he had proved himself able to work with them in the assembly.2 The expectation that Clinton would be part of the new government can be seen in Jay’s draft letter of 22 May 1777 on behalf of the Council of Safety, rejecting Clinton’s resignation as commander of the militia: “It will not be long before the government will be organized and the Legislature meet, and there is great reason to believe you will then be relieved from a burden which your necessary and daily attention to the business of your other department has rendered inconvenient.”3
On 9 July, the council examined the poll lists and ballots returned by the county sheriffs and announced the winners.4 Jay and other Schuylerites fully expected Schuyler to win the governorship, with Clinton gaining the lieutenant governorship. Their feeling was that the votes for Clinton would be split between the two offices. However, Clinton won both the governorship and the lieutenant governorship, with 1,828 votes for governor to Schuyler’s 1,199, Scott’s 368, and Jay’s 367. For lieutenant governor, Clinton had 1,647 votes, Pierre Van Cortlandt 1,098, and Abraham Ten Broeck 748. Of the votes cast by soldiers, Clinton had 963 to Schuyler’s 187 for governor; for lieutenant governor, Clinton had 569 to Van Cortlandt’s 642. Jay’s 367 votes came mainly from Westchester and Tryon counties; Scott’s 368 were scattered throughout the state.5 Clinton benefited from the change in composition of the state assembly: the vast majority of new legislators had not served in the larger colonial or provincial assemblies but were drawn from county politics. They would serve as his power base. The election of these new legislators and Clinton shows the rise of these “new men,” wealthy and numerous enough, despite the freehold requirement being raised to £100, to elect men who promoted their state-based interests.6 This new group dominated state politics, while Jay’s cohort shifted its focus from state politics to national and international concerns. Despite these changes, the two groups continued to work together in varying levels of cooperation throughout the remainder of the decade. Jay in particular had a warm working relationship with Clinton.
1. , 1: 917–18
2. , 196–98; correspondence with Edward Countryman, University Distinguished Professor of History, Southern Methodist University, 18–20 Apr. 2007.
3. , 1: 940.
4. , 1: 990.
5. Cal. of Hist. Mss., 2: 242.
6. Apparently, this rule was not enforced in some counties, such as Dutchess. In addition, soldiers could vote where they were stationed, and thus their property status was not questioned; however, even without these votes, Clinton held a majority of civilian votes. , 23–24; , 198–202.