Page:American Historical Review vol. 6.djvu/270

 NOMINATIONS IN COLONIAL NEW YORK For the origin of the nominating convention it is necessary to go back to the period which marks the rise of democracy itself — that is, the eighteenth century. The period, that is, which marks the transition from absolutism or aristocracy to democracy will mark also the transition from absolutist or autocratic methods of nomina- tion to democratic methods. In New York this transition was made from a virtual aristocracy to a democracy in the middle and last half of the eighteenth century. It will be necessary therefore to answer the following questions: (i) What were the vital elements in the political life of New York province in the early eighteenth century, and how were nominations made then? (2) When did the transi- tion from aristocracy to democracy begin, and what indications are there of a new method in nominations accompanying this change ? (3) To what extent did the new method displace the old before the Revolution ? In 1700 New York was a royal province. Its governmental organization consisted of a governor with his deputy, advised by a council of his own appointment, and a popular assembly which was co-ordinate with the governor and council in legislation. There were established courts of justice and various crown officers besides the governor. But the vital fact in the political history of New York in the early eighteenth century was not the governor, or the coun- cil, or the assembly, — was not the organization of the government at all ; the vital fact was the existence of a few rich and influential families. Their wealth was based on land and commerce ; their in- fluence was the result of ability, social position, and a close organi- zation secured informally by constant, far-sighted, prudential inter- marriages. In other words New York was controlled by an aristocracy of wealth and ability, and this control was essentially medieval in its nature — that is, informal and personal. Let us see in more detail how this control was effected, and how, as a part of this control, nominations to elective offices were made. In the first place, the theatre of operations was small, there were originally but twelve counties ' covering a narrow strip of ^ Colonial Laws of New York (Albany, 1894), I. 121, 122; Memorial Historyjof New Vori, I. 408. Ostrander, Brooklyn, 118.