Jump to content

1777 New York gubernatorial election

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

1777 New York gubernatorial election
June 1-July 9, 1777 1780 →
 
Nominee George Clinton Philip Schuyler
Party Nonpartisan Nonpartisan
Popular vote 1,828 1,199
Percentage 48.44% 31.77%

 
Nominee John Morin Scott John Jay
Party Nonpartisan Nonpartisan
Popular vote 368 367
Percentage 9.75% 9.72%

Governor before election

George Clinton
Nonpartisan

Elected Governor

George Clinton
Nonpartisan

The 1777 New York gubernatorial election was held in June 1777 to elect the governor and the lieutenant governor.

History

[edit]

The election began on June 1, but due to the American Revolution it took some time to collect and count the votes, and the official result was announced on July 9. George Clinton accepted the office of Governor on July 11 and assumed its duties immediately, pending to take the oath as soon as he could safely leave his military command. He took the oath of office on July 30.

There were no parties yet, as the Democratic-Republican and Federalist Parties appeared only in 1792. Until then the candidacies were based on personal recognition. The concepts of "running mates" also did not apply in this election, with candidates running separately for Governor and Lieutenant Governor. The New York Committee of Safety endorsed Philip Schuyler for Governor and George Clinton for Lieutenant Governor.

Candidates

[edit]

Candidates for Governor included:

Candidates for Lieutenant Governor included:

Result

[edit]

George Clinton was elected both Governor and Lieutenant Governor. Clinton formally resigned the lieutenant governorship, leaving a vacancy.[1] State Senator Pierre Van Cortlandt was elected President pro tempore of the State Senate, and acted as Lieutenant Governor until the end of the legislative year. Van Cortlandt was then elected in a special election and took office as Lieutenant Governor on June 30, 1778.[2]

New York gubernatorial election, 1777
Party Candidate Votes %
Nonpartisan George Clinton 1,828 48.44%
Nonpartisan Philip Schuyler 1,199 31.77%
Nonpartisan John Morin Scott 368 9.75%
Nonpartisan John Jay 367 9.72%
Nonpartisan Robert R. Livingston 7 0.19%
Nonpartisan Philip Livingston 5 0.13%
Total votes 3,774 100%
New York lieutenant gubernatorial election, 1777
Party Candidate Votes %
Nonpartisan George Clinton 1,647 47.15%
Nonpartisan Pierre Van Cortlandt 1,098 31.43%
Nonpartisan Abraham Ten Broeck 748 21.41%
Total votes 3,493 100%

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ George Clinton: Yeoman Politician of the New Republic by John P. Kaminski, New York State Commission on the Bicentennial of the United States Constitution, University of Wisconsin--Madison Center for the Study of the American Constitution (Rowman & Littlefield, 1993, ISBN 0-945612-17-6, ISBN 978-0-945612-17-9, page 24)
  2. ^ The New York Civil List compiled by Franklin Benjamin Hough (page 110; Weed, Parsons and Co., 1858)

See also

[edit]