THE  CONSTITUTION  OF 1894.
 

|HE present constitution of the state, as formulated by the
constitutional convention of, 1894 and ratified by the peo¬
ple at the general election of that year, is the final issue of
a protracted and bitter partisan struggle, which will always
be memorable in !New York political history.

By the terms of the constitution adopted in 1846, the legislature
was required, in each twentieth year thereafter, to submit to the peo¬
ple the question whether a convention should be summoned for pur¬
poses of constitutional revision. This question was duly referred to
the popular verdict in 1866, and, an affirmative vote being given, a
constitutional convention assembled in the ensuing year, whose
amendments were, however, with a single exception, rejected at the
polls. Thus the work of systematically reconstructing the constitu¬
tion was postponed to await the expiration of another period of
twenty years. Meantime the need of various changes was felt to
be so important that in 1873 a " constitutional commission" was
organized; and the amendments which it drafted^eleven in num¬
ber—were subsequently ratified by the legislature and accepted by the
people. Yet the constitutional improvements obtained through this
extemporized commission, and others effected by means of separate
amendments, were generally regarded as quite inadequate ; and accord¬
ingly when, in 1886, the people were again asked to pass upon the
question of holding a constitutional convention, they assented to the
proposal with substantial unanimity, only 30,000 negative votes being
cast in a total of more than 600,000.

For years the conditions determining the political control of the
state had presented a curious anomaly. The democrats, although
frequently able to elect the governor and other executive officers on
the general state ticket, had been hopelessly in the minority in the
legislature. The existing legislative apportionment, giving the repub¬
lican rural districts a considerable relative preponderance in repre¬
sentation over democratic New York City and Brooklyn, rendered it
impossible, in all ordinary circumstances, for the democrats to obtain
a majority in the senate and assembly. This state of affairs was
viewed with great disgust by the aggressive democratic leaders, and
they impatiently awaited an opportunity for changing the apportion¬
ment in the interest of their party organization.

At the session of 1887 the democratic governor was, as usual, con-