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The 1847 New York state election was held on November 2, 1847, to elect the lieutenant governor, the secretary state, the state comptroller, the attorney general, the state treasurer, the state engineer, three Canal Commissioners and three Inspectors of State Prisons, as well as all members of the New York State Assembly and the New York State Senate.

History

The New York State Constitution of 1846 legislated the incumbent state officers and members of legislature out of office. It required a number of state officers, who had been elected by the state legislature, to be elected by general ballot.

At the first judicial election under the Constitution of 1846, Lieutenant Governor Addison Gardiner was elected to the New York Court of Appeals, and took office on July 4, 1847, thus vacating the lieutenant governorship. To fill the vacancy, on September 27, an Act by the state legislature authorized a special election, to be held at the annual state election.^[1]

The Democratic state convention met in September in Syracuse, New York. The party split over the slavery question, and the Barnburners abandoned the convention. Orville Hungerford defeated Azariah C. Flagg for the nomination for Comptroller with 59 votes to 47.

The Barnburners held a separate state convention on October 26 at Herkimer, New York, but did not nominate a ticket. They told their followers "to vote as they must do when no regular nominations have been made," suggesting to support the Whig nominees rather than the Hunkers on the Democratic ticket.^[2]

The Anti-Rent state convention nominated Shepard for Lieutenant Governor with 11 votes for him, and 10 for Fish, on the second ballot.^[2]

Results

The whole Whig state ticket was elected.^[3] None of the incumbents ran for re-election this time.

The Canal Commissioners and Prison Inspectors, upon taking office, were classified by drawing lots, so that every following year one commissioner and one inspector would be elected to a three-year term. Cook and Gedney drew the one-year term, Hinds and Comstock the two-year term, and Beach and Spencer the three-year term.

24 Whigs and 8 Democrats were elected to a two-year term (1848–1849) in the New York State Senate.

93 Whigs and 35 Democrats were elected to the New York State Assembly of the 71st New York State Legislature.

**1847 state election results**
Office	Whig ticket		Democratic ticket		Anti-Rent ticket		Liberty ticket		National Reform ticket
Lieutenant Governor	Hamilton Fish	170,072	Nathan Dayton	139,623	Charles O. Shepard	8,518	Charles O. Shepard	4,911	Hugh T. Brooks
Secretary of State	Christopher Morgan	169,470	Edward Sanford	144,133	Edward Sanford
Comptroller	Millard Fillmore	174,756	Orville Hungerford	136,027	Millard Fillmore
Attorney General	Ambrose L. Jordan	174,763	Levi S. Chatfield	139,481	Ambrose L. Jordan
Treasurer	Alvah Hunt	169,422	George W. Cuyler	145,966	George W. Cuyler
State Engineer	Charles B. Stuart	173,003	Orville W. Childs	134,944	Charles B. Stuart
Canal Commissioners	Charles Cook	169,860	John C. Mather	147,124	John C. Mather
	Jacob Hinds	175,095	Elisha B. Smith	139,395	Jacob Hinds
	Nelson J. Beach	174,948	Frederick Follett	139,217	Nelson J. Beach
Inspector of State Prisons^[4]	John B. Gedney		Norman B. Smith^[5]
	Isaac N. Comstock		George Caldwell^[6]
	David D. Spencer		John Fisher^[7]

Notes

^ Franklin Benjamin Hough, ed. (1858). The New-York Civil List. Weed, Parsons and Co. p. 32.
^ ^a ^b Charles W. McCurdy, The Anti-Rent Era in New York Law and Politics, 1839-1865, (UNC Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8078-2590-5, ISBN 978-0-8078-2590-7, page 378
^ The number of votes is the total of Whig and Anti-Rent votes for Fillmore, Jordan, Stuart, Hinds and Beach, the total of Democratic and Anti-Rent votes for Sanford, Cuyler and Mather, and the total of Liberty and Anti-Rent votes for Shepard.
^ "[V]ote...nearly the same as for Canal Commissioners" The Tribune Almanac 1848
^ at that time Steward of the Alms House in New York City
^ from Montgomery County
^ from Westchester County