PREFACE THIS monograph results from the author's interest in the politics of the United States and from Professor William A. Dunning's suggestion that a study be made of the political conditions in New York State corresponding to the Reconstruction period in the South. Although the immediate effects of the Civil War had their direct manifestation in the disturbed social, economic and political conditions of the South, with the resulting Reconstruction legislation of the Radical Congress; it is also true that the reflex action of the War and of the Reconstruction movements produced a disorder which, while more political than social or economic, nevertheless caused a general wave of disturbance to sweep over the Northern States. This wave was especially noticeable in the reorganization of political parties in the North. In no Northern State was the reconstruction of political parties more marked than in New York, and as it, then as now, was the pivotal State of the Union politically, it is deemed to be not only of interest but of peculiar importance to understand the political forces at work in the Empire State during the time corresponding to the early Reconstruction period of the South. In the development of this study it has been necessary to rely almost wholly on the newspapers of the period, as there is a dearth of other published material. The few memoirs, biographies and autobiographies which cover these years contain but little of direct value for New |