Legal History

Albany’s Ira Harris: From Rights Advocate to Lincoln’s Assassination

September 27, 2021 by Peter Hess 2 Comments

Ira Harris was born at Charleston, Montgomery County, NY on May 31st, 1802 to Fredrick Waterman Harris and Lucy Hamilton. When he was six years old, his family moved to Preble, NY where his father became one of the largest landowners in Cortland County.

Harris attended Homer Academy and graduated from Union College in 1824. He studied law for one year in Homer, New York and then moved to Albany where he assisted one of that city’s most highly regarded jurists, Ambrose Spencer. [Read more…] about Albany’s Ira Harris: From Rights Advocate to Lincoln’s Assassination

Stewart’s Shops 19th Century Patriarch Starks Dake’s Saratoga Lake Canal Plan

August 9, 2021 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

Starks Desivigna Dake was born May 9,1852. He died on November 10, 1937, at the family homestead in Middle Grove after a long illness. The Saratogian reported on November 11, 1937 that he was “Courageous to the last, he voted in the November 2 election at a polling place near his home.”

Starks was a member of one of the oldest families to settle in Saratoga County. He was the son of Benjamin C. and Mary Jane Carmen Dake. He attended school in Daketown and, in the winter of 1869-70, attended the prominent Fort Edward Collegiate Institute. In 1870 he won a scholarship to Cornell University, where he studied civil engineering. He left college early to teach school in Eddy’s Corners, South Corinth, Greenfield Center, Middle Grove, and Chatfield Corners in Saratoga County. In 1872 the enterprising Starks took up land surveying while still teaching. He would continue that occupation for the next 60 years. [Read more…] about Stewart’s Shops 19th Century Patriarch Starks Dake’s Saratoga Lake Canal Plan

Peter Bauer: 12 Ways Indian Lake Town Supervisor Brian Wells Gets The Historic Forever Wild Decision All Wrong

August 8, 2021 by Peter Bauer 1 Comment

In an op-ed run in the Albany Times Union on August 1, 2021, and in the Adirondack Almanack, Town of Indian Lake Supervisor Brian Wells got many things wrong about the recent historic forever wild court decision.

He makes serious accusations, yet he twists, bends, and distorts reality to fit his narrative. The one thing that he got right was that “Class II Community Connector Snowmobile Trails” were struck down by New York’s highest court because they violated Article 14, Section 1, of the State Constitution, the forever wild clause.

Here are a dozen ways that Brian Wells plays fast and loose with the truth. [Read more…] about Peter Bauer: 12 Ways Indian Lake Town Supervisor Brian Wells Gets The Historic Forever Wild Decision All Wrong

The Palatine Printer & Three Scots Behind The First Amendment

June 20, 2021 by Jaap Harskamp Leave a Comment

Censorship is the official prohibition or restriction of any type of expression conceived as a threat to the sociopolitical or moral order. Attempts by the authorities to suppress freedom of the press in the American colonies were recurrent. These efforts would eventually lead to a confrontation at the Supreme Court in the case of New York v. John Peter Zenger in August 1735. [Read more…] about The Palatine Printer & Three Scots Behind The First Amendment

NY’s Highest Court Rules Big Snowmobile Trails On Forest Preserve Violate Constitution

May 4, 2021 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The New York Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, has issued a 4-2 decision today in favor of Protect the Adirondacks that upheld Article 14, Section 1, of the New York State Constitution, the famed “forever wild” clause.

In 2013, Protect the Adirondacks sued the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and Adirondack Park Agency (APA) alleging that construction of “Class II Community Connector” snowmobile trails on the Adirondack Forest Preserve violated Article 14, Section 1, due to excessive tree cutting and destructive changes to the land. [Read more…] about NY’s Highest Court Rules Big Snowmobile Trails On Forest Preserve Violate Constitution

Camp Gabriels: A Former Prison On ‘Forever Wild’ Land

June 30, 2020 by Peter Bauer 1 Comment

Protect the Adirondacks has reviewed the options for the future of the Camp Gabriels complex, a former state prison in the Town of Brighton in Franklin County in the northern Adirondack Park. The site is located between Saranac Lake and Paul Smith’s just outside of Gabriels, in Franklin County.

The land that the prison complex was built upon is Forest Preserve, protected under NYS Constitution Article 14, Section 1 (the “Forever Wild” provision). The prison complex was part of a state purchase in 1982 of over 224 acres. This facility has been dormant since 2009 when the state closed the prison camp. [Read more…] about Camp Gabriels: A Former Prison On ‘Forever Wild’ Land

Forever Wild: New Constitutional Amendments Being Considered

June 18, 2020 by Peter Bauer Leave a Comment

Article 14, Section 1, of the New York Constitution, the famed “forever wild” provision, has been amended 16 times since 1938.

It has been amended five times since 2007, making this period the most active and intensive in Forest Preserve history for amendments.

Several Article 14, Section 1 proposed amendments are being currently being drafted and organized by the Department of Environmental Conservation and administration of Gov. Andrew Cuomo. [Read more…] about Forever Wild: New Constitutional Amendments Being Considered

The Prophet Matthias and Elijah the Tishbite

December 23, 2019 by Miguel Hernandez 7 Comments

Long before the fictional and shocking “Peyton Place” of TV and film fame came along in the late 1950s, and early 1960s there was an actual suburban community where its residents were roiled by rampant scandal, moral and religious hypocrisy and a sensational a murder in their midst. [Read more…] about The Prophet Matthias and Elijah the Tishbite

Susan B Anthony On Trial

November 14, 2019 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Susan B. Anthony was charged for having cast a ballot in the presidential election of 1872, accused of violating federal law and the NYS Constitution. Suffragists had been stunned and angered at women’s exclusion from the 15th Amendment which had given black men the right to vote in 1870. [Read more…] about Susan B Anthony On Trial

1777 Claims of Witchcraft In Salem, Washington County

October 28, 2019 by Marie Williams 5 Comments

There have been quite a number of witchcraft trials in what is now New York State, including in Westchester County, and on Long Island. In the midst of the American Revolution, in the town of Salem (now near the New York-Vermont border in Washington County, NY), there was another witch trial, of a sort.

Salem, NY, much like Salem, MA, has a very religious past. The community is said to be founded by Presbyterian Rev. Dr. Thomas Clark, who had emigrated from Ireland in the mid-1760s with his congregation, part of a Presbyterian schism. Clark’s congregation first settled in nearby Stillwater, on the Hudson River but eventually landed in what is now Salem, NY, where they purchased a 25,000 acres among the mostly New England settlers already established there. [Read more…] about 1777 Claims of Witchcraft In Salem, Washington County