New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

Legal History

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

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Article 14, Section 1 New York State Constitution Forever Wild clauseThe 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

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Camp Gabriels MapProtect 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

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Article 14, Section 1 New York State Constitution Forever Wild clauseArticle 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

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MatthiasLong 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

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Ontario County Courthouse in CanandaiguaSusan 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

Claims of Witchcraft In Salem, Washington County

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statue at Salem Witch Museum by Marie Williams

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 Claims of Witchcraft In Salem, Washington County

Witchcraft Claims In East Hampton, Long Island

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statue at Salem Witch Museum by Marie Williams

In the United States, the first witch trial is believed to have occurred in Springfield, Mass., in 1645.  A fervor for hunting witches led to an increase in prosecutions in New England, and New York, in the 1650s and 1666s.  Women would be accused of witchcraft within New York’s colonial borders into the mid-1700s. Some of these trials would have a lasting impact on the colony and the country.

The 1650s was not an easy time to be a woman, especially if a neighbor held a personal grudge. In East Hampton, Long Island in 1657 Elizabeth “Goody” Garlick was accused of witchcraft, after 16-year-old Elizabeth Gardiner Howell became ill and suffered fevered dreams and delusions.  [Read more…] about Witchcraft Claims In East Hampton, Long Island

Westchester County’s Katharine Harrison, Accused Witch

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statue at Salem Witch Museum by Marie WilliamsHalloween is just around the corner, a time when representations of witches make their frequent appearance. The United States has a complicated history with witchcraft and the occult, due in part to its puritanical past and influx of diverse cultures.

Most Americans are familiar with the Salem Witch Trials (1692-1693) in Massachusetts, but trials for witchcraft have probably occurred as long as trials have existed, and still do in places where belief in magic is strong. In Europe people were tried for witchcraft throughout the 1700s. [Read more…] about Westchester County’s Katharine Harrison, Accused Witch

Roscoe Conkling’s 190th Birthday Being Celebrated

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Sen. Roscoe ConklingRoscoe Conkling (October 30, 1829 – April 18, 1888) was a lawyer and politician who served both as a member of the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate.

A leader of the Stalwart faction of the Republican Party, he was the first Republican senator from New York to be elected for three terms, and the last person to turn down a U.S. Supreme Court appointment after he had already been confirmed to the post. [Read more…] about Roscoe Conkling’s 190th Birthday Being Celebrated

Archivists File Brief In State Archives Copyright Case

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Supreme Court of the United StatesThe Society of American Archivists has joined with the American Library Association, Association of College and Research Libraries, Association of Research Libraries, and Software Preservation Network in a September 27 amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in the Allen v. Cooper case.

The case began when Frederick Allen, a videographer, sued North Carolina for copyright infringement. Allen also asked the court to declare a 2015 state law unconstitutional, claiming the law was passed in bad faith. [Read more…] about Archivists File Brief In State Archives Copyright Case