REASONS, IN SUPPORT OF AN OPINION OFFERED TO THE PUBLIC, RESPECTING THE VOTES OF OTSEGO COUNTY, ON THE 7TH OF JUNE, 1792

New-York: Printed by T. and J. Swords, 1792. 30pp. Disbound, lacks the final blank leaf. Top blank margin of title page torn, but no text affected. Scattered foxing, Good+. Signed in type at the end by Richard Harison, John Cozine, C.I. Bogert, Robert Troup, James H. Hughes, and Thomas Cooper. List of New York State Sheriff appointments at pages 28-30. Good+.

This pamphlet concerns a New York election dispute involving George Clinton, John Jay, and Aaron Burr. The issue was the propriety of refusing to count the votes from certain New York counties. The contestants in 1792's gubernatorial race were Clinton, the incumbent, and Chief Justice John Jay, the Federalist. Jay got more votes. But the votes of Otsego and two other Counties were disqualified; thus Clinton won a razor-thin victory.
New York required that the County Sheriff box the cast votes and deliver them to the Secretary of State. But the term of Otsego County's Sheriff Smith had expired; a successor had not been appointed. Smith, now County Supervisor, was barred from also holding the office of Sheriff. Clintonians, with much assistance from Senator Aaron Burr, who owed his political elevation to Clinton, declared the Sheriff's office vacant, preventing a count of its votes. Harison and others present their argument here that Smith was legally the sheriff of Otsego, and that the County's votes were therefore valid.
"This controversy over the votes of Otsego Co. was one of the most peculiar cases on record" [565 Merwin Clayton Sales Company 199].
Evans 24730. ESTC W21670. 163 Eberstadt 411. Cohen 14395. Not in Tompkins.