1From John Jay to Peter Augustus Jay, 25 January 1819 (Jay Papers)
The election of Clintonian Obadiah German (1766–1842) to speaker of the state assembly. German was involved in the western canal project, and had opposed the War of 1812. It took five ballots for the Assembly to settle on German on 6 Jan. 1819. William Thompson (Anti-Clintonian), William A. Duer, Michael Ulshoeffer, and Federalist J. R. Van Rensselaer also ran. See