Under the provisions of the New York Constitution of 1777, the State Senators were elected on general tickets in the senatorial districts, and were then divided into four classes.

On May 8, 1777, the Constitutional Convention had appointed the senators from the Southern District, and the assemblymen from Kings, New York, Queens, Richmond and Suffolk counties—the area which was under British control—and determined that these appointees serve in the Legislature until elections could be held in those areas, presumably after the end of the American Revolutionary War.

Under the determination by the Constitutional Convention, the senators Isaac Roosevelt and John Morin Scott, whose seats were up for election, continued in office, as well as the assemblymen from Kings, New York, Queens, Richmond and Suffolk counties.

Two vacancies in the Senate—caused by the death of Philip Livingston and the election of Pierre Van Cortlandt as Lieutenant Governor—were filled by the State Assembly.

The State Legislature met in Poughkeepsie, the seat of Dutchess County, on October 13, 1778, and adjourned on November 6.