NEW YORK, one of the original thirteen
United States of
America, situated between 40°
29' 40" and 45° o' 2" N., and between 71° 51' and 79° 45' 54.4" W.
Its northern boundary is, for the most part, formed by
Lake Ontario and the
St Lawrence river,
which separate it from the province of
Ontario, Canada; but north of the
Adirondacks the
boundary line leaves the St
Lawrence, extending in a due east direction to
the lower end of Lake
Champlain. Thus the boundary between New York
and the province of
Quebec,
Canada, is wholly artificial.
Vermont,
Massachusetts and
Connecticut bound
New York on the E.; the
Atlantic Ocean,
New Jersey and
Pennsylvania, on the S.; and Pennsylvania,
Lake Erie and the
Niagara river on the W.
The state has a triangular outline, with a breadth from E. to W.
of 326.46 m. and from N. to S., on the line of the
Hudson, of 300 m. In addition, it
includes
Long Island
and
Staten
Island on the
Atlantic
Coast. Its land area is 47,654 sq. m. and the area of the inland
waters is 1550 sq. m., giving a total area of 49,204 sq. m. In
addition to this, New York includes 3140 sq. m. of water in Lakes
Ontario and
Erie.
The most notable topographic feature is the roughly circular
mountain area of north-eastern New York known as the Adirondack
mountains (q.v.). This is a very ancient mountain mass of
crystalline rocks resembling more the Laurentian mountains of
Canada than the Appalachians. Indeed, it is commonly considered to
be an extension of the Canadian mountains. Parts of the crystalline
area are worn down to a condition of low relief, but in the main
mountain mass, although greatly worn, there are still elevations of
truly mountainous proportions. The highest peak is Mount Marcy
(5344 ft.), though associated with it are several other peaks with
an elevation from 4000 to 5000 ft. Even the higher summits are worn
to a rounded condition, and are therefore for the most part forest
covered up to the
timber
line which, on Mount Marcy, is at an elevation of about 4900
ft. From the
crest of the
dome of the Adirondacks proper the
surface slopes in all directions to surrounding lowlands: to the St
Lawrence valley on the N.; the ChamplainHudson
lowland on the E.; the
Mohawk valley on the S.; and Lake Ontario on the
W. While igneous and metamorphic crystalline rocks form the bulk of
the Adirondack area, it is surrounded by a ring of ancient
Palaeozoic sediments in which these peripheral lowlands have been
developed. The Adirondack area proper, and much of the surrounding
ring of more recent rocks, is either too rugged, or has a soil too
thin and rocky for extensive
agriculture. It is therefore a sparsely
settled region with lumbering for one of the leading industries,
though there is some
mining,
as of
iron. Owing to the varied
and beautiful scenery, this is a favourite summer resort; the game
of the forests and the fishing in the streams and in the multitude
of lakes serve as further attractions. In the peripheral ring
farming increases, especially dairying; and manufacturing
industries connected with the products of forests, farms and mines
are developed. These and other manufacturing industries are greatly
aided by the extensive water power furnished by
the mountain streams
which flow out radially from the central area.
South of the Adirondack region, and S. of the Mohawk Valley,
rises a high-level plateau which extends westward to the
Pennsylvania boundary. Here the rocks are all essentially
horizontal and of Palaeozoic age, mainly
Devonian. This plateau province, which
includes more than half the state, differs greatly from place to
place. Its elevation decreases toward the N. by a series of steps,
having its lowest elevation on the Ontario plain which skirts the
southern shore of Lake Ontario. Similar to this is a narrow plain
along the southern shore of Lake Erie, which, in fact, lies in a
shallow depression in this Erie plain. Both of these plains are so
level, and have so fertile a soil that they are the seats of
extensive agriculture, especially
fruit raising, which is further encouraged by the
influence of the large bodies of lake water that moderate the heat
of summer and the cold of winter, and tend to check the late frosts
of spring and the early frosts of autumn.
Elsewhere in the plateau province the land is higher and the
surface far more irregular, increasing in ruggedness toward both
the S. and the E. Elevations of between 1500 and 2000 ft. are
common in this region all the way from Chautauqua county in the
extreme W. to the
Catskill mountains in the E.; and in
places the surface becomes so rugged as to simulate the features of
mountains and locally to win the name mountain. Valleys are deeply
sunk in the plateau, the largest with bottom lands of sufficient
width to give rise to strips of fertile
farm land. The valley walls rise to undulating,
and often fairly level uplands, which are, in large part, cleared
of forest; but the uplands are remote from markets, and the soil is
thin. In the main they are grazing lands - the seat of important
dairy and sheepraising industries.
This is the region of abandoned farm houses. Thousands have been
deserted and. they may be found along all the upland roads.
Since this plateau region is a northward extension of the
Alleghany plateau, which
skirts the western base of the
Appalachian mountains, it rises
as the mountains are approached. Thus, in S.E. New York, where the
Appalachians enter the state, the plateau becomes much higher than
in the W., reaching its
culmination in the Catskills. Here, partly
because of elevation, and partly because of the resistant nature of
the
Catskill sandstones,
dissection has so
sculptured the plateau as to carve it into a mountainous mass which
is generally known as the Catskill mountains. In this part of the
plateau, summit elevations of from 3000 to 4000 ft. are common, the
highest point being Slide Mountain (4205 ft.). Like the
Adirondacks, this region is largely forest covered, and is a
favourite summer resort; but it is far less a
wilderness than the Adirondacks, and in
places is cleared for farming, especially for pasturage.
In the plateau province there are other areas known as
mountains, of which the Helderberg mountains are the most
conspicuous. This formation is really an escarpment facing the
lower Mohawk and the
Hudson river S. of
Albany,
where there is a downward step in the plateau. The steeply rising
face of the plateau here is due to the resistance of a durable
layer of
limestone,
known as the Helderberg limestone. There are other lower
escarpments in the plateau province, similar in form and cause to
the Helderberg escarpment. Of these the most notable is the Niagara
escarpment which extends eastward from Canada, past
Lewiston and
Lockport, - a downward step
from the Erie to the Ontario plain, where the Niagara limestone
outcrops, and its resistance to denudation accounts for the steeply
rising face at the boundary between the two plains.
South and S.E. of the Catskills, although including only a small
portion of the state, there are a number of different topographic
features, due to the belts of different rock structure which cross
the state from S.W. to N.E. First come the low folds of the western
Appalachians, which, though well developed in Pennsylvania, die out
near the New York boundary. The most pronounced of these upfolded
strata in New York form the low Shawangunk mountains, which
descend, toward the S.E., to a lowland region of folded strata of
limestone,
slate and other rocks
in Orange and Dutchess counties. This lowland area, due to the
non-resistant character of the strata,. is a continuation of the
Great Valley of the Appalachians, and extends N.E. into Vermont and
S.W. across New Jersey, Pennsylvania,
Maryland and
Virginia. It is bounded on its S.E. side by
the Highlands, a
belt of ancient crystalline rocks
which extends N.E. into Connecticut and Massachusetts, and S.W.
into the Highlands of New Jersey and thence to the Blue Ridge.
South of the Highlands, in New Jersey, but extending to the very
banks of the Hudson,. is a belt of
Triassic sandstone with intrusions
of
trap rock, which, on account of
its peculiar columnar jointing, has developed a palisade structure
- the famous Palisades of the lower Hudson. On the New York side of
the Hudson the rocks are crystalline, the surface a region of low
hills, a continuation of the crystalline area of Connecticut, and
comparable with the
Piedmont plateau of the Southern states. Long
Island, though modified by extensive glacial deposits, may be
considered a N.E. extension of the coastal plains which attain a
much more perfect development in New Jersey and the states farther
S.
The entire surface of New York, with the exception of a very
small area in the extreme W., in Chautauqua and Cattaraugus
counties,. was covered by the continental
glacier. With its source in Canada, it overrode
even the highest mountains and spread beyond the boundary of New
York into Pennsylvania and New Jersey; but farther E. its front
rested on Staten Island and Long Island, whose surface features,
and a part of whose area, are due to the deposits along the
ice front, including terminal moraines
and outwash
gravel plains.
Elsewhere in the state, also, the work of the glacier is very
evident. It broadened and deepened many of the valleys; rounded the
hills; turned aside many streams, causing changes in drainage and
giving rise to innumerable waterfalls and rapids; and it formed the
thousands of lakes, large and small, which dot the surface. As the
ice receded, it halted at various points, forming moraines and
other glacial deposits. Thus the soil of almost the entire state
has been derived by glacial action. After the continental ice
sheet entirely disappeared from the
state, local valley glaciers lingered in the Adirondacks and the
Catskills.
Drainage
The drainage of New York finds its way to the sea in various
directions. The St Lawrence system receives the most, mainly from
short streams from the plateau province and from the Adirondacks. A
small part of the state, in the W., drains to the
Ohio, and thence, by way of the
Mississippi, to the
Gulf of Mexico;
and a much larger area drains into the Susquehanna, entering the
head of Chesapeake Bay. A part of the Catskills, and the region
farther S., drains into
Delaware Bay through the
Delaware river.
Thus New York is pre-eminently a divide region, sending its
drainage, by various courses, into widely separated parts of the
ocean. Only the Hudson and a few streams in the extreme S. have
independent courses to the sea within the state itself.
The Hudson (q.v.) is essentially a New York stream, though it
receives some drainage from the
New England States through its small
eastern tributaries. Its entire course is within New York, from
which it receives most of its
water supply. It is by far the most
important river in the state, for, owing to the sinking of the
land, which has admitted the
tide
as far as Troy, it is navigable for 151 m. from the sea. Thence
westward the Mohawk Valley furnishes a
highway which is followed by canal,
railway and waggon road. Thus
there is here a
gap, easily
traversed, across the Appalachian mountains and plateaus to the
more level and fertile plains beyond. A low gap also leads
northward from the Hudson to the Champlain Valley across a pass
only 147 ft. above sea-level. This was of much importance in early
wars; but it is of only minor importance as a commercial highway
since it leads to Canada through a region of little economic
importance.
The lower Hudson, below Troy, is really a fiord, the stream
valley being drowned by the sea through subsidence of the land. It
is noted for its remarkable scenery, especially where it crosses
the Highlands. The other large river valleys are far less useful as
highways, though each is paralleled by one or more railways. The
action of the continental glacier in scouring down the passes
between the St Lawrence and southern drainage, and in turning
streams southward, has facilitated the building of railways across
the divides.
There are thousands of lakes and ponds in the state, most of
them very small and all, even including Lakes Erie and Ontario, the
result of glacial action. The largest lake apart from Erie and
Ontario is the beautiful Lake Champlain, which lies on the eastern
boundary, partly in Vermont, and with the N. end in Canada. It
occupies the lower portion of the trough between the Adirondacks
and the Green Mountains. The largest lake entirely within the state
is
Lake George,
famous for its beautiful scenery. In the central part of the state
are a series of peculiar elongated lakes, extending in a nearly
N.S. direction, known as the
Finger Lakes. The largest of these are Cayuga,
Seneca, Keuka,
Canandaigua, Owasco and
Skaneateles. In the extreme western part of the state is Chautauqua
Lake, beautifully situated in the plateau of western New York.
New York is noted for its many falls and rapids, some of them of
great beauty. Of these the largest is the
cataract of Niagara, about 1 m. wide and 160
ft. high. The American Fall is entirely within the state; but the
Canadian boundary-line passes down the centre of the Horseshoe or
Canadian Fall. Other notable falls are those of the Genesee at
Portage and at
Rochester, Trenton Falls,
the Falls of
Ticonderoga, and a multitude of falls and
rapids in the Adirondack region and along the shores of the upper
portions of the Finger Lakes. Here the tributary streams tumble
down the sides of the lake valleys, whose bottoms have been
deepened by glacial erosion, leaving the tributary valleys
hanging. There are scores of
picturesque glens here, and hundreds of waterfalls, among the most
beautiful being in the Cayuga valley - notably
Enfield Falls, a few miles S. of
Ithaca, Ithaca Falls in the city,
and Taughannock, a few miles N. of Ithaca. The last, the highest
waterfall in the state, has
a vertical fall of 215 ft. Similar glens and falls are found in the
Seneca Valley, the best known being the widely renowned
Watkins Glen, now reserved as a
state park (see
Watkins).
Many of the waterfalls of New York, but notably Niagara, are used
as a source of power.
The Coast-line
New York has extensive coast-line along
the Great Lakes, 75 m.
on Lake Erie and over 200 m. on Lake Ontario. Where the lake waters
flood the stream mouths, there
are excellent harbours, and lake navigation is therefore of high
importance. The largest of the lake ports is at
Buffalo at the head of Niagara river, where,
owing to the Niagara cataract, lake boats from the W. must transfer
their goods to rail or canal. Buffalo lies at the lower end of
natural lake navigation, though by the building of a
ship
canal in Canada, lake steamers can proceed into Lake Ontario
and thence to the St Lawrence.
The ocean coast-line, though of limited extent, is by far the
most important in the United States. The greater part of the sea
coast is on Long Island - a low, sandy coast, the seat of numerous
summer resorts and of some fishing. The mainland, opposite the
western end of Long Island, is traversed by the lower Hudson and
other channels - submerged valleys - which form a branching bay
with several islands, the largest of which are Staten and Manhattan
Islands. The western
bank of the lower Hudson is in New Jersey.
This branching bay makes an excellent protected harbour, with an
immense water front, at the outlet of the chief natural highway
from the E. to the interior of the country.
.^ New York City CITY Official Website: http://www.nyc.gov/ Population: 8008278 (2000 census) Founding Date: 1625 See also the boroughs: Manhattan, NY , Brooklyn, NY , Bronx, NY , Queens, NY , and Staten Island, NY .- New York City 2 February 2010 16:32 UTC www.nndb.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]
^ Mayor of New York City, 1887-88 .- New York City 2 February 2010 16:32 UTC www.nndb.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]
^ Mayor of New York City, 1994-2001 .- New York City 2 February 2010 16:32 UTC www.nndb.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]
The harbour entrance is somewhat obstructed by
sand bars, so that extensive
government work has been necessary to open and maintain a channel
for large draft ocean vessels. This sand has not been brought by
the Hudson itself, for that river drops most of its sediment load
far up stream, in its long tidal channel. It is supplied by the
tidaland wind-formed currents, which are drifting sand from the
Long Island and New Jersey coasts, extending the barrier beaches,
such as Sandy Hook, out across the entrance to New York Bay.
Climate
In general the climate of New York is typical of that of
northern United States, a climate of extremes, hot in summer, and
cold in winter, and yet healthful, stimulating, and, on the whole,
not disagreeable. Iii the absence of extensive alluvial plains and
marshes, there is little
malaria. The average mean annual temperature is
not far from 45° F., though it varies from over 50° near New York
City, and 48° near the Lake Erie shore, to less than 40° in the
high Adirondacks. The average maximum summer heat is about 93°,
temperature of loo° being rarely reached. In the winter the
temperature descends below
zero
during exceptionally cold spells. A temperature of - 20° or lower
is never attained in the southern portion, seldom in the central,
but is often passed, by 5 or to degrees, in the Adirondacks and in
the higher parts of the plateau. The rivers and smaller lakes
freeze in winter and navigation on the St Lawrence river is closed
by ice on the average from about the middle of December until early
in April. The average rainfall is between 40 and 45 in., but it is
less than 30 in. in the Lake Champlain Valley and over 55 in. N. of
New York City. In most of the state frosts begin from September 1st
to October 1st, and end from April 1st to May 1st. In the
Adirondack region the snowfall is heavy, the winter long and
severe. In central New York it is not uncommon for
snow to accumulate to the depth of 3 or 4 ft., and
yet this is not persistent. About New York City, and on Long
Island, the snow rarely exceeds I ft. in depth. The climate is very
variable, owing to the frequent passage of cyclonic storms from the
W. and S.W., bringing warmer weather with
rain and snow in winter, and causing days of great
heat and humidity, with thunderstorms, in summer. Between these
cyclonic storms come areas of high pressure, or anticyclones, with
dry cool
air in summer, and dry cold
air in winter, sometimes with such decided changes in temperature
as to merit the name cold
wave.
About New York City, and on Long Island, the ocean softens the
rigours of winter, and through the influence of cold surface waters
off the coast, tempers the heat of summer. The temperature of the
larger valleys is notably higher than that of the uplands; and the
temperature along the lake shores is decidedly influenced by the
large bodies of water. Lakes Ontario and Erie never freeze
completely over in winter.
Although one of the smaller states in the Union, being 30th in
area, New York ranks first in population and in wealth, and has won
for itself the name Empire State. The physiography has enabled the
state to become a great highway of commerce between the central
part of the United States and the sea-coast, by rail and by water,
along the Mohawk Gap and by other routes. The Great Lakes waterway
naturally finds an outlet in New York City. This has made it easy
for the states to the west to contribute raw materials, notably
coal and iron, adding these to the
natural raw products of New York. Thus it happens that from Buffalo
to New York City there is a chain of busy manufacturing centres
along the natural highway followed by the Erie Canal and the Hudson
river. Other parts of the state, where connected with the main
highway, are influenced by it to some extent; but away from the
great natural route of commerce New York is not especially
noteworthy either for it,
density of population or for extensive
manufacturing and commerce. (R. S. T.)
Flora. - When first settled by Europeans New
York was a woodland region containing nearly all the varieties of
trees, shrubs and plants which were common to the territory lying
E. of the
Mississippi river, N. of the Ohio,
and S. of the St Lawrence. In the Adirondack region the trees were
principally white
pine,
spruce,
hemlock and
balsam, but mixed with these were some
birch,
maple,
beech
and basswood, and smaller numbers of
ash and
elm; in the
swamps of this region were also
larch and
cedar. The forests of the W. half of the state
contained pine, but here such hardwood trees as
oak,
chestnut,
hickory, maple and beech were more common. The
tulip tree was common
both in the S.W. and N.; and the
walnut. butternut,
poplar, sycamore and
locust were widely distributed. The original
varieties of trees still abound, though in less numbers, on lands
illadapted to agriculture, and in the Adirondack and Catskill
Mountains, where the state has established forest preserves, and
the Forest,
Fish and Game
Commissioner began reforesting in 1901, principally with pine,
spruce and larch. On the summits of the Adirondacks are a few
alpine species, such as
reindeer moss
and other
lichens; on the
shores of Long Island, Staten Island and Westchester county are a
number of maritime species; and on Long Island are several species
especially characteristic of the pine barrens of New Jersey.
Laurel,
rhododendron, and whortleberry are common
shrubs in the mountain districts, and sumac,
hazel, sassafras and elder are quite widely
distributed elsewhere. Among indigenous fruit-bearing plants the
state has the black
cherry,
red cherry, red
plum, yellow plum,
grape, black
currant,
blackberry,
dewberry,
strawberry and
cranberry. Blue
flag,
snake root,
ginseng,
lobelia, tansy,
wormwood,
wintergreen,
pleurisy root,
plantain, burdock,
sarsaparilla and
horehound are among its medicinal plants.
Cowslips, violets, anemones, buttercups and blood-roots are
conspicuous in early spring, the white
pond lily and the
yellow pond lily in summer, asters and
golden-rod in autumn, and besides these
there are about 1500 other flowering plants in the state and more
than 50 species of ferns.
Of the
fur and game animals which
were inhabitants of the primeval forests few of the larger species
remain except in the Adirondack region. Here the
puma ("
panther ") has become extinct and the Canada
lynx is rare. The
moose, the
elk and
the
beaver have been placed
under the protection of the Forest, Fish and Game Commissioner.
There are many
deer in the
Adirondacks. The
porcupine is common, but the Canada pine
marten or American
sable,
fisher, and red
fox are rare, and
the black
bear and grey
wolf are found only in small numbers.
Rabbits and squ'rrels are numerous in nearly all parts of the
state; skunks, weasels, muskrats and woodchucks are common; there
are some racoons;
mink are
frequently taken in the Adirondacks; and a few
otter remain. In the lower counties are some "
Virginia " opossums.
Among birds of
prey a bald
eagle and a golden eagle are
occasionally seen in secluded places. Game birds include ducks,
geese, plovers,
snipe, loons,
grebes, terns, rails, the
woodcock and the ruffed
grouse; quails are scarce except on Long Island,
where a number or young birds are liberated each year, and by the
same mea 's a supply of pheasants is maintained in some parts of
the state. There is a state game
bird farm (1909) near Sherburne in Chenango
county. Herons, the brown
pelican,
bittern, and mud
hen frequent the marshes. The robin, song
sparrow, chickadee, thrushes,
warblers, vireos, orioles, wrens, blue-bird,
cat-bird and
phoebe are favourite song birds.
There are about 375 species of fish in New York waters (see
below under
Fisheries).
Soil
The soil is mostly glacial
drift, but its depth and composition often vary
greatly even within small areas. The most widely distributed soil,
especially in the W. half of the state, is mainly a
clay which was formed by the glacial pulverizing
of limestone and shale and is still forming from the decomposition
of fragments of these substances. In the larger valleys and along
the shores of lakes considerable
alluvium is mixed with this clay. In the E.
there is some clay formed mainly by the decomposition of slate. A
sandy
loam is quite characteristic
of some of the N. counties, and gravelly loams containing limestone
are not uncommon.
Agriculture and Stock-Raising
Although New York has lost in the competition with the Western
States in the production of most of the grains, especially
wheat and
barley, and in the production of
wool, mutton and
pork, it has made steady progress in the dairy business and
continues to produce great crops of
hay. The state has made great advances, too, in the
production of flowers, ornamental plants, nursery products, fruits,
vegetables,
poultry and eggs. In 1900 a
little less than three-fourths of the state's total land area was
included in farms and a little more than two-thirds of this was
improved. The number of farms gradually increased from 170,621 in
1850 to 226,720 in 1900, and the average size decreased from 112.1
.acres in 1850 to 97.1 acres in 1890, but increased to 99.9 acres
in 1900. More than two-thirds of the farms (152,956) were operated
by owners ,or part owners, 29,900 were operated by share tenants,
and 24,303 by
cash tenants. Of the
total acreage of all crops, 5,154,965 acres (54.1%) were of hay and
3,125,077 acres (32.8%) were of cereals. In 1909 the amount of the
hay
crop (5,002,000 tons) was
greater than that of any other state except
Iowa, and its value ($71,028,000) was greater than
in any other state. The
oat crop in
1909 was 37,365,000 bushels; the Indian
corn crop, 1,910,000 bushels; the wheat crop,
24,120,000 bushels; the barley crop, 8,820,000 bushels; the
rye crop, 2,720,000 bushels;
buckwheat, 7,512,000
bushels.
There were less than one-third as many
sheep in 1910 (1,177,000) as in 1850; but in the
same period the number of dairy cows (1,771,000 in 1910) steadily
increased. The number of
cattle other than dairy cows was 946,315 in 1850
and 889,000 in 1910. Horses increased from 447,014 in 1850 to
717,000 in 1910.
New York has a larger acreage of vegetables than any other
state. Its crop of potatoes in 1909 was 52,560,000 bushels and that
of
Maine, the next largest,
29,250,000 bushels; and the state is a large producer of onions,
turnips, cabbages, cauliflower, sweet Indian corn, cucumbers,
rhubarb, parsnips, carrots,
green peas and green beans. During the years1850-1889New York
produced about 70% ,of the
hop crop
of the entire country, but since 1890 hop culture has been rapidly
extended in the Pacific Coast states and suffered to decline in New
York, and the crop from 1899 to 1907 averaged only .about one-half
that of 1889 (20,063,029 ib).
Tobacco culture was introduced in 1845, and in
1860 the crop was 5,764,582 lb. During1860-1880the increase was
slight, but in 1899 the crop was 1 3,95 8 ,37 0 lb; in 1909 the
crop was only 7,050,000 lb. The value of the fruit crop in 18 99 ($
1 5, 8 44,34 6) was second only to that of
California; and the most productive
agricultural lands are those devoted to floriculture and
nurseries.
The dairy business and the production of hay are especially
prominent in the rugged region W. of the Adirondack Mountains and
in the rugged portions of the counties in the S. half of the state.
A large portion of the Indian corn, wheat and barley is produced on
the Ontario plain. There are large crops of oats here, too, but the
culture of this cereal is quite extensive in most of the counties
W. of the Adirondacks. The lower valley of the Hudson is noted for
its crops ,of rye. The buckwheat belt extends S.W. across the state
from Albany and Saratoga counties. The principal hop-producing
counties :are Otsego, Schoharie and
Madison, all of which are between Albany and
Syracuse. Those producing
most tobacco are in a district extending from the S.E. shore of
Lake Ontario southward across the state. The great orchards are in
the tier of counties bordering the S. shore of Lake Ontario and in
Dutchess and
Ulster counties
in the Hudson Valley. Chautauqua county alone produced more than
one-half of the state's crop of grapes in 1899, but this fruit is
grown extensively also in the region W. of Seneca Lake in the
vicinity of Lake Keuka, and in parts of the lower valley of the
Hudson. The ' culture of small fruits and vegetables is widely
distributed throughout the W. half of the state and in the valley
of the Hudson, and the greater part of Long Island under
cultivation is devoted to market gardening, floriculture and
nurseries. The largest nurseries, however, are in the vicinity of
Rochester.
Forest Products
The principal forest area is in the Adirondack region where the
state has a forest preserve (in
Clinton,
Essex,
Franklin, Fulton,
Hamilton,
Herkimer, Lewis,
Oneida, St Lawrence, Saratoga,
Warren and
Washington counties) containing (1909) 1 ,53
0 ,559 acres, and there is as much or more in private preserves and
in tracts owned by lumbermen. The state has a forest preserve also
in the Catskill region (in Delaware, Greene, Sullivan and Ulster
counties) of 110,964 acres, and there are wood-lots on many farms
throughout the state that produce commercial
timber. Originally white pine was the principal
timber of the Adirondacks, but most of the merchantable portion has
been cut, and in 1905 nearly one-half of the
lumber product of this section was spruce, the
other half mainly hemlock, pine and hardwoods (yellow birch, maple,
beech and basswood, and smaller amounts of elm, cherry and ash).
The state is reforesting portions of its preserve chiefly with
pine, spruce and larch. In the Catskills and in the farming regions
the lumber product consists largely of hardwoods (mostly oak,
chestnut and hickory), smaller amounts of hemlock and pine, and a
very little spruce. The state's entire timber product in 1905 was
1,212,070,168 ft. (board measure); of this about five-eighths was
from the Adirondack region, a little more than one-fourth was from
the farming regions, and a little less than one-eighth was from the
Catskill region. Maple
sugar is
an important by-product of the forests, and in the production of
this commodity New York ranks second only to Vermont; 3,623,540 lb
were made in 1900.
New York was in 1904 more extensively engaged in
oyster culture than any other
state, and was making more rapid progress in the cultivation of
hard clams. In 1909 there were distributed from state fish
hatcheries 1 531,293,721 fishes (mostly
smelt,
pike-perch, and winter flatfish); a large
number of fish and eggs were also placed in New York waters by the
United States
Bureau of
Fisheries. The products of the marine fisheries decreased nearly
30% in value from 1891 to 1897, but from 1897 to 1904 they
increased from $3,391,595 to $6,230,558, or 80.3%, and a large part
of this increase was due to the extension of the successful oyster
culture at the E. end of Long Island; the value of oysters alone
rising from $2,050,058 to $3,780,352. The value of hard clams
rose during the same period from
$198,930 to $303,599. Peconic Bay, at the E. end of Long Island,
yields more scallops than all the other waters of the United
States. Soft clams, lobsters, hard crabs and soft crabs are other
shell-fish obtained in small
quantities.
Menhaden are
caught in much larger quantities in New York than any other fish,
but being too bony for food they are used only in the manufacture
of oil and fertilizer. The most valuable catches of food fish in
1904 were those of bluefish ($556,527), squeteague ($212,623),
flounders ($67,159), eels ($53,832),
cod ($52,710), scup ($48,068) and
shad ($36,826). The shad fishery is mainly in the
lower waters of the Hudson river, and the catch diminished so
rapidly from 1901 that in 1904 it was only about one-eighth of the
average for the decade from 1890 to 1900. The New York fisheries of
Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Niagara and St Lawrence rivers
yielded products in 1903 valued at $187,198 and consisting largely
of pikeperch,
herring,
catfish, bullheads and
sturgeon, and in 1902 there were commercial
fisheries in sixteen interior lakes and rivers which yielded
muscallonge, smelt, bullheads, pickerel, pike-
perch and several other varieties having a total
value of $87,897.
Minerals
More than thirty mineral substances are obtained in commercial
quantities from the mines, quarries and
wells of New York, but of the total value of the
mineral products in 1908 ($45,6 6 9, 861), nearly six-sevenths was'
represented by clay products ($8,929,224),
pig iron ($15,879,000), stone ($6,157,279),
cement ($ 2, 2 54,759),
salt ($2,136,738),
petroleum ($2,071,533), and
sand and gravel ($1,349,163). The extensive deposits of clay in the
Hudson Valley together with the easy water communications with New
York City have made this valley the greatest brick-making region in
the world; in 1906 the common bricks made here numbered
1,230,692,000. There are also deposits of clay suitable for making
bricks, terra-
cotta and tiles in
nearly every county outside of this valley, and there are some
pottery clays in Albany and
Onondaga counties. The common bricks made in
New York in 1908 were valued at $5,066,084, an amount in excess of
that in any other state; and the total value of brick and
tile products was $7,270,981, being
less than that of Ohio, Pennsylvania or
Illinois. In 1750 the mining of iron ore was
begun near
Monroe, Orange
county. Ore has since been found in most of the eastern counties
and as far W. as Wayne county, but the mines in Essex, Clinton and
Franklin counties of the Adirondack region are by far the most
productive. The ores are principally magnetites (New York is the
largest producer of
magnetite ore among the states, producing
about 45% of the total for the United States in 1907 and 1908), but
red haematites occur in the N. and W. section of the Adirondacks
and in the central part of the state, and brown haematites and
carbonate ore in the S.E. counties. The total output of the state
increased from 651,228 long tons in 1884 to 1,253,393 long tons in
1890, decreased to 179,951 long tons in 1898, again increased to
1,375,020 long tons in 1907, when only three states produced more,
and was only 697,473 long tons in 1908 when the state held the same
rank as in 1907. Limestone 1 These include: the Adirondack Hatchery
at Upper Saranac, Franklin county; the
Caledonia Hatchery at Mumford, Monroe county;
the Cold Spring Harbor Hatchery, at Cold Spring Harbor, Suffolk
county; the Delaware Hatchery, at Margaretville, Delaware county;
the Fulton Chain Hatcher y, at
Old Forge, Herkimer county; the Linlithgo
Hatchery, at Linlithgo, Columbia county; the Oneida Hatchery, at
Constantia, Oswego
county; and the Pleasant Valley Hatchery, at Taggart, Steuben
county.
is widely distributed throughout the state, and great quantities
of it aie crushed for road-making, railway ballasts, and
concrete, but as the
prevailing colours are greyish or drab it is little used in the
walls of buildings. In 1908 the total value of the output of this
stone was $ 2 ,5 8 4,559. Three distinct varieties of sandstone are
quarried extensively. Those popularly known as " bluestones "
belong to the Hamilton period of the Devonian formation and occur
mainly between the Hudson and Delaware rivers. They are dark
blue-grey, fine grained and durable, and are much used for flagging
and kerbing and for sills, caps and steps.
Medina sandstones occur throughout a belt
averaging about 10 m. wide along the S. shore of Lake Ontario and
are either red or grey; the red are used for building, the grey for
street paving. A more durable and more beautiful stone for building
is the reddish or reddish-brown
Potsdam sandstone of which there are extensive
formations on the N.W. border of the Adirondacks. The value of all
sandstones quarried in 1908 was $1,774,843, an amount exceeded by
no other state. Several choice
marbles are obtained in the eastern counties.
From Tuckahoe, Westchester county, has been taken white
marble, used in some of the
finest buildings in New York City, and a similar marble is obtained
ih
Putnam and Dutchess
counties. Near Gouverneur, St Lawrence county, is a large
quarry of coarsely crystalline
magnesian limestone, used as monumental marble. In the Lower
Silurian formation at
Plattsburg and Chazy, in
Clinton county, are two beautiful grey or grey and
pink marbles, one of which is a favourite among
domestic marbles for mantels, table tops and other interior
decorations. From an extensive
deposit of blue-black magnesian limestone at
Glens Falls are taken
the choicest varieties of black marble quarried in the United
States. At
Moriah and Port
Henry, in Essex county, is a stone
known as ophlite marble, a mixture of
serpentine,
dolomite and
calcite interspersed with small flecks of
phlogopite. Larger
deposits of serpentine occur at several places in St Lawrence
county; and at
Warwick, in
Orange county, is some beautiful marble of a
carmine-red colour occasionally mottled with
white or showing white
veins.
The marble quarried in 1908 was valued at $706,858. There are
extensive formations of granitic rocks in the Adirondacks, in the.
lower Hudson Valley, and in the adjacent highlands, but they are
not extensively quarried. Rockland county quarries considerable
trap rock, used mostly for road-making and concrete, and Ulster
county has for more than a century produced most of the domestic
millstones used in the United States. Extending from Madison county
to the W. border of the state in Erie county is a narrow belt
containing large deposits of
gypsum, and in 1908 the value of the state's
output ($760,759) was greater than that of any other state,
although
Michigan produced
a larger quantity. At or near Chittenango, in Madison county,
natural-cement rock was first discovered in the United States, and
the first use made of it was in the construction of the Erie Canal.
.^ US Senator from New York, 1959-65 .- New York City 2 February 2010 16:32 UTC www.nndb.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]
^ Mayor of New York City, 1954-65 .- New York City 2 February 2010 16:32 UTC www.nndb.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]
In 1908 the total value of the
state's talc product was $ 6 97,39 0, almost one-half the total for
the entire country.
New York and Michigan are the two principal salt-producing
states in the Union. Salt was discovered by the
Jesuits in Western New York about the middle of
the 17th century, and was manufactured by the Indians in the
Onondaga region. The state bought the salt
reservation in 1788, and soon afterward the
manufacture of salt was begun by the whites. From 1880 to 1885 the
first brines were obtained in
Wyoming and Genesee counties by
boring deep wells into beds of
rock salt, and in 1885 the mining of the extensive deposits of rock
salt in Livingston county was begun. Salt is also produced in
Tompkins and Schuyler counties. In 1908 the total production of the
state, 9,076,743 barrels valued at $2,136,738, was exceeded in
quantity and (for the first time) in value by that of Michigan.
The Appalachian oil field extends northward from
West Virginia and
Pennsylvania into Cattaraugus, Allegany and Steuben counties. The
first oil well in the state was drilled at Limestone in Cattaraugus
county in 1865, and the state's output of oil was 1,160,128
barrels, valued at $2,071,533 in 1908. At
Olean it is pumped into pipes which extend as far
north as Buffalo and as far east as
Long Island City. The village of
Fredonia, in Chautauqua
county, was
illuminated by
natural gas as early as 1825, and
gas has since been discovered in
several of the western counties. The value of the flow in 1908 was
$959,280.
There are more than forty mineral springs in New York whose
waters are of commercial importance, and in 1908 the waters sold
from them amounted to 8,007,092 gals., valued at $877,648; several
of the springs, especially those in Saratoga county, attract a
large number of summer visitors.
Graphite is widely distributed in the
Adirondack region, but the mining of it is confined for the most
part to Essex and Warren counties; in 1908 the output was 1,932,000
lb. valued at $116,100. Other mineral substances obtained in small
quantities are: pyrite, in St Lawrence county; arsenical ore, in
Putnam county; red, green and
purple slate, in Washington county;
garnet in Warren, Essex and St
Lawrence counties;
emery and
felspar, in Westchester county;
and infusorial earth in Herkimer county.
Manufactures
The establishment of a great highway of commerce through the
state from New York City to Buffalo by the construction of the Erie
Canal, opened in 1825, and later by the building of railways along
the line of the water route, made the state's manufactures quite
independent of its own natural resources. The factory manufacture
of clothing was begun in New York City about 1835, and received a
great impetus from the invention of the
sewing-machine, the demands created by the Civil
War, and the
immigration of vast numbers of foreign
labourers. It is now the leading manufacturing industry of the
state. The value of the clothing was $340,715,921 in 1905. New York
City ranks first among American cities in
printing and
publishing, the products being valued at
$137,985,751 in 1905.
Knitting by machinery was introduced into
America in 1831 at
Cohoes
Falls, on the Mohawk river; the products, consisting largely of
underwear, were valued at $46,108,600 in 1905. Of the other textile
industries none except the manufacture of carpets and rugs and
silk and silk goods has become very
prominent, and yet the total value of all textile products in 1905
was $123,668,177. The refining of sugar was begun in New York City
late in the 18th century, but the growth of the industry to its
present magnitude has been comparatively recent; the value of the
sugar and
molasses refined
in 1905 was $116,438,838. Foundry and machine-
shop products were valued at $115,876,193 in 1905,
and
electrical
machinery, apparatus,. and supplies at $35,348,276. The manufacture
of paper and wood-pulp products ($37,750,605 in 1905) is an
industry for which the state still furnishes much of the raw
material, and other large industries of which the same is true are
the manufacture of
flour and
grist-
mill products, dairy
products, canned fruits and vegetables, wines, clay products, and
salt. New York state has ranked first in the Union in the value of
its manufactures since 1830, and their value rose to $ 2 ,4 88
,345,579 in 1905. More than three-fifths of that of 1905 was
represented by the manufactures of New York City alone. Buffalo,
the second city in manufactures, shares largely with New York City
the business of slaughtering and
meat packing, the refining and smelting of
copper, and the manufacture of
foundry and machineshop products, and with New York City and
Rochester the manufacture of flour and grist-mill products.
Rochester ranks first among the cities of the United States in the
manufacture of photographic materials and apparatus and optical
instruments.
Niagara
Falls and New York City manufacture a large part of the
chemicals, and the value of the state's output rose to $29,090,484
in 1905.
Gloversville and
Johnstown are noted for
leather gloves and mittens.
Transportation and Commerce
From the very beginning of the occupation of New York by
Europeans, commerce was much encouraged by the natural
water-courses. The Western Inland
Lock Navigation Company, chartered by the state in
1792, completed three canals within about four years and thereby
permitted the continuous passage from
Schenectady to Lake Ontario of boats of
about 17 tons. The Erie Canal was begun by the state in 1817 and
opened to boats of about 75 tons
burden in 1825. The Champlain Canal, connecting
the Erie with Lake Champlain, was also begun in 1817 and completed
in 1823. The Oswego Canal, connecting the Erie with Lake Ontario,
was begun in 1825 and completed in 1828. Several other tributary
canals were constructed during this period, and between 1836 and
1862 the Erie was sufficiently enlarged to accommodate boats of 240
tons burden.
The first railway in the state and the second in operation in
the United States was the Mohawk & Hudson, opened from Albany
to Schenectady in 1831. The railway mileage in the state increased
to 1361 m. in 1850, to 3928 m. in 1870, to 7684.41 m. in 1890, and
to 8422.14 m. in January 1909. The first great
trunk line in the country was that of the Erie
railway, opened from Piermont, on the Hudson river, to
Dunkirk, on Lake Erie, in 1853.
The New York Central & Hudson River railway, nearly parallel
with the water route from New York City to Buffalo, was formed by
the union, in 1869, of the New York Central with the Hudson River
railway. The West Shore railway, which follows closely the route of
the New York Central & Hudson River, was also the result of a
consolidation, completed in 1881, of several shorter lines.
.^ First President of New York Life Insurance Company .- New York City 2 February 2010 16:32 UTC www.nndb.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]
^ The New York Times Company .- New York City 2 February 2010 16:32 UTC www.nndb.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]
Other
important railways are the Lehigh Valley, the Delaware, Lackawanna
& Western, and the Pennsylvania in the central and W. sections,
the Delaware & Hudson, the
Rutland, and the New York Ontario - &
Western in the E., and the Long Island on Long Island. In
competition with the railways, traffic on the existing canals
suffered a marked decline. As, however, this decline was
accompanied with a considerable decrease in the proportion of the
country's exports which passed through the port of New York,
interest in the canals revived, and in 1903 the electorate of the
state authorized the issue of bonds to the amount of $101,000,000
for the purpose of increasing the capacity of the Erie, the
Champlain and the Oswego canals, to make each navigable by barges
of 1000 tons burden. A project adopted by the state for the
enlargement of the Erie provides for a new route up the Hudson from
Troy to
Waterford and
thence to the Mohawk river above Cohoes Falls. Up the Mohawk to
Rome the old route is for the most part to be retained; but from
Rome to
Clyde there is to be a
diversion so as to utilize Oneida Lake and Oneida and Seneca
rivers. Westward from Clyde the new channel, like the old but
larger, will pass through Rochester and Lockport to the Niagara
river at
Tonawanda. Each
of the three canals is to have a minimum depth of 12 ft., a minimum
bottom width in rivers and lakes of 200 ft., and in other sections
a bottom width generally of 75 ft. Their locks are to be 328 ft. in
length and 45 ft. in width.
The imports to the port of New York increased in value from
$466,527,631 in 1897 to $891,614,678 in 1909, while the exports
increased in value from $404,750,496 to $627,782,767. Other ports
of entry are Buffalo and Dunkirk, on Lake Erie, Niagara Falls, on
the Niagara river, Ogdensburg and Cape
Vincent, on the St Lawrence river,
Plattsburg, on Lake Champlain, Oswego, on Lake Ontario, Rochester,
on the Genesee river, Albany and Syracuse in the interior, and Sag
Harbor at the E. end of Long Island.
Population.-New York outstripped Pennsylvania in
population in the first decade of the 19th century, and Virginia in
the second decade, and since 1820 it has been the most populous
state in the Union. In 1880 1 the population was 5,082,871; in
1890, 5,997,853; in 1900, 7,268,894; in 1905, according to the
state
census, 8,067,308; and
in 1910, 9,113,614. The foreign-born population in 1900 was 1, 9
00, 4 25, including 480,026 natives of
Germany, 425,553 of
Ireland, 182,248 of
Italy, 165,610 of
Russia, 135,685 of
England, 117,535 of Canada, 78,49 1 of
Austria, 69,755 of
Poland and 64,055 of Scandinavia.
More than two-thirds of the foreign-born were in New York City.
The coloured population constituted only 1.5% of the total, and
was composed of 99,232 negroes, 7170 Chinese, 5257 Indians and 354
Japanese.
Most of the Indians were on eight reservations: the Allegany
Reservation (30,469 acres) in Cattaraugus county; the Cattaraugus
Reservation (21,680 acres) in Erie, Cattaraugus and Chautauqua
counties; the St Regis Reservation (14,030 acres) in Franklin
county; the Tonawanda Reservation (7548 acres) in Erie and Genesee
counties; the Onondaga Reservation (7300 acres) in Onondaga county;
the
Tuscarora
Reservation (624 acres) in Niagara county; the Oneida Reservation
(400 acres) in Madison county; and the Shinnecock Reservation (400
acres) near
Southampton, on Long Island.
Of 3,591,974 members of all religious denominations in 1906,
2,285,768 were Roman Catholics, 313,689 Methodist Episcopalians,
199,923 Presbyterians, 193,890
Protestant Episcopalians, 176,981
Baptists, 124,644
Lutherans, 57,351
Congregationalists, 35,34 2
Jews
(heads of families only), 26,183 members of the
German
Evangelical Synod, 19,302 members of Eastern Orthodox churches
and 10,761 Universalists. The urban population (i.e. population of
places having 4000 inhabitants or more) increased from 3,805,477 in
1890 to 5,176,414 in 1900, or 36%, while the rural population (i.e.
population outside of incorporated places) decreased during this
decade from 1,834,119 to 1, 62 5, 8 59 or 5.9%. The cities having a
population of 15,000 or more in 1905 were: New York City,
4,013,781; Buffalo, 376,587; Rochester, 181,666; Syracuse, 117,503;
Albany, 98,374; Troy, 76,910;
Utica, 62,934;
Yonkers, 61,716; Schenectady, 58,387;
Binghamton, 42,036;
Elmira, 34,687;
Auburn, 31,422; Niagara Falls, 26,560;
Newburgh, 26,498;
Jamestown, 26,160;
Kingston, 25,556; Watertown,
2 5,447;
Poughkeepsie, 25,379; Mt.
Vernon, 25,996; Cohoes, 24,183;
Amsterdam, 2 3,943; Oswego, 22,572;
New Rochelle, 20
,479; Gloversville, 18,672; Lockport, 17,552; Rome, 16,562; and
Dunkirk, 15,250.
Government.-Since becoming a state, New York has been
governed under four constitutions, adopted in 1777, 1821, 1846 and
1894 respectively. The first state constitution, adopted by a
convention at Kingston, made few changes in the provincial system
other than those necessary to establish it on a popular basis, but
the powers of the governor were curtailed, especially his powers of
appointment and
veto. These
limitations worked unsatisfactorily, and their removal or
modification and the extension of the
franchise were the principal changes effected
in 1821. Under the first constitution the decentralization of
administration, which began early in the colonial era, continued
without interruption, and under the second it was checked by a few
measures only. The third constitution, besides reorganizing 1 The
population at preceding census years was: (1790) 340,120; (1800)
589,051; (1810) 959,049; (1820) 1,372,812; (1830) 1,918,608; (1840)
2,428,921; (1850) 3, 0 97,394; (1860) 3,880,735; {187 0)
4,382,759.
the judiciary, transferred to the people the choice of many
officers, state and local, who
had been appointed by the governor or the legislature; and placed
numerous restrictions on the law-making power of the legislature.
Under this constitution the theory of local self-government was
more fully realized in New York than at any other time.
Since the middle of the 19th century an attempt has been made to
meet the problems arising from a rapid industrial and social
development by creating bureaus or commissions to exercise a
central control over local officials, corporations and even private
individuals, and as most of the heads of these bureaus and the
commissions are appointed by the governor the importance of that
officer has increased. The constitutional changes since 18 4 6
affect principally the judiciary and cities. A constitutional
convention met and proposed a new constitution in 1867, but every
article was rejected by the people save one relating to the
judiciary, which was adopted separately as an
amendment in 1869. The constitution of 1894
made further important changes in the judiciary and in the
government of cities. The first constitution made no provision for
its amendment or revision. The second provided that whenever a
majority of the members elected to each house of the legislature
voted for an amendment and two-thirds of those elected to the next
legislature approved, it should be submitted to the people for
their adoption or rejection. The third modified this provision by
requiring the approval of only a majority of the members elected to
each house of the second legislature, and directed that the
legislature should call a convention to revise the constitution at
least once in twenty years if the people requested it. The present
constitution contains the same clause as the third for the proposal
of amendments by the legislature, and makes the unique provision
that if the people vote for a convention when the question is
submitted to them-this must be as often as once in twenty years-the
delegates shall be elected and shall assemble at an appointed time
and place without the call of the legislature, this being the
result of the governor's veto, in 1887, of a bill for calling a
convention in response to an overwhelming vote of the people in
favour of it. Under the first constitution there were property
qualifications for voting which amounted in the election of the
governor and senators to a freehold estate worth boo ($500) and in
the election of assemblymen to a freehold estate worth X20. ($roo)
or the payment of an annual
rent
of 40s. ($10). But under the second constitution the most that was
required of any white voter was the payment to the state
er county of taxes on either personal or
real property, and
by an amendment of 1826 this requirement was abolished. The second
constitution, however, imposed a property qualification on coloured
voters amounting to a freehold estate worth $250, and this
restriction was not removed until 1874. Since 1874 the aim has been
to bestow
suffrage on all
male citizens who shall have attained the age of twenty-one years
and shall have been inhabitants of the state for one year, but for
the protection of the
ballot
citizenship for ninety days, 2 residence in the county for four
months, and in the election district for thirty days next preceding
the election are required. Conviction for
bribery or of an infamous
crime disqualifies, and personal identification
of voters is required in New York City. A statement of receipts and
expenditures of an election campaign, showing the amount received
from each contributor and the name of t every person or committee
to whom more than $5 was paid, must be filed by the treasurer of
every political committee within twenty days after the election;
each candidate also must
file a
statement of his contributions. By an Act of 191() women may vote
on financial questions affecting a village in which they hold
property.
Executive.-When the state government was first
established, the governor and lieutenant-governor were the only
state officers elected by the people. The state treasurer was
chosen by the legislature, and for the appointment of other state
officers as well as county officers and mayors of cities the
Assembly chose four senators to constitute a council of
appointment, a body 2 Increased from ten days in 1894.
in which the governor had only a casting vote. But the
constitution of 1821 abolished the council of appointment and gave
the choice of the principal state departmental officers to the
legislature, and the constitution of 1846 transferred the choice of
these officers from the legislature to the people, where it has
since remained. Under the constitution of 1821 a great number of
local officers were appointed by the governor with the advice and
consent of the
Senate. The
choice of most of these was given to the people in 1846, but since
then many new state departments have been created, the heads of
which are usually appointed by the governor, subject to the
approval of the Senate.
.^ US Under Secretary of State, 1937-43 .- New York City 2 February 2010 16:32 UTC www.nndb.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]
^ Senator, Secretary of War, State .- New York City 2 February 2010 16:32 UTC www.nndb.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]
The governor has the power,
also, of filling vacancies in certain state offices and on the
benches of the
supreme court and county
courts, and he may remove or suspend certain county and municipal
officers on charges.
The first state constitution gave the veto power to a council of
revision composed of the governor, the chancellor and the judges of
the supreme court, but since 1821 this power has been exercised by
the governor alone; and in 1874 it was extended to separate items
in
appropriation
bills. A bill or
item of an
appropriation bill that has been vetoed by the governor can become
a law only with the approval of two-thirds of the members elected
to each house of the legislature. So long as the legislature is in
session the governor is
allowed ten days, besides Sundays, to consider a bill, and if he
does not veto it within that time it becomes a law, but no bill
becomes a law after the final
adjournment of the legislature unless it is
actually approved by the governor within thirty days after the
adjournment. The governor's power to grant reprieves, commutations
or pardons is unrestricted by any board of pardons, but he is
required to report to the legislature each case in which he
exercises such power. A candidate for the office of governor or
lieutenant-governor must be at least
thirty years of age and must have
resided within the state for five years next preceding his
election. The governor's
salary is $10,000 a year, and the
lieutenant-governor's is $5000.
Legislature
The legislative power is vested in a Senate of 50 members
elected biennially and an Assembly of 150 members elected annually.
Since 1846 both senators and assemblymen have been elected by
single districts, and ever since the state government was
established they have been apportioned according to population, but
the present constitution limits the representation of New York City
in the Senate by declaring that no county shall have more than
one-third of all the senators nor any two adjoining counties more
than one-half of them. The first and second state constitutions
required that every senator should be a freeholder, but since 1846
no property qualifications have been prescribed for membership in
either house; the only persons disqualified are those who at the
time of the election or within one
hundred days before the election were
members of Congress, civil or military officers under the United
States, or officers under any city government. The constitution of
1846 limited the pay of members of both houses to three dollars a
day and to three hundred dollars for any one session (except in
impeachment
proceedings) besides an
allowance for travelling expenses, but since
an amendment of 1874 they have been paid $1500 a year and ten cents
a mile for travelling expenses.
The legislature meets in annual sessions, beginning in January.
Money bills may originate in either house, but at the final vote on
such a bill in either house three-fifths of the members elected to
that house must be present and the yeas and nays must be recorded;
bills entailing appropriations for local or private purposes must
receive a two-thirds majority to pass. The legislature appoints the
board of regents of the University of the State of New York. To
decrease the evil of
lobbying a law was enacted in 1906 which
requires that every person employed to promote or oppose the
passage of any bill shall file in the office of the secretary of
state a written statement showing who has employed him and
describing the legislation in respect of which his services are to
be rendered; the law also requires the employers of lobbyists to
file in the same office within two months after the adjournment of
the legislature an itemized statement of all their lobbying
expenses, and forbids the employment of a lobbyist for a contingent
fee.
Judiciary
At the close of the colonial era there were a court of chancery, a supreme court, circuit courts and courts of oyer and
terminer which were held in the several counties by the
justices of the supreme court, a court of common pleas and a court of sessions in each
county, and courts held by justices of the peace in the several
towns. This system, with the addition of the Senate, the chancellor
and the justices of the supreme court occasionally sitting as a
court for the correction of errors, was retained with only slight
changes until 1846. But the new constitution of that year
substituted a court of appeals for the court of errors, merged the
court of chancery into the supreme court, established in each
county a new county
court composed of a single judge, and, taking the appointment of judges from
the governor, gave the election of them to the people. Some further
alterations in the constitution affecting the courts were made in
1869, 1879, 1888, 1894, 1899 and 1909, and the system as at present
constituted comprises a supreme court of ninetyseven justices, an
appellate division of the same, a court of appeals, a court of
claims and local courts. The highest judicial court in the state is
not, as in most states of the Union, the supreme court, but the
court of appeals. This court consists of a chief judge and six
associate judges elected from the state at large for a term of
fourteen years. Its jurisdiction is limited, except where judgment
is of death, to a review of questions of law. Vacancies are
temporarily filled from among the justices of the supreme court by
the governor. To expedite business, at the request of the court,
the governor may designate not more than four justices of the
supreme court to act temporarily as additional associate judges of
the court of appeals. The salary of the chief judge is $14,200, of
the associate judges $13,700 a year.
The ninety-seven justices of the supreme court are elected for
fourteen years from the nine districts into which the state is
divided. Of these thirty are chosen in the first district (New York
county) and seventeen in the second district (Long Island and
Staten Island)_ The jurisdiction of each justice extends over the
entire state. Vacancies are temporarily filled by the governor. Tne
supreme court has general jurisdiction in law and
equity, including all actions both civil and
criminal. The salary of the justices in the first district and in
Kings county of the second district is $17,500 a year; in the
remainder of the second district it is $16,300 a year; in the other
districts it is $10,000 a year. The state is divided into four
departments for each of which there is an Appellate Division
consisting of seven justices in the first department (county of New
York) and five in each of the others. The justices and presiding
justice are designated from among the justices of the supreme court
by the governor;. the presiding justice and a majority of the other
justices of each department must be residents of the
department.
The court of claims consists of three judges, one presiding,
appointed by the governor for a term of six years. It has
jurisdiction to hear and determine private claims against the
state.
The local judiciary includes the usual county and city judges,
county surrogates and justices of the peace. New York City (q.v.)
has an extensive judiciary system of its own.
The state is divided into sixty-one counties, each (unless
wholly included in a city) having a county board of supervisors
elected for two years, one from every town or city
ward. This board has certain administrative and
legislative powers, such as the care of county property, the
borrowing of money for the erection of county buildings, the fixing
of the salary of the county treasurer and of other county officers,
the levying of county taxes and the division of the county into
assembly districts and school commissioners' districts. Other
county officers are a county judge and a county
surrogate elected for a
term of six years, a treasurer, a clerk, a district
attorney, a
sheriff and from one to four
coroners elected for a term of three years. Cities are of three
classes: (1) those having a population of 175,000 or more; (2)
those having a population between 50,000 and 175,000; and (3) those
whose population is less than 50,000; the classification is
according to the latest state enumeration.
1 For further regulations relating to the employment of women
and children see the Labour Law enacted in 1909 and the subsequent
amendments.
propriate laws prohibiting the same, the legislature passed an
act in 1895, which in practice permitted
pool-selling and book-making at race-tracks, but
in 1908 and 1910 bills were enacted prohibiting gambling at
race-tracks. License to sell intoxicating liquors is subject to a
graduated tax. The sale of liquor on Sunday or between one o'clock
and five o'clock in the morning of any other day is unlawful. Any
town (but not any city) may at its
option wholly forbid the sale of intoxicating
liquors, may allow it to be sold only on condition that it be not
drunk on the vendor's premises, or may allow it to be sold only by
hotel-keepers and pharmacists, or by pharmacists alone.
Administrative Commissions
The regulation and control of such public service corporations
as own or operate
steam,
electric or street railways, gas or electric plants, and express
companies were, in 1907, vested in two public service commissions
(the first for New York City and the second for all other parts of
the state), each of five members appointed by the governor with the
approval of the Senate; in 1910 the regulation of
telephone and
telegraph companies
throughout the state was vested in the second commission.
A state civil service commission (1883) consists of three
members (not more than two of the same political party) appointed
by the governor with the approval of the Senate. For the classified
service of the state and of the minor civil divisions, except
cities, the commission makes rules (subject to the governor's
approval and to statutory and constitutional provisions) governing
the classification of offices, the examination of candidates for
office, and the appointment and promotion of employees. In cities
the
mayor is required to appoint
a municipal civil service commission, with similar duties; not more
than twothirds of the members may be of the same political
party.
Prisons, Poor Law,
Charities, &c. - Penal institutions for sane adults,
except reformatories for women, are under the general supervision
of a state commission of prisons; hospitals for the insane are
under the general supervision of a state commission in lunacy; and
all other charitable and penal institutions, maintained wholly or
in part by the state, or by any county, city or town within the
state, are under the general supervision of a state board of
charities. This board of charities consists of one member from each
of the nine judicial districts and three additional members from
the City of New York, all appointed by the governor with the
consent of the Senate for a term of eight years. Its existence
dates from 1867, but its authority was very limited, chiefly
advisory, until 1895. Since then, however, its powers have been
greatly increased. In 1910 the state charitable institutions were
as follows: State Soldiers' and Sailors' Home,
Bath; State School for the Blind,
Batavia; the Thomas Indian
School,
Iroquois; State
Woman's Relief Corps Home,
Oxford; State
Hospital for the care of Crippled and Deformed
Children, West
Haverstraw; Syracuse State Institution for
Feeble-Minded Children, Syracuse; State Hospital for the treatment
of Incipient Pulmonary
Tuberculosis,
Ray Brook; Craig
Colony for Epileptics, Sonyea; State Custodial
Asylum for Feeble-Minded
Women,
Newark; Rome State
Custodial Asylum for Unteachable Idiots, Rome; State Agricultural
and
Industrial School, Industry; State
Training School for Girls, Hudson; Western House of Refuge,
Albion; New
York State Reformatory for Women,
Bedford; the State Training School for Boys;
and Letchworth Village, a custodial asylum for epileptics and
feeble-minded. Eight private institutions for the care or the care
and instruction of
deaf mutes and one for the care of the
blind are supported mainly by the state. Many other charitable
institutions receive public money, mostly from counties, cities and
towns.
The poor law of the state defines the town poor as those who
have gained a settlement in some town or city, by residing there
for one year prior to their application for public relief and who
are unable to maintain themselves; the county poor as the poor who
have not resided in any one town or city for one year before their
application for public relief, but have been in some one county for
sixty days; and the state poor as all other poor persons within the
state. Wherever cared for, each town, city, county and the state
must pay the cost of maintaining its own poor. In some counties
there is no distinction between town and county poor, but in 1910
only one county had not a county superintendent for the general
supervision and care of the poor; towns and cities not subject to
special provisions intrusted public relief to one or more overseers
of the poor or to commissioners of charities. In counties lacking
adequate hospital
accommodation a poor person requiring
medical or surgical treatment may be sent to the nearest hospital
approved by the state board of charities. An Act of 1910 provides
that indigent soldiers, sailors or
marines of the U.S. and their families be cared
for in their homes and not in almshouses.
The first state insane asylum, designed chiefly for recent and
curable cases, was opened at Utica in 1843. Since 1896 every public
institution for the insane has been maintained and administered as
a part of the state system. A state commissioner in lunacy was
first appointed in 1874; this officer was replaced in 1889 by a
commission in lunacy, which in 1894 was placed at the head of the
Bills for " special " city laws, as opposed to " general," must be
approved (within fifteen days after their passage by both houses of
the legislature) by the mayor of the city in first-class cities (in
which, however, the state legislature may provide for the
concurrence of the municipal legislative body), and in other cities
by the mayor and council, before it is laid before the governor: if
it is passed by the state legislature over the mayor's veto it goes
direct to the governor. All city elections are held in
odd numbered years. The organization of
cities and villages is provided by the legislature, which may
restrict their powers of
taxation and of contracting debts and may fix
salaries. Town (or township) government in New York somewhat
resembles that of New England; the chief executive officer of the
town is a supervisor, who represents his town in the county " board
of supervisors."
National Guard. - The national guard of
the state is commanded under the governor by a major-general. It
consists of four brigades each commanded by a brigadier-general.
The establishments in 1910 consisted of thirteen regiments and
fifty separate companies of
infantry, two squadrons and two troops of
cavalry, four light batteries,
one regiment of engineers, a
signal corps of two companies and a naval
militia, commanded by a captain
and consisting of two battalions and two separate divisions.
Laws
A married woman has full control of her property whether
acquired before or after marriage, and she may carry on any
business, trade or occupation in her own right. A husband or a wife
may convey real property directly to the other. A widow has a
dower right in one-third of the
real property to which her husband had absolute title, but a wife
may convey or devise her real property free from her husband's
right of tenancy by
courtesy. The only ground for
divorce is
adultery. As soon as a divorce has been
granted the
plaintiff
may marry again, but the
defendant is not permitted to marry within
the state any one except the plaintiff until five years have
elapsed, and then only in case the court permits it because of the
petitioner's uniformly good conduct in the meantime. Since the 1st
of January 1908 a marriage
licence has been required for every lawful
marriage.
A
homestead
consisting of a lot of land with one or more buildings, and
properly designated as such in the office of the county clerk, but
not exceeding $1000 in value, is exempt from forced sale so long as
it is owned and occupied as a residence by a householder having a
family or by a married woman, except to recover the purchase money,
to satisfy a judgment obtained before it was designated as a
homestead, or to collect taxes upon it.
Personal
property consisting of necessary household furniture, working
tools and team of horses, professional instruments and a library,
not exceeding $250 in value, besides the necessary food for the
team for ninety days, provisions for the family, wearing
apparel,
wages or other income not exceeding $12 a week,
and several other things, when owned by a householder or person
providing for a family, are also exempt from seizure for debt,
unless the debt be for purchase money or for services performed in
the family by a domestic.
Eight hours constitute a legal day's work for all employees
except those engaged in farm labour or domestic service. The
employment of children under fourteen years of age in any factory
is forbidden. Until sixteen years of age no child is to be so
employed without an employment certificate issued by a commissioner
of health, and showing that the child has completed an eight years'
course of study in a public school of the state or has had an
equivalent schooling elsewhere. For children under sixteen years of
age who are so employed the hours of labour are limited to eight a
day and the days to six a week, and such children must not begin
work before eight o'clock in the morning or continue after five
o'clock in the evening. For children between sixteen and eighteen
years of age and for women the hours of labour in a factory are
limited to ten a day, unless to prepare for a short day or a
holiday, and the days to six a
week. The employment of children under fourteen years of age in any
mercantile
establishment, business office, hotel, restaurant or apartment
house is also forbidden, except that in villages and in cities of
the second or third class children upwards of twelve years of age
may be so employed during the summer vacation of the public
schools. For both boys and girls sixteen years of age or upward the
restrictions are removed for two weeks at
Christmas time.' The
Employers'
Liability Act of 1902 (amended and broadened in 1910) holds an
employer liable for
damages
in any case in which one of his employees sustains a personal
injury by reason of the
negligence of the employer, of a
sub-contractor, of a superintendent, or any other person in the
employer's service whose duty it was to see that " the ways, works
or machinery connected with or used in the business," were in
proper condition, or whose duty it was to " direct ... any
employee," it is not proved that the employee failed in due care
and
diligence; by
another law of 1910 in certain dangerous employments the employer
is liable unless the injured employee was negligent.
Although the constitution of 1894 expressly declares that " any
lottery or the sale of lottery tickets, pool-selling, book-making,
or any other kind of gambling " shall not " hereafter be authorized
or allowed within the state " and directs the legislature to pass
ap administration of the state's
insanity law. This commission consists of
three members appointed by the governor with the consent of the
Senate. Its president must be a physician and
alienist, and another member must be a lawyer.
The commission appoints a board of experts to examine all
immigrants suspected of insanity or allied mental disorders in
order to prevent the admission of the insane into the country. In
1910 there were fourteen state hospitals (corresponding to fourteen
state hospital districts) for the poor and indigent insane; these
were at Utica, Willard, Poughkeepsie, Buffalo,
Middletown
(homoeopathic), Binghamton, Rochester, Ogdensburg, Gowanda
(homoeopathic),
Flatbush,
Ward's Island, King's Park, Central
Islip and
Yorktown. There were also in 1910 two
hospitals for the criminal insane, at
Matteawan and Dannemora. Each of these is
under the immediate control of a superintendent appointed by the
superintendent of state prisons.
The state commission of prisons consists of seven members
appointed by the governor with the consent of the Senate for a term
of four years, and the institutions under its supervision in 1910
were the Sing Sing State
Prison,' at
Ossining, the Auburn State Prison at Auburn,
the Clinton State Prison at Dannemora, the New York State
Reformatory at Elmira, the Eastern New York Reformatory at
Napanoch, five county penitentiaries, and all other institutions
for the detention of sane adults charged with or convicted of
crime, or retained as witnesses or debtors. The state prisons are
under a superintendent of state prisons, appointed by the governor,
with the consent of the Senate, for five years; and the state
reformatories are managed by a board of seven managers similarly
appointed for
seven years. In the state reformatory
at Elmira (which, like that at Napanoch, is for men between sixteen
and thirty years of age who have been convicted of a state prison
offence for the first time only), the plan of committing adult
felons on an indeterminate sentence to be determined by their
behaviour was first tested in America in 1877, and it has proved so
satisfactory that it has been in part adopted for the state
prisons. In order to minimize competition between prison labour and
free labour, articles manufactured in the state prisons, the
reformatories and the penitentiaries, are sold only to the
institutions and departments of the state and its political
divisions.
Education
The first school was established by the Dutch at
New Amsterdam (now
New York City) as early as 1633, and at the close of the Dutch
period there was a free elementary school in nearly every
settlement. But from the English conquest to the close of the
colonial era the chief purpose of the government with respect to
education was to prepare leaders for the state church; to this end
King's College was founded in 1754, and from 1704 to 1776 the other
schools were principally those maintained by the Society for the
Propagation of the
Gospel in Foreign Parts. Hardly
any schools remained in operation throughout the War of
Independence. In January 1784 Governor
George Clinton recommended legislation
for the " revival and encouragement of seminaries of learning,"
with the result that the legislature passed an act establishing a
state university of which Columbia College, formerly King's, was
the " mother " portion. In 1787 a second university act was passed
which restored to Columbia College the substance of its original
charter and made the University of the State of New York an
exclusively executive body with authority to incorporate new
colleges and
academies
and to exercise over them the right of
visitation. In 1795 an act was passed which
formed the basis of the present elementary-school system. This act
appropriated £ 20,000 annually for five years for the establishment
and maintenance of elementary schools, required each city and town
to raise by taxation a sum for the same purpose equal to onehalf of
its share from the proceeds of the state fund, and provided for the
election of school commissioners in each town and of trustees of
each school. The state appropriation was discontinued in 1800; but
in 1805 the proceeds of the sale of 500,000 acres of land were set
apart for a permanent school fund, and in 1812, when the interest
on this fund had become nearly $50,000 a year, the amount required
before any of it could be distributed for school purposes, the
commonschool system was permanently established by an act which
restored the main features of that of 1795, except that a
superintendent of schools chosen by the council of appointment was
now placed at its head. Although the interest on the state fund had
risen to $70,000 in 1819, this together with an equal sum raised by
the cities and towns was insufficient, and to meet the deficiency
the patrons in each district were required by a " rate bill " to
contribute in proportion to the attendance of their children. The
schools were made free only after a memorable contest against the "
rate bill." The framers of the constitution of 1846 were nearly
equally divided on this question. In 1849 the legislature passed a
free-school bill subject to the approval of the people. The people
approved by a vote of nearly three to one, but the court of appeals
declared the act unconstitutional because of the
referendum. In 1851 a
compromise measure was
substituted, increasing the state appropriation to $800,000 and
exempting indigent parents from the " rate bill," which was finally
abolished in 1867. The administration of the common school system
was in the hands of a state superintendent of schools from 1813 to
1821, of the secretary of state from 1821 to 1854, and of a In 1906
a law was enacted for the establishment of a new state prison in
the eastern part of the state to take the place of Sing Sing
Prison.
superintendent of public instruction from 1854 to 1904. In the
meantime the functions of the university had been extended to
include an oversight of the professional, scientific and technical
schools, the administration of
laws relating to admission to
the professions, the charge of the State Library at Albany, the
supervision of local
libraries, the custody of the State Museum
and the direction of all scientific work prosecuted by the state.
This dual. system was consolidated by the Educational Unification
Act of 1904, in conformity with which the university regents have
become a legislative body, subordinate to the state legislature,
for determining the general educational policy of the state, and a
commissioner of education acts as the chief executive, advisory and
supervisory,. officer of the whole educational system.
The regents of the University are chosen by the legislature, one
retiring each year; and an act of 1909 requires that their number
shall at all times be three more than the number of judicial
districts.. The first commissioner of education was chosen by the
legislature for a term of six years, but it was arranged that his
successor should be chosen by the regents and continue in office
during their pleasure. The commissioner (subject to approval of the
regents) appoints three assistant commissioners, for higher,
secondary and elementary education respectively. The elementary
school is administered by a school commissioner in each of the
school commissioner's districts into which a county may be divided,
by one trustee or three trustees in. each separate school district,
and by a board of education in each city, village or union free
school district having more than three hundred children. Any two or
more adjoining school districts may unite to form a union free
school district, and in any village or union free school district
having a population of 5000 or more the board of education may
appoint a superintendent of schools.
The compulsory education law as amended in 1907 and 1909
requires the full attendance at a public school, or at a school
which is an approximate equivalent, of all children who are between
seven and fourteen years of age, are in the proper physical and
mental condition, and reside in a city or school district having a
population of 5000 or more and employing a superintendent of
schools; in such a city or district children between fourteen and
sixteen years must attend school unless they obtain an employment
certificate and are regularly engaged in some useful employment or
service; and outside of such a city or district all children
between the ages of eight and fourteen years and those between
fourteen and sixteen years who are not regularly employed must
attend school on all school days from October to June. In a city of
the first or second class every boy between fourteen and sixteen
years of age who has an employment certificate, but has not
completed the course of study prescribed for the elementary public
schools or the equivalent, must attend an evening school not less
than six hours each week for a period of not less than sixteen
weeks each year, or a trade school not less than eight hours a week
for sixteen weeks a year. By a law of 1908 the board of education
of any city is authorized to establish industrial schools for
children who have completed the elementary school course or have
attained the age of fourteen years, and trade schools for children
who are more than sixteen years old and have completed the
elementary school course or a course offered by any of the
industrial schools. For the training of teachers for the elementary
schools the state maintains ten normal schools at Oswego (1863),
Cortland (1866), Fredonia
(1866), Potsdam (1866), Geneseo (1867), Brockport (1867), Buffalo
(1867), New Paltz (1885),
Oneonta (1887) and Plattsburg (1890); it also
appropriates $700 annually for each teachers' training class in
about one hundred of the secondary schools. The State Normal
College at Albany, founded in 1844 as. the first state normal
school, is designed principally for the training of teachers for
the secondary schools, about 800 high schools and academies,
supported wholly or in part by the state.
The state controls professional and technical schools through
the regents'
examinations of candidates for admission
to such schools and to the professions, determines the minimum
requirements for admission to college by the regents' academic
examinations, maintains the large State Library and the valuable
State Museum, and occasionally makes a gift to a college or a
university for the support of courses in practical industries; but
it maintains no college or university that is composed of a
teaching body. To
Cornell University, a non-sectarian
institution opened at Ithaca in 1868, the state turned over the
proceeds from the National land-grant act of 1862 on condition that
it should admit free one student annually from each Assembly
district, and in 1909 a still closer relation between this
institution and the state was established by an act which makes,
the governor, lieutenant-governor,
speaker of the Assembly and commissioner of
education
ex-officio members of its board of trustees, and
authorizes the governor with the approval of the Senate to appoint
five other members, one each year.
Among the institutions of higher learning in the state, besides.
Columbia
University and Cornell University (q.v.), are: Union University
(1795, non-sectarian), at Schenectady; Hamilton College (1812,
non-sectarian), at Clinton; Colgate University (1819,
non-sectarian), at Hamilton;
Hobart College (1822, non-sectarian), at
Geneva:
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (1824,
non-sectarian), at
Troy; New York University (1832,
non-sectarian), in New York City;
Alfred University (1836,
non-sectarian), at Alfred;
Fordham University (1841,
Roman
Catholic), in New York City; College of St
Francis Xavier (1847, Roman
Catholic), in New York City; College of the
City of New York (1849, city); University of Rochester (1850,
Baptist), at Rochester; Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn (1854,
non-sectarian), at Brooklyn; Niagara University (1856, Roman
Catholic), at Niagara Falls; St Lawrence University (1858,
non-sectarian), at
Canton; St
Bonaventure's College (1859, Roman Catholic), at St Bonaventure; St
Stephen's College (1860,
Protestant Episcopal), at
Annandale; Manhattan College (1863, Roman Catholic), at New York
City; St John's College (1870, Roman Catholic), at Brooklyn;
Canisius College (1870, Roman Catholic), at Buffalo; Syracuse
University (1871, Methodist Episcopal), at Syracuse; Adelphi
College (1896, non-sectarian), at Brooklyn; and Clarkson School of
Technology (1896, non-sectarian), at Potsdam. The United States
Military Academy (1802) is at
West Point.
In New York the direct property tax is levied by and for the
benefit of localities. Revenues for state purposes are derived from
special taxes collected from the liquor traffic, corporations,
transfers of decedents' estates, transfers of shares of stock,
recording tax on mortgages, sales of products of state
institutions, fees of public officers including fines and
penalties, interest on deposits of state funds, refunds from
department examinations and revenue from investments of
trust funds, the most important of
which are the common school fund and the United States deposit
fund. A board of three tax commissioners has supervision of methods
of
assessment within
the state, and with the commissioners of the land office
constitutes the state board of equalization. The county
supervisors, with or without the aid of three commissioners whom
they are authorized to appoint for the purpose, constitute a county
board of equalization. The recording tax on mortgages, amounting to
onehalf of I % of the principal sums secured, is collected by the
recording officers under the supervision of the state board of tax
commissioners. The administration of the liquor tax law is under
the supervision of the state commissioner of excise and his
deputies. The tax on corporations, originating as a capital stock
tax in 1880 and extended through succeeding years, is administered
by the state comptroller. The comptroller also has charge of the
enforcement of the stock transfer tax act and of the laws imposing
taxes upon the transfer of decedents' estates. The aggregate of
taxes received by the state treasury through the comptroller's
department for the fiscal year ending September 30, 1909, was
$23,000,000.
On the 30th of September 1909 the state debt, most of which was
created since 1895 for the purpose of canal improvements, amounted
to $41,230,660. The surplus in the treasury was $8,435,848, the
total amount in trust and sinking funds was $31,301,501. The
constitution prohibits the legislature from lending the state's
credit or incurring an indebtedness for current expenses in excess
of $1,000,000 or incurring any indebtedness whatever, other than
for war purposes, unless such indebtedness be authorized by law for
" some single work or object," the law to be approved by the people
at a general election and providing for a direct annual tax
sufficient to pay the interest and to liquidate the debt within
eighteen years. That instrument further prohibits each county,
city, town and village from lending its credit and from creating an
indebtedness in excess of 10% of the assessed
valuation of its real estate.
.^ Governor of New York, 1804-07 .- New York City 2 February 2010 16:32 UTC www.nndb.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]
^ Counsel to the Bank of New York .- New York City 2 February 2010 16:32 UTC www.nndb.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]
^ Federal Reserve Bank of New York .- New York City 2 February 2010 16:32 UTC www.nndb.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]
Chiefly because of these evils the
constitution of 1821 required the assent of two-thirds of the
members elected to each house of the legislature to pass an act
creating a corporation. In 1829 the Safety-Fund Act was passed,
which required each bank thereafter chartered or rechartered to pay
into the state treasury 3% of its capital stock other than that
owned by the state, and from this fund the debts of insolvent banks
were to be paid. The fund became exhausted by many failures, and a
free banking law was enacted in 1838. The constitution of 1846
prohibited the legislature from granting any special charters for
banking purposes, and consequently no more safety-fund banks were
established. At the same time the free-banking system has been
greatly improved. The state banks still have the right to issue
currency, but the heavy tax on currency issue imposed by Congress
in 1866 (after the introduction of the National banking system in
1863) put a stop to the practice. In 1851 a state banking
department was created, and at the head of this is a superintendent
of banks appointed by the governor, with the consent of the Senate,
for a term of three years. The superintendent - or examiners
appointed by him (from a civil service list) - is required to
examine every bank and every
trust company at least twice each year,
each building and
loan association
at least once a year, and every savings bank at least once in two
years. The law provides specifically as to the investment of
deposits made in
savings banks with the evident purpose of
providing the greatest possible
security to depositors. State banks must carry
from 15% to 25% reserve and trust companies from 10% to 15%
reserve, depending upon location.
The introduction of the National banking system caused a
decrease in the number of state banks from 309 in 1863 to 45 in
1868, but their number has increased steadily since 1880 and in
1909 there were 202. In the same year there were 140 savings-banks,
85 trust companies, 46 safe deposit companies, 255 building and
loan associations and other miscellaneous corporations, with total
resources of $3,833,500,000 under the supervision of the banking
department of the state. This is over 21% of the entire banking
power of the United States. To correct abuses in the life insurance
business which were discovered in 1905 by a committee of the state
legislature, laws were passed in the next year regulating the
election of the
directors of the insurance companies, and the
investments of the companies and the distribution of dividends,
limiting the amount of business of the larger companies and
prohibiting rebates on insurance premiums. A state superintendent
of insurance, (since 1860) appointed by the governor, holds office
for three years.
History
The aboriginal inhabitants of New York had an important
influence on its colonial history. Within its limits from the upper
Hudson westward to the Genesee river was the home of that powerful
confederacy of Indian tribes, the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas,
Cayugas and Senecas, known to the French as the Iroquois and to the
English as the Five (later Six) Nations. When supplied with
firearms by Europeans they reduced a number of other tribes to
subjection and extended their dominion over most of the territory
from the St Lawrence to the
Tennessee and from the Atlantic to the
Mississippi. They were at the height of their power about 1700. Of
much less influence in New York were several Algonquian tribes in
the lower valley of the Hudson and along the sea coast,.
New York Bay and the Hudson river were discovered by Giovanni da
Verrazano in 1524, and were probably seen by Estevan Gomez in 1525;
for many years following French vessels occasionally ascended the
Hudson to trade with the Indians. The history of New York really
begins, however, in 1609. In July of that year
Samuel de
Champlain discovered the lake which bears his name and on its
shores led his Algonquian Indian allies against the Iroquois, thus
provoking against his countrymen the hostility of a people who for
years were to hold the
balance of power between the English
and the French in America. On the 3rd of September
Henry Hudson, in the
employ of the
Dutch East India Company, entered New York Bay
in the " Half
Moon " in search of
the " northwest passage." He conceived that a vast trade with the
Iroquois for furs might be established; his report aroused great
interest in
Holland; and the
United
Netherlands,
whose independence had been acknowledged in the spring, claimed the
newly discovered country. In 1610 a vessel was despatched with
merchandise suitable for traffic with the Indians, the voyage
resulted in profit, and a lucrative trade in peltry sprang up.
Early in 1614 Adriaen Block explored Long Island
Sound and discovered Block Island.
.^ The New York Times Company .- New York City 2 February 2010 16:32 UTC www.nndb.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]
In 1617 the Dutch
negotiated with the Iroquois a treaty of peace and
alliance. Fort Nassau was
soon removed to the mouth of Tawasentha
Creek. On the expiration of the charter of the
New Netherland Company (1618) the StatesGeneral refused to grant a
renewal, and only private ventures were authorized until 1621, when
the West India Company was
chartered for a term of
twenty-four years; to this
company was given a monopoly of Dutch trade with the whole American
coast from
Newfoundland to the Straits of Magellan.
It was authorized to plant colonies and to govern them under a very
limited supervision of the States-General, such as the approval of
its appointment of a governor and of its instructions to him; and
its own government was vested in five chambers of directors and an
executive board or college of nineteen delegates from those
chambers, eight of the nineteen representing the Chamber of
Amsterdam. New Netherland became one of the more important
interests of the Company. In June 1623, however, New Netherland was
formally erected into a province and the management of its affairs
assigned to the Chamber of Amsterdam, which in March 1624
despatched the " New Netherland," with the first permanent
colonists (thirty families mostly Walloon), under Cornelis Jacobsen
Mey, the first governor or director of the colony. Arriving at
Manhattan early in May, a few of the men remained there, another
small party established a temporary post (Fort Nassau) on the
Delaware river, and still another began a fortified settlement on
the site of the present
Hartford, Connecticut. But more than one-half
of the families proceeded up the Hudson to Fort Orange, the
successor of Fort Nassau, at the mouth of Tawasentha Creek, and
there founded what is now Albany. Three more vessels arrived in
1625, and when in that year Mey was succeeded as director by
William Verhulst the colony had a population of zoo or more. The
government of the province was fully established in 1626 and was
vested mainly in a director-general and council. The
director-general was formally appointed by the Company subject to
the approval of the States-General, but the Amsterdam Chamber and
the College of Nineteen supervised his administration. The members
of the council were formally appointed by the Company, but the
director-general actually determined who they should be, and as he
was not bound by their advice they were no check to an autocratic
rule.
Peter Minuit, the first
director-general, arrived with more colonists in May 1626, and soon
afterwards Manhattan Island was bought from the Indians, Fort
Amsterdam was erected at its lower end, and the settlement here was
made the seat of government.
In 1629, chiefly to encourage agriculture, the Company issued
its famous Charter of Privileges and Exemptions, which provided
that any member might have anywhere in New Netherland except on
Manhattan Island his choice of a tract of unoccupied land extending
16 m. along the seacoast or one side of a navigable river, or 8 m.
along the river on both sides " and so far into the country as the
situation of the occupyers will permit " by purchasing the same
from the Indians and planting upon it a colony of fifty persons,
upwards of 15 years old, within four years from the beginning of
the undertaking, one-fourth part within one year; and that any
private person might with the approval of the director-general and
council take up as much land as he should be able to improve. The
founder of a colony was styled a
patroon, and, although
the colonists were bound to him only by a voluntary contract for
specified terms, the relations between them and the patroon during
the continuance of the contract were in several important respects
similar to those under the feudal system between the lord of a
manor and his serfs. The patroon
received his estate in perpetual
inheritance and had the exclusive right of
hunting and fishing upon it.
Each colonist not only paid him a fixed rent, usually in kind, but
had to share with him the increase of the stock and to have the
grain ground at his mill. The
patroon was the legal heir of all his colonists who died intestate.
He had civil and criminal jurisdiction within the boundaries of his
estate; he could create offices, found cities, and appoint officers
and magistrates, and, although the charter permitted an appeal from
his court to the directorgeneral and council in any case in which
the amount in dispute exceeded fifty guilders ($20), some of the
patroons exacted from their colonists a promise not to avail
themselves of the privilege. The Company promised to permit the
patroons to engage in the fur trade, whenever it had no
commissary of its own,
subject to a tax of one guilder (40 cents) on each skin, and to
engage in other trade along the coast from Newfoundland to
Florida subject to a tax of 5%
on goods shipped to
Europe.
The colonists of the patroons were exempted from all taxes for a
period of ten years, but were forbidden to manufacture any cloth
whatever. The charter did not give the encouragement to agriculture
that was expected of it because the status created for colonists of
a patroon was no attraction to a successful farmer in the
Netherlands. Immediately after the issue of the charter a few of
the more adroit directors of the Amsterdam Chamber hastened to
acquire for themselves, as patroons, the tracts of land most
favourably situated for trade. On both sides of the entrance to
Delaware Bay
Samuel Godyn,
Samuel Blomaert and five other directors who were admitted to
partner ship in the second year (1630) established the manor and
colony of Swaanendael; on a tract opposite the lower end of
Manhattan Island and including Staten Island, Michael Pauw
established the manor and colony of Pavonia; on both sides of the
Hudson and extending in all directions from Fort Orange (Albany)
Kilian van Rensselaer established the manor and colony of
Rensselaerwyck. The colony of Swaanendael was destroyed by the
Indians in 1632. Pauw maintained his colony of Pavonia for about
seven years and then sold out to the Company. The colony of
Rensselaerwyck was the only one that prospered under the patroon
system. In the meantime the patroons had claimed unrestricted
rights of trade within the boundaries of their estates. These were
stoutly denied by the Company. DirectorGeneral Minuit was recalled
in 1632 on the ground that he had been partial to the patroons; and
Wouter van Twiller, who arrived in 1633, endeavoured to promote
only the selfish commercial policy of the Company; at the close of
his administration (1637) the affairs of the province were in a
ruinous condition.
William Kieft was appointed director-general late in 1637, and
in 1638 the Company abandoned its monopoly of trade in New
Netherland and gave notice that all inhabitants of the United
Provinces, and of friendly countries, might trade there subject to
an import duty of io %, an export duty of 15%, and to the
requirement that the goods should be carried in the Company's
ships. At the same time the director-general was. instructed to
issue to any immigrant applying for land a patent for as large a
farm as he required for cultivation and pasturage, to be free of
all charges for ten years and thereafter subject only to a
quit-rent of one-tenth of the produce. Two years later, by a
revision of the Charter of Privileges and Exemptions, the
prohibition on
manufactures was abolished, the privileges of the original charter
with respect to patroons were extended to " all good inhabitants of
the Netherlands," and the estate of a patroon was limited to 4 m.
along the coast or a navigable river and 8 m. back into the
country. The revised charter also provided that any one who brought
over five colonists and established them in a new settlement should
receive 200 acres, and if such a settlement grew to be a town or
village it should receive a grant of municipal government. These
inducements encouraged immigration not only from the Fatherland but
from New England and Virginia. But the freedom of trade promoted
dangerous relations with the Indians, and an attempt of Kieft to
collect a
tribute from the
Algonquian tribes in the vicinity of Manhattan Island and other
indiscretions of this officer provoked Indian hostilities
(1641-1645), during which most of the outlying settlements were
laid waste.
Out of this warfare arose an organized movement for a government
in which the colonists should have a voice. In August 1641 Kieft
called an assembly of the heads of families in the neighbourhood of
Fort Amsterdam to consider the question of peace or war. The
assembly chose a board of Twelve Men to represent it, and a few
months later this board demanded certain reforms, especially that
the membership of the director-general's council should be
increased from one to five by the popular election of four members.
Kieft promised the concessions to gain the board's consent to
waging war, but later denied its authority to exact promises from
him and dissolved it. At another crisis,. in 1643, he was obliged
to call a second assembly of the people. This time a board of Eight
Men was chosen to confer with him. It denied his right to
levy certain war taxes, and when it
had in vain protested to him against his arbitrary measures it sent
a
petition, in 1644, to
the States-General for his recall, and this was granted.
Peter
Stuyvesant, his successor, arrived at Fort Amsterdam in May
1647. Under his rule there was a. return of prosperity; from 1653
to 1664 the population of the province increased from 2000 to
io,000. Stuyvesant was, however, extremely arbitrary. Although he
permitted the existence of a board of Nine Men to act as " tribunes
" for the people it was originally composed of his selections from
eighteen persons chosen at a popular election, and annually
thereafter the places of six retiring members were filled by his
selections from twelve persons nominated by the board. He treated
it with increasing contempt, and the most that it could do was to
remonstrate to the States-General. That body suggested a
representative government, but this the Company refused to
grant.
Stuyvesant conducted a successful expedition against the Swedes
on the southern border of New Netherland in 1655; but he was
powerless against the English. The Dutch had long claimed the whole
coast from Delaware Bay to Cape Cod, but by the treaty of Hartford
(1650), negotiated between himself and the commissioners of the
United Colonies of New England, Stuyvesant agreed to a boundary
which on the mainland roughly determined the existing boundary
between New York and Connecticut and on Long Island extended
southward from the west side of
Oyster Bay to the Atlantic Ocean.
Notwithstanding the good claim to their province which the Dutch
had established by discovery and occupancy, the government of Great
Britain, basing its claim to
the same territory on Cabot's discovery (1498), the patent to the
London and Plymouth companies
(1606), and the patent to the Council for New England (1620),
contended that the Dutch were intruders. In 1653, during the war
between England and Holland, the Dutch, fearing an English attack,
built a wall, from which the present Wall Street was named, across
Manhattan Island at what was then the northern limits of New
Amsterdam. In the following year Cromwell actually sent out an
expedition which, with the aid of New England, was to attempt the
conquest, but before an attack was made peace was announced. The
Connecticut Charter of 1662 included in that colony some
settlements acknowledged by the treaty of Hartford to belong to New
Netherland, and strife was renewed. Finally, in March 1664,
Charles II. formally
erected into a province the whole territory from the west side of
the
Connecticut river to the east side of
Delaware Bay together with all of Long Island and a few other
dependencies of minor importance, and granted it to his brother
James, the duke of York and Albany,
as its lord proprietor. The duke appointed Colonel
Richard Nicolls
governor and placed him in command of an expedition to effect its
conquest. Nicolls won over the burgomaster of New Amsterdam and
other prominent citizens by the favourable terms which he offered,
and Stuyvesant was forced, without fighting, into a formal
surrender on the 8th of September. The duke's authority was
proclaimed and New Netherland became New York. The separation from
it of what is now New Jersey (q.v.) was begun by the duke's
conveyance, in the
preceding June, of that portion of his province to
Berkeley and Carteret, and
among numerous changes from Dutch to English names was that from
Fort Orange to Fort Albany. A treaty of alliance with the Mohawks
and Senecas procured for the English the same friendly relations
with the Iroquois that the Dutch had enjoyed. The transition from
Dutch to English institutions was effected gradually and the
private rights of the Dutch were carefully preserved. The English
executive, consisting of a governor and council, was much like the
Dutch, but Nicolls, by his conciliatory spirit, made his
administration more agreeable than Stuyvesant's. In the
administration of local affairs some of the Dutch settlements were
little disturbed until ten years or more after the conquest, but
the introduction of English institutions into settlements wholly or
largely English was begun in 1665 by the erection of Long Island,
Staten Island and Westchester into an English county under the name
of
Yorkshire, and by
putting into operation in that county a code of laws known as the "
Duke's Laws." This code was based largely on the laws of New
England, and, although a source of popular discontent, it gave to
the freeholders of each town a voice in the government of their
town by permitting them to elect a board of eight overseers which
chose a
constable and
sat as a court for the trial of small causes. Nicolls resigned the
governorship in 1668, but his successor, Francis Lovelace,
continued his policy - autocratic government, arbitrary in form but
mild in practice, and progressive in the matter of religious
toleration.
.^ Mayor of New York City, 1887-88 .- New York City 2 February 2010 16:32 UTC www.nndb.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]
^ Mayor of New York City, 1994-2001 .- New York City 2 February 2010 16:32 UTC www.nndb.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]
^ Mayor of New York City, 1966-73 .- New York City 2 February 2010 16:32 UTC www.nndb.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]
But by the treaty of
Westminster, February
1674, the Dutch title to the province was finally extinguished, and
in November the English again took possession. A new charter was
issued to the duke to perfect his title and
Edmund (later Sir Edmund)
Andros, the new governor, was instructed to
establish English institutions and enforce
English law in all sections. In 1675 Andros
established at Albany a commission for Indian affairs which long
rendered important service in preserving the English-Iroquois
alliance. The imperious manner of Andros made him many enemies.
Some of them preferred charges against him relating to his
administration of the revenue. He was called to England in 1681 to
answer these, and during his absence the demand for a.
representative assembly was accompanied with a refusal to pay the
customs duties
and so much other insubordination that the duke appointed Colonel
Thomas Dongan to succeed Andros, and instructed him to call the
desired assembly. It met at Fort James in the City of New York on
the 17th of October 1683, was in session for about three weeks, and
passed fifteen acts. The first, styled a charter of liberties and
privileges, required that an assembly elected by the freeholders
and freemen should be called at least once every three years;
vested all legislative authority in the governor, council and
assembly; forbade the
imposition of any taxes without the consent
of the assembly; and provided for religious liberty and trial by
jury. Other acts divided the province
into counties, established courts of justice, and provided for a
revenue. In August 1684 when, by its charter,. the western boundary
of the province was not definitely extended beyond the Hudson,
Dongan laid the basis of New York's claim to the western lands of
the Iroquois by a new
covenant with them in which they recognized
the English as their protectors, and throughout his administration
he was busy neutralizing French influence among the Iroquois and in
diverting the fur trade of the north-west from the St Lawrence to
Albany. The charter of liberties and privileges was approved by the
duke, but before the news of this reached its authors the duke
became King
James II., and
in 1686, when a frame of government for New York as a royal
province was provided, the assembly was dispensed with. About the
same time the new king adopted a policy for strengthening the
imperial control over New England. as well as for the erection of a
stronger barrier against the French, and in 1688 New York and New
Jersey were consolidated with the New England colonies into the
Dominion of New England and placed under the viceregal authority of
Sir Edmund
Andros as governor-general. The news of the English revolution
of 1688, however, caused an uprising in
Boston, and in April. 1689 Andros was seized and
imprisoned. Francis Nicholson as. lieutenant-governor was still in
quiet possession of the government of New York, and a majority of
the population of the province were satisfied to await the outcome
of the revolution in the mother country, but in the southern
portion of the province, especially in the City of New York and on
Long Island, were a number of restless
spirits who were encouraged by the fall of
Andros to take matters into their own hands. They found a. leader
in a German merchant,
Jacob Leisler. Leisler refused to pay
duties on a
cargo of
wine on the ground that the
collector was a " papist,"
and on the 31st of May 1689, during a
mutiny of the militia, he and other militia
captains seized Fort James. In the following month Nicholson
deserted his post and sailed. for England, and Leisler easily
gained possession of the city. To strengthen his position he called
an assembly which conferred upon him the powers of a
dictator. Some time after a
copy of the order of the new monarchs (William and Mary) to
continue all Protestants in their offices in the colonies had been
received, Leisler falsely announced that he had received a
commission as lieutenant-governor. He then attempted to revive the
act of 1683 for raising revenue, but met with so much opposition
that he issued writs for the election of another assembly. This,
however, brought him chiefly petitions for the redress of
grievances. Albany successfully defied his usurped authority until
his recognition was necessary to a united front against the French
and their Indian allies, who, in February 1690, had surprised and
burned Schenectady. Two other French attacks had at the same time
been directed against New England, and to meet the dangerous
situation Leisler performed the one statesmanlike act of his public
career, notable in American history as the first step toward the
union of the colonies. At his call, delegates from Massachusetts,
Plymouth, Connecticut and Maryland met in New York City with
delegates from New York on the 1st of May 1690 to consider
concerted action against the enemy, and although the expedition
which they sent out was a failure it numbered 855 men, New York
furnishing about one-half the men, Massachusetts one of the two
commanders and Connecticut the other. Leisler had proclaimed the
new monarchs of Great Britain and had declared that it was his
purpose only to protect the province and the Protestant religion
until the arrival of a governor appointed by them; but he was
enraged when he learned that he had been ignored and that under the
new governor, Colonel Henry Sloughter, his enemies, van Cortlandt
and Bayard, had again been appointed to the council. When Major
Richard Ingoldsby arrived with two companies of the king's soldiers
and demanded possession of the fort, Leisler refused although he
still professed his willingness to deliver it to Sloughter. On the
17th of March 1691 Leisler's force fired on the king's soldiers,
killing two and wounding several. Governor Sloughter arrived two
days later, and the revolt terminated in the
arrest of Leisler and his chief followers.
Leisler and Jacob Milborne, his son-in-law, were pronounced guilty
of
treason, and were
executed on the 16th of May. The execution was regarded even by
many who had been indifferent to Leisler's cause, as an act of
revenge. The case was carried to England, where in 1695 parliament
reversed the attainders of the victims, and for many years the
province was rent by the Leislerian and anti-Leislerian
factions.
Governor Sloughter, as his commission directed, re-established
in 1691 the assembly which James II. had abolished in 1686, and
throughout the remainder of the colonial era the history of the
province relates chiefly to the rise of popular government and the
defence of the northern frontier. At its first session the assembly
passed an act declaratory of the rights and privileges of the
people, and much like the charter of liberties and privileges
enacted in 1683, except that annual instead of triennial sessions
of the assembly were now requested and, as was also provided in
Sloughter's commission and instructions, religious liberty was
denied to Roman Catholics. This act was disallowed by the
crown in 1697, and until Governor
Cornbury's administration (1702-1708) both the Leislerians and the
anti-Leislerians repeatedly bid for the governor's favour by
supporting his measures instead of contending for popular rights.
But Cornbury's
embezzlement of X1500, appropriated for
fortifying the Narrows connecting Upper and Lower New York Bay,
united the factions against him and started the assembly in the
important contest which ended in the establishment of its control
over the public
purse. In 1706
it won the right to appoint its own treasurer to care for money
appropriated for extraordinary purposes, and eight years later the
governor assented to an act which gave to this officer the custody
of practically all public money. Until 1737 it had been the custom
to continue the revenue acts from three to five years, but
thereafter the assembly insisted on annual appropriations.
The first newspaper of New York, the
New York Gazette, was established
in 1725 by
William Bradford as a semiofficial
organ of the administration. In 1733 a popular organ, the
New
York Weekly Journal, was established under
John Peter Zenger
(1697-1746), and in 1735 both the freedom of the press and a great
advance toward the independence of the judiciary were the outcome
of a famous
libel suit against
Zenger.
Between the administration of Governor Montgomerie (1728-1731)
and Governor Cosby (1732-1736) there was an
interregnum of thirteen months during which
Rip van
Dam,
president of the council,
was acting-governor, and upon Cosby's arrival a dispute arose
between him and van Dam over the division of the salary and fees.
Both appealed to the law, and when the
chief-justice,
Lewis Morris,
refused Cosby's request to have the court proceed in equity
jurisdiction, and denied the right of the governor to establish
courts of equity, he was removed from office. Not long afterwards
there appeared in the
Weekly Journal some severe
criticisms of the administration. For printing these Zenger was
arrested for libel in November 1734. The case was not brought to
trial until August 1735, and in the meantime Zenger was kept in
jail. Originally he had for
counsel two of the most able
lawyers in the province, James Alexander (1690-1756) and.
William Smith
(1697-1769), but when they excepted to the commissions of the
chief-justice, James de Lancey (1703-1760) and one of his
associates, because by these commissions the justices had been
appointed " during pleasure " instead of " during good behaviour,"
the chief justice disbarred them. Their places, however, were taken
by Andrew Hamilton, speaker of the Assembly of Pennsylvania and a
lawyer of great reputation in the English colonies. The jury
quickly agreed on a
verdict
of not guilty, and the acquittal was greeted by the populace with
shouts of triumph. The further independence of judges became a
leading issue in 1761 when the assembly insisted that they should
be appointed during good behaviour, and refused to pay the salaries
of those appointed during pleasure; but the home government met
this refusal by ordering that they be paid out of the
quit-rents.
The defence of the northern frontier was a heavy burden to New
York, but by its problems the growth of the union of the colonies
was promoted. From the destruction of Schenectady to the Peace of
Ryswick (1697) hostilities between the French and the English in
the New World took the form of occasional raids across the
frontier, chiefly by the Indian allies. The main .effort of the
French, however, was, by
diplomacy, to destroy the EnglishIroquois
alliance. This rested on the fear of the Iroquois for the French
and their hope of protection from the English. Therefore, in
response to their repeated complaints of the weakness of the
English arising from disunion, Governor Fletcher, in 1694, called
another intercolonial conference consisting of delegates from New
York, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Jersey, and urged the
necessity of more united feelings. Open hostilities were
interrupted for a few years by the Peace of Ryswick and for a
longer period by the Peace of
Utrecht (1713), but French priests continued to
dwell among the Iroquois, teaching them and distributing presents,
and of the success of this diplomacy the English were ever in
danger. To counteract it they, in 1701, prevailed upon the chiefs
to
deed their territory, said to
be Boo m. in length and 400 m. in breadth, to the king of England.
The English, also, frequently distributed presents. But the success
of the French at the close of the 17th century and the early
portion of the 18th was prevented only by the ceaseless efforts of
Peter Schuyler (1657-1724) whose personal influence was for years
dominant among all the Iroquois except the Senecas. When they had
assumed a neutral attitude, he persuaded a number of them to join
troops from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut in the
unsuccessful expeditions of 1709 and 1711 against the French at
Montreal. The English had a
decided advantage over the French in that they could furnish goods
for the Indian trade much cheaper than their rivals, and when
Governor
Burnet saw that this
advantage was being lost by a trade between Albany and Montreal he
persuaded the assembly to pass an act (1720) prohibiting it.
Pursuing the same wise policy he established a trading post at
Oswego in 1722 and fortified it in 1727, and thereby placed the
Iroquois in the desirable position of middlemen in a profitable fur
trade with the " Far Indians." London merchants, in their greed,
brought about the
repeal of
the prohibitory act in 1729, but its effects were only in part
destroyed. At another intercolonial conference at Albany, called by
Burnet, a line of trading posts along the northern and western
frontiers was strongly recommended. But neither the other colonies
nor the home government would co-operate, and the French were the
first to accomplish it. In King George's War the
co-operation of all
the northern colonies was sought, and New York contributed X3000
and some
cannon toward New
England's successful expedition against
Louisburg. But it was left alone to protect
its own frontier against the French, and while the assembly was
wrangling with Governor Clinton for the control of expenditures the
French and their Indians were burning farm houses, attacking
Saratoga (November r6, 1745), and greatly endangering the
English-Iroquois alliance. Even after the Peace of
Aix-la-Chapelle
(1748) the Iroquois complained bitterly of the fraudulent land
speculators, and in 1753 the chiefs of the Mohawks threatened to
declare the covenant chain broken. A reconciliation was effected,
however, by Colonel
William Johnson (1715-1774), who
had long been superintendent of Indian affairs. Largely to secure
the co-operation of the Iroquois the home government itself now
called to meet at Albany (q.v.) the most important assembly of
colonial deputies that had yet gathered. This body, consisting of
twenty-five members and representing seven colonies, met in June
1754, and, besides negotiating successfully with the Iroquois, it
adopted, with some modifications, a plan of colonial union prepared
by
Benjamin
Franklin; the plan was not approved, however, either by the
home government or by any of the colonies.
.^ First President of New York Life Insurance Company .- New York City 2 February 2010 16:32 UTC www.nndb.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]
None of these was taken but on the 8th of September
Major-General William Johnson, in command of the expedition against
Crown Point, defeated a French and Indian force under Baron Dieskau
in the battle of Lake
George.
As Johnson thought it unsafe to pursue the routed army his victory
had no other effect than the erection here of the useless defences
of Fort
William
Henry, but as it was the only success in a year of gloom
parliament rewarded him with a grant of X 5000 and the title of a
baronet. In August 1756
Montcalm took Oswego from the English and destroyed it, and in 1757
he captured Fort William Henry; but in the latter year the elder
Pitt assumed control of affairs in England, and his aggressive,
clear-sighted policy turned the tide of war in England's favour.
Victory followed victory, Ticonderoga, Crown Point and Niagara were
wrested from the French and New York was freed of its foes.
.^ Governor of New York, 1847-49 .- New York City 2 February 2010 16:32 UTC www.nndb.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]
^ Governor of New York, 1933-42 .- New York City 2 February 2010 16:32 UTC www.nndb.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]
^ Governor of New York, 1873-75 .- New York City 2 February 2010 16:32 UTC www.nndb.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]
It authorized its committee, which had been appointed to
correspond with the New York
agent in London, to correspond also with the
committees in the other colonies and this committee represented New
York in the Stamp Act Congress, a body which was called at the
suggestion of Massachusetts, met in New York City in October 1765,
was composed of twenty-seven members representing nine colonies,
and drew up a
declaration
of rights, an address to the king, and a petition to each house
of parliament. When the Sons of Liberty, a society composed largely
of unfranchised
mechanics and artisans of New York City,
which began to dominate the movement immediately after the Congress
adjourned, resorted to
mob violence
- destroying property and burning in effigy the governor and other
officers - the propertied classes drew back, and a few years later
the popular or patriot party lost its control of the assembly.
Since the Zenger trial there had been a court party and a popular
party: the former included many wealthy Anglicans and was under the
leadership of the De Lanceys, the latter included many wealthy and
influential dissenters and was under the leadership of the
Livingstons. During the administration of Governor Clinton
(1743-1753) a quarrel between the governor and James De Lancey, the
chief-justice, had greatly weakened the court party, and nearly all
its members supported their rivals in opposition to the Stamp Act.
In the series of events which followed the first violence of the
Sons of Liberty important changes were made in party lines.
Personal rivalry and creed became subordinate to political
principles. The court party became the Loyalist party, standing for
law as against rebellion, monarchy and the union of the empire as
against republicanism; the popular party became the patriot party,
determined to stand on its rights at any cost. The Stamp Act was
repealed in March 1766, but the Townshend Acts, imposing duties on
glass, paper,
lead, painters' colours and
tea, followed closely. They were met in New York by
fresh outbursts of the Sons of Liberty and,. as in the other
colonies, by an association of nearly all the merchants, the
members pledging themselves not to import anything from England
until the duties were repealed. New York had also been requested to
provide certain supplies for the British troops quartered in the
city. This the assembly refused to do but parliament answered
(1767) by forbidding it to do any other business until it complied.
It was under these conditions that the
Loyalists, in the elections of 1768 and 1769,
gained control of the assembly and in the latter year passed an act
granting the soldiers' supplies. When, in 1770, all the duties
except those on tea were repealed, the conservative merchants
wished to permit the importation of all goods from England except
tea. The Sons of Liberty strongly opposed this, but the
conservatives won and went over to the Loyalists. The moderate
Loyalists joined in the election of delegates to the first
Continental Congress; but the great body of Loyalists in New York
strongly disapproved of the " dangerous and extravagant " measures
adopted by that body, and the assembly, in January 1 775, refused
to approve its acts or choose delegates to the second Continental
Congress. The patriots met this refusal by calling a provincial
convention to choose the delegates. Scarcely had they done this
when news of the encounter at
Lexington produced a strong reaction in their
favour, and in May 1775 they called a Provincial Congress which
usurped the powers of the Assembly. Still, conditions were such in
New York that a fight for independence was not to be lightly
considered. The failure of Montgomery's expedition against Canada
at the close of 1775 left the colony exposed to British attacks
from the north. In the south the chief city was exposed to the
British fleet. Sir William Johnson died in 1774, but under his
influence and that of his son, Sir John Johnson, and his nephew Guy
Johnson, the Mohawks and other Iroquois Indians had become firmly
attached to the British side and threatened the western frontier.
In various sections, too, considerable numbers of Loyalists were
determined to aid the British. When, in June 1776, a vote on the
Declaration of Independence
was pending in the Continental Congress, the New York Provincial
Congress refused to instruct its delegates in the matter; but a
newly elected Provincial Congress, influenced by a Loyalist plot
against the life of Washington, adopted the Declaration when it
met, on the 9th of July. The position of New York made it naturally
one of the principal theatres of military operations during the War
of Independence. It was a settled point of British military policy
throughout the war to hold New York City, and from it, as a base,
to establish a line of fortified posts along the Hudson by means of
which communication might be maintained with another base on Lake
Champlain. Such a scheme, if successfully carried out, would have
driven a
wedge into the line of
colonial defence and cut off communication between New England and
the southern colonies. A few days after the fight at Lexington and
Concord, Connecticut
authorized an expedition under
Ethan Allen which surprised and captured
Ticonderoga and Crown Point. In the following year (1776) the
British began their offensive operations for the control of the
Hudson; an army under Sir
William Howe was to
capture New York City and get control of the lower Hudson, while
another army under Sir
Guy Carleton was to retake
Crown Point and Ticonderoga and get control of the upper Hudson.
.^ New York City CITY Official Website: http://www.nyc.gov/ Population: 8008278 (2000 census) Founding Date: 1625 See also the boroughs: Manhattan, NY , Brooklyn, NY , Bronx, NY , Queens, NY , and Staten Island, NY .- New York City 2 February 2010 16:32 UTC www.nndb.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]
In the following month Washington withdrew from New York
City which the British entered and held until the close of the war.
Washington prepared to withstand the British behind fortifications
on Harlem Heights, but discovering that Howe was attempting to
outflank him by landing troops in the
rear he retreated to the mainland, leaving only a
garrison at Fort
Washington, and established a line of fortified camps on the hills
overlooking
the Bronx
river as far as
White
Plains. This brought on the battle of White Plains late in
October, in which Howe gained no advantage; and from here both
armies withdrew into New Jersey, the British capturing Fort
Washington on the way, the Americans leaving behind garrisons to
guard the Highlands of the Hudson. In 1777 General
John Burgoyne
succeeded in taking Ticonderoga, but in the swampy forests
southward from Lake Champlain he fought his way against heavy odds,
and in the middle of October his campaign culminated disastrously
in his surrender at Saratoga. Colonel
Barry St Leger led an
auxiliary expedition from Oswego against Fort
Stanwix on the upper Mohawk, and on the 6th of August he fought at
Oriskany one of the most
bloody battles of the war, but a few days later, deserted by his
terror-stricken Indian allies, he hastened back to Montreal.
.^ US Under Secretary of State, 1937-43 .- New York City 2 February 2010 16:32 UTC www.nndb.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]
Clinton met with little difficulty from the principal American
defences of the Highlands, consisting of Forts
Montgomery and Clinton on
the western bank, together with a huge chain and
boom stretched across the river to a precipitous
mountain (Anthony's Nose) on the opposite bank, and ascended as far
as Esopus (now Kingston) which he burned, but he was too late to
aid Burgoyne. The year 1778 saw the bloody operations of the
Tory Butlers and
their Loyalist and Indian allies in the Mohawk and Schoharie
valleys and notably the
massacre at
Cherry Valley. In
retaliation a punitive expedition under
Generals
John
Sullivan and James Clinton in 1779 destroyed the Iroquois
towns, and dealt the Indian confederacy a blow from which it never
recovered. The American cause was strengthened this year also by
several victories along the lower Hudson of which General Anthony
Wayne's storming of the British fort at
Stony Point was the most important. The
closing
episode of the war
as far as New York was concerned was the discovery of Benedict
Arnold's attempt in 1780 to betray West Point and other colonial
posts on the Hudson to the British. On the 25th of November 1783
the British forces finally evacuated New York City, but the British
posts on Lakes Erie and Ontario were not evacuated until some years
later.
New York ratified the Articles of
Confederation in 1778, and when Maryland
refused to ratify unless those states asserting claims to territory
west to the Mississippi agreed to surrender them, New York was the
first to do so. But under the leadership of George Clinton,
governor in 1777-1795, the state jealously guarded its commercial
interests. The Confederation Congress appealed to it in vain for
the right to collect duties at its port; and there was determined
opposition to the new Federal constitution. In support of the
constitution, however, there arose the
Federalist party under the able
leadership of
Alexander Hamilton. When a majority
of the constitutional convention of 1787 had approved of the new
constitution Hamilton alone of the three New York delegates
remained to sign it; and when, after °its ratification by eight
states, the New York convention met at Poughkeepsie (June 17, 1788)
to consider ratification, two-thirds of the members were opposed to
it. But others were won over by the news that it had been ratified
by
New Hampshire
and Virginia or by the telling arguments of Hamilton, and on the
26th of July the motion to ratify was carried by a vote of 30 to
27.
The constitution having been ratified, personal rivalry among
the great families - the Clintons, the Livingstons and the
Schuylers - again became dominant in political affairs. The
Clintons were most popular among the independent freeholders; the
Livingstons had increased their influence by numerous marriage
alliances with landed families; and the Schuylers had General
Philip
Schuyler and Alexander Hamilton, his son-in-law. Originally,
the Livingstons, with whom
John Jay was connected by marriage, were
united with the Schuylers, and yet both together were unable to
defeat the Clintons in an election for governor. Later, the
Livingstons, piqued at Wash= ington's neglect to give them the
offices they thought their due, joined the Clintons, but the
Federal patronage was used against the
anti-Federalists or Republicans with
such effect that in 1792 John
Jay
received more votes for governor than George Clinton, although the
latter was counted in on a technicality. Jay was elected in 1795
and re-elected in 1798, but in 1801 the brief Federalist regime in
the state came to an end with the election of George Clinton for a
seventh term. The Republican leaders straightway quarrelled among
themselves, thus starting the long series of factional strifes
which have characterized the party politics of New York state; the
bitterness of the factions and the irresponsible council of
appointment are also responsible for the firm establishment early
in the Republican regime of the " spoils system." The leaders of
the several Republican groups were Chancellor
Robert R.
Livingston,
Aaron
Burr, then vice-president, Governor George Clinton and his
nephew,
De Witt
Clinton, who in 1802 was elected United States senator. The
first break came in the spring of 1804 when Burr, who had incurred
the enmity of his Republican colleagues in 1800 by seeking
Federalist votes in the electoral college at Jefferson's expense,
became an independent candidate for governor against
Morgan
Lewis. Hamilton's action in counselling Federalists not to vote
for Burr for governor just as he had counselled them not to support
Burr against Jefferson in 1800, was one of the contributary causes
of Burr's hostility to Hamilton which ended in the
duel (July 1804) in which Burr killed Hamilton.
Hamilton's death marked the end of the Federalists as a power in
New York. The election as governor in 1804 of Lewis, a relative of
the Livingstons, was followed by a bitter quarrel with the Clintons
over patronage, and resulted at the state election of 1807 in the
choice of a Clintonian,
Daniel D. Tompkins, for governor and
the virtual elimination of the Livingstons from New York state
politics. Tompkins served as governor by successive re-elections
until 1817, his term covering the trying period of the second war
with Great Britain. New York, whose growing
shipping interests had suffered by the
Embargo of 1807, was as a
commercial state opposed to the war. Politically this opposition
had the effect of temporarily reviving the Federalist party, which
secured control of the legislature, and gave the electoral vote of
the state in 1812 to De Witt Clinton, whom the Federalists had
accepted as a candidate to oppose Madison for re-election on the
war issue. During the war New Yorkers served with the regular
troops at Niagara, Plattsburg and other places on the western and
northern frontiers of the state. For some years after the war
political contests in New York state as in the rest of the country
were not on party lines. The opposing groups were known as "
Bucktails," whose leaders were Governor Tompkins and
Martin Van
Buren, and " Clintonians " or supporters of De Witt Clinton. In
1817 an act was passed which ten years later ended for ever
slavery in New York state; in
the same year De Witt Clinton was elected governor and, largely
through his efforts, the Erie Canal was begun.
The election of Martin Van Buren as governor in 1828 marked the
beginning of the long ascendancy in the state of the " Albany
Regency," a political coterie in which Van Buren, W. L. Marcy,
Benjamin Franklin Butler
(1795-1858) and
Silas
Wright were among the leaders;
Thurlow Weed, their bitterest opponent and
the man who gave them their name, declared of them that he " had
never known a body of men who possessed so much power and used it
so well." Thurlow Weed owed his early political
advancement to the
introduction into state politics of the
anti-Masonic issue (see
Anti-Masonic
Party), which also brought into prominence his co-worker W. H.
Seward. In 1826 in Genesee county the disappearance of a printer
named William Morgan was attributed to Free-Masons and aroused a
strong antipathy to that order; and the anti-Masonic movement,
through the fostering care of Weed, Francis Granger (1792-1868) and
others, spread to other states and led eventually to the
establishment of a political organization that by uniting various
anti-Jacksonian elements, polled in the New York state election of
1832 more than 156,000 votes for Francis Granger, their candidate
for governor against Marcy, who was chosen by about 10,000
plurality. As the
anti-Masonic wave subsided its leaders and most of its adherents
found a place in the newly organized
Whig party, which was powerful enough in New
York to elect William H. Seward governor in 1838, and to re-elect
him and to carry the state for W. H.
Harrison against Van Buren in 1840. It was
during the first administration of Governor Seward that the
anti-rent agitation in the Hudson river counties began. The greater
part of the land in this section was comprised in vast estates such
as Rensselaerwyck, Livingston, Scarsdale, Phillipse,
Pelham and Van Cortlandt
manors, and on these the leasehold system with perpetual leases,
leases for 99 years or leases for one to three lives had become
general. Besides rent, many of the tenants were required to render
certain services to the proprietor, and in case a
tenant sold his interest in a farm to another he
was required to pay the proprietor one-tenth to one-third of the
amount received as an
alienation fine.
Stephen van Rensselaer, the
proprietor of Rensselaerwyck, had suffered the rents, especially
those of his poorer tenants, to fall much in arrears, and when
after his death (1839) the agents of his heirs attempted to collect
them they encountered violent opposition. Governor Seward called
out the militia to preserve order but asked the legislature to
consider the tenants' grievances. The legislature appointed an
arbitration commission,
but this was unsuccessful, and the trouble, spreading to other
counties, culminated (1845) in the
murder of the deputy-sheriff of Delaware county.
Politically, the anti-rent associations which were formed often
held the balance of power between the Whigs and the Democrats, and
in this position they secured the election of Governor
John Young
(Whig) as well as of several members of the legislature favourable
to their cause, and promoted the passage of the bill calling the
constitutional convention of 1846. In the new constitution clauses
were inserted abolishing feudal tenures and limiting future leases
of agricultural land to a period of twelve years. The courts
pronounced the alienation fines illegal. The legislature passed
several measures for the destruction of the leasehold system, and
under the pressure of public opinion the great landlords rapidly
sold their farms.' Up to the election of Seward as governor, New
York had usually been Democratic, largely through the predominating
influence of Van Buren and the " Albany Regency." After the defeat
of Governor Silas Wright in 1846, however, the
Democratic
party split into two hostile factions known as the " Hunkers,"
or conservatives, and the " Barnburners," or radicals. The factions
had their origin in canal politics, the conservatives advocating
the use of canal revenues to complete the canals, the radicals
insisting that they should be used to pay the state debt. Later
when the conservatives accepted the
annexation of
Texas and the radicals supported the Wilmot
Proviso the split became irrevocable. The split broke up the rule
of the "regency," Marcy accepting the " Hunker " support and a seat
in Polk's cabinet, while Wright,
Butler and Van Buren joined the " Barnburners,"
a step preliminary to Van Buren's acceptance of the "
Free Soil "
nomination for president in the campaign of 1848. Only once between
1846 and the Civil War did the Democratic party regain control of
the state - in 18J3-1855
Horatio Seymour was governor for a
single term. In 1854 the newly organized
Republican
party, formed largely from the remnants of the Whig party and
including most of the Free Soil Democrats, with the aid of the
temperance issue elected
Myron Holley Clark (1806-1892)
governor. Two years later the. Republicans carried the state for
Fremont for president, and a
succession of Republican governors held office until 1862 when the
discouragement in the North with respect to the Civil War brought a
reaction which elected
Seymour governor.
With the exception of New York City the state was loyal to the
Union cause during the war and furnished over a half million troops
to the Federal armies. Certain commercial interests of New York
City favoured the Confederate cause, but MayorWood's suggestion
that the city (with Long Island and Staten Island) secede and form
a free-city received scant support, and after the san '
James
Fenimore Cooper's novels
Satanstoe (1845),
The
Chainbearer (1845) and
The Redskins (1846) preach the
anti-rent doctrine.
guinary draft riots of July 1863 (see NEW York City) no further
difficulty was experienced. After the Civil War the state began to
reassume the pivotal position in national politics which has always
made its elections second only in interest and importance to those
of the nation, and the high political tension emphasized the evils
of the " spoils system." In 1868
Tammany Hall, then under the rule of
William M.
Tweed, forced the
Democratic state convention to nominate its
henchman, John T. Hoffman, for governor, and
by the issue of false
naturalization papers and fraudulent
voting in New York City on a gigantic scale Hoffman was chosen
governor and the electoral vote was cast for Seymour.
.^ New York Times reporter .- New York City 2 February 2010 16:32 UTC www.nndb.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]
^ New York Times managing editor .- New York City 2 February 2010 16:32 UTC www.nndb.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]
^ New York Times Publisher, 1961-63 .- New York City 2 February 2010 16:32 UTC www.nndb.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]
The Republicans carried the state in 1872, but in 1874
Samuel J. Tilden, a Democrat and the leading prosecutor of Tweed,
was elected governor. The Republican legislature had in 1867
appointed a committee to investigate the management of the canal
system, but the abuses were allowed to continue until in 1875
Governor Tilden disclosed many frauds of the " Canal Ring," and
punished the guilty. In 1876, Tilden having been nominated for the
presidency, New York
cast its electoral vote for him. In 1880 it was cast for Garfield,
the Republican nominee. Two years later the Republicans, having
split over a struggle for patronage into the two factions known as
" Stalwarts " or administrative party and " Halfbreeds " of whom
the leader was
Roscoe Conkling, were defeated,
Grover Cleveland being chosen
governor. In 1884
Cleveland as the Democratic
presidential nominee received the electoral vote of his state.
Cleveland likewise carried the state in 1892, but in 1888
Benjamin
Harrison, the Republican candidate, the factional quarrels
being settled, carried the state. Hostility to free
silver and " Bryanism " in the
large financial and industrial centres put the state strongly in
the Republican column in the elections of 1896, 1900, 1904 and
1908. It was carried by the Democrats in the gubernatorial campaign
of 1910.
.^ Twice Governor of New York .- New York City 2 February 2010 16:32 UTC www.nndb.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]
^ Governor of New York, 1933-42 .- New York City 2 February 2010 16:32 UTC www.nndb.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]
^ Governor of New York, 1804-07 .- New York City 2 February 2010 16:32 UTC www.nndb.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]
Peter Minuit Bastiaen Janssen Crol Wouter Van
Twiller William Kieft. Peter Stuyvesant. Richard Nicolls. Francis
Lovelace. Anthony Colve. Edmund Andros. Thomas Dongan .
Francis Nicholson, Lieutenant-Governor .
Jacob Leisler (de facto) .
Henry Sloughter. .
Richard Ingoldsby (Acting) .
Benjamin Fletcher. Richard Coote, earl of Bellomont John Nanfan
(Acting). Edward
Hyde, Lord
Cornbury .
Peter Schuyler (Acting) William Burnet .
John Montgomerie Rip van Dam (Acting) William Cosby .
Sir Charles Hardy. James de Lancey (Acting).
Cadwallader
Colden (Acting) Robert Monckton. Cadwallader Colden (Acting)
Robert Monckton .
1624-1625
1625-1626.1626-16321632-16331633-16371637-16471647-16641664-16681668-16731673-16741674-16831683-16881688-16891689-1691
16911691-16921692-16981698-17011701-17021702-17081708-17091709-171017101710-17191719-17201720-17281728-17311731-17321732-17361736-17431743-1753
17531753-17551755-17571757-17601760-1761 17611761-17621762-1763
Bibliography.--Physical
Features and Climate: - R. S.
Tarr,
Physical Geography of New York State (New York,
1902), with a chapter on climate by E. T. Turner;
Reports of
the New York Geological Survey from 1842 to 1854 (Albany);
Reports of the Topographical Survey of the Adirondack Region of
New York (Albany, 18731880);
Reports of the New York
Meteorological Bureau (1889 sqq.); and publications of the United
States Weather Bureau. Fauna and Flora:
Reports of the Forest,
Fish and Game Commissioner (Albany, 1902 sqq.); Ralph
Hoffmann,
Guide to the Birds of New England and Eastern New
York (Boston, 1904); and
Bulletins of the New York State
Museum (Albany, 1888 sqq.).
.^ New York City Economic Development Corporation .- New York City 2 February 2010 16:32 UTC www.nndb.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]
C. Z.
Lincoln,
The Constitutional
History of New York (5 vols., Rochester, T906) is an elaborate
and able study of the growth of the constitution. See also J. A.
Fairlie,
The Centralization of Administration in New York
State (New York, 1898);
Annual Reports of the State Board
of Charities (Albany, 1867 sqq.);
Annual Reports of the
State Education Department (Albany, 1904 sqq.); and Sidney
Sherwood,
History of Higher Education in the State of New
York (Washington, 1900), Circular of Information No. 3 of the
United States Bureau of Education. History: E. H. Roberts,
New
York: The Planting and Growth of the Empire State (2 vols.,
Boston, 1896) is a popular but rather superficial treatment of the
entire period. The early historical documents of the state were
collected by E. B. O'Callaghan in his
Documentary History of
the State of New York (4 vols., Albany, 18 491851); and more
completely in
Documents Relating to the Colonial History of the
State of New York procured by J. R. Brodhead (15 vols., vols.
i.-xi. edited by E. B. O'Callaghan and xii.-xv. by B. Fernow;
Albany, 1853-1883). O'Callaghan edited
A Calendar of Historical Manuscripts in the
Office of the Secretary of State of New York (2 vols., Albany,
1865-1866). E. B. O'Callaghan,
History of New Netherland
(2 vols., New York, 1846), and J. R. Brodhead,
History of the
State of New York (2 vols., New York, 1853 and 1871) are the
standard works on the early history. Mrs Martha J. Lamb's
History of the City of New York (2 vols., New York, 1877)
and Mrs Schuyler Van Rensselaer's
History of the City of New
York in the Seventeenth Century (2 vols., New York, 1909)
include the history of the province.
William Smith's
History of the Late Province of New York,
from itsDiscovery to 1762 (1st part, 1757, reprinted in the
1st series of the New York Historical Society
Collections,
2 vols., 1829-1830) is still the chief authority for the period
from the English Revolution of 1688 to the
eve of the War of Independence. For the same
period, however, consult C. W.
Spencer,
Phases of Royal Government in New
York, 1691-1719 (Columbus, 1905).
John Fiske,
The Dutch and Quaker
Colonies in America (2 vols., Boston, 1900) is admirable in
its generalizations but unreliable in its details. G. W. Schuyler,
Colonial New York: Philip Schuyler and his Family (2
vols., New York, 1885) is a family history, but especially valuable
in the study of Indian affairs and the intermarriages of the landed
families. A. C. Flick's
Loyalism in New York during the
American Revolution (New York, 1901) and H. P. Johnston's
Campaign of 1776 around New York and Brooklyn (Brooklyn,
1878) are thorough studies. For the military history of the War of
Independence see also Justin Winsor's
Narrative and Critical
History of America, vol. vi. (Boston, 1888). For strictly
political history see a series of articles by Carl Becker in the
American Historical Review, vols. vi., vii. and ix., and
the
Political Science Quarterly, vol. xviii., J. D.
Hammond's
History of Political Parties in the State of New
York (2 vols., Albany, 1842) and D. S. Alexander's
Political History of the State of New York (3 vols., New
York, 1906-1909). See also E. P. Cheney,
The Anti-Rent
Agitation in the State of New York (Philadelphia, 1887);
Charles McCarthy, " The Anti-Masonic Party " in vol. i. pp. 365-574
of the
Annual Report for 1902 of the American Historical
Association; N. E. Whitford,
History of the Canal System of the
State of New York (Albany, 1906). (N. D. M.; W. T. A.)
Top topics
Wikis
Quiz
Facts
Map
Misc
Timeline
/njuː ˈjɔrk/; local pronunciation: 
i /nuː ˈjɔrk/ or /nɪu ˈjoək/) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east. The state has a maritime border with Rhode Island east of Long Island, as well as an international border with the Canadian provinces of Ontario to the west, and Quebec to the north. New York is often referred to as New York State to distinguish it from New York City.
Wikisource)
Canada
New York 
Search
