INTRODUCTION. 



New- York is situated between 40° 30' and 45° of north latitude, and between 

 5° 5' of east and 2° 55' of west longitude from the city of Washington. The 

 state includes an area of 46,200 square miles, divided into fifty-nine counties, and 

 subdivided into nine cities, eight hundred and thirty-five towns, and one hundred 

 and forty-five incorporated villages ; and contains 2,428,921 inhabitants ; of whom 

 2,378,890 are free white persons, 50,027 are free colored persons, and four are 

 colored slaves.* The government is a representative republic, with a written con- 

 stitution, which was framed by a convention in 1821, and approved by the people in 

 a popular election in 1822. The few remaining descendants of the aborigines 

 ai*e neither enumerated, nor admitted to citizenship. Persons of African descent, 

 possessing freeholds worth two hundred and fifty dollars, enjoy the right of suf- 

 frage. Aliens are excluded until they become naturalized according to the laws 

 of congress, after five years' residence in the United States. All male citizens 

 who have attained the age of twenty-one years, and resided in the state one year, 



* U. S. census, 1840. 



Intr. 1 



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