ADDRESS 



OF THE HON. HORATIO SEYMOUR, DELIVERED BEFORE THE NEW-YORK 

 STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY, AT UTICAj SEPTEMBER 10, 18"52. 



Seventy years since, George Washington passed this place on his 

 way to Fort Stanwix (now the village of Rome) to visit that re- 

 mote outpost of civilization. His route carried him over the 

 conspicuous point a few miles east of this spot w^here the high 

 table lands break down into the valley of the Mohawk. When 

 he stood upon this elevation the hills and valleys, and plains of 

 this region were stretched out before him, covered with an un- 

 broken forest. 



It is not mere fancy when I say that the spot on which we are 

 assembled, attracted his particular attention. We are met where 

 the highlands which divide the valleys of the Sauquoit and Mo- 

 hawk fall off and allow these streams to form their confluence a 

 short distance to the west. Struck with the beauty, fertility and 

 the gr^at natural , advantages of this region, which at that early 

 day he foresaw would be the channel of commerce between the 

 Atlantic coast and the valley of the Mississippi, with its ten 

 thousand miles of navigable streams, bordered by boundless fer- 

 tile plains, he purchased lands in this immediate vicinity, and 

 many of the farms within our view are held by titles derived 

 from General Washington. 



It was at the close of the revolutionary war, when his efforts 

 to establish the freedom of our country had been crowned with 

 triumph, when he was exulting over his country's victories, and 

 agitated with an anxious hope for its future prosperity, that he 

 contemplated with particnlar attention, the region in which we 

 are assembled. It was in the autumn; when the unbroken forest 



