REMARKS OF W. H. BOGART, ESQ. 



[The Hon. Joel T. Headley, Secretary of State, was expected 



to have addressed the Society. The following letter from Mr. 



Headley explains the reason of his absence : 



Albany, February 12, 1857. 



B. P. Johnson, Esq., Secretary State JigH Society : 



My Dear Sir — I am sorry I cannot be present to-night at 

 the Agricultural rooms. I should have written you before, but 

 I continued to hope, until a short time ago, that I might be 

 present. My doctor, how^ever, forbids me to go out, and my 

 lungs are wholly wiusahle. 



Yours sincerely, 



J. T. HEADLEY. 



W. H. Bogart, Esq., was requested to supply the vacancy, and 

 the following remarks from him shows how well the duties were 

 discharged.] 



Mr. Bogart alluded to the old State Hall, on the site of which 

 this new and beautiful building was erected. The young man 

 who, in 1764, received the honors of King's College, (that emi 

 nent university which now, under the better name of Columbia, 

 is winning to itself such renown,) passed through a long series of 

 civic, judicial, diplomatic dignities. It was while he was Gover- 

 nor of this State, that the Legislature directed the construction 

 of the building which occupied where this new hall now rises. 

 In the record of the acts of 1797 is the simple announcement — 

 An Act to provide for the erection of a public building in the 

 city of Albany. The name of John Jay cannot be dissevered 

 from the archives of this structure. 



And well has the State done in thus giving to tlie farmers a 

 Hall for the records and the affairs whicli belong to that occupa- 

 tion, by the side of which all others are the heart-wearing and tl>e 

 care-worn. The farmer begins where all other occupations and 



