14 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW-YORK 



World, we have been enabled to discard many of their maxims, 

 and to adopt a course of policy, civil and political, tending essen- 

 tially to equality. We have discarded the laws of primogeni- 

 ture, so that few estates can largely accumulate, and as matter of 

 fact, most large estates are divided and partitioned in the second 

 or third generation. 



We have abolished all aristocratic titles and orders, and opened 

 all the honors that can be conferred by the government, to a fair 

 competition of all the people. We boast that one American citi- 

 zen stands upon the same platform with every other. We invite 

 all of every land and of every clime, to come and participate 

 with us in the blessings of liberty and equality. We welcome 

 them to our shores, and offer them protection and a home. 



In this our nation's youth, we afford an asylum for the oppres- 

 sed, a refuge from tyranny, and more than all, a sure reward for 

 industry and frugality. Oui' arms are open to receive honest 

 labor, come from whatever place it may. 



A retrospect of the brief years since our fathers landed on this 



" Rock bound coast," 



fills the mind with wonder. That which has been accomplished, 

 seems, as we look back upon it, " as a dream when one awaketh." 



Where are the mighty forests which so recently covered the 

 largest and fairest portions of your great State ? 



Where are those trees which in all their primitive grandeur 

 spread their branches in an unbroken shade from the Hudson to 

 Lake Erie ? 



They are gone — the ceaseless hands of industry have shorn 

 them of their evergreen mantle, their timbers, wrought into the 

 ground work of a world-wide commerce, bear proudly to the 

 breeze the flags of every nation. The desolate moan of the forest 

 pine has given way to the lowing of cattle and the busy hum of 

 mechanical and agricultural labor. Cities and villages and fertile 

 fields occupy their places, and industry in its varied forms of 

 interest and enjoyment diffuses happiness through millions of 

 hearts. 



Were these forests in their majestic silence grand ? Is this civi- 

 lization which sheds its hallowed influence over this, so late a 

 wilderness, grand ? Is this magic touch, which has in such brief 

 space, called into existence your cities and towns, and canals, and 



