INTRODUCTION. 61 



neur Morris and Robert R. Livingston, who also were eminent lawyers, gave to 

 that instrument the form in which it was adopted by the convention. Upon pro- 

 mulgating the constitution, the convention appointed a council of safety, which 

 was invested with all the powers requisite for the security and preservation of the 

 state, until a governor and legislature should be duly chosen and qualified to act 

 under the new constitution. This council, thus invested with absolute power, 

 nobly justified the confidence reposed in them by the convention, by the wisdom, 

 firmness, energy and moderation which they displayed in that trying emergency. 

 Their names were John Morin Scott, Robert R. Livingston, Christopher Tappen, 

 Abraham Yates, junior, Gouverneur Morris, Zephaniah Piatt, John Jay, Charles 

 De Witt, Robert Harpur, Jacob Cuyler, Thomas Tredwell, Pierre Van Cort- 

 landt, Matthew Cantine, John Sloss Hobart and Jonathan B. Tompkins. 



George Clinton was elected governor, John Jay appointed chief justice, and 

 Robert R. Livingston chancellor, under the new constitution. Philip Schuyler 

 was appointed, in 1775, a representative in the congress of the United States, 

 and soon afterwards major-general in the continental army. Mr. Jay subsequently 

 filled the trusts of chief justice of the United States, governor of New- York and 

 minister to the court of St. James. The name of Schuyler, although eclipsed 

 during the revolutionary contest by personal and partizan jealousies, is neverthe- 

 less destined to maintain a place in the military annals of that period, second only 

 to his, who is without a compeer in the homage of mankind. WoodhuU fell a martyr 

 in battle, sustaining the cause he had so ably maintained in the councils of the 

 state. The genius of Gouverneur Morris, as well as that of Robert R. Livingston, 

 will be found impressed upon many a page, in which we are hereafter to record 

 the social, moral and physical improvement of the State. 



If to Massachusetts belongs the honor of cradling the revolution, and to Vir- 

 ginia that of having given birth to the author of the declaration of independence, 

 and to the immortal chief who conducted the armies until its establishment, New- 

 York may, with equal justice, lay claim to the honor of having produced the 

 statesman who chiefly secured the adoption of the federal constitution, and put 



