The Correct Arms of the State of New York. 



247 



administering the government to deliver to the secretary of the 

 State descriptions of the device of the said arms and seals, hereby de- 

 clared to be the arms, the great seal and the privy seal." These several 

 extracts embrace every mention of the word Arms throughout the 

 law.* 



In Ajjril, 178G, an act was passed which authorized the issuing by 

 the State of $200,000 in bills of credit; and it declared, "upon 

 which bills shall be impressed the Arms of the State of New York," 

 and no mention is made of an impress of any seal of the State upon 

 the said bills. The Arms are once more mentioned in the law in 

 speaking of the engraver to engrave them.f 



Eighteen years afterward, a law of January 26, 1T98, provides for a 

 commission of three public officers to repair or cause to be made a 

 new great seal, after such device as the commission shall judge proper, 

 but it makes no allusion to the Arms of the State. It simply requires 

 that a written description of the seal shall be preserved in the secre- 

 tary of State's office. J This commission however in making a 

 new seal record the description of it in 1799 in these words : The 

 Arms of the State complete, with supporters, crest and motto, around 

 the same. The great seal of the State of New York." They then de- 

 scribe the reverse. They do not pretend to have devised new Arms, 

 and while they have not followed closely t^ie old device, they do not 

 appear by the terras of the law to have had any authority for any 

 changes which were made by the artist. § 



A law of March 20, 1801, like the preceding one, regarding the great 

 seal and the privy seal of the State, uses the following language: 



■Sect. 5. "The description in writing of the arms and of the great 

 and privy seal of this State, recorded and deposited in the office of 

 the secretary of this State shall remain as public records ; and the arms 

 and great and privy seal aforesaid, of which descriptions in writing 

 have been deposited and recorded as aforesaid shall be and continue 

 the Arms, the great seal and the privy seal of this State : . . ." || 



This law makes no further mention of the Arms, but merely con-- 

 tinues to speak of the two seals. 



May 27, 1809, a law was enacted authorizing the secretary of State 

 to make a special seal for his own office, of such device as the governor 



*Laws of the State of N. Y., Greenleaf s ed., vol. I, p. 181. 

 fLaws of New York, Greenleaf 's ed., vol, I, p. 241. 

 |Laws of New York of 1798, p. 249. 



§The commission consisted of S. Jones, S. De Witt and J. Ogden Hoffman. 

 Their report, filed January 23, 1799, may be found in the first volume of the folio 

 entitled " Official Seals," in MS. in the secretary of State's office. Also, see N. Y. 

 Civil List, ed. of 1880, p. 469. 



IlLaws of N. Y., Webster & Skinner's ed., vol. I, p. 205, 



