The Correct Arms of the State of Neio York. 259 



I think the device upon the shield is emblematic of New York itself, 

 by means of its most characteristic feature, the passage of the Hudson 

 river through the mountains to the ocean ; the tranquil and calm water 

 represents not the «a but the Hudson river ; there is land at the base 

 of the shield, with shrubs ujDon it, which is the west bank of the 

 river. The reason why the shield was made so broad at the bottom as 

 compared with the very pointed base of the third specimen, was prob- 

 ably to give an opportunity to make the land on the west bank to be 

 more obvious to the eye. The mountains represent those of the High- 

 lands on the east bank. The water is not in commotion, dashing up 

 against the base of the mountains, as drawn upon the great seal of 

 1777 ; for the mountains do not spring directly out of the water, but 

 have a shore of foot hills of very slight elevation between them and 

 the water. The existence of this low land on one and both sides of 

 the water has never before been recognized on the shield in any of the 

 later drawings until this moment.* Upon this river is to be seen, with 

 a ship, the once so familiar North river sloop, passing through this 

 wonderful chasm in the great Appalachian chain of mountains, which 

 tells of the path for an empire assured thereby to New York, in the 

 facility that this tidal communication, of one hundred and eighty miles 

 from the ocean by the river toward the great lakes, and to the heart of the 

 continent, was to offer for carrying on the commerce of the new United 

 States. f 



The eagle as the crest of New York has this historical prominence, 

 that it is extremely probable that New York was the first of the States 

 to make use of it. It now forms the crest of only Maryland and 

 Pennsylvania of the original thirteen States. It was adopted by New 

 York previous to its being adopted by Pennsylvania.^ It was not on 

 the colonial arms of Maryland, and in what year after the revolution 

 it was first put upon the great seal of the State by the Council the 

 evidence is not yet clear. § The eagle was not adopted as a portion of 



*The Rev. J. H. Frazee, of Franklin, Delaware county, who lias in liis pos- 

 session the original engraved military commission of 1778, has at my request 

 made an attentive scrutiny of it, and he informs me that there is unquestionably 

 engraved upon the Arms, land on both sides of the water, such as I have described it. 



f It is not a conclusion that I have adopted ; but I have thought that wheL the 

 original blazon of the Arms comes to be discovered, if it ever happen, it may be 

 we shall find that the sun was designed to represent a " westering " sun, and not 

 a rising sun ; in which case the mountains depicted upon the shield would be 

 those upon the west bank of the Hudson, and stand for the Catskills, which they 

 fairly resemble, while they are more than twice as elevated as the mountains 

 lower down the river. 



X Penna. Legis. Docts., vol. Ill, 1875, No. 21. 



§ Maryland, Laws of 1854. 



