262 



The Correct Arms of the State of New York. 



that date changes came ou ; at first one only of the figures or sup- j 

 porters appeared seated ; but after a while both of the figures were 

 drawn seated, or one of them disappears entirely ; besides many other 

 changes perhaps as serious, and without any apparent authority of 

 law. To these changes we shall soon refer more particularly. 



These changes originated in the substitution in these vignettes of 

 the title images of the session laws and of other publications of the 

 State, of the pictures found upon the seals of the State in place of the 

 pictures of the Arms of the State. The new dies for the seals formed 

 a sufficiently graceful picture for a vignette. When the casts or blocks 

 used in printing were worn out by use, the pictures on the dies of the new 

 seals were allowed to take the place of the Arms. From time to time, 

 as new cuts in wood or in metal were needed, the varying tastes of 

 artists and engravers facilitated further changes, and occasioned still 

 wider departures from the original Arms. The genuine Arms having 

 once commenced to be disregarded as the unvarying symbols of the 

 dignity and sovereign authority of the State, and not being in re- 

 quest except for occasional decoration and ornament, the pictures 

 upon the seals were supposed to answer equally as well, and soon the 

 time came when they were all that could be appealed to when any one 

 was curious to see, or asked to obtain a representation of the State 

 Arms. 



Thenceforward seals, vignettes and pictures of all kinds, made of 

 every sort of pattern for the public offices, have passed in the common 

 estimation as tokens of the State Arms: they have been of every de- 

 gree of completeness and exactness as regards the shield, crest and 

 supporters. The only thing which is uniformly repeated upon every 

 seal that I have observed except one, is the word Excelsior, which word 

 with the ideal aspirations that it suggests, is certainly well retained, as 

 conveying a double meaning of material and moral elevation.* 



In the changes in these representations, whether regarded as Arms 

 or seals, there are some which are especially worthy of notice, though 

 we shall be obliged to omit all reference to many of them. In one of 

 the devices, instead of the three mountains, the shield has the colors 

 and stripes of the United States ; another divides the shield between 

 the emblems of Xew York and of the United States. In one there is 

 the anachronism of introducing the canal as an emblem of New York ; 

 and in another a more violent anachronism, a steamboat and a railroad 

 with a locomotive in the ornamentation outside the shield for Arms 

 devised in 1778. The motto Excelsior is sometimes thrust within the 

 shield. One of the latest devices for a seal for one of the public 



*X. Y. Geneal. & Biog. Record, 1874, p. 55. 



