268 



Hie Correct Arms of the State of New York. 



islative enactment is required for a proper description of the seal, 

 which lie neglected to report upon.* In Wisconsin the State has no 

 arms, eo nomine, established by law, except the device upon the great 

 seal, which was devised by the Governor and Chief Justice in 1851 to 

 replace the two former seals, and " Forward " adopted as the motto, 

 as a free translation of the Excelsior of New York. And each de- 

 partment uses this as a coat of arms with such variations as the fancy 

 of the engravers suggests.f In Pennsylvania, the knowledge of the 

 correct arms and seal was found in 1874 to be lost, and a Commission 

 including the Grovernor was appointed to correct the arms of the 

 commonweal til and to have the same recorded in the archives," This 

 commission made a report in 1875 recommending a return to the earli- 

 est known copy of the Arms of the year 1779. In one of the docu- 

 ments accompanying the report it is recommended " that a stringent 

 statute be adopted requiring adherence to the arms and pro- 

 hibiting any tampering with them or so-called aesthetic improve- 

 ment. . . ."t 



Whatever are the merits of the arms which have been adopted by 

 any of the States, there are none of them which declare by so signifi- 

 cant symbols, that the State has entered upon the maintenance of a 

 republican and democratic form of government, as the Arms of the 

 State of New York. Tlie military commissions of the State begin, 

 *^The people of the State of New York . . . reposing special 



trust in you ..do appoint you that is, in the name of the 



people, instead of the language of a colonial commission, which was 

 in the name of the Governor, and founded on his trust in the person 

 to be appointed. 



If this position which I have maintained, that this State has a de- 

 finite and unchanged coat of arms for more than a century past, is 

 verified, as on examination I think it will be, then it would seem that 

 there cannot be a doubt what the decision will be, when the history 

 and character of the arms are appreciated. 



A common sentiment will be stimulated to secure the necessary 

 action which shall prevent the Arms of the State from being con- 

 founded with the seals of the State; and measures will be adopted so 

 that it shall no longer be true that any man in the State who is a 

 voter may not easily know and be familiar with the symbols by which 

 the State of New York a hundred years since decreed to make her- 

 self known to the world. 



* Conn. Hist. Soc. Collections, vol. I, Art. by C. J. Hoadly. 

 f Wisconsin State Journal, Dec. 1879. 



X Penna. Legislative Documents, 1875, No. 21, vol. III. p. 1113. 



