TJie Correct Arms of the State cf New York, 



275 



My reason for dwelling upon the large number of these commissions 

 which have been found, and upon the fact that the same heading was 

 also used for civil commissions is this, that so long as there was 

 only a single copy known, it gave some color to the assertion of some 

 that this initial T was a fancy sketch of the engraver, and was of 

 little significance as a witness as to what were the original Arms. 

 Now, however, that the extensive use of it by the Governor has been 

 established, and that no other contemporaneous witness has arisen to 

 detract from its authority, the military commission acquires great 

 value as evidence. 



3. On account of the feeling which I had that every person inter- 

 ested in the subject of the true Arms ought to have the means of 

 judging for himself by comparison of the various early specimens of 

 them, a beautiful copy in oil colors of the St. Paul's Chapel painting 

 has been made at the personal expense of the State commissioners, at 

 my request, for the State Library. It was painted by the same lady 

 who painted the N. Y. Regimental flag of 1779 for the library. And 

 there any person can now compare the three earliest known specimens 

 of the Arms with each other. And remembering that the Arms 

 which were drawn under the law of 1875 were drawn only from this 

 picture of 1785, or pictures of later date, without the use of the 

 military commission and the regimental flag pictures, we must con- 

 clude that it would be improper to have the question of what are the 

 true Arms foreclosed, and shut up from discussion by any action 

 taken under that law. 



4. In the paper of 1879, 1 mentioned the existence of additional 

 early examples of the State Arms, current in 1787, upon copper cents. 

 For the same year, though ten years later than the law of 1778, we 

 can now refer to an edition of the session laws, having on the title 

 page a vignette of the Arms. They were also painted about the same 

 time though very imperfectly upon tea-cups made in China, a speci- 

 men of one of which I am enabled to show you this evening. A 

 drawing of the Arms was upon the cover of the first volume of the 

 New York Magazine of 1700, and on the title page of the printed 

 volume of the Journal of the legislature for 1792. None of these 

 specimens adhere to the earlier examples with more than a rude 

 faithfulness in most particulars. 



5. In the first paper, I spoke correctly of the appointment of Jay, 

 Morris and Hobart to prepare a seal for the State. It appears, how- 

 ever, that in the confusion of the times the seal was not forthcoming. 

 The men first appointed had not been able to perfect their undertak- 



