The Correct Arms of the State of New York. 279 



in the alteration, without authority, of their Arms, have been obliged 

 to re-establish their le.ajitimate Arms by fresh legislation. Such States 

 are Connecticut, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont. 

 New York may be the last to apply the remedy, but the facts men- 

 tioned in the first paper, of very numerous alterations of the New 

 York Arms, we think sufficiently demonstrate the necessity of some 

 action by the State to recover herself from these irregularities and 

 inconsistencies, and to render such departures from and disregard of 

 the genuine Arms of the State impossible ; and that our laws should 

 require a similar uniformity in the use of the State Arms on the 

 seals of the public offices of the capitol, and of the courts. It is not 

 an exhibition of suitable respect to the State, that each of its depart- 

 ments should symbolize or represent itself by a distinct and different 

 device, and ignore and omit to employ the very device by which the 

 State has chosen to set forth its sovereignty. The dignity of each de- 

 partment and bureau, and of the courts is derived from the State, and 

 no one of them can devise any emblem for use which can surpass, in 

 value and significance, that of the State which they represent. 



9. One of the objects of my paper in 1879 was to call attention to 

 the numerous incorrect representations in use of the New York Arms. 

 With the same design, a letter was addressed to me from Washington, 

 stating that the sculptured representation of them upon the block of 

 marble, which had been contributed by the State in 1851, to the 

 national Washington monument, to be placed in it with similar blocks 

 from other States, did not contain a true picture of the State Arms, 

 according to any one of the three early examples of them. I secured 

 a faithful copy of the design upon the stone, and in February I 

 visited the lapidarium containing the collection for the monument of 

 sculptured blocks of stone, representing the Arms of thirty-one of 

 the States of the Union. The State commissioners on the Arms, 

 finding that the divergence from the original Arms was great, ad- 

 dressed the president of the association, who is the president of the 

 United States, requesting delay in placing the stone in the monument, 

 until the wish of the State upon the subject should be expressed. 

 There can be no doubt but that the carving must be effaced from 

 this block, and a correct copy of the Arms substituted in its place. 

 This is the recommendation of the commissioners. 



10. In my first paper, among the many improper alterations of the 

 Arms adverted to were those affecting the supporters — Liberty and 

 Justice. No one of the original thirteen States adopted for their 

 Arms supporters so suggestive of lofty principle and purpose as the 



