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TJie Correct Arms of ilie State of Neiv York, 



State of New York ; indeed the Arms of most of them have no sup- 

 porters. Although Virginia has a Liberty, it is not as a supporter, but 

 fills the shield as an avenger of Tyranny. Xew Jersey has Ceres with 

 Liberty as supporters, but the other ten States have nothing of the 

 one kind or the other suggestive of virtues or duties. Whence arose 

 the eminent distinction of New York in this feature of her Arms? 

 1\\ the first paper I spoke of the three men on the committee, Jay, 

 Morris and Hobart, as having been judges on the bench. We have 

 now to add to their number a fourth, also a judge, Chancellor Liv- 

 ingston, and a fifth, George Clinton, a member of the bar, and the 

 first governor of the State, and for a longer period than any of his 

 successors. In the absence as yet of detailed written records contain- 

 ing the history of the origin of our Arms, it is but reasonable to 

 give due credit to these four dispensers of justice, as having been led 

 both by their education, profession and character to exhibit the 

 virtue of Justice as one of the pillars of the State along with Liberty. 



It should serve to enhance the respect with which the Arms of the 

 State should ever be regarded by us, to dwell upon the character of 

 these men, thus eminent in position, with whose names we must 

 hereafter always and unavoidably associate this device. Of Clinton 

 and Livingston, the two new members of the commission, I do not 

 need to say a word more than that they two are the citizens whose 

 statues have been selected by New York State to adorn the national 

 Walhalla at Washington. But it is worth adding that four of the 

 five men on these committees were graduates of American colleges. 

 Jay graduated from Columbia in 1764 ; Morris from Yale in 1?46 ; 

 Hobart from Yale in 1757, and Livingston from Columbia in 1765. 

 It is not a fact that should surprise us that the influences of a liberal 

 culture should appear in the determinations of such men regarding 

 the symbols of the new State, even if they did not personally origi- 

 nate them. 



It is worth remembering, as will appear in the sequel of this paper, 

 that the acted drama had been introduced into New York in 1753, 

 and the plays of Shakespeare were repeated on the boards of the 

 theater there. The members of the committees were men of as high 

 culture as any to be found in the thirteen colonies. This fact with 

 their personal history gives us the assurance that they were either 

 thoroughly competent themselves to devise Arms for the State, with 

 the symbolical perfection and heraldic completeness which we find in 

 our Arms to day, or to influence and approve of the adoption of such 

 rich insignia if prepared for them by another person, under their 

 direction. 



Regarding the emblematic figure of Liberty, I would observe that 



