319 



from the quantity of land held by the state and the de- 

 tails necessarily needed when any alienation of it was 

 directed. 



As early as 1786, the legislature had requested his at- 

 tention to the preparation of a map of New- York, and 

 this, after combining his own surveys and those of gen- 

 tlemen associated with him, or acting under him, he was 

 enabled to complete, and afterwards to publish in 1802. 

 Its execution was creditable to all concerned, and amidst 

 the rapid changes that industry and enterprize are indu- 

 cing in every quarter, it may now be referred to, as an 

 index of what we then were.* 



Were it not for some land-marks like this, posterity 

 would hardly credit our rapid advance. The forest 

 changed to a city, the sequestered stream rushing over 

 its rocky bed, becoming the abode of manufacturing in- 

 dustry—the school house— the academy— the college, 

 erected near the scarcely tenantless wigwam, are only 

 feeble illustrations of our onward march. 



Within the period that I last noticed, the government 

 of the United States had gone into successful operation 

 under the presidency of General Washington. In the 

 appointments to office made by that great man, it is the 

 remark of his biographer, that without regard to private 

 friendship, he looked solely to the qualifications of the 

 individual. And the history of his administration un- 

 doubtedly warrants this assertion. If there was any 

 partiality, it was towards his companions in arms; men 

 who had fought by his side, endured all the privations of 

 our revolutionary war, and whose country, at its conclu- 

 sion, was too poor to reward them according to their me- 

 rits. That he should select such, was only paying the 

 debt long since incurred. Yet he made his choice with 

 judgment, and an ever steady eye to the welfare and be- 

 nefit of the country. Mr. De Witt was one of those 



^ The Map was engraved by Fairman, and was one of his earliest pro- 

 •iuctiono. 



