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NEW See also:YORK , one of the See also:original thirteen See also:United States of See also:America, situated between 40° 29' 40" and 45° 0' 2" N., and between 71° 51' and 79° 45' 54.4" W. Its See also:northern boundary is, for the most See also:part, formed by See also:Lake See also:Ontario and the St See also:Lawrence See also:river, which See also:separate it from the See also:province of Ontario, See also:Canada; but See also:north of the See also:Adirondacks the boundary See also:line leaves the St Lawrence, extending in a due See also:east direction to the See also:lower end of Lake See also:Champlain. Thus the boundary between New York and the province of See also:Quebec, Canada, is wholly artificial. See also:Vermont, See also:Massachusetts and See also:Connecticut See also:bound New York on the E.; the See also:Atlantic Ocean, New See also:Jersey and See also:Pennsylvania, on the S.; and Pennsylvania, Lake See also:Erie and the See also:Niagara river on the W. The See also:state has a triangular outline, with a breadth from E. to W. of 326.46 m. and from N. to S., on the line of the See also:Hudson, of 300 m. In addition, it includes See also:Long See also:Island and Staten Island on the Atlantic See also:Coast. Its See also:land See also:area is 47,654 sq. m. and the area of the inland See also:waters is 155o sq. m., giving a See also:total area of 49,204 sq. M. In addition to this, New York includes 3140 sq. m. of See also:water in Lakes Ontario and Erie. See also:Topography.—The most notable topographic feature is the roughly circular See also:mountain area of north-eastern New York known as the Adirondack mountains (q.v.). This is a very See also:ancient mountain See also:mass of crystalline rocks resembling more the Laurentian mountains of Canada than the Appalachians. Indeed, it is commonly considered to be an See also:extension of the See also:Canadian mountains. 'Parts of the crystal-line area are worn down to a See also:condition of See also:low See also:relief, but in the See also:main mountain mass, although greatly worn. there are still elevations of truly mountainous proportions. The highest See also:peak is See also:Mount See also:Marcy (5344 ft.), though associated with it are several other peaks with an See also:elevation from 4000 to 5000 ft. Even the higher summits are worn to a rounded condition, and are therefore for the most part See also:forest covered up to the See also:timber line which, on Mount Marcy, is at an elevation of about 4900 ft. From the See also:crest of the See also:dome of the Adirondacks proper the See also:surface slopes in all directions to surrounding lowlands: to the St Lawrence valley on the N.; the Champlain-Hudson See also:lowland on the E.; the See also:Mohawk valley on the S.; and Lake Ontario on the W. While igneous and metamorphic crystalline rocks See also:form the bulk of the Adirondack area, it is surrounded by a See also:ring of ancient Palaeozoic sediments in which these peripheral lowlands have been See also:developed. The Adirondack area proper, and much of the surrounding ring of more See also:recent rocks, is either too rugged, or has a See also:soil too thin and rocky for extensive See also:agriculture. It is there-fore a sparsely settled region with lumbering for one of the leading See also:industries, though there is some See also:mining, as of See also:iron. Owing to the varied and beautiful scenery, this is a favourite summer resort; the See also:game of the forests and the fishing in the streams and in the multitude of lakes serve as further attractions. In the peripheral ring farming increases, especially dairying; and manufacturing industries connected with the products of forests, farms and mines are developed. These and other manufacturing industries are greatly aided by the extensive water See also:power furnished by the mountain streams which flow out radially from the central area. See also:South of the Adirondack region, and S. of the Mohawk Valley, rises a high-level See also:plateau which extends westward to the Pennsylvania boundary. Here the rocks are all essentially See also:horizontal and of Palaeozoic See also:age, mainly Devonian. This plateau province, which includes more than See also:half the state, differs greatly from See also:place to place. Its elevation decreases toward the N. by a See also:series of steps, having its lowest elevation on the Ontario See also:plain which skirts the See also:southern See also:shore of Lake Ontario. Similar to this is a narrow plain along the southern shore of Lake Erie, which, in fact, lies in a shallow depression in this Erie plain. Both of these plains are so level, and have so fertile a soil that they are the seats of extensive agriculture, especially See also:fruit raising, which is further encouraged by the See also:influence of the large bodies of lake water that moderate the See also:heat of summer and the See also:cold of See also:winter, and tend to check the See also:late frosts of See also:spring and the See also:early frosts of autumn. Elsewhere in the plateau province the land is higher and the surface far more irregular, increasing in ruggedness toward both the S. and the E. Elevations of between 15oo and 2000 it. are See also:common in this region all the way from See also:Chautauqua See also:county in the extreme W. to the See also:Catskill mountains in the E.; and in places the surface becomes so rugged as to simulate the features of mountains and locally to win the name mountain. Valleys are deeply sunk in the plateau, the largest with bottom lands of sufficient width to give rise to strips of fertile See also:farm land. The valley walls rise to undulating, and often fairly level uplands, which are, in large part, cleared of forest: but the uplands are remote from markets, and the soil is thin. In the main they are grazing lands—the seat of important See also:dairy and See also:sheep-raising industries. This is the region of abandoned farm houses. Thousands have been deserted and they may be found along all the upland roads. Since this plateau region is a northward extension of the See also:Alleghany plateau, which skirts the western See also:base of the Appalachian mountains, It rises as the mountains are approached. Thus, in S.E. New York, where the Appalachians enter the state, the plateau becomes much higher than in the W., reaching its See also:culmination in the Catskills. Here, partly because of elevation, and partly because of the resistant nature of the Catskill sandstones, See also:dissection has so sculptured the plateau as to carve it into a mountainous mass which is generally known as the Catskill mountains. In this part of the plateau, See also:summit elevations of from 3000 to 4000 ft. are common, the highest point being Slide Mountain (4205 ft.). Like the Adirondacks, this region is largely forest covered, and is a favourite summer resort; but it is far less a See also:wilderness than the Adirondacks, and in places is cleared for farming, especially for pasturage.
In the plateau province there are other areas known as mountains, of which the Helderberg mountains are the most conspicuous. This formation is really an escarpment facing the lower Mohawk and the Hudson river S. of See also:Albany; where there is a downward step in the plateau. The steeply rising See also:face of the plateau here is due to the resistance of a durable layer of See also:limestone, known as the Helderberg See also:lime-See also: The most pronounced of these upfolded strata in New York form the low Shawangunk mountains, which descend, toward the S.E., to a lowland region of folded strata of limestone, See also:slate and other rocks in See also:Orange and Dutchess counties. This lowland area, due to the non-resistant See also:character of the strata, is a continuation of the See also:Great Valley of the Appalachians, and ex-tends N.E. into Vermont and S.W. across New Jersey, Pennsylvania, See also:Maryland and See also:Virginia. It is bounded on its S.E. See also:side by the See also:Highlands, a See also:belt of ancient crystalline rocks which extends N.E. into Connecticut and Massachusetts, and S.W. into the Highlands of New Jersey and thence to the See also:Blue See also:Ridge. South of the High-lands, in New Jersey, but extending to the very See also:banks of the Hudson, is a belt of Triassic See also:sandstone with intrusions of See also:trap rock, which, on See also:account of its See also:peculiar columnar jointing, has developed a palisade structure—the famous Palisades of the lower Hudson. On the New York side of the Hudson the rocks are crystalline, the surface a region of low hills, a continuation of the crystalline area of Connecticut, and comparable with the See also:Piedmont plateau of the Southern states. Long Island, though modified by extensive glacial deposits, may be considered a N.E. extension of the coastal plains which attain a much more perfect development in New Jersey and the states farther S. The entire surface of New York, with the exception of a very small area in the extreme W., in Chautauqua and Cattaraugus counties, was covered by the See also:continental See also:glacier. With its source in Canada, it overrode even the highest mountains and spread beyond the boundary of New York into Pennsylvania and New Jersey; but farther E. its front rested on Staten Island and Long Island, whose surface features, and a part of whose area, are due to the deposits along the See also:ice front, including terminal moraines and outwash See also:gravel plains. Elsewhere in the state, also, the See also:work of the glacier is very evident. It broadened and deepened many of the valleys; rounded the hills; turned aside many streams, causing changes in drainage and giving rise to in-numerable waterfalls and rapids; and it formed the thousands of lakes, large and small, which dot the surface. As the ice receded,. it halted at various points, forming moraines and other glacial deposits. Thus the soil of almost the entire state has been derived by glacial See also:action. After the continental ice See also:sheet entirely disavpeared from the state, See also:local valley glaciers lingered in the Adirondacks and the Catskills. Drainage.—The drainage of New York finds its way to the See also:sea in various directions. The St Lawrence See also:system receives the most, mainly from See also:short streams from the plateau province and from the Adirondacks. A small part of the state, in the W., drains to the See also:Ohio, and thence, by way of the See also:Mississippi, to the Gulf of See also:Mexico; and a much larger area drains into the Susquehanna, entering the See also:head of Chesapeake See also:Bay. A part of the Catskills, and the region farther S., drains into See also:Delaware Bay through the Delaware river: Thus New York is pre-eminently a See also:divide region, sending its drainage; by various courses, into widely separated parts of the ocean. Only the Hudson and a few streams in the extreme S. have See also:independent courses to the sea within the state itself. The Hudson (q.v.) is essentially a New York stream, though it receives some drainage from the New See also:England States through its small eastern tributaries. Its entire course is within.New York, from which it receives most of its water See also:supply. It is by far the most important river in the state, for, owing to the sinking of the land, which has admitted the See also:tide as far as See also:Troy, it is navigable for 151 m. from the sea. Thence westward the Mohawk Valley furnishes a See also:highway which is followed by See also:canal, railway and waggon road. Thus there is here a See also:gap, easily traversed, across the Appalachian mountains and plateaus to the more level and fertile plains beyond. A low gap also leads northward from the Hudson to the Champlain•Valley across a pass only 147 ft. abovesea-level. This was of much importance in early See also:wars; but it is of only See also:minor importance as a commercial highway since it leads to Canada through a region of little economic importance. The lower Hudson, below Troy, is really a fiord, the stream valley being drowned by the sea through subsidence of the land. It is noted for its remarkable scenery, especially where it crosses the Highlands. The other large river valleys are far less useful as highways, though each is paralleled by one or more See also:railways. The action of the continental glacier in scouring down the passes between the St Lawrence and southern drainage, and in turning streams southward, has facilitated the See also:building of railways across the divides. There are thousands of lakes and ponds in the state, most of them very small and all, even including Lakes Erie and Ontario, the result of glacial action. The largest lake apart from Erie and Ontario is the beautiful Lake Champlain, which lies on the eastern boundary, partly in Vermont, and with the N. end in Canada. It occupies the lower portion of the trough between the Adirondacks and the See also:Green Mountains. The largest lake entirely within the state is Lake See also:George, famous for its beautiful scenery. In the central part of the state are a series of peculiar elongated lakes, extending in a nearly N.S. direction, known as the See also:Finger Lakes. The largest of these are Cayuga, See also:Seneca, Keuka, See also:Canandaigua, Owasco and Skaneateles. In the extreme western part of the state is Chautauqua Lake, beautifully situated in the plateau of western New York. New York is noted for its many falls and rapids, some of them of great beauty. Of these the largest is the See also:cataract of Niagara, about 1 m. wide and too ft. high. The See also:American Fall is entirely within the state; but the Canadian boundary-line passes down the centre of the Horseshoe or Canadian Fall. Other notable falls are those of the Genesee at See also:Portage and at See also:Rochester, Trenton Falls, the Falls of See also:Ticonderoga, and a multitude of falls and rapids in the Adirondack region and along the shores of the upper portions of the Finger Lakes. Here the tributary streams tumble down the sides of the lake valleys, whose bottoms have been deepened by glacial erosion, leaving the tributary valleys See also:hanging. There are scores of picturesque glens here, and hundreds of waterfalls, among the most beautiful being in the Cayuga valley—notably See also:Enfield Falls, a few See also:miles S. of See also:Ithaca, Ithaca Falls in the See also:city, and Taughannock, a few miles N. of Ithaca. The last, the highest See also:waterfall in the state, has a See also:vertical fall of 215 ft. Similar glens and falls are found in the Seneca. Valley, the best known being the widely renowned See also:Watkins Glen, now reserved as a state See also:park. (see WATKINS). Many of the waterfalls of New York, but notably Niagara, are used as a source of power. The Coast-line.—New York has extensive coast-line along the Great Lakes, 75 m. on Lake Erie and over 200 m. on Lake Ontario. Where the lake waters See also:flood the stream mouths, there are excellent harbours, and lake See also:navigation is therefore of high importance. The largest of the lake ports is at See also:Buffalo at the head of Niagara river, where, owing to the Niagara cataract, lake boats from the W. must See also:transfer their goods to See also:rail or canal. Buffalo lies at the lower end of natural lake navigation, though by the building of a See also:ship canal in Canada, lake steamers can proceed into Lake Ontario and thence to the St Lawrence. The ocean coast-line, though of limited extent, is by far the most important in the United States. The greater part of the sea coast is on Long Island—a low, sandy coast, the seat of numerous summer resorts and of some fishing. The mainland, opposite the western end of Long Island, is traversed by the lower Hudson and other channels —submerged valleys—which form a branching bay with several islands, the largest of which are Staten and Manhattan Islands. The western See also:bank of the lower Hudson is in New Jersey. This branching bay makes an excellent protected See also:harbour, with an immense water front, at the outlet of the See also:chief natural highway from the E. to the interior of the See also:country. Naturally, therefore, a dense See also:population, efgaged mainly in manufacturing and See also:commerce, has gathered around the shores of this harbour, the greatest number on Manhattan Island and the contiguous mainland in New York City, but large See also:numbers also on western Long Island, in See also:Brooklyn, on the smaller islands, and on the New Jersey side. The harbour entrance is some-what obstructed by See also:sand bars, so that extensive See also:government work has been necessary to open and maintain a channel for large draft ocean vessels. This sand has not been brought by the Hudson itself, for that river drops most of its sediment load far up stream, in its long tidal channel. It is supplied by the tidal- and See also:wind-formed currents, which are drifting sand from the Long Island and New jersey coasts, extending the barrier beaches, such as Sandy See also:Hook, out across the entrance to New York Bay. See also:Climate.—In See also:general the climate of New York is typical of that of northern United States, a climate of extremes, hot in summer, and cold in winter, and yet healthful, stimulating, and, on the whole, not disagreeable. In the See also:absence of extensive alluvial plains and marshes, there is little See also:malaria. The See also:average mean See also:annual temperature is not far from 45° F., though it varies from over 5o° near New York City, and 48° near the Lake Erie shore, to less than 40° in the high Adirondacks. The average maximum summer heat is about 93°, temperature of See also:loo° being rarely reached. In the winter the temperature descends below zero during exceptionally cold spells. A temperature of -20° or lower is never attained in the southern portion, seldom in the central, but is often passed, by 5 or to degrees, In the Adirondacks and in the higher parts of the plateau. The See also:rivers and smaller lakes freeze in winter and navigation on the St Lawrence river is closed by ice on the average from about the See also:middle of See also:December until early in See also:April. The average rainfall is between 40 and 45 in., but it is less than 30 in. in the Lake Champlain Valley and over 55 in. N. of New York City. In most of the state frosts begin from See also:September 1st to See also:October 1st, and end from April 1st to May 1st. In the Adirondack region the snowfall is heavy, the winter long and severe. In central New York it is. not uncommon for See also:snow.toaccumulate to the See also:depth of 3 or 4 ft., and yet this is not persistent. About New York City, and on Long Island, the snow rarely exceeds 1 ft. in depth. The climate is very variable, owing to the frequent passage of cyclonic storms from the W. and S.W., bringing warmer See also:weather with See also:rain and snow in winter, and causing days of great heat and humidity, with thunderstorms, in summer. Between these cyclonic storms come areas of high pressure, or anticyclones, with dry cool See also:air in summer, and dry cold air in winter, sometimes with such decided changes in temperature as to merit the name cold See also:wave. About New York City, and on Long Island, the ocean softens the rigours of winter, and through the influence of cold surface waters off the coast, tempers the heat of summer. The temperature of the larger valleys is notably higher than that of the uplands; and the temperature along the lake shores is decidedly influenced by the large bodies of water. Lakes Ontario and Erie never freeze completely over in winter. Although one of the smaller states in the See also:Union, being 30th in area, New York ranks first in population and in See also:wealth, and has won for itself the name See also:Empire State. The physiography has enabled the state to become a great highway of commerce between the central part of the United States and the sea-coast, by rail and by water, along the Mohawk Gap and by other routes. The Great Lakes waterway naturally finds an outlet in New York City. This has made it easy for the states to the See also:west to See also:con-See also:tribute raw materials, notably See also:coal and iron, adding these to the natural raw products of New York. Thus it happens that from Buffalo to New York City there is a See also:chain of busy manufacturing centres along the natural highway followed by the Erie Canal and the Hudson river. Other parts of the state, where connected with the main highway, are influenced by it to some extent; but away from the great natural route of commerce New York is not especially noteworthy either for its See also:density of population or for extensive manufacturing and commerce. (R. S. T.)
See also:Flora.—When first settled by Europeans New York was a See also:wood-land region containing nearly all the varieties of trees, shrubs and See also:plants which were common to the territory lying E. of the Mississippi river, N. of the Ohio, and S. of the St Lawrence. In the Adirondack region the trees were principally See also: See also:Fauna.—Of the See also:fur and game animals which were inhabitants of the primeval forests few of the larger species remain except in the Adirondack region. Here the See also:puma (" See also:panther') has become See also:extinct and the Canada See also:lynx is rare. The See also:moose, the See also:elk and the See also:beaver have been placed under the See also:protection of the Forest, Fish and Game Commissioner. There are many See also:deer in the Adirondacks. The See also:porcupine is common, but the Canada pine See also:marten or American See also:sable, See also:fisher, and red See also:fox are rare, and the black See also:bear and See also:grey See also:wolf are found only in small numbers. Rabbits and squirrels are numerous in nearly all parts of the state; skunks, weasels, muskrats and woodchucks are common; there are some racoons; See also:mink are frequently taken in the Adirondacks; and a few See also:otter remain. In the lower counties are some " Virginia " opossums.
Among birds of See also:prey a bald See also:eagle and a golden eagle are occasion-ally seen in secluded places. Game birds include ducks, geese, plovers, See also:snipe, loons, grebes, terns, rails, the See also:woodcock and the ruffed See also:grouse; quails are scarce except on Long Island, where a number oz See also:young birds are liberated each See also:year, and by the same means a supply
of pheasants is maintained in some parts of the state. There is a state game See also:bird farm (1909) near Sherburne in Chenango county. Herons, the See also: There are about 375 species of fish in New York waters (see below under See also:FISHERIES). Soil.—The soil is mostly glacial See also:drift, but its depth and See also:composition often vary greatly even within small areas. The most widely distributed soil, especially in the W. half of the state, is mainly a See also:clay which was formed by the glacial pulverizing of limestone and shale and is still forming from the decomposition of fragments of these substances. In the larger valleys and along the shores of lakes considerable See also:alluvium is mixed with this clay. In the E. there is some clay formed mainly by the decomposition of slate. A sandy See also:loam is quite characteristic of some of the N. counties, and gravelly loams containing limestone are not uncommon. Agriculture and Stock-Raising.—Although New York has lost in the competition with the Western States in the See also:production of most of the grains, especially See also:wheat and See also:barley, and in the production of See also:wool, mutton and pork, it has made steady progress in the dairy business and continues to produce great crops of See also:hay. The state has made great advances, too, in the production of See also:flowers, ornamental plants, nursery products, fruits, vegetables, poultry and eggs. In 190o a little less than three-fourths of the state's total land area was included in farms and a little more than two-thirds of this was improved. The number of farms gradually increased from 170,621 in 185o to 226,720 in 1900, and the average See also:size decreased from 112.1 acres in 185o to 97.1 acres in 189o, but increased to 99.9 acres in 1900. More than two-thirds of the farms (152,956) were operated by owners or part owners, 29,900 were operated by See also:share tenants, and 24,303 by See also:cash tenants. Of the total acreage of all crops, 5,154,965 acres (54.1 %) were of hay and 3,125,077 acres (32.8%) were of cereals. In 1909 the amount of the hay See also:crop (5,002,000 tons) was greater than that of any other state except See also:Iowa, and its value ($71,028,000) was greater than in any other state. The See also:oat crop in 1909 was 37,365,000 bushels; the See also:Indian See also:corn crop, 1,910,000 bushels; the wheat crop, 24,120,000 bushels; the barley crop, 8,820,000 bushels; the See also:rye crop, 2,720,000 bushels; See also:buckwheat, 7,512,000 bushels. There were less than one-third as many sheep in 1910 (1,177,000) as in 1850; but in the same See also:period the number of dairy cows (1,771,000 in 1910) steadily increased. The number of See also:cattle other than dairy cows was 946,315 in 185o and 889,000 in 1910. Horses increased from 447,014 in 185o to 717,000 in 1910. New York has a larger acreage of vegetables than any other state. Its crop of potatoes in 1909 was 52,560,000 bushels and that of See also:Maine, the next largest, 29,250,000 bushels; and the state is a large producer of onions, turnips, cabbages, cauliflower, sweet Indian corn, cucumbers, See also:rhubarb, parsnips, carrots, green peas and green beans. During the years 1850–1889 New York produced about 70 % of the See also:hop crop of the entire country, but since 1890 hop culture has been rapidly extended in the Pacific Coast states and suffered to de-cline in New York, and the crop from 1899 to 1907 averaged only about one-half that of 1889 (20,063,029 lb). See also:Tobacco culture was introduced in 1845, and in 186o the crop was 5,764,582 lb. During 186o–188o the increase was slight, but in 1899 the crop was 13,958,370 lb; in 1909 the crop was only 7,050,000 lb. The value of the fruit crop in 1899 ($15,844,346) was second only to that of See also:California; and the most productive agricultural lands are those devoted to floriculture and nurseries. The dairy business and the production of hay are especially prominent in the rugged region W. of the Adirondack Mountains and in the rugged portions of the counties in the S. half of the state. A large portion of the Indian corn; wheat and barley is produced on the Ontario plain. There are large crops of oats here, too, but the culture of this cereal is quite extensive in most of the counties W. of the Adirondacks. The lower valley of the Hudson is noted for its crops of rye. The buckwheat belt extends S.W. across the state from Albany and See also:Saratoga counties. The See also:principal hop-producing counties are Otsego, Schoharie and See also:Madison, all of which are between Albany and See also:Syracuse. Those producing most tobacco are in a See also:district ex-tending from the S.E. shore of Lake Ontario southward across the state. The great orchards are in the tier of counties bordering the S. shore of Lake Ontario and in Dutchess and See also:Ulster counties in the Hudson Valley. Chautauqua county alone produced more than one-half of the state's crop of grapes in 1899, but this fruit is grown extensively also in the region W. of Seneca Lake in the vicinity of Lake Keuka, and in parts of the lower valley of the Hudson. The culture of small fruits and vegetables is widely distributed throughout the W. half of the state and in the valley of the Hudson, and the greater part of Long Island under cultivation is devoted to See also:market gardening, floriculture and nurseries. The largest nurseries, however, are in the vicinity of Rochester.
Forest Products.—The principal forest area is in the Adirondack region where the state has a forest preserve (in See also:Clinton, See also:Essex, See also:Franklin, See also:Fulton, See also: Originally white pine was the principal timber of the Adirondacks, but most of the merchantable portion has been cut, and in 1905 nearly one-half of the See also:lumber product of this See also:section was spruce, the other half mainly hemlock, pine and hardwoods (yellow birch, maple, beech and basswood, and smaller amounts of elm, cherry and ash). The state is reforesting portions of its preserve chiefly with pine, spruce and larch. In the Catskills and in the farming regions the lumber product consists largely of hardwoods (mostly oak, chestnut and hickory), smaller amounts of hemlock and pine, and a very little spruce. The state's entire timber product in 1905 was 1,212,070,168 ft. (See also:board measure) ; of this about five-eighths was from the Adirondack region, a little more than one-See also:fourth was from the farming regions, and a little less than one-eighth was from the Catskill region. Maple See also:sugar is an important by-product of the forests, and in the production of this commodity New York ranks second . only to Vermont; 3,623,540 lb were made in 1900. Fisheries.—New York was in 1904 more extensively engaged in See also:oyster culture than any other state, and was making more rapid progress in the cultivation of hard clams. In 1909 there were distributed from state fish hatcheries i 531,293,721 fishes (mostl See also:smelt, See also:pike-See also:perch, and winter flatfish) ; a large number of fish and eggs were also placed in New York waters by the United States See also:Bureau of Fisheries. The products of the marine fisheries decreased nearly 30 % in value from 1891 to 1897, but from 1897 to 1904 they increased from $3,391,595 to $6,230,558, or 8o•3 %, and a large part of this increase was due to the extension of the successful oyster culture at the E. end of Long Island; the value of oysters alone rising from $2,050,058 to $3,780,352. The value of hard clams See also:rose during the same period from $198,930 to $303,599. Peconic Bay, at the E. end of Long Island, yields more scallops than all the other waters of the United States. Soft clams, lobsters, hard crabs and soft crabs are other See also:shell-fish obtained in small quantities. See also:Menhaden are caught in much larger quantities in New York than any other fish, but being too bony for See also:food they are used only in the manufacture of oil and fertilizer. The most valuable catches of food fish in 1904 were those of bluefish ($ 56,527), squeteague ($212,623), flounders ($67,159), eels ($53,832), See also:cod ($52,710), scup ($48,068) and See also:shad ($36,826). The shad See also:fishery is mainly in the lower waters of the Hudson river, and the catch diminished so rapidly from 1901 that in 1904 it was only about one-eighth of the average for the See also:decade from 1890 to 1900. The New York fisheries of Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Niagara and St Lawrence rivers yielded See also:pro-ducts in 1903 valued at $187,798 and consisting largely of pike-perch, See also:herring, catfish, bullheads and See also:sturgeon, and in 1902 there were commercial fisheries in sixteen interior lakes and rivers which yielded muscallonge, smelt, bullheads, pickerel, pike-perch and several other varieties having a total value of $87,897. Minerals.—M ore than See also:thirty See also:mineral substances are obtained in commercial quantities from the mines, quarries and See also:wells of New York, but of the total value of the mineral products in 1908 ($45,660,861), nearly six-sevenths was represented by clay products ($8,929,224), See also:pig iron ($15,879,000), stone ($6,157,279), See also:cement ($2,254,759), See also:salt ($2,136,738), See also:petroleum ($2,071,533), and sand and gravel ($1,349,163). The extensive deposits of clay in the Hudson Valley together with the easy water communications with New York City have made this valley the greatest See also:brick-making region in the See also:world; in t 906 the common bricks made here numbered 1,230,692,000. There are also deposits of clay suitable for making bricks, terra-See also:cotta and tiles in nearly every county outside of this valley, and there are some pottery See also:clays in Albany and See also:Onondaga counties. The common bricks made in New York in 1908 were valued at $5,066,084, an amount in excess of that in any other state; and the total value of brick and See also:tile products was $7,270,981, being less than that of Ohio, Pennsylvania or See also:Illinois. In 1750 the mining of iron ore was begun near See also:Monroe, Orange county. Ore has since been found in most of the eastern counties and as far W. as See also:Wayne county, but the mines in Essex, Clinton and Franklin counties of the Adirondack region are by far the most productive. The ores are principally magnetites (New York is the largest producer of See also:magnetite ore among the states, producing about 45 % of the total for the United States in 1907 and 1908), but red haematites occur in the N. and W. section of the Adirondacks and in the central part of the state, and brown haematites and carbonate ore in the S.E. counties. The total output of the state increased from 651,228 long tons in 1884 to 1,253,,393 long tons in 1890, decreased to 179,951 long tons in 1898, again increased to 1,375,020 long tons in 1907, when only three states produced more, and was only 697,473 long tons in 1908 when the state held the same See also:rank as in 1907. Limestone 'These include: the Adirondack 'Hatchery at Upper Saranac, Franklin county; the See also:Caledonia Hatchery at Mumford, Monroe county; the Cold Spring Harbor Hatchery, at Cold Spring Harbor, See also:Suffolk county ; the Delaware Hatchery, at Margaretville, Delaware county; the Fulton Chain Hatchery, at Old Forge, Herkimer county; the Linlithgo Hatchery, at Linlithgo, See also:Columbia county; the Oneida Hatchery, at See also:Constantia; See also:Oswego county; and the Pleasant Valley Hatchery, at Taggart, Stetiben county. is widely distributed throughout the state, and great quantities of it are crushed for road-making, railway ballasts, and See also:concrete, but as the prevailing See also:colours are greyish or drab it is little used in the walls of buildings. In 1908 the total value of the output of this stone was $2,584,559. Three distinct varieties of sandstone are quarried extensively. Those popularly known as " bluestones " belong to the Hamilton period of the Devonian formation and occur mainly between the Hudson and Delaware rivers. They are dark blue-grey, See also:fine grained and durable, and are much used for flagging and kerbing and for sills, caps and steps. See also:Medina sandstones occur throughout a belt averaging about to m. wide along the S. shore of Lake Ontario and are either red or grey; the red are used for building, the grey for See also:street paving. A more durable and more beautiful stone for building is the reddish or reddish-brown See also:Potsdam sandstone of which there are extensive formations on the N.W. border of the Adirondacks. The value of all sandstones quarried in 1908 was $1,774,843, an amount exceeded by no other state. Several choice See also:marbles are obtained in the eastern counties. From Tuckahoe, Westchester county, has been taken white See also:marble, used in some of the finest buildings in New York City, and a similar marble is obtained in See also:Putnam and Dutchess counties. Near Gouverneur, St Lawrence county, is a large See also:quarry of coarsely crystalline magnesian limestone, used as monumental marble. In the Lower See also:Silurian formation at See also:Plattsburg and Chazy, in Clinton county, are two beautiful grey or grey and See also:pink marbles, one of which is a favourite among domestic marbles for mantels, table tops and other interior decorations. From an extensive See also:deposit of blue-black magnesian limestone at Glens Falls are taken the choicest varieties of black marble quarried in the United States. At See also:Moriah and See also:Port See also: In 1908 the total value of the state's talc product was $697,390, almost one-half the total for the entire country.
New York and Michigan are the two principal salt-producing states in the Union. Salt was discovered by the See also:Jesuits in Western New York about the middle of the 17th century, ane was manufactured by the See also:Indians in the Onondaga region. The state bought the salt See also:reservation in 1788, and soon afterward the manufacture of salt was begun by the whites. From 1880 to 1885 the first brines were obtained in See also:Wyoming and Genesee counties by See also:boring deep wells into beds of rock salt, and in 1885 the mining of the extensive de-posits of rock salt in See also:Livingston county was begun. Salt is also produced in See also:Tompkins and See also:Schuyler counties. In 1908 the total production of the state, 9,076, 43 barrels valued at $2,136,738, was exceeded in quantity, and (for the first See also:time) in value by that of Michigan.
The Appalachian oil See also: There are more than See also:forty mineral springs in New York whose waters are of commercial importance, and in 1908 the waters sold from them amounted to 8,007,092 gals., valued at $877,648; several of the springs, especially those in Saratoga county, attract a large number of summer visitors. See also:Graphite is widely distributed in the Adirondack region, but the mining of it is confined for the most part to Essex and Warren counties; in 1908 the output was 1,932,000 lb. valued at $116,100. Other mineral substances obtained in small quantities are: pyrite, in St Lawrence county; arsenical ore, in Putnam county; red, green and See also:purple slate, in Washington county;See also:garnet in Warren, Essex and St Lawrence counties; See also:emery and See also:felspar, in Westchester county; and infusorial See also:earth in Herkimer county.. Manufactures.—The See also:establishment of a great, highway of commerce through the state from New York City to Buffalo by the construction of the Erie Canal, opened in 1825, and later by the building of rail-ways along the line of the water route, made the state's manufactures quite independent of its own natural resources. The factory manufacture of clothing was begun in New York City about 1835, and received a great impetus from the invention of the sewing-See also:machine, the demands created by the See also:Civil See also:War, and the See also:immigration of vast numbers of See also:foreign labourers. It is now the leading manufacturing See also:industry of the state. The value of the clothing was $340,715,92I in 1905. New York City ranks first among American cities in See also:printing and See also:publishing, the products being valued at $137,985,751 in 1905. See also:Knitting by machinery was introduced into America in 1831 at See also:Cohoes Falls, on the Mohawk river; the products, consisting largely of underwear, were valued at $46,108,600 in 1905. Of the other textile industries none except the manufacture of carpets and rugs and See also:silk and silk goods has become very promin nit, and yet the total value of all textile products in 1905 was $123,668,177. The refining of sugar was begun in New York City late in the 18th century, but the growth of the industry to its See also:present magnitude has been comparatively recent; the value of the sugar and See also:molasses refined in 1905 was $116,438,838. Foundry and machine-See also:shop products were valued at $115,876,193 in 1905, and See also:electrical machinery, apparatus, and supplies at $35,348,276. The manufacture of See also:paper and wood-pulp products ($37,750,605 in 1905) is an industry for which the state still furnishes much of the raw material, and other large industries of which the same is true are the manufacture of See also:flour and grist-mill products, dairy products, canned fruits and vegetables, wines, clay products, and salt. New York state has ranked first in the Union in the value of its manufactures since .183o, and their value rose to $2,488,345,579 in 1905. More than three-fifths of that of 1905 was represented by the manufactures of New York City alone. Buffalo, the second city in manufactures, shares largely with New York City the business of slaughtering and See also:meat packing, the refining and smelting of See also:copper, and the manufacture of foundry and machine-shop products, and with New York City and Rochester the manufacture of flour and grist-mill products. Rochester ranks first among the cities of the United States in the manufacture of photo-graphic materials and apparatus and See also:optical See also:instruments. Niagara Falls and New York City manufacture a large part of the chemicals, and the value of the state's output rose to $29,090,484 in 105. See also:Gloversville and See also:Johnstown are noted for See also:leather gloves and mittens. Transportation and Commerce.—From the very beginning of the occupation of New York by Europeans, commerce was much encouraged by the natural water-courses. The Western Inland See also:Lock Navigation See also:Company, chartered by the state in 1792, completed three canals within about four years and thereby permitted the continuous passage from See also:Schenectady to Lake Ontario of boats of about 17 tons.' The Erie Canal was begun by the state in 1817 and opened to boats of about 75 tons See also:burden in 1825. The Champlain Canal, connecting the Erie with Lake Champlain, was also begun in 1817 and completed in 1823. The Oswego Canal, connecting the Erie with Lake Ontario, was begun in 1825 and completed in 1828. Several other tributary canals were constructed during this period, and between 1836 and 1862 the Erie was sufficiently enlarged to accommodate boats of 240 tons burden. The first railway in the state and the second in operation in the United States was the Mohawk & Hudson, opened from Albany to Schenectady in 1831. The railway mileage in the state increased to 1361 m. in 18o, to 3928 M. in 187o, to 7684.41 M. in 189o, and to 8422.14 M. in See also:January 1909. The first great See also:trunk line in the country was that of the Erie railway, opened from Piermont, on the Hudson river, to See also:Dunkirk, on Lake Erie, in 1853. The New York Central & Hudson River railway, nearly parallel with the water route from New York City to Buffalo, was formed by the union, in 1869, of the New York Central with the Hudson River railway. The West Shore railway, which follows closely the route of the New York Central & Hudson River, was also the result of a consolidation, completed in 1881, of several shorter lines. In 1886 the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad Company leased the West Shore for a See also:term of 475 years, and this company operates another parallel line from Syracuse to Buffalo, a line following closely the entire N. border of the state (the See also:Rome, See also:Watertown & See also:Ogdensburg), and several cross lines. Other important railways are the Lehigh Valley, the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western, and the Pennsylvania in the central and W. sections, the Delaware & Hudson, the See also:Rutland, and the New York Ontario & Western in the E., and the Long Island on Long Island. In competition with the railways, See also:traffic on the existing canals suffered a marked decline. As, however, this decline was accompanied with a considerable decrease in the proportion of the country's exports which passed through the port of New York. See also:interest in the canals revived, and in 1903 the electorate of the state authorized the issue of bonds to the amount of $101,000,000 for the purpose of increasing the capacity of the Erie, the Champlain and the Oswego canals, to make each navigable by See also:barges of loon tons burden. A project adopted by the state for the enlargement of the Erie provides for a new route up the Hudson from Troy to See also:Waterford and thence to the Mohawk river above Cohoes Falls. Up the Mohawk to Rome the old route is for the most part to be retained; but from Rome to See also:Clyde there is to be a diversion so as to utilize Oneida Lake and Oneida and Seneca rivers. Westward from Clyde the new channel, like the old but larger, will pass through Rochester and. Lockport to the Niagara river at See also:Tonawanda. Each of the three canals is to have a minimum depth of 12 ft., a minimum bottom width in rivers and lakes of 200 ft., and in other sections a bottom width generally of 75 ft. Their locks are to be 328 ft. in length and 45 ft. in width. The imports to the port of New York increased in value from $466,5227,631 in 1897 to $891,6'4,678 in 1909, while the exports increased in value from $404,750,496 to $627,782,T.7. Other ports of entry are Buffalo and Dunkirk, on Lake Erie, Niagara Falls, on the Niagara river, Ogdensburg and Cape See also:Vincent, on the St Lawrence river, Plattsburg, on Lake Champlain, Oswego, on Lake Ontario, Rochester, on the Genesee river, Albany and Syracuse in the interior, and Sag Harbor at the E. end of Long Island. Population.—New York outstripped Pennsylvania in population in the first decade of the '9th century, and Virginia in the second decade, and since 182o it has been the most populous state in the Union. In '88o1 the population was 5,082,871; in 1890, 5,997,853; in 1900, 7,268,894; in '9o5, according to the state See also:census, 8,067,308; and in 1910, 9,113,614. The foreign-See also:born population in 1900 was 1,900,425, including 480,026 natives of See also:Germany, 425,553 of See also:Ireland, 182,248 of See also:Italy, '65,610 of See also:Russia, 135,685 of England, 117,535 of Canada, 78,491 of See also:Austria, 69,755 of See also:Poland and 64,o55 of Scandinavia. More than two-thirds of the foreign-born were in New York City. The coloured population constituted only 1.5% of the total, and was composed of 99,2,32 negroes, 7170 See also:Chinese, 5257 Indians and 354 See also:Japanese. Most of the Indians were on eight reservations: the Allegany Reservation (30,469 acres) in Cattaraugus county; the Cattaraugus Reservation (21,68o acres) in Erie, Cattaraugus and Chautauqua counties; the St Regis Reservation (14,030 acres) in Franklin county ; the Tonawanda Reservation (7548 acres) in Erie and Genesee counties; the Onondaga Reservation (7300 acres) in Onondaga county ; the See also:Tuscarora Reservation (624 acres) in Niagara county; the Oneida Reservation (400 acres) in Madison county; and the Shinnecock Reservation (400 acres) near See also:Southampton, on Long Island. Of 3,591,974 members of all religious denominations in 1906, 2,285,768 were See also:Roman Catholics, 3'3,689 Methodist Episcopalians,'99,923 Presbyterians, 193,890 See also:Protestant Episcopalians, 176,981 See also:Baptists, 124,644 See also:Lutherans, 57,351 Congregationalists, 35,342 See also:Jews (heads of families only), 26,183 members of the See also:German Evangelical See also:Synod, 19,302 members of Eastern Orthodox churches and 10,761 Universalists. The See also:urban population (i.e. population of places having 4000 inhabitants or more) increased from 3,805,477 in 1890 to 5,176,414 in 1900, or 36%, while the rural population (i.e. population outside of incorporated places) decreased during this decade from 1,834,119 to 1,625,859 or 5.9%. The cities having a population of 15,000 or more in 1905 were: New York City, 4,013,781; Buffalo, 376,587; Rochester, '81,666; Syracuse, 117,503; Albany, 98,374; Troy, 76,910; See also:Utica, 62,934; See also:Yonkers, 61,716; Schenectady, 58,387; See also:Binghamton, 42,036; governed under four constitutions, adopted in '777, 1821, 1846 and 1894 respectively. The first state constitution, adopted by a See also:convention at See also:Kingston, made few changes in the provincial system other than those necessary to establish it on a popular basis, but the See also:powers of the See also:governor were curtailed, especially his powers of See also:appointment and See also:veto. These limitations worked unsatisfactorily, and their removal or modification and the extension of the See also:franchise were the principal changes effected in 1821. Under the first constitution the decentralization of See also:administration, which began early in the colonial era, continued without interruption, and under the second it was checked by a few See also:measures only. The third constitution, besides reorganizing 1 The population at preceding census years was: (1790) 340,120; (1800) 589,051; (18io) 95,9,049; (1820) 1,372,812; (1830) 1,918,608; (1840) 2,428,921; 1850) 3,097,394; (186o) 3,880,735; (1870) 4,382,759.the judiciary, transferred to the See also:people the choice of many See also:officers, state and local, who had been appointed by the governor or the legislature; and placed numerous restrictions on the See also:law-making power of the legislature. Under this constitution the theory of local self-government was more fully realized in New York than at any other time. Since the middle of the '9th century an See also:attempt has been made to meet the problems arising from a rapid See also:industrial and social development by creating bureaus or commissions to exercise a central See also:control over local officials, corporations and even private individuals, and as most of the heads of these bureaus and the commissions are appointed by the governor the importance of that officer has increased, The constitutional changes since '846 affect principally the judiciary and cities. A constitutional convention met and proposed a new constitution in '867, but every See also:article was rejected by the people See also:save one See also:relating to the judiciary, which was adopted separately as an See also:amendment in '869. The constitution of '894 made further important changes in the judiciary and in the government of cities. The first constitution made no See also:provision for its amendment or revision. The second provided that whenever a See also:majority of the members elected to each See also:house of the legislature voted for an amendment and two-thirds of those elected to the next legislature approved, it should be submitted to the people for their See also:adoption or rejection. The third modified this provision by requiring the approval of only a majority of the members elected to each house of the second legislature, and directed that the legislature should See also:call a convention to revise the constitution at least once in twenty years if the people requested it. The present constitution contains the same clause as the third for the proposal of amendments by the legislature, and makes the unique pro-See also:vision that if the people See also:vote for a convention when the question is submitted to them—this must be as often as once in twenty years—the delegates shall be elected and shall assemble at an' appointed time and place without the call of the legislature, this being the result of the governor's veto, in '887, of a See also:bill for calling a convention in response to an overwhelming vote of the people in favour of it. Under the first constitution there were See also:property qualifications for voting which amounted in the See also:election of the governor and senators to a See also:freehold See also:estate See also:worth boo ($500) and in the election of assemblymen to a freehold estate worth X20. ($'oo) or the See also:payment of an annual See also:rent of 40s. ($10). But under the second constitution the most that was required of any white voter was the payment to the state or county of taxes on either See also:personal or real property, and by an amendment of '826 this requirement was abolished. The second constitution, however, imposed a property qualification on coloured voters amounting to a freehold estate worth $250, and this restriction was not removed until 1874. Since 1874 the aim has been to bestow See also:suffrage on all male citizens who shall have attained the age of twenty-one years and shall have been in-habitants of the state for one year, but for the protection of the See also:ballot citizenship for ninety days,2 See also:residence in the county for four months, and in the election district for thirty days next preceding the election are required. Conviction for See also:bribery or of an infamous See also:crime disqualifies, and personal See also:identification of voters is required in New York City. A statement of receipts and expenditures of an election See also:campaign, showing the amount received from each contributor and the name, of every See also:person or See also:committee to whom more than $5 was paid, must be filed by the treasurer of every See also:political committee within twenty days after the election; each See also:candidate also must See also:file a statement of his contributions. By an See also:Act of 1910 See also:women may vote on See also:financial questions affecting a village in which they hold property. Executive.—When the state government was first established, the governor and See also:lieutenant-governor were the only state officers elected by the people. The state treasurer was chosen by the legislature, and for the appointment of other state officers as well as county officers and mayors of cities the See also:Assembly See also:chose four senators to constitute a See also:council of appointment, a See also:body 2 Increased from ten days in 1894. See also:Elmira, 3 ,687; See also:Auburn, 31,422; Niagara Falls, 26,56o; See also:Newburgh, 4Jamestown, 26,498; 26,16o; Kingston, 25,556; Watertown, 25,447; See also:Poughkeepsie, 25,379; Mt. See also:Vernon, 25,996; Cohoes, 24,183; See also:Amsterdam, 23,943; Oswego, 22,572; New Rochelle, 20,479; Gloversville, 18,672; Lockport, 17,552; Rome, 16,562; and Dunkirk, 15,250. Government.—Since becoming a state, New York has been in which the governor had only a casting vote. But the constitution of 1821 abolished the council of appointment and gave the choice of the principal state departmental officers to the legislature, and the constitution of 1846 transferred the choice of these officers from the legislature to the people, where it has since remained. Under the constitution of 1821 a great number of local officers were appointed by the governor with the See also:advice and consent of the See also:Senate. The choice of most of these was given to the people in 1846, but since then many new state departments have been created, the heads of which are usually appointed by the governor, subject to the approval of the Senate. Under the present system, therefore, there is a biennial election (in even-numbered years) of a governor, a lieutenant-governor, a secretary of state, a state See also:comptroller, a state treasurer, an See also:attorney-general and a state engineer and surveyor; and the governor appoints, subject to the approval of the Senate, a See also:superintendent of public See also:works, a superintendent of state prisons, a superintendent of See also:insurance, a superintendent of banks, a commissioner of See also:excise, a commissioner of agriculture, a forest, fish and game commissioner, a commissioner of See also:health, a commissioner of labour, a state architect, a state historian, a state librarian, two public service commissions, a civil service See also:commission, a board of charities, a commission of prisons, a commission in lunacy, three tax commissioners and several other boards and commissions. The governor has the power, also, of filling vacancies in certain state offices and on the benches of the supreme See also:court and county courts, and he may remove or suspend certain county and municipal officers on charges. The first state constitution gave the veto power to a council of revision composed of the governor, the See also:chancellor and the See also:judges of the supreme court, but since 1821 this power has been exercised by the governor alone; and in 1874 it was extended to separate items in See also:appropriation bills. A bill or See also:item of an appropriation bill that has been vetoed by the governor can become a law only with the approval of two-thirds of the members elected to each house of the legislature. So long as the legislature is in session the governor is allowed ten days, besides Sundays, to consider a bill, and if he does not veto it within that time it becomes a law, but no bill becomes a law after the final See also:adjournment of the legislature unless it is actually approved by the governor within thirty days after the adjournment. The governor's power to See also: This system, with the addition of the Senate, the chancellor and the justices of the supreme court occasionally sitting as a court for the correction of errors, was retained with only slight changes until 1846. But the new constitution of that year substituted a court of appeals for the court of errors, merged the court of chancery into the supreme court, established in each county a new county court composed of a single See also:judge, and, taking the appointment of judges from the governor, gave the election of them to the people. Some further alterations in the constitution affecting the courts were made in 1869, 1879, 1888, 1894, 1899 and 1909, and the system as at present constituted comprises a supreme court of ninety-seven justices, an appellate See also:division of the same, a court of appeals, a court of claims and local courts. The highest judicial court in the state is not, as in most states of the Union, the supreme court, but the court of appeals. This court consists of a chief judge and six See also:associate judges elected from the state at large for a term of fourteen years. Its See also:jurisdiction is limited, except where See also:judgment is of See also:death, to a See also:review of questions of law. Vacancies are temporarily filled from among the justices of the supreme court by the governor. To expedite business, at the See also:request of the court, the governor may designate not more than four justices of the supreme court to act temporarily as additional associate judges of the court of appeals. The salary of the chief judge is $14,200, of the associate judges $13,7o0 a year. The ninety-seven justices of the supreme court are elected for fourteen years from the nine districts into which the state is divided. Of these thirty are chosen in the first district (New York county) and seventeen in the second district (Long Island and Staten Island). The jurisdiction of each See also:justice extends over the entire state. Vacancies are temporarily filled by the governor. Tne supreme court has general jurisdiction in law and See also:equity, including all actions both civil and criminal. The salary of the justices in the first district and in See also:Kings county of the second district is $17,500 a year; in the See also:remainder of the second district it is $16,3oo a year; in the other districts it is $io,000 a year. The state is divided into four departments for each of which there is an Appellate Division consisting of seven justices in the first See also:department (county of New York) and five in each of the others. The justices and presiding justice are designated from among the justices of the supreme court by the governor; the presiding justice and a majority of the other justices of each department must be residents of the department.
The court of claims consists of three judges, one presiding, appointed by the governor for a term of six years. It has jurisdiction to hear and determine private claims against the state.
The local judiciary includes the usual county and city judges, county surrogates and justices of the peace. New York City (q.v.) has an extensive judiciary system of its own.
Local Government.—The state is divided into sixty-one counties, each (unless wholly included in a city) having a county board of supervisors elected for two years, one from every See also:town or city See also: Cities are of three classes: (I) those having a population of 175,000 or more; (2) those having a population between 50,000 and 175,000; and (3) those whose population is less than 5o,000; the See also:classification is according to the latest state enumeration. Bills for " See also:special " city See also:laws, as opposed to " general," must be approved (within fifteen days after their passage by both houses of the legislature) by the See also:mayor of the city in first-class cities (in which, however, the state legislature may provide for the concurrence of the municipal legislative body), and in other cities by the mayor and council, before it is laid before the governor: if it is passed by the state legislature over the mayor's veto it goes See also:direct to the governor. All city elections are held in See also:odd numbered years. The organization of cities and villages is provided by the legislature, which may restrict their powers of See also:taxation and of contracting debts and may See also:fix salaries. Town (or township) government in New York somewhat resembles that of New England; the chief executive officer of the town is a supervisor, who represents his town in the county " board of supervisors." See also:National Guard.—The national guard of the state is commanded under the governor by a See also:major-general. It consists of four brigades each commanded by a brigadier-general. The establishments in 1910 consisted of thirteen regiments and fifty separate companies of See also:infantry, two squadrons and two troops of See also:cavalry, four See also:light batteries, one See also:regiment of See also:engineers, a See also:signal See also:corps of two companies and a See also:naval See also:militia, commanded by a See also:captain and consisting of two battalions and two separate divisions. Laws.—A married woman has full control of her property whether acquired before or after See also:marriage, and she may carry on any business, See also:trade or occupation in her own right. A See also:husband or a wife may convey real property directly to the other. A widow has a See also:dower right to one-third of the real property to which her husband had See also:absolute See also:title, but a wife may convey or devise her real property See also:free from her husband's right of tenancy by See also:courtesy. The only ground for See also:divorce is See also:adultery. As soon as a divorce has been granted the See also:plaintiff may marry again, but the See also:defendant is not permitted to marry within the state any one except the plaintiff until five years have elapsed, and then only in case the court permits it because of the petitioner's uniformly See also:good conduct in the meantime. Since the 1st of January 1908 a marriage See also:licence has been required for every lawful marriage. A See also:homestead consisting of a See also:lot of land with one or more buildings, and properly designated as such in the office of the county clerk, but not exceeding $t000 in value, is exempt from forced See also:sale so long as it is owned and occupied as a residence by a householder having a See also:family or by a married woman, except to recover the See also:purchase money, to satisfy a judgment obtained before it was designated as a homestead, or to collect taxes upon it. Personal property consisting of necessary See also:household See also:furniture, working tools and team of horses, professional instruments and a library, not exceeding $250 in value, besides the necessary food for the team for ninety days, provisions for the family, wearing See also:apparel, See also:wages or other income not exceeding $12 a See also:week, and several other things, when owned by a householder or person providing for a family, are also exempt from seizure for See also:debt, unless the debt be for purchase money or for services performed in the family by a domestic. Eight See also:hours constitute a legal day's work for all employees except those engaged in farm labour or domestic service. The employment of See also:children under fourteen years of age in any factory is for-bidden. Until sixteen years of age no See also:child is to be so employed without an employment certificate issued by a commissioner of health, and showing that the child has completed an eight years' course of study in a public school of the state or has had an See also:equivalent schooling elsewhere. For children under sixteen years of age who are so employed the hours of labour are limited to eight a day and the days to six a week, and such children must not begin work before eight o'See also:clock in the See also:morning or continue after five o'clock in the evening. For children between sixteen and eighteen years of age and for women the hours of labour in a factory are limited to ten a day, unless to prepare for a short day or a See also:holiday, and the days to six a week. The employment of children under fourteen years of age in any See also:mercantile establishment, business office, hotel, restaurant or apartment house is also forbidden, except that in villages and in cities of the second or third class children upwards of twelve years of age may be so employed during the summer vacation of the public See also:schools. For both boys and girls sixteen years of age or upward the restrictions are removed for two See also:weeks at See also:Christmas timed The Employers' Liability Act of 1902 (amended and broadened in 1910) holds an employer liable for See also:damages in any case in which one of his employees sustains a personal injury by See also:reason of the See also:negligence of the employer, of a sub-contractor, of a superintendent, or any other person in the employer's service whose See also:duty it was to see that " the ways, works or machinery connected with or used in the business," were in proper condition, or whose duty it was to "direct . . . any employee," if it is not proved that the employee failed in due care and See also:diligence; by another law of 1910 in certain dangerous employments the employer is liable unless the injured employee was negligent. Although the constitution of 1894 expressly declares that " any lottery or the sale of lottery tickets, See also:pool-selling, See also:book-making, or any other See also:kind of gambling " shall not " hereafter be authorized or allowed within the state ' and directs the legislature to pass ap- r For further regulations relating to the employment of women and children see the Labour Law enacted in 1909 and the subsequent amendments.propriate laws prohibiting the same,' the legislature passed an act to 1895, which in practice permitted pool-selling and book-making at See also:race-tracks, but in 1908 and 1910 bills were enacted prohibiting gambling at race-tracks. License to sell intoxicating liquors is subject to a graduated tax. The sale of liquor on See also:Sunday or between one o'clock and five o'clock in the morning of any other day is unlawful. Any town (but not any city) may at its See also:option wholly forbid the sale of intoxicating liquors, may allow it to be sold only on condition that it be not drunk on the vendor's premises, or may allow it to be sold only by hotel-keepers and pharmacists, or by pharmacists alone.
Administrative Commissions.—The regulation and control of such public service corporations as own or operate See also:steam, electric or street railways, gas or electric plants, and See also:express companies were, in 1907, vested in two public service commissions (the first for New York City and the second for all other parts of the state), each of five members appointed by the governor with the approval of the Senate; in 1910 the regulation of See also:telephone and See also:telegraph companies throughout the state was vested in the second commission.
A state civil service commission (1883) consists of three members (not more than two of the same political party) appointed by the governor with the approval of the Senate. For the classified service of the state and of the minor civil divisions, except cities, the commission makes rules (subject to the governor's approval and to statutory and constitutional pro-visions) governing the classification of offices, the examination of candidates for office, and the appointment and promotion of employees. In cities the mayor is required to appoint a municipal civil service commission, with similar duties; not more than two-thirds of the members may be of the same political party.
Prisons, Poor Law, Charities, &c.—Penal institutions for sane adults, except reformatories for women, are under the general supervision of a state commission of prisons; hospitals for the insane are under the general supervision of a state commission in lunacy; and all other charitable and penal institutions, maintained wholly or in part by the state, or by any county, city or town within the state, are under the general supervision of a state board of charities. This board of charities consists of one member from each of the nine judicial districts and three additional members from the City of New York, all appointed by the governor with the consent of the Senate for a term of eight years. Its existence See also:dates from 1867, but its authority was very limited, chiefly advisory, until 1895. Since then, however, its powers have been greatly increased. In 1910 the state charitable institutions were as follows: State Soldiers' and Sailors' See also:Home, See also:Bath; State School for the See also:Blind, See also:Batavia; the See also: Eight private institutions for the care or the care and instruction of See also:deaf mutes and one for the care of the blind are supported mainly by the state. Many other charitable institutions receive public money, mostly from counties, cities and towns. The poor law of the state defines the town poor as those who have gained a See also:settlement in some town or city, by residing there for one year See also:prior to their application for public relief and who are unable to maintain themselves; the county poor as the poor who have not resided in any one town or city for one year before their application for public relef, but have.been in some one county for sixty days; and the state poor as all other poor persons within the state. Wherever cared for, each town, city, county and the state must pay the cost of maintaining its own poor. In some counties there is no distinction between town and county poor, but in 1910 only one county had not a county superintendent for the general supervision and care of the poor; towns and cities not subject to special pro-visions intrusted public relief to one or more overseers of the poor or to commissioners of charities. In counties lacking adequate hospital See also:accommodation a poor person requiring medical or surgical treatment may be sent to the nearest hospital approved by the state board of charities. An Act of 1910 provides that indigent soldiers, sailors or See also:marines of the U.S. and their families be cared for in their homes and not in almshouses. The first state insane asylum, designed chiefly for recent and curable cases, was opened at Utica in 1843. Since 1896 every public institution for the insane has been maintained and administered as a part of the state system. A state commissioner in lunacy was first appointed in 1874; this officer was replaced in 1889 by a commission in lunacy, which in 1894 was placed at the head of the administration of the state's See also:insanity law. This commission consists superintendent of public instruction from 1854 to 1904. In the of three members appointed by the governor with the consent of the Senate. Its See also:president must be a physician and See also:alienist, and another member must be a lawyer. The commission appoints a board of experts to examine all immigrants suspected of insanity or allied See also:mental disorders in See also:order to prevent the See also:admission of the insane into the country. In 1910 there were fourteen state hospitals (corresponding to fourteen state hospital districts) for the poor and indigent insane; these were at Utica, See also:Willard, Poughkeepsie, Buffalo, See also:Middletown (homoeopathic), Binghamton, Rochester, Ogdensburg, Gowanda (homoeopathic), See also:Flatbush, Ward's Island, See also: In January 1784 Governor George Clinton recommended legislation for the " revival and encouragement of seminaries of learning," with the result that the legislature passed an act establishing a state university of which Columbia College, formerly King's, was the " See also:mother portion. In 1787 a second university act was passed which restored to Columbia College the substance of its original See also:charter and made the University of the State of New York an exclusively executive body with authority to incorporate new colleges and See also:academies and to exercise over them the right of visitation. In 1795 an act was passed which formed the basis of the present elementary-school system. This act appropriated 20,000 annually for five years for the establishment and See also:maintenance of elementary schools, required each city and town to raise by taxation a sum for the same purpose equal to one-half of its share from the proceeds of the state fund, and provided for the election of school commissioners in each town and of trustees of each school. The state appropriation was discontinued in 1800; but in 1805 the proceeds of the sale of 500,000 acres of land were set apart for a permanent school fund, and in 1812, when the interest on this fund had become nearly $50,000 a year, the amount required before any of it could be distributed for school purposes, the common-school system was permanently established by an act which restored the main features of that of 1795, except that a superintendent of schools chosen by the council of appointment was now placed at its head. Although the interest on the state fund had risen to $70,000 in 1819, this toggether with an equal sum raised by the cities and towns was insufficient, and to meet the deficiency the patrons in each district were required by a " See also:rate bill " to contribute in proportion to the attendance of their children. The schools were made free only after a memorable contest against the " rate bill." The framers of the constitution of 1846 were nearly equally divided on this question. In 1849 the legislature passed a free-school bill subject to the approval of the people. The people approved by a vote of nearly three to one, but the court of appeals declared the act unconstitutional because of the See also:referendum. In 1851 a See also:compromise measure was substituted, increasing the state appropriation to $800,000 and exempting indigent parents from the ' rate bill," which was finally abolished in 1867. The administration of the common school system was in the hands of a state superintendent of schools from 1813 to 1821, of the secretary of state from 1821 to 1854, and of a meantime the functions of the university had been extended to include an oversight of the professional, scientific and technical schools, the administration of laws relating to admission to the professions, the See also:charge of the State Library at Albany, the super-vision of local See also:libraries, the custody of the State Museum and the direction of all scientific work prosecuted by the state. This dual system was consolidated by the Educational Unification Act of 1904, in conformity with which the university regents have become a legislative body, subordinate to the state legislature, for determining the general educational policy of the state, and a commissioner of education acts as the chief executive, advisory and supervisory, officer of the whole educational system. The regents of the University are chosen by the legislature, one retiring each year; and an act of 1909 requires that their number shall at all times be three more than the number of judicial districts. The first commissioner of education was chosen by the legislature for a term of six years, but it was arranged that his successor should be chosen by the regents and continue in office during their See also:pleasure. The commissioner (subject to approval of the regents) appoints three assistant commissioners, for higher, secondary and elementary education respectively. The elementary school is administered by a school commissioner in each of the school commissioner's districts into which a county may be divided, by one trustee or three trustees in each separate school district, and by a board of education in each city, village or union free school district having more than three hundred children. Any two or more adjoining school districts may unite to form a union free school district, and in any village or union free school district having a population of 5000 or more the board of education may appoint a superintendent of schools. The compulsory education law as amended in 1907 and 1909 requires the full attendance at a public school, or at a school which is an approximate equivalent, of all children who are between seven and fourteen years of age, are in the proper See also:physical and mental condition, and reside in a city or school district having a population of 5000 or more and employing a superintendent of schools; in such a city or district children between fourteen and sixteen 'years must attend school unless they obtain an employment certificate and are regularly engaged in some useful employment or service; and outside of such a city or district all children between the ages of eight and fourteen years and those between fourteen and sixteen years who are not regularly employed must attend school on all school days from October to See also:June. In a city of the first or second class every boy between fourteen and sixteen years of age who has an employment certificate, but has not completed the course of study prescribed for the elementary public schools or the equivalent, must attend an evening school not less than six hours each week for a period of not less than sixteen weeks each year, or a trade school not less than eight hours a week for sixteen weeks a year. By a law of 1908 the board of education of any city is authorized to establish industrial schools for children who have completed the elementary school course or have attained the age of fourteen years, and trade schools for children who are more than sixteen years old and have completed the elementary school course or a course offered by any of the industrial schools. For the training of teachers for the elementary schools the state maintains ten normal schools at Oswego (1863), See also:Cortland (1866), Fredonia (1866), Potsdam (1866), Geneseo (1867), Brockport (1867), Buffalo (1867), New Paltz (1885), See also:Oneonta (1887) and Plattsburg (189o), it also appropriates $700 annually for each teachers' training class in about one hundred of the secondary schools. The State Normal College at Albany, founded in 1844 as the first state normal school, is designed principally for the training of teachers for the secondary schools, about 800 high schools and academies, supported wholly or in part by the state. The state controls professional and technical schools through the regents' See also:examinations of candidates for admission to such schools and to the professions, determines the minimum requirements for admission to college by the regents' See also:academic examinations, maintains the large State Library and the valuable State Museum, and occasionally makes a See also:gift to a college or a university for the support of courses in See also:practical industries; but it maintains no college or university that is composed of a teaching body. To Cornell University (q.v.), a non-sectarian institution opened at Ithaca in 1868, the state turned over the proceeds from the National land-grant act of 1862 on condition that it should admit free one student annually from each Assembly district, and in 1909 a still closer relation between this institution and the state was established by an act which makes the governor, lieutenant-governor, See also:speaker of the Assembly and commissioner of education ex-officio members of its board of trustees, and authorizes the governor with the approval of the Senate to appoint five other members, one each year. Among the institutions of higher learning in the state, besides Columbia University (q.v.) and Cornell University (q.v.), are: Union University (1795, non-sectarian), at Schenectady; Hamilton College (1812, non-sectarian), at Clinton; Colgate University (1819, non-sectarian), at Hamilton; See also:Hobart College (1822, non-sectarian), at See also:Geneva; See also:Rensselaer See also:Polytechnic See also:Institute (1824, non-sectarian), at Troy; New York University (1832, non-sectarian), in New York City; See also:Alfred University (1836, non-sectarian), at Alfred; See also:Fordham University (1841, Roman See also:Catholic), in New York City; College of
602 NEW YORK
St See also:Francis See also:Xavier (1847, Roman Catholic), in New York City; College of the City of New York (1849, City) ; University of Rochester (185o, Baptist), at Rochester; Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn (1854, non-sectarian), at Brooklyn; Niagara University (1856, Roman Catholic), at Niagara Falls; St Lawrence University (1858, non-sectarian), at See also:Canton; St Bonaventure's College (1859, Roman Catholic), at St Bonaventure; St See also:Stephen's College (186o, Protestant Episcopal), at Annandale; Manhattan College (1863, Roman Catholic), at New York City; St See also: The surplus in the treasury was $8,435,848, the total amount in trust and sinking funds was $31,301,501. The constitution prohibits the legislature from lending the state's See also:credit or incurring an indebtedness for current expenses in excess of $1,000,000 or incurring any indebtedness whatever, other than for war purposes, unless such indebtedness be authorized by law for " some single work or See also:object," the law to be approved by the people at a general election and providing for a direct annual tax sufficient to pay the interest and to liquidate the debt within eighteen years. That See also:instrument further prohibits each county, city, town and village from lending its credit and from creating an indebtedness in excess of io% of the assessed valuation of its real estate. The first state institution to receive a bank charter was the bank of New York, incorporated in 1791. In 1804 free banking was restricted to such an extent as to give practically a See also:monopoly of the business to associations receiving special charters, and as these charters were generally awarded as favours to politicians the system was a formidable agency of corruption. Chiefly because of these evils the constitution of 1821 required the assent of two-thirds of the members elected to each house of the legislature to pass an act creating a See also:corporation. In 1829 the Safety-Fund Act was passed, which required each bank thereafter chartered or rechartered to pay into the state treasury 3 % of its capital stock other than that owned by the state, and from this fund the debts of insolvent banks were to be paid. The fund became exhausted by many failures, and a free banking law was enacted in 1838. The constitution of 1846 prohibited the legislature from granting any special charters for banking purposes, and consequently no more safety-fund banks were established. At the same time the free-banking system has been greatly improved. The state banks still have the right to issue currency, but the heavy tax on currency issue imposed by Congress in 1866 (after the introduction of the National banking system in 1863) put a stop to the practice. In 1851 a state banking department was created, and at the head of this is a superintendent of banks appointed by the governor, with the consent of the Senate, for a term of three years. The superintendent—or examiners appointed by him (from a civil service See also:list)—is required to examine every bank and every trust company at least twice each year, each building and See also:loan association at least once a year, and every savings bank at least once in two years. The law provides specifically as to the in-vestment of deposits made in savings banks with the evident purpose of providing the greatest possible See also:security to depositors. State banks must carry from 15% to 25% reserve and trust companies from 100/0 to 15% reserve, depending upon location. The introduction of the National banking system caused a decrease in the number of state banks from 309 in 1863 to 45 in 1868, but their number has increased steadily since 188o and in 1909 there were 202. In the same year there were 140 savings-banks, 85 trust companies, 46safe deposit companies, 255 building and loan associations and other See also:miscellaneous corporations, with total resources of $3,833,500,000 under the supervision of the banking department of the state. This is over 21 % of the entire banking power of the United States. To correct abuses in the See also:life insurance business which were discovered in 1905 by a committee of the state legislature, laws were passed in the next year regulating the election of the See also:directors of the insurance companies, and the investments of the companies and the See also:distribution of dividends, limiting the amount of business of the larger companies and prohibiting rebates on insurance premiums. A state superintendent of insurance, (since 186o) appointed by the governor, holds office for three years. See also:History.—The aboriginal inhabitants of New York had an important influence on its colonial history. Within its limits from the upper Hudson westward to the Genesee river was the home of that powerful confederacy of Indian tribes, the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas and Senecas, known to the See also:French as the Iroquois and to the English as the Five (later Six) Nations. When supplied with firearms by Europeans they reduced a number of other tribes to subjection and extended their dominion over most of the territory from the St Lawrence to the See also:Tennessee and from the Atlantic to the Mississippi. They were at the height of their power about 1700. Of much less influence in New York were several Algonquian tribes in the lower valley of the Hudson and along the sea coast.
New York Bay and the Hudson river were discovered by Giovanni da Verrazano in 1524, and were probably seen by Estevan See also:Gomez in 1525; for many years following French vessels occasionally ascended the Hudson to trade with the Indians. The history of New York really begins, however, in 1609. In See also:July of that year See also:Samuel de Champlain discovered the lake which bears his name and on its shores led his Algonquian Indian See also:allies against the Iroquois, thus provoking against his countrymen the hostility of a people who for years were to hold the See also:balance of power between the English and the French' in America. On the 3rd of September Henry Hudson, in the employ of the Dutch East See also:India Company, entered New 'York Bay in the " Half See also:Moon' ; in See also:search of the " northwest passage." He conceived that a vast trade with the Iroquois for furs might' be established; his report aroused great interest in See also: It was authorized to plant colonies and to govern them under a very limited supervision of the States-General, such as the approval of its appointment of a governor and of its instructions to him; and its own government was vested in five See also:chambers of directors and an executive board or college of nineteen delegates from those chambers, eight of the nineteen representing the Chamber of Amsterdam. New Netherland became one of the more important interests of the Company. In June 1623, however, New Netherland was formally erected into a province and the management of its affairs assigned to the Chamber of
Amsterdam, which in See also: The patroon received his estate in perpetual See also:inheritance and had the exclusive right of See also:hunting and fishing upon it. Each colonist not only paid him a fixed rent, usually in kind, but had to share with him the increase of the stock and to have the See also:grain ground at his mill. The patroon was the legal See also:heir of all his colonists who died intestate. He had civil and criminal jurisdiction within the boundaries of his estate; he could create offices, found cities, and appoint officers and magistrates, and, although the charter permitted an See also:appeal from his court to the director-general and council in any case in which the amount in dispute exceeded fifty guilders ($20), some of the patroons exacted from their colonists a promise not to avail themselves of the See also:privilege. The Company promised to permit the patroons to engage in the fur trade, wherever it had no See also:commissary of its own, subject to a tax of one guilder (40 cents) on each skin, and to engage in other trade along the coast from Newfoundland to See also:Florida subject to a tax of 5% on goods shipped to See also:Europe. The colonists of the patroons were exempted from all taxes for a period of ten years, but were forbidden to manufacture any See also:cloth whatever. The charter did not give the encouragement to agriculture that was expected of it because the status created for colonists of a patroon was no attraction to a successful See also:farmer in the Netherlands. Immediately after the issue of the charter a few of the more adroit directors of the Amsterdam Chamber hastened to acquire for themselves, as patroons, the tracts of land most favourably situated for trade. On both sides of the entrance to Delaware Bay Samuel Godyn, Samuel Blomaert and five other directors who were admitted to partner-ship in the second year (1630) established the manor and colony of Swaanendael; on a tract opposite the lower end of Manhattan Island and including Staten Island, See also:Michael Pauw established the manor and colony of Pavonia; on both sides of the Hudson and extending in all directions from Fort Orange (Albany) See also:Kilian See also:van Rensselaer established the manor and colony of Rensselaerwyck. The colony of Swaanendael was destroyed by the Indians in 1632. Pauw maintained his colony of Pavonia for about seven years and then sold out to the Company. The colony of Rensselaerwyck was the only one that prospered under the patroon system. In the meantime the patroons had claimed unrestricted rights of trade within the boundaries of their estates. These were stoutly denied by the Company. Director-General Minuit was recalled in 1632 on the ground that he had been partial to the patroons; and Wouter van Twiller, who arrived in 1633, endeavoured to promote only the selfish commercial policy of the Company; at the close of his administration (1637) the affairs of the province were in a ruinous condition. William Kieft was appointed director-general late in 1637, and in 1638 the Company abandoned its monopoly of trade in New Netherland and gave See also:notice that all inhabitants of the United Provinces, and of friendly countries, might trade there subject to an import duty of ro%, an export duty of 15%, and to the requirement that the goods should be carried in the Company's See also:ships. At the same time the director-general was instructed to issue to any immigrant applying for land a patent for as large a farm as he required for cultivation and pasturage, to be free of all charges for ten years and thereafter subject only to a quit-rent of one-tenth of the produce. Two years later, by a revision of the Charter of Privileges and Exemptions, the See also:prohibition on manufactures was abolished, the privileges of the original charter with respect to patroons were extended to " all good inhabitants of the Netherlands," and the estate of a patroon was limited to 4 M. along the coast or a navigable river and 8 m. back into the country. The revised charter also provided that any one who brought over five colonists and established them in a new settlement should receive 200 acres, and if such a settlement See also:grew to be a town or village it should receive a grant of municipal government. These inducements encouraged immigration not only from the Fatherland but from New England and Virginia. But the freedom of trade promoted dangerous relations with the Indians, and an attempt of Kieft to collect a tribute from the Algonquian tribes in the vicinity of Manhattan Island and other indiscretigns of this officer provoked Indian hostilities (1641-1645), during which most of the outlying settlements were laid See also:waste. - Out of this warfare arose an organized See also:movement for a government in which the colonists should have a See also:voice. In See also:August 1641 Kieft called an assembly of the heads of families in the neighbourhood of Fort Amsterdam to consider the question of peace or war. The assembly chose a board of Twelve Men to represent it, and a few months later this board demanded certain reforms, especially that the membership of the director-general's council should be increased from one to five by the popular election of four members. Kieft promised the concessions to gain the board's consent to waging war, but later denied its authority to exact promises from him and dissolved it. At another crisis, in 1643, he was obliged to call a second assembly of the people. This time a board of Eight Men was chosen to confer with him. It denied his right to See also:levy certain war taxes, and when it had in vain protested to him against his arbitrary measures it sent a See also:petition, in 1644, to the States-General for his recall, and this was granted. Peter See also:Stuyvesant (q.v.), his successor, arrived at Fort Amsterdam in May 1647. Under his rule there was a return of prosperity; from 1653 to 1664 the population of the province increased from 2000 to 10,000. Stuyvesant was, however, extremely arbitrary. Although he permitted the existence of a board of Nine Men to act as " tribunes " for the people it was originally composed of his selections from eighteen persons chosen at a popular election, and annually thereafter the places of six retiring members were filled by his selections from twelve persons nominated by the board. He treated it with increasing contempt, and the most that it could do was to remonstrate to the States-General. That body suggested a representative government, but this the Company refused to grant. Stuyvesant conducted a successful expedition against the Swedes on the southern border of New Netherland in 1655; but he was powerless against the English. The Dutch had long claimed the whole coast from Delaware Bay to Cape Cod, but by the treaty of Hartford (165o), negotiated between himself and the commissioners of the United Colonies of New England, Stuyvesant agreed to a boundary which on the mainland roughly determined the existing boundary between New York and Connecticut and on Long Island extended southward from the west side of Oyster Bay to the Atlantic Ocean. Not-withstanding the good claim to their province which the Dutch had established by See also:discovery and occupancy, the government of Great See also:Britain, basing its claim to the same territory on See also:Cabot's discovery (1498), the patent to the See also:London and See also:Plymouth companies (16o6), and the patent to the Council for New England (162o), contended that the Dutch were intruders. In 1653, during the war between England and Holland, the Dutch, fearing an English attack, built a See also:wall, from which the present Wall Street was named, across Manhattan Island at what was then the northern limits of New Amsterdam. In the following year See also:Cromwell actually sent out an expedition which, with the aid of New England, was to attempt the conquest, but before an attack was made peace was announced. The Connecticut Charter of 1662 included in that colony some settlements acknowledged by the treaty of Hartford to belong to New Netherland, and strife was renewed. Finally, in March 1664, See also: In the administration of local affairs some of the Dutch settlements were little disturbed until ten years or more after the conquest, but the introduction of English institutions into settlements wholly or largely English was begun in 1665 by the erection of- Long Island, Staten Island and Westchester into an English county under the name of See also:Yorkshire, and by putting into operation in that county a See also:code of laws known as the " Duke's Laws." This code was based largely on the laws of New England, and, although a source of popular discontent, it gave to the freeholders of each town a voice in the government of their town by permitting them to elect a board of eight over-seers which chose a See also:constable and sat as a court for the trial of small causes. Nicolls resigned the governorship in 1668, but his successor, Francis See also:Lovelace, continued his policy—autocratic government, arbitrary in form but mild in practice, and progressive in the See also:matter of religious See also:toleration. In August 1673, Holland and England being at war, a Dutch See also:fleet surprised New York, captured the city, and restored Dutch authority and the names of New Netherland and New Amsterdam. Butby the treaty of See also:Westminster, See also:February 1674, the Dutch title to the province was finally extinguished, and in See also:November the English again took See also:possession. A new charter was issued to the duke to perfect his title and See also:Edmund (later See also:Sir Edmund) See also:Andros, the new governor, was instructed to establish English institutions and enforce English law in all sections. In 1675 Andros established at Albany a commission for Indian affairs which long rendered important service in preserving the English-Iroquois alliance. The imperious manner of Andros made him many enemies. Some of them preferred charges against him relating to his administration of the revenue. He was called to England in 1681 to See also:answer these, and during his absence the demand for a representative assembly was accompanied with a refusal to pay the customs duties and so much other insubordination that the duke appointed Colonel Thomas Dongan to succeed Andros, and instructed him to call the desired assembly. It met at Fort James in the City of New York on the 17th of October 1683, was in session for about three weeks, and passed fifteen acts. The first, styled a charter of liberties and privileges, required that an assembly elected by the freeholders and freemen should be called at least once every three years; vested all legislative authority in the governor, council and assembly; forbade the See also:imposition of any taxes without the consent of the assembly; and provided for religious See also:liberty and trial by See also:jury. Other acts divided the province into counties, established courts of justice, and provided for a revenue. In August 1684 when, by its charter, the western boundary of the province was not definitely extended beyond the Hudson, Dongan laid the basis of New York's claim to the western lands of the Iroquois by a new See also:covenant with them in which they recognized the English as their protectors, and throughout his administration he was busy neutralizing French influence among the Iroquois and in diverting the fur trade of the north-west from the St Lawrence to Albany. The charter of liberties and privileges was approved by the duke, but before the See also:news of this reached its authors the duke became King James II., and in 1686, when a See also:frame of government for New York as a royal province was provided, the assembly was dispensed with. About the same time the new king adopted a policy for strengthening the imperial control over New England as well as for the erection of a stronger barrier against the French, and in 1688 New York and New Jersey were consolidated with the New England colonies into the Dominion of New England and placed under the viceregal authority of Sir Edmund Andros as governor-general. The news of the English revolution of 1688, however, caused an uprising in See also:Boston, and in April 1689 Andros was seized and imprisoned. Francis See also:Nicholson as lieutenant-governor was still in quiet possession of the government of New York, and a majority of the population of the province were satisfied to await the outcome of the revolution in the mother country, but in the southern portion of the province, especially in the City of New York and on Long Island, were a number of restless See also:spirits who were encouraged by the fall of Andros to take matters into their own hands. They found a See also:leader in a German See also:merchant, See also:Jacob See also:Leisler (q.v.). Leisler refused to pay duties on a See also:cargo of See also:wine on the ground that the See also:collector was a " papist," and on the 31st of May 1689, during a See also:mutiny of the militia, he and other militia captains seized Fort James. In the following See also:month Nicholson deserted his post and sailed for England, and Leisler easily gained possession of the city. To strengthen his position he called an assembly which conferred upon him the powers of a See also:dictator. Some time after a copy of the order of the new monarchs (William and See also:Mary) to continue all Protestants in their offices in the colonies had been received, Leisler falsely announced that he had received a commission as lieutenant-governor. He then attempted to revive the act of 1683 for raising revenue, but met with so much opposition that he issued writs for the election of another assembly. This, however, brought him chiefly petitions for the redress of grievances. Albany successfully defied his usurped authority until his recognition was necessary to a united front against the French and their Indian allies, who, in February 169o, had surprised and burned Schenectady. Two other French attacks had at the same time been directed against New England, and to meet the dangerous situation Leisler performed the one statesmanlike act of his public career, notable in American history as the first step toward the union of the colonies. At his call, delegates from Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut and Maryland met in New York City with delegates from New York on the 1st of May 1690 to consider concerted action against the enemy, and although the expedition which they sent out was a failure it numbered 855 men, New York furnishing about one-half the men, Massachusetts one of the two commanders and Connecticut the other. Leisler had proclaimed the new monarchs of Great Britain and had declared that it was his purpose only to protect the province and the Protestant See also:religion until the arrival of a governor appointed by them; but he was enraged when he learned that he had been ignored and that under the new governor, Colonel Henry Sloughter, his enemies, van Cortlandt and See also:Bayard, had again been appointed to the council. When Major Richard Ingoldsby arrived with two companies of the king's soldiers and demanded possession of the fort, Leisler refused although he still professed his willingness to deliver it to Sloughter. On the 17th of March 1691 Leisler's force fired on the king's soldiers, killing two and wounding several. Governor Sloughter arrived two days later, and the revolt terminated in the See also:arrest of Leisler and his chief followers. Leisler and Jacob Milborne, his son-in-law, were pronounced guilty of See also:treason, and were executed on the 16th of May. The See also:execution was regarded even by many who had been indifferent to Leisler's cause, as an act of revenge. The case was carried to England, where in 1695 See also:parliament reversed the attainders of the victims, and for many years the province was rent by the Leislerian and See also:anti-Leislerian factions. Governor Sloughter, as his commission directed, re-established in 1.691 the assembly which James II. had abolished in 1686, and. throughout the remainder of the colonial era the history of the province relates chiefly to the rise of popular government and the See also:defence of the northern frontier. At its first session the assembly passed an act declaratory of the rights and privileges of the people, and much like the charter of liberties and privileges enacted in 1683, except that annual instead of triennial sessions of the assembly were now requested and, as was also provided in Sloughter's commission and instructions, religious liberty was denied to Roman Catholics. This act was disallowed by the See also:crown in 1697, and until Governor Cornbury's administration (17o2-1708) both the Leislerians and the anti-Leislerians repeatedly bid for the governor's favour by supporting his measures instead of contending for popular rights. But Cornbury's See also:embezzlement of £1500, appropriated for fortifying the Narrows connecting Upper and Lower New York Bay, united the factions against him and started the assembly in the important contest which ended in the establishment of its control over the public See also:purse. In 1706 it won the right to appoint its own treasurer to care for money appropriated for extraordinary purposes, and eight years later the governor assented to an act which gave to this officer the custody of practically all public money. Until 1737 it had been the See also:custom to continue the revenue acts from three to five years, but thereafter the assembly insisted on annual appropriations.
The first newspaper of New York, the New York See also:Gazette, was established in 1725 by William See also:Bradford as a semi-See also:official See also:organ of the administration. In 1733 a popular organ, the New York Weekly See also:Journal, was established under John Peter Zenger (1697-1746), and in 1735 both the freedom of the See also:press and a great advance toward the independence of the judiciary were the outcome of a famous See also:libel suit against Zenger.
Between the administration of Governor See also:Montgomerie (1728-1731) and Governor Cosby (1732-1736) there was an See also:interregnum of thirteen months during which Rip van Dam, president of the council, was acting-governor, and upon Cosby's arrival a dispute arose between him and van Dam over the division of the salary and fees. Both appealed to the law, and when the chief-justice, Lewis See also:Morris, refused Cosby's request to have the court proceed in equity jurisdiction, and denied the right of the governor toestablish courts of equity, he was removed from office. Not long afterwards there appeared in the Weekly Journal some severe criticisms of the administration. For printing these Zenger was arrested for libel in November 1734. The case was not brought to trial until August 1735, and in the meantime Zenger was kept in jail. Originally he had for counsel two of the most able lawyers in the province, James See also: Their places, however, were taken by See also:Andrew Hamilton, speaker of the Assembly of Pennsylvania and a lawyer of great reputation in the English colonies. The jury quickly agreed on a See also:verdict of not guilty, and the acquittal was greeted by the populace with shouts of See also:triumph. The further independence of judges became a leading issue in 1761 when the assembly insisted that they should be appointed during good behaviour, and refused to pay the salaries of those appointed during pleasure; but the home government met this refusal by ordering that they be paid out of the quit-rents. The defence of the northern frontier was a heavy burden to New York, but by its problems the growth of the union of the colonies was promoted. From the destruction of Schenectady to the Peace of See also:Ryswick (1697) hostilities between the French and the English in the New World took the form of occasional raids across the frontier, chiefly by the Indian allies. The main effort of the French, however, was, by See also:diplomacy, to destroy the English-Iroquois alliance. This rested on the fear of the Iroquois for the French and their See also:hope of protection from the English. Therefore, in response to their repeated complaints of the weakness of the English arising from disunion, Governor See also:Fletcher, in 1694, -called another intercolonial See also:conference consisting. of delegates from New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Jersey, and urged the See also:necessity of more united feelings. Open hostilities were interrupted for a few years by the Peace of Ryswick and for a longer period by the Peace of See also:Utrecht (1713), but French priests continued to dwell among the Iroquois, teaching them and distributing presents, and of the success of this diplomacy the English were ever in danger. To counteract it they, in 1701, prevailed upon the chiefs to See also:deed their territory, said to be Boo m. in length and 400 M. in breadth, to the king of England. The English, also, frequently distributed presents. But the success of the French at the close of the 17th century and the early portion of the 18th was prevented only by the ceaseless efforts of Peter Schuyler (1657-1724) whose personal influence was for years dominant among all the Iroquois except the Senecas. When they had assumed a neutral attitude, he persuaded a number of them to join troops from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut in the unsuccessful expeditions of 1709 and 1711 against the French at See also:Montreal. The English had a decided See also:advantage over the French in that they could furnish goods for the Indian trade much cheaper than their rivals, and when Governor See also:Burnet saw that this advantage was being lost by a trade between Albany and Montreal he persuaded the assembly to pass an act (1720) prohibiting it. Pursuing the same See also:wise policy he established a trading post at Oswego in 1722 and fortified it in 1727, and thereby placed the Iroquois in the desirable position of middlemen in a profitable fur trade with the " Far Indians." London merchants, in their greed, brought about the See also:repeal of the prohibitory act in 1729, but its effects were only in part destroyed. At another intercolonial conference at Albany, called by Burnet, a line of trading posts along the northern and western frontiers was strongly recommended. But neither the other colonies nor the home government would co-operate, and the French were the first to accomplish it. In King George's War the co-operation of all the northern colonies was sought, and New York contributed 3000 and some See also:cannon toward New England's successful expedition against See also:Louisburg. But it was See also:left alone to protect its own frontier against the French, and while the assembly was wrangling with Governor Clinton
for the control of expenditures the French and their Indians were burning farm houses, attacking Saratoga (November 16, 1745), and greatly endangering the English-Iroquois alliance. Even after the Peace of See also:Aix-la-Chapelle (1948) the Iroquois complained bitterly of the fraudulent land speculators, and in 1753 the chiefs of the Mohawks threatened to declare the covenant chain broken. A reconciliation was effected, however, by Colonel William See also: None of these was taken but on the 8th of September Major-General William Johnson, in command of the expedition against Crown Point, defeated a French and Indian force under See also:Baron Dieskau in the See also:battle of Lake George. As Johnson thought it unsafe to pursue the routed See also:army his victory had no other effect than the erection here of the useless defences of Fort William Henry, but as it was the only success in a year of gloom parliament rewarded him with a grant of LjOOO and the title of a See also:baronet. In August 1756 Montcalm took Oswego from the English and destroyed it, and in 1757 he captured Fort William Henry; but in the latter year the elder See also:Pitt assumed control of affairs in England, and his aggressive, clear-sighted policy turned the tide of war in England's favour. Victory followed victory, Ticonderoga, Crown Point and Niagara were wrested from the French and New York was freed of its foes. England's attempt to make the colonies pay the expenses of the war by means of the See also:stamp tax thoroughly aroused the opposition of commercial New York, already chafing under the hardships imposed by the Navigation Acts and burdened with a war debt of its own exceeding £300,000. The assembly was almost unanimous in voicing its protest to the governor. It authorized its committee, which had been appointed to correspond with the New York See also:agent in London, to correspond also with the committees in the other colonies and this committee represented New York in the Stamp Act Congress, a body which was called at the See also:suggestion of Massachusetts, met in New York City in October 1765, was composed of twenty-seven members representing nine colonies, and See also:drew up a See also:declaration of rights, an address to the king, and a petition to each house of parliament. When the Sons of Liberty, a society composed largely of unfranchised See also:mechanics and artisans of New York City, which began to dominate the movement immediately after the Congress adjourned, resorted to See also:mob violence—destroying property and burning in effigy the governor and other officers —the propertied classes drew back, and a few years later the popular or patriot party lost its control of the assembly. Since the Zenger trial there had been a court party and a popular party: the former included many wealthy Anglicans and was under the leadership of the De Lanceys, the latter included many wealthy and influential dissenters and was under the leadership of the Livingstons. During the administration of Governor Clinton (1743-1753) a See also:quarrel between the governor and James De Lancey, the chief-justice, had greatly weakened the court party, and nearly all its members supported their rivals in opposition to the Stamp Act. In the series of events which followed the first violence of the Sons of Liberty important changes were made in party lines. Personal rivalry and creed became subordinate to political principles. The court party became the Loyalist party, See also:standing for law as against See also:rebellion, See also:monarchy and the union of the empire as against republicanism; the popular party became the patriot party, determined to stand on its rights at any cost. The Stamp Act was repealed in March1766, but the See also:Townshend Acts, imposing duties on See also:glass, paper, See also:lead, painters' colours and See also:tea, followed closely. They were met in New York. by fresh outbursts of the Sons of Liberty and, as in the other colonies, by an association of nearly all the merchants, the members pledging themselves not to import any-thing from England until the duties were repealed. New York had also been requested to provide certain supplies for the See also:British troops quartered in the city. This the assembly refused to do but parliament answered (1767) by forbidding it to do any other business until it complied. It was under these conditions that the See also:Loyalists, in the elections of 1768 and 1769, gained control of the assembly and in the latter year passed an act granting the soldiers' supplies. When, in 1770, all the duties except those on tea were repealed, the conservative merchants wished to permit the importation cf all goods from England except tea. The Sons of Liberty strongly opposed this, but the conservatives won and went over to the Loyalists. The moderate Loyalists joined in the election of delegates to the first Continental Congress; but the great body of Loyalists in New York strongly disapproved of the " dangerous and extravagant " measures adopted by that body, and the assembly, in January 1775, refused to approve its acts or choose delegates to the second Continental Congress. The patriots met this refusal by calling a provincial convention to choose the delegates. Scarcely had they done this when news of the encounter at See also:Lexington produced a strong reaction in their favour, and in May 1775 they called a Provincial Congress which usurped the powers of the Assembly. Still, conditions were such in New York that a fight for independence was not to be lightly considered. The failure of See also:Montgomery's expedition against Canada at the close of 1975 left the colony exposed to British attacks from the north. In the south the chief city was exposed to the British fleet. Sir William Johnson died in 1774, but under his influence and that of his son, Sir John Johnson, and his See also:nephew See also:Guy Johnson, the Mohawks and other Iroquois Indians had become firmly attached to the British side and threatened the western frontier. In various sections, too, considerable numbers of Loyalists were determined to aid the British. When, in June 1776, a vote on the Declaration of Independence was pending in the Continental Congress, the New York Provincial Congress refused to instruct its delegates in the matter; but a newly elected Provincial Congress, influenced by a Loyalist See also:plot against the life of Washington, adopted the Declaration when it met, on the 9th of July. The position of New York made it naturally one of the principal theatres of military operations during the War of Independence. It was a settled point of British military policy throughout the war to hold New York City, and from it, as a base, to establish a line of fortified posts along the Hudson by means of which communication might be maintained with another base on Lake Champlain. Such a See also:scheme, if successfully carried out, would have driven a See also:wedge into the line of colonial defence and cut off communication between New England and the southern colonies. A few days after the fight at Lexington and See also:Concord, Connecticut authorized an expedition under Ethan See also:Allen which surprised and captured Ticonderoga and Crown Point. In the following year (1776) the British began their offensive operations for the control of the Hudson; an army under, Sir William See also:Howe was to See also:capture New York City and get control of the lower Hudson, while another army under Sir Guy See also:Carleton was to retake Crown Point and Ticonderoga and get control of the upper Hudson. Howe, with a force of British and Loyalists vastly See also:superior in equipment and numbers to Washington's untrained militia, landeSl in July on Staten Island and late in August defeated Washington at the battle of Long Island within the present limits of Brooklyn See also:borough. In the following month Washington withdrew from New York City which the British entered and held until the close of the war. Washington prepared to withstand the British behind fortifications on Harlem Heights, but discovering that Howe was attempting to outflank him by landing troops in the See also:rear he retreated to the mainland, leaving only a See also:garrison at Fort Washington, and established a line of fortified camps on the hills overlooking the See also:Bronx river as far as White Plains. This brought on the battle of White Plains late in October, in which Howe gained no advantage; and from here both armies withdrew into New Jersey, the British capturing Fort Washington on the way, the Americans leaving behind garrisons to guard the Highlands of the Hudson. In 1777 General John See also:Burgoyne succeeded in taking Ticonderoga, but in the swampy forests southward from Lake Champlain he fought his way against heavy odds, and in the middle of October his campaign culminated disastrously in his surrender at Saratoga. Colonel See also:Barry St Leger led an See also:auxiliary expedition from Oswego against Fort Stanwix on the upper Mohawk, and on the 6th of August he fought at See also:Oriskany one of the most bloody battles of the war, but a few days later, deserted by his terror-stricken Indian allies, he hastened back to Montreal. The British government intended that Howe should co-operate with Burgoyne by fighting his way up the Hudson, but as the secretary of state for the colonies neglected to send him such instructions this was not undertaken until early in October, and then an expedition for the purpose was placed under the command of Sir Henry Clinton. Clinton met with little difficulty from the principal American defences of the Highlands, consisting of Forts Montgomery and Clinton on the western bank, together with a huge chain and See also:boom stretched across the river to a precipitous mountain (See also:Anthony's See also:Nose) on the opposite bank, and ascended as far as Esopus (now Kingston) which he burned, but he was too late to aid Burgoyne. The year 1778 saw the bloody operations of the Tory Butlers and their Loyalist and Indian allies in the Mohawk and Schoharie valleys and notably the See also:massacre at Cherry Valley. In See also:retaliation a punitive expedition under Generals John Sullivan and James Clinton in 1779 destroyed the Iroquois towns, and dealt the Indian confederacy a See also:blow from which it never recovered. The American cause was strengthened this year also by several victories along the lower Hudson of which General Anthony Wayne's storming of the British fort at Stony Point was the most important. The closing See also:episode of the war as far as New York was concerned was the discovery of See also:Benedict See also:Arnold's attempt in 178o to betray West Point and other colonial posts on the Hudson to the British. On the 25th of November 1783 the British forces finally evacuated New York City, but the British posts on Lakes Erie and Ontario were not evacuated until some years later. New York ratified the Articles of See also:Confederation in 1778, and when Maryland refused to ratify unless those states asserting claims to territory west to the Mississippi agreed to surrender them, New York was the first to do so. But under the leadership of George Clinton, governor in 1777–1795, the state jealously guarded its commercial interests. The Confederation Congress appealed to it in vain for the right to collect duties at its port; and there was determined opposition to the new Federal constitution. In support of the constitution, however,there arose the Federalist party under the able leadership of Alexander Hamilton. When a majority of the constitutional convention of 1787 had approved of the new constitution Hamilton alone of the three New York delegates remained to sign it; and when, after its ratification by eight states, the New York convention met at Poughkeepsie (June 17, 1788) to consider ratification, two-thirds of the members were opposed to it. But others were won over by the news that it had been ratified by New See also:Hampshire and Virginia or by the telling arguments of Hamilton, and on the 26th of July the See also:motion to ratify was carried by a vote of 30 to 27.
The constitution having been ratified, personal rivalry among the great families—the Clintons, the Livingstons and the Schuylers—again became dominant in political affairs. The Clinton were most popular among the independent freeholders; the Livingstons had increased their influence by numerous marriage alliances with landed families; and the Schuylers had General See also: The first break came in the spring of 1804 when Burr, who had incurred the enmity of his Republican colleagues in 'Soo by seeking Federalist votes in the electoral college at See also:Jefferson's expense, became an independent candidate for governor against See also:Morgan Lewis. Hamilton's action in counselling Federalists not to vote for Burr for governor just as he had counselled them not to support Burr against Jefferson in 'boo, was one of the contributary causes of Burr's hostility to Hamilton which ended in the See also:duel (July 1804) in which Burr killed Hamilton. Hamilton's death marked the end of the Federalists as a power in New York. The election as governor in 1804 of Lewis, a relative of the Livingstons, was followed by a See also:bitter quarrel with the Clintons over patronage, and resulted at the state election of 1807 in the choice of a Clintonian, See also:Daniel D. Tompkins, for governor and the virtual elimination of the Livingstons from New York state politics. Tompkins served as governor by successive re-elections until 1817, his term covering the trying period of the second war with Great Britain. New York, whose growing See also:shipping interests had suffered by the See also:Embargo of 1807, was as a commercial state opposed to the war. Politically this opposition had the effect of temporarily reviving the Federalist party, which secured control of the legislature, and gave the electoral vote of the state in 1812 to De Witt Clinton, whom the Federalists had accepted as a candidate to oppose Madison for re-election on the war issue. During the war New Yorkers served with the See also:regular troops at Niagara, Plattsburg and other places on the western and northern frontiers of the state. For some years after the war political contests in New York state as in the See also:rest of the country were not on party lines. The opposing groups were known as " Bucktails," whose leaders were Governor Tompkins and See also: The election of Martin Van Buren as governor in 1828 marked the beginning of the long ascendancy in the state of the " Albany Regency," a political coterie in which Van Buren, W. L. Marcy, Benjamin Franklin See also: Besides rent, many of the tenants were required to render certain services to the proprietor, and in case a See also:tenant sold his interest in a farm to another he was required to pay the proprietor one-tenth to one-third of the amount received as an See also:alienation fine. Stephen van Rensselaer, the proprietor of Rensselaerwyck, had suffered the rents, especially those of his poorer tenants, to fall much in arrears, and when after his death (1839) the agents of his heirs attempted to collect them they encountered violent opposition. Governor Seward called out the militia to preserve order but asked the legislature to consider the tenants' grievances. The legislature appointed an See also:arbitration commission, but this was unsuccessful, and the trouble, spreading to other counties, culminated (1845) in the See also:murder of the See also:deputy-sheriff of Delaware county. Politically, the anti-rent associations which were formed often held the balance of power between the Whigs and the Democrats, and in this position they secured the election of Governor John Young (Whig) as well as of several members of the legislature favourable to their cause, and promoted the passage of the bill calling the constitutional convention of 1846. In the new constitution clauses were inserted abolishing feudal tenures and limiting future leases of agricultural land to a period of twelve years. The courts pronounced the alienation fines illegal. The legislature passed several measures for the destruction of the leasehold system, and under the pressure of public See also:opinion the great landlords rapidly sold their farms). Up to the election of Seward as governor, New York had usually been Democratic, largely through the predominating influence of Van Buren and the " Albany Regency." After the defeat of Governor Silas Wright in 1846, however, the Democratic party split into two !?tstile factions known as the " Hunkers," or conservatives, and the " Barnburners," or radicals. The factions had their origin :n canal politics, the conservatives advocating the use of canal revenues to See also:complete the canals, the radicals insisting that they should be used to pay the state debt. Later when the conservatives accepted the See also:annexation of See also:Texas and the radicals supported the See also:Wilmot Proviso the split became irrevocable. The split See also:broke up the rule of the " regency," Marcy accepting the " Hunker " support and a seat in See also:Polk's See also:cabinet, while Wright, Butler and Van Buren joined the " Bamburners," a step preliminary to Van Buren's See also:acceptance of the " Free Soil " nomination for president in the campaign of 1848. Only once between 1846 and the Civil War did the Democratic party regain control of the state—in 1853-1855 Horatio See also:Seymour was governor for a single term. In 1854 the newly organized Republican party, formed largely from the remnants of the Whig party and including most of the Free Soil Democrats, with the aid of the See also:temperance issue elected See also:Myron Holley See also:Clark (1806-1892) governor. Two years later the Republicans carried the state for See also:Fremont for president, and a See also:succession of Republican See also:governors held office until 1862 when the discouragement in the North with respect to the Civil War brought a reaction which elected Seymour governor.
With the exception of New York City the state was loyal to the Union cause during the war and furnished over a half million troops to the Federal armies. Certain commercial interests of New York City favoured the Confederate cause, but MayorWood's suggestion that the city (with Long Island and Staten Island) secede and form a free-city received scant support, and after the See also:san-
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