NEW-YORK STATE REGISTER, FOR 1845; CONTAINING AN ALMANAC FOR 1845-6. WITH POLITICAL, STATISTICAL, and other INFORMATION FUBLISHED BY J. DISTURNELL, NO. 102 BROADWAY. ...... 45 1895 ENTERED according to act of Congress, in the year 1845, by JOHN DISTURNELL, in the Clerks Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New-York. 81515° ALBANY, FRINTED BY C. VAN BENTHUYSEN AND CO, PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION OF THE NEW-YORK STATE REGISTER, THE proper design of a publication of this kind, is to furnish a compre hensive and detailed account of the actual condition of the State, embracing its civil divisions, population, productions, trade, and resources; its public works, its means of general intercourse, and its principal local improvements; its wealth, revenue, and expenditures; the organization of its government, with a record of the persons to whom the administration of that government throughout its various departments is committed; the general scope and character of its legislation, as exemplified and illustrated by its various institutions and methods for the promotion of education, morals, and religion-for the protection and relief of the destitute, infirm, and helpless for the repression and punishment of disorder and crime-and for the encouragement of enterprise, industry, science, and the arts; in short, a picture of the living, acting, growing commonwealth, with the manifold means and agencies by which its affairs are conducted, its resources unfolded, the business of its people transacted, and the good order, comfort, improvement, prosperity, and happiness of the community secured and advanced. The multiplied relations and connections that exist between the different portions of the state, and their continually increasing importance to each other as their intercourse extends, all combine to render such a publication not merely interesting to the general or occasional inquirer, but eminently convenient and practically useful, especially to those who are engaged in the professional employments of the community, in the various branches of active business, or are in any way connected with the administration of the laws, or with the management of the more important public and local institutions. A simple reference to the Table of Contents will show that this Register has been compiled and arranged on the plan and according to the design above indicated; and to all persons employed in public offices, whether of general or local jurisdiction—to attorneys and other agents and ministers of the laws-to merchants, bankers, manufacturers, and men extensively engaged in business of any description, or in the management of important institutions to all who have occasion to transact affairs at a distance and by correspondence with public officers, or with professional men, or who have occasion to make inquiries about local matters appertaining to places in which they have no personal acquaintance-this Register will be found an exceedingly valuable manual of information of many kinds constantly at hand, and which they can procure in no other way at so small a cost of time, money, or trouble. Besides the daily convenience and utility of the work to professional and business men, and public officers, the political events and statistics which it records, will render this Register exceedingly convenient and serviceable to politicians and political economists, in assisting their inquiries, and in facilitating their examination of political questions. The value of the work is it is believed, very much enhanced in this and other respects, by the National Statistics, and other important matter which it embodies in relation to the National Government and the organization of its various departments. Indeed, in reference to all matters of ordinary interest and convenience, this work may be regarded as constituting a NATIONAL as well as a STATE REGISTER. In respect to the range of matter embraced in the work, it is believed to be as comprehensive, in reference to the topics, and as minute in point of detail, as its patrons will desire; and as to the accuracy of its statements, it may be truly affirmed that they have been made as exact and reliable as several months of assiduous labor and vigilant care could render them There is one more topic which is regarded as particularly important in this connection, and on which a remark may, it is hoped, be found serviceable both to the publisher and his patrons. The value of such a work is materially enhanced by being regularly and punctually continued from year to year. A single volume, or a Register for only one year, is of little use; it is, in truth, not worth publishing. But if it can be continued punctually and regularly, every successive volume rises in intrinsic value. To the transient convenience of each number for a single year, is gradually added the permanent value of a connected series, till, in the lapse of time, the annual publication becomes a great work of perpetual reference, of the most authentic character and of peculiar interest, from its combination of the two features of contemporaneousness and connected succession. Its Tables of Statistics and Institutions, compiled at first for the transient purposes of the flying year, are by and by converted into the solid materials of everlasting history, and its lists of familiar names, collected for the temporary convenience of current business, are soon transformed into the undecaying records of a departed generation, and muster-rolls of leading men of their times. Considerations like these, it will be at once admitted, enter into the very essence of the value of co npilations like this Register; and they are sug gested in the belief that they will be regarded as legitimate grounds of ap. peal to the public for that patronage, which is indispensable to secure the regular continuance of the publication. If such patronage shall be afford. ed, the annual continuation of this Register may be depended on; and as its compiler shall become more familiar with the sources of information and the wants of the public, he will be enabled to render his work more and more acceptable and useful. ALBANY, May, 1843 O. L. H. TO THE SECOND EDITION. THE foregoing preface to the first edition of this Register, is republished because it presents a correct and fair view of the plan and proper scope of the work, and the principal elements of its value together with the chief grounds on whieh it is offered to general patronage. A few remarks in reference to what has been since done in this matter, will suf fice. Although the larger portion of materials indispensable in awork of this kind, continue unaltered during the biennial period of our State government, yet many such facts are also furnished every year. To meet the exigencies of the case, therefore, at the close of the first year from the publication of the first volume of this Register, a Supplement was issued, containing such new facts as the year had furnished, and bringing the Register forward in equal pace with the movements of government and progress of public affairs. The full biennial period, however, has now come round, bringing with it the necessity for readjusting the entire work; and although considerable portions of the materials are of a permanent nature, required equally in every successive edition in order to give it that completeness without which it must inevitably fail to satisfy patrons and fulfil its design, yet a large portion even of such permanent matter, has been re-written, and the whole carefully revised—a large mass of new matter compiled, with much labor, directly from official documents and other authentic sources, and the entire body reprinted. Indeed, this second edition of the Register, in the labor and expense bestowed upon it, has come fully up with the first edition, and exceeds it in the extent, variety and value of its contents. After having labored thus faithfully to promote the convenience of professional and business men, and to meet the wants and wishes of all who have occasion to inquire into the condition of the commonwealth and its various institutions, or to note the progress of public affairs, if the publisher and editor shall find their labors fairly appreciated, and the patronage of their work equal to their efforts to deserve it, they will not only be satisfied with present results, but stimulated to new efforts to continue the publication, and to avail themselves of every suggestion furnished by increasing experience, to improve both its form and substance, till nothing farther in that respect shall be left to desire. ALBANY, May, 1845. O. L. H. |