ASS E MBLY STATE OF NEW-YORK. - C. FAN BENTHUYSEN, PRINTER TO THE LEGISLATURE, OF THE OF THE 3UPLICATE ALBANY: 1852. ful "NIVERSITY OF CHIGARO LIBRARIES 266892 MARCH 1930 IN ASSEMBLY, JAN. 6, 1852. vigorous measures sustained our arms and carried the country in No. 1. The opening of the seventy-fifth annual session of the Legislature of New-York, since the establishment of our republican Constitution, is an event peculiarly suggestive of grateful memories and patriotic hopes. Three quarters of a century have passed atay since our ancestors, uniting with the sister colonies in Fenouncing dependence on a distant monarchy, and appealing to Heaven for the justice of their cause, proclaimed the sacred right of self-government, and assumed the attitude of a free and sovereign State. It is profitable to recur to the spirit of wisdom and patriotism which guided our legislative councils at that trying period. Compelled to deliberate amid the strife of opposing armies, and surrounded by difficulties which called for the highest exercise of capacity and energy, your early predecessors gained & double title to the public gratitude. While their prudent but triumph through its long struggle for independence, they accomplished the more difficult work of framing a system of representative government based upon principles of justice, equality and [Assembly, No. 1.] 1 |