zept his accounts and deposites with that institution, and his remittances were made through it. The payments from the Chautauque office, like those of all the other offices on that tract, passed through the same institution. It received the bonds of the American Trust Company, at the discount stipulated by me, and paid for them by a certificate of deposite to Mr. Vanderkemp, payable at six months.

From this explanation, it appears that your bonds and mortgages are not in Wall streets nor in the bank of the United States, but where you have always found them-in the Chautauque land office:

That no trust company, foreign or domestic, has a deed of your lands, but that the title of the lands of the estate and your securities are vested in myself, and my associate trustees, citizens of this state, instead of Wilhelm Willink, Walrave Van Henkelone, and others in Europe:

That neither through the agency of Nicholas Biddle nor otherwise have I borrowed money in Europe or elsewhere, at five per cent., and loaned it to you at seven per cent.; but that, instead of demanding from you immediate payment of your indebtedness to the Holland Company, I have borrowed the money upon your credit and that of the proprietors, and for your benefit and ours, upon a term of ten years, at seven per cent., of which you have the full benefit:

That the proprietors do not exact of you semi-annual interest, while they pay interest annually; but that while they pay interest semi-annually, you pay annually or semi-annually at your own option:

That your "farms and firesides" have not been put in jeopardy by me; but in just so much as a deed subject to a bond and mortgage, with ten years' credit, is a more safe tenure than an expired and forfeited contract of sale, they have been secured to you:

And that you have not been delivered over to a "soulless corporation," but that your affairs have been arranged so as to secure you against any possible extortion or oppression in any quarter; and your bonds and mortgages are more certainly accessible to you for payment than before the arrangement was made.

I have only to add, what you well recollect that, in all the settlement of this estate no cent. of advance upon your farms, as

of compound interest, or of costs upon your debts, has gone into my hands or those of any other proprietor; that no man has ever lost an acre of land which he desired or asked to retain, with or without money; no bond, mortgage, or contract, has been prosecuted for arrear of principal, or for less than two years' interest; no proceedings of foreclosure have ever been instituted when the occupant would pay a sum equal to one year's interest; and every forfeiture has been relinquished upon an agreement to pay the principal and interest due.

To the people of Chautauque county, of all political parties, this statement is due, for the generous confidence they have reposed in me, and the hospitality they have extended to me. It is required, moreover, by a due regard for their welfare, since their prosperity must be seriously affected by any discontents about their titles and security. It is due to the harmony and contentment of their "firesides." And, if it needs other apology, it will be found in the duty I owe to others; for, however willing I may be to leave my own conduct to the test of time and candor, I can not suffer their interests to be put in jeopardy.

ST. NICHOLAS SOCIETY.

To ROBERT H. PRUYN:

AUBURN, December 3, 1838.

DEAR SIR: I have to regret that it will be altogether inconvenient for me to accept the invitation with which I have been honored by the managers of the St. Nicholas Society of Albany.

The assiduity, the love of peace, of order, of justice and equality, and the devotion to religion, of the Dutch colonists of this state, were invaluable elements in forming the character and manners of a republican people. I should enjoy the greatest pleasure in doing homage to their worth.

The history of the Netherlands is full of instruction to mankind. Holland has been the rival of the greatest states in arts and arms. She was fortunate in the proud distinction she attained, and more fortunate in her failure to obtain complete superiority. If France has excelled her in science, she once

abjured religion. If Italy has borne away the palm of the fine arts, she has banished all the domestic virtues; and England has achieved the crown of national glory, with the loss of the social equality of her people.

Permit me to offer you, as a sentiment for your celebration, what seems to me to be the moral of the history of the Netherlands:

National happiness and prosperity! They must be secured, not by ambition for what is GREAT, but by the pursuit of what is USEFUL.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient

servant.

IRISH TESTIMONIAL.

ALBANY, March 14, 1839.

TO WILLIAM JAMES MACNEVEN, AND OTHERS:

GENTLEMEN: I have just received a likeness of Washington, which I doubt not is as faithful to the great original as I am sure it is creditable to the arts.

Your letter of the 13th February last informs me that this por trait is the gift of Irishmen and the sons of Irishmen; and that it is their request that it may be placed in the executive chamber. I accept it with great pleasure, and shall assign it the place prescribed. I am unable to express to you, gentlemen, how deeply I am affected by this mark of kindness and respect on the part of so many citizens, all of whom enjoy deserved estimation and respect in their adopted country, and among whom I recognise two honored and aged survivors of those brave united Irishmen who made this state their refuge, after having periled their lives in 1797, in a glorious effort for the deliverance of their native land. I owe it to myself to say, that the sentiments which have elicited it, have not been recently adopted, but, on the contrary, have been long entertained and always expressed on suitable occasions. If I have correctly studied our social condition, I think I may assume that the United States both need and invite emigration from Europe. I say we need it, because, VOL. III.-30

notwithstanding the astonishing increase of emigration, labor is constantly in demand; and I say we invite it, because our laws permit it, and all the commercial relations of the country afford to emigrants facilities and encouragement. If I am not altogether ignorant of the beautiful country you have left, the Irish are in many respects a subjugated and provincial people. Property is most unequally distributed, and the laws of the land tend effectually to preserve that inequality. Labor is denied its fair equivalent; the liberty allowed is rather held by sufferance than conceded by the government as the inherent right of the people. Education is but imperfectly diffused, and all the civil and ecclesiastical institutions are upheld by power, and not by the voluntary consent of the governed. America, then, will continue, and ought to continue, to be the asylum of Irishmen, and the home of the sons of Irishmen, so long as Ireland is oppressed, and America is free, prosperous, and happy. I entertain no fears of the consequences of this accession to our numbers. Composed as our population is, of emigrants from all the nations of Western Europe and their descendants, I have yet to learn that the elements of Irish character are more unsuitable than those of any other to the perfection and success of republican government. No people have exhibited more generous and lofty devotion to liberty than they in the persons of their Emmett, Fitzgerald, and Macneven. In statesmanship and eloquence, Burke and Grattan, Curran, and another Emmett-ours also by adoption-have seldom been surpassed. In untiring labors for political reform, O'Connell is the remarkable man of the age. The thousands of Irishmen engaged in our public works, and in domestic occupations, are living illustrations of the fidelity, cheerfulness, and patience, with which that people endure the ills of life and discharge its most laborious employments. As our forefathers have done before us, so would I freely admit the people of all countries, and thus increase the moral and physical strength of our new and growing country. I would provide as they did for the security of republican institutions, and the ascendency of republican principles-not by imposing new prohibitions or restraints upon any class of citizens, but by establishing institutions for universal education. I would plant free schools in the city accessible to the children of the most humble; and I would open their doors by the side of our railroads and canals. This

is an adequate, and will prove to be the only, safeguard of liberty.

I can not close this letter, gentlemen, without expressing the hope that the efforts of your countrymen at home may be proseecuted with perseverance and crowned with success, until the people of Ireland shall enjoy equal laws enacted by their own representatives, and administered by their own judges, free and equal toleration of religious faith and worship, and a restoration of the only safeguard of popular rights, an Irish parliament. I am, with great respect, your fellow-citizen.

ST. ANDREW'S SOCIETY, ALBANY.

TO THE COMMITTEE, &c.:

ALBANY, March 29, 1889.

GENTLEMEN: Your note of the 27th, inviting me to attend the anniversary supper of the St. Andrew's Society, has been received. It is with sincere regret that I find myself compelled, by the pressure of public business, to decline this very gratifying invitation. I owe a debt for Scottish hospitality, which I should be most happy to acknowledge at your festival.

I honor your countrymen, alike for the enterprise which leads. them to seek the advantages of fortune in other lands, and for that veneration for their native country, to cherish which is one of the objects of your association. While I hope and desire to see our country continue to be an asylum for emigrants from Europe, I would not complain that foreigners retain their attachments to their native countries. Forgetfulness of their native land would afford but questionable evidence of devotion to that which has adopted them.

With grateful acknowledgments, gentlemen, for the honor conferred by your invitation, and cordial wishes for the prosperity and happiness of my fellow-citizens composing the St. Andrew's Society,

I remain, your obedient servant.