1890-1899 News Articles
March 12, 1890, New York Times,
THE SNAITH CLAIM.; MORE EXPERT TESTIMONY REGARDING THE ASSEMBLY CEILING.
April 11, 1890, New York Times, Page 2, Column 3,
THE CEILING SCANDAL.
INTERESTING TESTIMONY BEFORE THE BOARD OF CLAIMS.
ALBANY, April 10,-Some interesting testimony was brought out to-day in the hearing before the State Board of Claims on Contractor John Snaith's Assembly ceiling claim. Roland A. Gove, who is a brother-in-law of Charles B. Andrews and who acted as Andrews's storekeeper when the latter was superintendent of Public Buildings, was the prinoipal witness. Owing to a family quarrel Gove had decided to peach, and his testimony was calculated to show that Andrews, Sullivan, and Snaith entered into a conspiracy to rob the State in the construction of the Assembly ceiling and the repairs on the staircase. The cross-examlnation of the witness by counsel for Snaitb shook his testimony somewhat, but the witness stuck to the main facts.
Gove swore that for the five weeks during the Fish investigation Mrs. Andrews was confined in his house, and during that time she did not leave town to visit a "sick friend" as her husband testified before the committee. Two days after her arrival at Gove's house a box was brought to her from the Andrews homestead which contained $375 in gold coin, $14,000 in currency, and $40,000 in stocks and bonds. There was also an agreement, dated June 27, between Snaith and Andrews for an equal division of the money made on the ceiling and staircase work. Gove stated that the alleged staircase contract between Snaith and Sullivan was made during the Ainsworth investigation. Sullivan and Andrews had both told him this. This was the paper upon which the ink was hardly dry when it was presented for the inpection of the committee. Andrews swore at that time that it had been drawn up during the preceding Summer.
Gove, continuing, said that he had seen a number of vouchers for material which was not furnisned. Andrews had told him that the vouchers were so made that Snaith would have to make a division of the Spoils or be exposed. The original bill of Snaith had been changed by the insertion of the clause allowing the use of papier maehe. Prior to the meeting of the Ceiling Committee Andrews had "fixed up" the bids.
April 25, 1890, The Sun, Page 2, Column 6,
Mr. Fish's Capitol Commissioners' bill, putting almost all of the State building in the charge of the Commission, was killed, owing to the antagonism against the independent leader of the House that is felt in the more subservient Senate. Mr. Fish and Speaker Husted favored the measure, and say that it would save the State $150,000 a year.
May 14, 1890, New York Times,
THE CAPITOL'S CONDITION BAD, GOV. HILL SUDDENLY FINDS IT OUT AND WANTS IT IMPROVED.
ALBANY, May 13. -- Gov. Hill late this afternoon signed the bill appropriating $365,125 for work upon the Capitol. Having previously vetoed similar bills, he deemed it expedient to file a long memorandum, which, however, does not disclose how he so suddenly discovered that the Capitol is so badly in need of repair, nor give any information as to his investigation in regard to the politicians to be benefited by the bill.
May 15, 1890, New York Times, THE NEW CAPITOL COMMISSION.
August 5, 1890, New York Times,
REPAIRING THE CAPITOL.; MANY DEFECTS DISCOVERED-- THE GOLDEN CORRIDOR A THING OF THE PAST.
ALBANY, Aug. 4. -- The restoration of the north central section of the Capitol is well under way, with prospects of its completion by Fall. The work was begun none too soon, for bad workmanship, together with frost disintegrations, had rendered six of the granite dormer windows and the heavy stone balustrade at the base of the steep roof over the Assembly Chamber unsafe, and the mass was ready to fall apart. These have been reset and made secure.
One of the greatest defects was found in the construction of the gutters. These were carved out of granite and the joints cemented. By degrees the water worked its way through the cementing, and as a result the walls were damp continually and frescos and expensive decorations were ruined. Commissioner Perry had just finished lining all the gutters with copper, and hopes thereby to preserve the walls from further damage. When he constructed the west end the gutters of it were all protected with copper.
The big chimneypieces in the Senate Chamber contained flues 8 inches square. These have been enlarged during the Summer to openings 18 inches by five feet. These, it is considered, will be sufficient to remove the vitiated air from the chamber and keep it pure. In other parts of the building the smoke flues have been enlarged and ventilating ducts and shafts cut in the solid masonry floors and walls, measuring from 8 to 10 inches to 5 by 6 feet. There was heretofore almost an entire absence of any ventilation.
The golden corridor, whose beauties were extolled during the early life of the Capitol, remains only in memory. Its space, with a little of that which was in the room originally set apart for the Court of Appeals, has been made into six spacious committee rooms. The corridor on the second floor floor north was broken by the old Court of Appeals room. Now it is carried continuously from east to west ends of the building.
In the execution of this work, which necessitated the tearing away of many hundred cubic feet of masonry, two discoveries were made. One was that the wall on the north side of the open court was never "tied." Experts who examined this wall at different times gave decisions that it was forced out by the pressure of the original stone ceiling of the Assembly Chamber. This proved to be not the fact. Now that the fractured work has been removed, it is shown that the wall was crowded out by the great east and west walls of the Assembly Chamber, which stands at right angles. These walls extended from the big arches in the golden corridor up to and on a line with the roof trusses.
It is evident that the weight of these walls was so great as to compress the arches, and thereby force the walls out. Four large wrought-iron tie rods extending through the granite wall of the court and connected with the four great plate girders which carry the Assembly floor, will hereafter hold the wall in position without doubt.
September 1, 1890, New York Times,
MAKING THE CAPITOL SAFE.
FRESH AIR FOR THE SENATORS AND ASSEMBLYMEN. WHAT COMMISSIONER PERRY IS DOING TO REMEDY THE DEFECTIVE WORK OF THE ARCHITECTS.ALBANY, Aug. 31.--For the first time in the history of the new Capitol the members of the Legislature at the next session will sit in comfort, with safe surroundings, and in a pure and healthful atmosphere. The Capitol is at the present time undergoing thorough renovation from cellar to roof, and the more it is torn apart the more flagrant are the violations of natural and scientific laws that are brought to light.
June 5, 1891, Erie County Independent, Page 3,
Work of the Recent Session of the New York Legislature.
About $650,000 was appropriated to continue the work on the new capitol--making over $19,000,000 in all appropriated down to the present time. Nearly all of the appropriation will in used in carrying up the western staircase one story and in commencing the approaches on the main or eastern front.
December 23, 1894, The Sun,
NEW YORK STATE CAPITOL. COMMISSIONER PERRY'S REPORT ON THE PROGRESS OF THE WORK,
The Great Building Nearly Complete Except the Approaches, Terraces, Porticos, and Towers-Description of the Eastern Approach and the Six Terraces.
ALBANY, Dec. 23.—The time has passed when people say, "Never will the Capitol building at Albany be completed." It has been steadily growing toward completion for the eleven years that Capitol Commissioner Perry has been in charge of the work. When he, a humble architect, packed his grip in Binghamton and went to Albany be found there a mass of disordered stone, and before him a work which, he thought, would bring but little reward. But the capitol became a part of the life of Mr. Perry—his very being—and, wrapped in his work, he has built a monument that will last long after he has gone forever.
Not for four years has any report been made as to the progress of work on the Capitol building. Much improvement, however, is evident as the result of the four years' work, and the expenditure by the State of about $20,700,000. When the Legislature convenes and Governor-elect Morton has taken the Gubernatorial chair there will be presented to the people of the State through the Legislature a report from Capitol Commissioner Perry covering his work for four years. It has been prepared, in view of the fact that the control of New York State's affairs has passed from the Boards of the Democrats to those of the Republicans. The years reported upon are 1891, 1892, 1893, and 1894 to Dec. 22. The Commissioner has been at work upon the report for some weeks, and the main part of it is now offered to the readers of The Sun. It begins by saying that during the four years past work has been concentrated upon the eastern approach and terraces, the western staircase, the library, the apartments of the Comptroller and Treasurer, and generally extensive repairs to many parts of the building. The report says:
The remaining work to be done to complete the Capitol is the eastern approach and terraces, north, south, and western porticos, the tower, repairs to the granite walls to complete the western staircase, the furnishing of the apartments for the Comptroller and Treasurer, the completion of the fifth story and the pinnacle of the sixth story of the State library. The work of finishing and furnishing the interior of the Capitol is nearly completed. The work yet to be done on the interior is the finishing of the slopes to the western staircase. The building is occupied throughout, except the apartments of the Comptroller in the second story. The State Treasurer is occupying the apartments assigned to his department, but they are not quite finished. It will be seen that there is little to be done except the granite work required to complete the exterior and the tower. The only mason work remaining to be done is that in connection with the exterior granite work and some repairs to the interior of the building. There is a small amount of carpenter work to be done, together with some repairs. There will be but little employment for unskilled labor. The maximum number of men that could be employed to advantage on the Capitol is 700 in all branches of the work, and they principally stonecutters. Special attention should be given to the exterior walls of the building, as they are suffering for much-needed repairs. The pointing has worked out of many of the joints in portions of the outside and court walls, and as a matter of preservation to the structure a good deal of work is necessary to be done to restore it to a sound condition.
Originally the stone gutters were not lined with metal. The joints were calked with lead. Experience has demonstrated that by the expansion and contraction of the granite the joints could not be kept water tight by this method. The consequence was that they leaked badly for many years. During the last four years the gutters have been lined with copper and are now water tight. Many of the outer and court walls were damaged by reason of the leaky gutters, and it would be advisable to thoroughly repair the walls, fill and point the joints and clean down the walls, in which case they would be preserved, and the building would present a better appearance than it does now. A force of men has been kept employed for the past four years in lining gutters and repairing the roof. The flashings and many of the dormer windows and walls were once in a bad condition, and this combined to make the roof leak badly at many points. The flashings were taken out and new ones put in. The mortar had worked out from beneath the coping of the windows, and the joints had to be leveled and retained. [relined?] The copings back of the gutters were in an unsound condition and the mortar had fallen out of the joints. Now all the stone work back of the gutters has been covered with sheet lead and the stone pointed up. The slate and tile roof was in a leaky condition, but it is now repaired and made water tight. The curtain roof next to the southeast pavilion was in a leaky condition by reason of being a flat roof and the slate broken. The slate was taken off and a tin roof put on. The terra cotta finials of the pavilions and other roofs of the building which were in an unsound condition have been repaired, and the hip rolls have also been made sound, pointed up, and the stone work has been repaired so that the roofs are in pretty good condition, except certain ones which face on State street and Washington avenue, and which should be covered with copper. The slate on the copper roof on the north side should be taken down and covered with tin."
The commissioner then enters upon a careful description of the eastern approach to the building. He says:
"The eastern and principal approach to the Capitol provides for an entrance to both the first and second stories through an arcade in the first story and through a portico over the arcade in the second story. The foundation for the approach was laid in 1891, since which time the work has been steadily progressed each year when money was available for the purpose. The plans of the structure are on a liberal scale, and the eastern approach extends out from the building a distance of 166 feet 7 inches and connects with the central and projecting section of the eastern facade. The first section is 111 feet broad, measuring to the outside of the pedestals. The strings and steps curve outward at the lower ends and terminate in original pedestals, on which are designed to be placed statuary bearing electric lights. The first run of sixteen steps are 100 feet 7 inches broad and are constructed on convex curves, the height of each step being increased over the lower one and stopping on a broad curved platform, at which point there is a great corbel, supporting pedestals at the end of the platform. Both the corbels and pedestals are designed to be richly adorned with carving. From this platform there are sixteen additional straight steps landing on a platform, and from which run the steps leading to the second story. Resting on a great pier at the junction of the terrace and the upper run of steps is a great cap 4 feet 11 1/2 inches by 7 feet 3 inches, rising about 16 inches above the platform. This cap is designed to be carved and to support pedestals with carved bases, and which will receive the strings, balustrade, and rails and form a proper platform for supporting statuary bearing electric lights. This is contemplated by the drawings.
"Six terraces extend on either side of the upper run of steps to the roadway. This roadway forms a porte cochere in the first story of the Capitol. This roadway is 24 feet in width by 67 feet long, and is divided into three bays with stone groin ceilings supported on piers with columns in the angles, the caps of which are designed to be carved. The foundations were built up to a height of 14 feet, constructed in a most thorough manner. The four piers which rest on the above-mentioned foundations are constructed of finely wrought granite, and have been carried up to a level with the inside of the pavement to receive the superstructure. The piers on either side of the roadway are carried up on a rectangular form to a height of seven feet, from which point the piers are circular in form, each flanked by four columns, cut on the solid and crowned with a block of granite, preparatory to carving. The piers and columns have molded bases and represent a very great amount of work and have a substantial and beautiful appearance.
"The eastern facade in its present condition is greatly inferior in its appearance from an architectural standpoint. The centre section extends up to a level of the fourth-story floor, at which point it is discontinued. From this level the granite wall of the centre section is recessed from the front section and is carried to the roof lines, making an offset of sixteen feet and presenting a bad construction and unarchitectural design. This is to be remedied.
"The first and second story of the building will be entered through the roadways and the porticos. From the level of the top of the arches of the second story the piers and columns will extend up through two stories, with broad and substantial piers at the outer angles, to the steps between the piers divided into three broad openings by the intersection of granite piers and columns. When this work is completed the eastern approach will be most imposing and grand, and will be thoroughly redeemed from its present unarchitectural appearance. East of the arched driveways, the porte cochere to the first story is of two sections, divided into three bays, each with elliptical, ramped granite groin ceilings between the main elliptical arches, supported on piers flanked with columns of stone preparatory to carving. The effect of this is substantial and grand. On the west of the driveway, next to the building and opposite the roadway, is a fourth bay, treated in the same manner as the ones above described. The section of the terrace next to the roadway is curved outward, greatly increasing the width of the platform on either side and making a fine effect, especially in the colonnade. The pilasters and columns which support the terraces connect with the retaining walls of the roadway on the north and south side, which extend at right angles to the terraces. These retaining walls are embellished with pilasters with molded bases."
The Commissioner then minutely describes each platform of the approach. "Two corbels there are, one on each side of the approach. They are richly carved: one has upon it the head of Jupiter, the other the head of Mercury. It will be borne in mind that the material used in this great approach is of finely wrought granite from the Halloway Granite Works, and that the work has been done with greatest care and precision. The stone has been cut by men of long experience in this work, who performed their duties most faithfully." Although much attention and care has been used by the Commissioner in describing the eastern approach, it is the grand western staircase that receives his most careful attention. His explanation of it is that of the true artist, whose heart and soul is in his work. He says:
"The next great work in progress at the time work was suspended, on Oct. 5. 1894, is the great staircase in the western section of the building. The work of erecting the structure was commenced March 22, 1884. and continued at intervals, when appropriations were available, the actual time expended on the same being five and one-half years. The structure occupies a space 70 feet 10 1/2 inches north and south by 69 feet 10 1/2 inches east and west. The east and west corridors of the main section of the building extend along past the great staircase in the first, second, third, and fourth stories, except on the west side of the second story, where the entrance is located and connects with all four of the entrances. The effect produced in viewing the stairs from the second story is most imposing. All the walls within the section in which is the great staircase have been made harmonious with other portions of the structure. The plan consists of broad central landings, drawing in the corridors of each story and extending through the centre openings between cylindrical piers, flanked with columns near the east and west corridors in the first story, in the east corridor and west part of the second story, and in the opening corridor in the third story. The central runs curve outwardly from the centre line of the steps, increasing the length of the lower steps, which are constructed on converse curves and extend up a little more than one-third of the height of each story and lean on central platforms. These platforms are flanked by short runs of stairs on two sides at right angles with the central runs and lean on platforms reaching to the walls, from which are four runs of steps, two on each side along the walls next to the north and south corridors, thereby making four landings, two in each corridor of the second, third, and fourth stories. By this plan the construction of the staircase is such as to form four liberal-sized walls, to which light is admitted through the glazed dormer and other windows in the side walls.
"The central portion of the stairs is supported on eight piers, resting upon molded granite bases and extending up from the foundations at angles of all the platforms through three full stories. Glazed columns with molded bases rest upon pedestals, except in the fourth story, and are embellished with carved caps. From the lower eight pilasters and piers to the north, south, east, and west walls in each story are elliptical arches, carrying the upper runs of steps which land in the corridors. On these are supported the various runs and steps, the arches being furnished with groin ceilings. The various forms of arches make a pretty picture as viewed from the many points on the staircase, and prove that the utmost scientific and skillful work has been accomplished. The successful result brings to the beholder many most beautiful and interesting vistas."
The Commissioner then goes on to describe the openings on the various floors which the staircase connects. He says:
"The north and south corridors in the third story are completed. The lower section of the walls is of the same material as employed in the stairs, and the walls of the outer section are faced with Indiana limestone. The paneled ceilings are of the same material. At either side of the window opening to the stops to the angles, figures are represented. Much careful attention has been given to the form and decoration of the balustrades in the third story. They stand out prominently from the staircase on ledges and are adorned with spirited carvings. On the centre ledge on the north side is an excellently carved head of Columbus in relief, and the three caravels in which he and his company made their first voyage. Upon the western ledge is carved the Viking ship, and on the east ledge a modern steamship is represented—the two latter in bas relief. The railings of the third opening and the stops of the same on each side are richly carved and present a fine effect. On the south and corresponding ledge of the openings is carved the head and bust of a typical American girl, the arms of which are concealed by foliage and projecting through the same, finally bringing the hands to view. On the west ledge is a ploughing scene, and on the east a schoolhouse, set in a clearing, the scene representing a forest of timber and children on their way to school. The ploughing and school scenes are in bas relief, supported by rich foliage.
"The entrance to the State library is from the western corridor on the same floor. A broad string course is situated just below the springs of the arches of the door, and the recess extends the whole length of the west wall, and returns along the north and south end walls, extending to and including the caps of the columns at the junctions of the north and south corridors. This string course, together with the caps of the columns and pilasters, have been completed. Much care has been given to the designs. On the transom over the State library is a carved representation of the head and neck of Minerva, with a wreath of oak leaves falling down on either side of the same, and the whole set in well-designed and carefully executed foliage. On the lower section of the transom are the words "State Library," with carvings representing holly leaves springing out from behind the caps of the columns on either side, with a branch of ivy entwined around the letters. The doorway is flanked with columns, the caps of which are exquisitely carved, as are also the caps of the central column on either side of the recesses. On caps of columns near the doorway are carvings of heads representing Homer and Shakespeare, Cupids are represented in the spaces between the pilasters and columns at either side of the library doorway and at other points in the string courses. Heads representing old men and cupids are introduced at intervals on the string courses among entwined foliage.
"On the east side of the first story are carved corbels under the arches supporting the centre runs on the steps, representing 'Justice' on one and 'Liberty' on the other. On the west side the corbals are carved to represent a lamp and open book on one and a cross on the other. The emblems are supported by richly carved foliage. The corbels supporting the third-story arches, which carry the centre runs of steps on the east, bear the words 'Excelsior' on the one and 'E Pluribus Unum' on the other. On the west side is a quotation from the Declaration of Independence, the letters carved on a smooth surface, surrounded by natural foliage. On one is the head of Thomas Jefferson, which is carved between the caps or columns of the pier just below. The corresponding corbel supporting the opposite arch represents the Stars and Stripes. The head of George Washington is carved between the caps of the columns and the pier below. The voussoirs of the arches that carry the various runs of steps are two feet in height, with heavy carved beads at the angles, formed by the face of the arch and the soffits."
The report, after complimenting the manner in which the workmen have performed their duty, says:
"In case the balustrade in the grand staircase is completed up to the various runs of stairs from the second to the fourth story, it will be most imposing and graceful, that is, providing the same care is taken to complete the work that has characterized it thus far. The staircase is lighted by windows opening into the north and south courts, and through broad openings in the west wall of the corridor on the first, second, and third stories. The wires which are used to light the staircase are skillfully concealed underneath the stairs." The report then describes the ceilings in the various stories near the staircase. The ceiling in the first is of pressed brick, in the second red sandstone, in the third Indiana limestone, supported by beams of polished granite. Most interesting is the description given of the faces in granite which adorn the corridor between the Attorney-General's office and the office now occupied by the State Board of Health. "Piers stand on either side of the stairs. On the right hand pier leading from the western lobby on the inside is carved the head of Gen. George Washington. On the opposite pier facing Washington is the face of Thomas Jefferson. One the side facing the lobby are the heads of Gen. Scott and Zachary Taylor. Flanking these heads are those of Gen. Wool [sic-Worth?] and Gen. Thomas. On the inside of the piers is the head of J. Fennimore Cooper, with smaller heads surrounding it representing the subjects of many of his writings. There is also the head of Americus Vespucci’s. On the opposite piers of the east corridor are also historical heads. On the inside of the right-hand pier, looking across the steps, can be seen the head of Gen. Schuyler, and on the opposite pier that of Gen. Jackson. Facing the corridor are heads of Benjamin Franklin and De Witt Clinton, while flanking the same on the right and left respectively are the heads of Henry Hudson and Charles Champlain. On the inside of the piers, as viewed when descending the steps, are the heads of Jay and Silas Wright. A portion of the piers has been prepared for the heads of the late President Lincoln, William H. Seward, Alexander Hamilton, George W. Curtis, and Henry and Fulton. The models of these heads are now on exhibition at the Capitol, and, so far as they have been examined by competent judges, are good representations of the distinguished subjects."
The report says that the steps of the staircase are of freestone from quarries near Albion, Orleans county, and one of the best known material for steps, from the fact that it will wear almost equal to granite and is just gritty enough to prevent it becoming slippery. The report closes with a description of the new quarters of the Comptroller and State Treasurer. Those of the Comptroller are on the second floor of the Capital building, and take in the old Court of Appeals room of the defunct second division and almost half of the Washington avenue side of the Capitol. The Treasurer's Quarters are on the ground floor and extend along the west side. Supplementary to the report is a financial statement which contains an itemized account of all the appropriations made for the building.
February 1, 1895, The World,
TO WORK ON THE CAPITOL. Bill Providing for Its Completion by Contract.
ALBANY, Jan, 31.—Mr. Nixon, of Chautauqua, Introduced a bill in the Assembly to-day providing for the completion of the Capitol building by contract. It creates a Capitol commission to consist of the Comptroller, the Attorney-General, the Capitol Commissioner and two persons appointed by the Governor, one of whom shall be as architect of at least ten years experience. The commission shall advertise for bids for contracts to finish the Capitol in accordance with plans and specifications furnished by the commission before Jan. 1, 1897. The contractors may receive monthly reports from the State as their work progresses. The Capitol Commissioner shall be the superintending architect of the Capitol, and see that the work to performed properly.
March 14, 1895, Sag Harbor Express,
Editorial,
It now looks as if that great Albany elephant the New-York State Capitol building would be finished in a business like manner and without any further swindling of the people. Monday night Senator O'Connor introduced a bill which should be come law. It is to create a Capitol Commission consisting of Comptroller Roberts, Attorney-General Hancock and Capitol Commissioner Perry to finish the new capitol by contract. This new building, which has been almost long enough in course of erection to already be an old one, has already cost the State nearly $21,000,000, and still it is not finished. And now, instead of making any further appropriations to be squandered, it is proposed to finish the structure by contract. Governor Morton thinks that it can be completed more cheaply by contract than by State labor, so recommended in his message, and Senator O'Conner, by introducing his bill, is carrying out the Governor's suggestion.
August 7, 1895, Albany Evening Journal,
CAPITOL COMMISSIONERS THEY APPOINT MR. RUSSELL. A COMMITTEE TO CONFER WITH MR. PERRY ON PLANS FOR THE COMPLETION OF THE CAPITOL—
April 24, 1896, New York Times, A DAY'S WEDDINGS. Sweny-Parker
Full Page
Jan. 15, 1898, New York Times Saturday Review of Books and Art, Page 33, Free Archive.
New York State in American History
The report of the State Historian, Mr. Hugh Hastings, from which passages are reprinted elsewhere in this issue, brings prominently to public attention the sad state of neglect in which important and valuable historical papers belonging to this State have remained for more than a hundred years. No one has ever attempted to investigate the colonial and revolutionary history of any part of the state without soon finding that much information he was in search of and ought to have could be obtained only from unpublished papers preserved in the capitol at Albany. Beyond the stately quartos published under Dr O'Callaghan's editorship and the few volumes Mr Berthold Fernow edited, there was little at his disposal in printed form. Calendars there were of state papers laid away there, but these simply told him what he might find by going to Albany; they served to emphasize still more the surprising indifference of state officers and legislators to the rich collections that are stored in the capitol.
The share of New York in the making of history on this continent has been far too great to make it any longer pardonable that any useful knowledge on the subject shall be concealed from those who wish to see it. Not only was New York one of the earliest places in the United States where Europeans founded settlements, but all through the formative history that embraced conflicts with the Indians, with the French, and with England, it was the vital center around which the long struggle, first between barbarism and civilization, next between Latin and Anglo-Saxon forms of government, and finally between English liberty and English personal government, was fought out and won. The valley of the Mohawk, the headwaters of the Susquehanna, the shores of lakes Champlain and George, and the valley of the Hudson supplied battlefields for a conflict extending over a full century and a half. Schenectady and German Flats, Lake George and Ticonderoga, Minisink and Cherry Valley, Elmira and Saratoga, Oriskany and Stony Point, Harlem Heights, Brooklyn, and White Plains recall those scenes and bring to mind the names of the men who on New York soil gave direction to the cause of humanity, which finally had its splendid triumph here— Sir William Johnson and Nicholas Herkimer, John Sullivan and Anthony Wayne, Israel Putnam and Nathaniel Greene, Philip Schuyler and George Washington.
There has never been lack of men competent and willing to undertake the laborious task of editing and printing these colonial and revolutionary papers. The thing lacking has been a legislature which would provide the funds for doing the work. No great sum would be needed whatever scale of typographic display might be proposed. Men whom the project has interested grow sick at heart when they reflect how small this sum would be, compared with expenditures that are constantly and easily made for less urgent purposes. Some years ago many thousands of dollars were expended on several resplendent quartos devoted to the Public service of the State of New York, volumes as striking in their form of manufacture as in their curious inutility.Those thousands of dollars expended in the publication of the colonial and revolutionary papers would have made a splendid start — something more than a start, in fact — toward their preservation for all time in print, and not only their preservation but their wide distribution.
In the stately edifice where these papers now find a resting place are staircases and corridors, vaulted ceilings, and wainscoted chambers to which the legislator points with pride, and upon which his untraveled constituents gaze with wondering eyes. But for men who think more of vital things in the life of a state, it is melancholy to remember how one of these show places represents outlays that might have saved New York from the disgrace which neglect of her historical manuscripts has fastened so deeply upon her. The stains of that neglect, though deep enough, are not indelible. A Legislature could at any time wipe them out.
On past Legislatures, however, stains must remain, and stains indelible. But shall the present and future Legislatures also bear them?
Free Archive Full Page
January 15, 1898, New York Times Saturday Review of Books and Art, Page 37, NEW YORK STATE IN THE REVOLUTION.
Records of That Conflict and of Colonial Times Getting Published.
Men and women who have been seeking industriously for information concerning the part taken by ancestors of theirs in Colonial and Revolutionary times will be among the most diligent readers the State Historian of New York, Mr. Hugh Hastings, will have for his annual report, just published. It is a volume of more than a thousand pages, many of which are filled with muster rolls to which there is an elaborate index. The present volume, filled as it is with valuable records, is merely the beginning of a series that is to be devoted to Colonial records. How great the neglect of these papers has been by the State Mr. Hastings sets forth, as well as the demands that pour in upon him for the information they contain. Indeed, it is this topic and the extent of New York's contribution in men to the armies of the Revolution that form what are perhaps the most triking passages in the report. They are given below:
The declaration in the State Historian's report last year that New York State furnished forty thousand troops during the War of the Revolution was met with a storm of denials and criticism, that, beginning with a Philadelphia newspaper, swept through this State from Buffalo to New York. Several writers, with more presumption than judgment, even charged that such a "preposterous statement" utterly discredited the work of the department. Puerile State jealousy has in many ways and by many shallow writers striven to deny to New York credit for the exalted patriotism it has ever been her pride to display and her record to exert in the hour of her country's peril.
New York's placid indifference to exploiting her great achievements has encouraged a certain class of so-called historical writers of other States for a period running over a hundred years in belittling the Empire State at almost every historical crisis. From the adoption of the Federal Constitution New York has been exposed to virulent attacks from New England writers, not only for her position in the convention that adopted the Federal Constitution, but for her course during the second war with Great Britain.
And it seems perfectly appropriate that a writer from the sister State of Pennsylvania should ridicule New York's patriotism during the trying years from 1775 to 1789, but in the absence of positive proof to the contrary, the willingness with which certain influential newspapers in this State reproduced these denials and joined issues with New York's assailants to the detriment of their own State was as surprising as their motive was inexplicable. Fortunately, what was known by this department to be a fact a year ago will soon be established within the reach of the public generally, and the statement then made will be more than verified.
In order that all the records extant should be amalgamated, what co-operation New York rendered to her sister Colonies during the War of the Revolution, a project was set on foot last Spring which had in contemplation the consolidation of all the Revolutionary records in the possession of the State of New York and the War Department at Washington, D. C. Early in May, 1896, Col. D. S. Lamont, Secretary of War, put himself in communication with Gov. Morton and made a formal request that the State, through the Regents of the University, should loan the United States Government whatever Revolutionary muster rolls were filed away in our State Library. Gov. Morton's interest in the subject was at once aroused, ande without delay he submitted the matter to the Regents, supplemented by request that Col. Lamont's project should be consummated.
At the annual convocation in June last, the Regents failed to see the expediency of the request made by the Federal Government and the Governor, and declined to permit our Revolutionary records to leave the State, on the ground that the risk covered in transportation to Washington and return was altogether too hazardous. It was contended that the policy of the Regents never to permit the State archives to leave the fire-proof and water-proof vaults in which they were kept should not be broken. Besides, it was contended, a dangerous precedent would be established--that by loaning the records to the Government the door was opened to those of our sister States that might be disposed to make the same sort of a request. As a concession, however, the Regents offered the National Government every access, should the War Department see fit to detail a number of copyists for the purpose of transcribing the records. Inasmuch as the War Department had no funds fixed by statute--and therefore no authority--for the transportation of clerks from Washington to Albany and return, or for their maintenance while they remained in this city, the laudable enterprise fell through. This refusal of the Regents left New York State in any but an enviable position when the National Government determined to print its Revolutionary records. The State of New York would have had no position whatever commensurate with the services it ahd rendered to the cause. Its record, as a matter of fact, would not have appeared. The State would have been at a marked disadvantage.
Fortunately, however, State Controller Roberts had in the Summer of 1895 discovered in the attic of the old State Hall a great mass of Revolutionary records that had lain undisturbed for nearly eighty years. Realizing their value and the necessity of putting them in shape for public use, Controller Roberts, governed by a high sense of public spirit and patriotism, entered into an agreement with Secretary Lamont, through Col. Fred C. Ainsworth, United States Army, Chief of the Record and Pension Office, for the interchange of these records with those relating to New York State on file in the War Department. This patriotic demonstration of reciprocity has proved of incalculable value to the history of this State and of the United States. So that to-day in the War Department in Washington, D. C., and in the State Controller's office in Albany the muster and pay rolls of the troops furnished by New York State to the War of the Revolution are in more complete condition as to names and numbers furnished than at any previous time in the history of this State or of the United States. From documents and rolls whose authenticity cannot be questioned, of which each one bears the stamp of official accuracy, the statement can be iterated without the fear of successful contradiction that the number of troops furnished by New York State during the War of the Revolution will aggregate between 40,000 and 41,000.
In addition to these nuster and pay rolls there are other records bearing the name of regiments with their field, staff, and line officers, without the name of a single private, thus indicating that there were skeleton regiments, duly officered, whose ranks, it is safe to assume, were only partially filled. Then again, in the Controller's possession there are the names of pensioners whose claims are duly certified as New York soldiers, but whose names cannot be found on any of the existing muster or pay rolls. The fact that they obtained the pension is a sufficient guarentee that they must have seen service. In the consideration of the lists of regiments and organizations prepared from the official rolls there can be no question that if all the facts could be brought to light, it would be found that New York State supplied nearer forty-five thousand troops than forty thousand.
The resources of the department have been sorely tried during the past year by the many queries, letters, and demands for information from people interested in their ancestors who settled in this State during the Colonial period, or who enlisted from this State during the War of the Revolution or the War of 1812. These queries have come from nearly every State in the Union, demonstrating the constantly expanding interest in matters of this kind. The study of American history and of American ancestry has become a very prominent part of our political existence; a scarcity of material has only whetted the appetites of the people for more detailed information. To satisfy this demand, which is as healthy as it is natural, our sister States of Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Massachusetts, and Maryland are pushing forward the publication of Colonial and Revolutionary Records--records that have long lain neglected, and have only been accessible to a limited number of influential persons. Up to the present time the State of Pennsylvania has printed three series of her Colonial archives, embracing thirty volumes; the fourth series, constituting twenty volumes, is now in process or preperation. The example set by the three States mentioned above should certainly be followed by the State of New York, the peer of them all. Even the comparatively modern States of Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Montana have printed their early archives.
It is a crying shame that this great State ever abandoned printing its records, so well begun and continued by the late Dr. E. B. O'Callaghan. The Colonial records and other valuable manuscripts now in the State Library belong of right to the people, and the people will never have the true history of the early period of this State until these records are printed and distributed. The collection of manuscripts owned by the State of New York is more valuable and their contents are more interesting than those of any other collection in the country outside of the City of Washington. The longer this work is neglected the more difficult will be the transcribing of our archives. Year byn year the ink becomes less legible, and year by year the danger of mutilation and destruction increases. It is the fashion for a few alleged economists to decry the expense necessary in the preperation and publishing of valuable records of this character. The growth of patriotic societies in this State, male and female, the constantly developing interest manifested in our early history, would seem to indicate that a very large class of our people who are not active in politics except on election day beleive that the State should use its resources in giving the public in printed form all the historical records that are now under lock and key.
The American Historical Review for January contains many articles of exceeding interest. Among these are Edward Channing's "Justin Winsor," Charles H. Haskin's "The LIfe of Mediaeval Students as Illustrated by Their Letters," Herbert Tuttles's "The Prussian Campaign of 1758, II.," Herbert L. Osgood's "The Proprietary Province as a Form of Colonial Government, III.," Max Farrand's "The Taxation of Tea, 1767-1773," Gaillard Hunt's "Office Seekers During Jefferson's Administration," and Arthur M. Mowry's "Tammany Hall and the Dorr Rebellion."
THE SNAITH CLAIM.; MORE EXPERT TESTIMONY REGARDING THE ASSEMBLY CEILING.
April 11, 1890, New York Times, Page 2, Column 3,
THE CEILING SCANDAL.
INTERESTING TESTIMONY BEFORE THE BOARD OF CLAIMS.
ALBANY, April 10,-Some interesting testimony was brought out to-day in the hearing before the State Board of Claims on Contractor John Snaith's Assembly ceiling claim. Roland A. Gove, who is a brother-in-law of Charles B. Andrews and who acted as Andrews's storekeeper when the latter was superintendent of Public Buildings, was the prinoipal witness. Owing to a family quarrel Gove had decided to peach, and his testimony was calculated to show that Andrews, Sullivan, and Snaith entered into a conspiracy to rob the State in the construction of the Assembly ceiling and the repairs on the staircase. The cross-examlnation of the witness by counsel for Snaitb shook his testimony somewhat, but the witness stuck to the main facts.
Gove swore that for the five weeks during the Fish investigation Mrs. Andrews was confined in his house, and during that time she did not leave town to visit a "sick friend" as her husband testified before the committee. Two days after her arrival at Gove's house a box was brought to her from the Andrews homestead which contained $375 in gold coin, $14,000 in currency, and $40,000 in stocks and bonds. There was also an agreement, dated June 27, between Snaith and Andrews for an equal division of the money made on the ceiling and staircase work. Gove stated that the alleged staircase contract between Snaith and Sullivan was made during the Ainsworth investigation. Sullivan and Andrews had both told him this. This was the paper upon which the ink was hardly dry when it was presented for the inpection of the committee. Andrews swore at that time that it had been drawn up during the preceding Summer.
Gove, continuing, said that he had seen a number of vouchers for material which was not furnisned. Andrews had told him that the vouchers were so made that Snaith would have to make a division of the Spoils or be exposed. The original bill of Snaith had been changed by the insertion of the clause allowing the use of papier maehe. Prior to the meeting of the Ceiling Committee Andrews had "fixed up" the bids.
April 25, 1890, The Sun, Page 2, Column 6,
Mr. Fish's Capitol Commissioners' bill, putting almost all of the State building in the charge of the Commission, was killed, owing to the antagonism against the independent leader of the House that is felt in the more subservient Senate. Mr. Fish and Speaker Husted favored the measure, and say that it would save the State $150,000 a year.
May 14, 1890, New York Times,
THE CAPITOL'S CONDITION BAD, GOV. HILL SUDDENLY FINDS IT OUT AND WANTS IT IMPROVED.
ALBANY, May 13. -- Gov. Hill late this afternoon signed the bill appropriating $365,125 for work upon the Capitol. Having previously vetoed similar bills, he deemed it expedient to file a long memorandum, which, however, does not disclose how he so suddenly discovered that the Capitol is so badly in need of repair, nor give any information as to his investigation in regard to the politicians to be benefited by the bill.
May 15, 1890, New York Times, THE NEW CAPITOL COMMISSION.
August 5, 1890, New York Times,
REPAIRING THE CAPITOL.; MANY DEFECTS DISCOVERED-- THE GOLDEN CORRIDOR A THING OF THE PAST.
ALBANY, Aug. 4. -- The restoration of the north central section of the Capitol is well under way, with prospects of its completion by Fall. The work was begun none too soon, for bad workmanship, together with frost disintegrations, had rendered six of the granite dormer windows and the heavy stone balustrade at the base of the steep roof over the Assembly Chamber unsafe, and the mass was ready to fall apart. These have been reset and made secure.
One of the greatest defects was found in the construction of the gutters. These were carved out of granite and the joints cemented. By degrees the water worked its way through the cementing, and as a result the walls were damp continually and frescos and expensive decorations were ruined. Commissioner Perry had just finished lining all the gutters with copper, and hopes thereby to preserve the walls from further damage. When he constructed the west end the gutters of it were all protected with copper.
The big chimneypieces in the Senate Chamber contained flues 8 inches square. These have been enlarged during the Summer to openings 18 inches by five feet. These, it is considered, will be sufficient to remove the vitiated air from the chamber and keep it pure. In other parts of the building the smoke flues have been enlarged and ventilating ducts and shafts cut in the solid masonry floors and walls, measuring from 8 to 10 inches to 5 by 6 feet. There was heretofore almost an entire absence of any ventilation.
The golden corridor, whose beauties were extolled during the early life of the Capitol, remains only in memory. Its space, with a little of that which was in the room originally set apart for the Court of Appeals, has been made into six spacious committee rooms. The corridor on the second floor floor north was broken by the old Court of Appeals room. Now it is carried continuously from east to west ends of the building.
In the execution of this work, which necessitated the tearing away of many hundred cubic feet of masonry, two discoveries were made. One was that the wall on the north side of the open court was never "tied." Experts who examined this wall at different times gave decisions that it was forced out by the pressure of the original stone ceiling of the Assembly Chamber. This proved to be not the fact. Now that the fractured work has been removed, it is shown that the wall was crowded out by the great east and west walls of the Assembly Chamber, which stands at right angles. These walls extended from the big arches in the golden corridor up to and on a line with the roof trusses.
It is evident that the weight of these walls was so great as to compress the arches, and thereby force the walls out. Four large wrought-iron tie rods extending through the granite wall of the court and connected with the four great plate girders which carry the Assembly floor, will hereafter hold the wall in position without doubt.
September 1, 1890, New York Times,
MAKING THE CAPITOL SAFE.
FRESH AIR FOR THE SENATORS AND ASSEMBLYMEN. WHAT COMMISSIONER PERRY IS DOING TO REMEDY THE DEFECTIVE WORK OF THE ARCHITECTS.ALBANY, Aug. 31.--For the first time in the history of the new Capitol the members of the Legislature at the next session will sit in comfort, with safe surroundings, and in a pure and healthful atmosphere. The Capitol is at the present time undergoing thorough renovation from cellar to roof, and the more it is torn apart the more flagrant are the violations of natural and scientific laws that are brought to light.
June 5, 1891, Erie County Independent, Page 3,
Work of the Recent Session of the New York Legislature.
About $650,000 was appropriated to continue the work on the new capitol--making over $19,000,000 in all appropriated down to the present time. Nearly all of the appropriation will in used in carrying up the western staircase one story and in commencing the approaches on the main or eastern front.
December 23, 1894, The Sun,
NEW YORK STATE CAPITOL. COMMISSIONER PERRY'S REPORT ON THE PROGRESS OF THE WORK,
The Great Building Nearly Complete Except the Approaches, Terraces, Porticos, and Towers-Description of the Eastern Approach and the Six Terraces.
ALBANY, Dec. 23.—The time has passed when people say, "Never will the Capitol building at Albany be completed." It has been steadily growing toward completion for the eleven years that Capitol Commissioner Perry has been in charge of the work. When he, a humble architect, packed his grip in Binghamton and went to Albany be found there a mass of disordered stone, and before him a work which, he thought, would bring but little reward. But the capitol became a part of the life of Mr. Perry—his very being—and, wrapped in his work, he has built a monument that will last long after he has gone forever.
Not for four years has any report been made as to the progress of work on the Capitol building. Much improvement, however, is evident as the result of the four years' work, and the expenditure by the State of about $20,700,000. When the Legislature convenes and Governor-elect Morton has taken the Gubernatorial chair there will be presented to the people of the State through the Legislature a report from Capitol Commissioner Perry covering his work for four years. It has been prepared, in view of the fact that the control of New York State's affairs has passed from the Boards of the Democrats to those of the Republicans. The years reported upon are 1891, 1892, 1893, and 1894 to Dec. 22. The Commissioner has been at work upon the report for some weeks, and the main part of it is now offered to the readers of The Sun. It begins by saying that during the four years past work has been concentrated upon the eastern approach and terraces, the western staircase, the library, the apartments of the Comptroller and Treasurer, and generally extensive repairs to many parts of the building. The report says:
The remaining work to be done to complete the Capitol is the eastern approach and terraces, north, south, and western porticos, the tower, repairs to the granite walls to complete the western staircase, the furnishing of the apartments for the Comptroller and Treasurer, the completion of the fifth story and the pinnacle of the sixth story of the State library. The work of finishing and furnishing the interior of the Capitol is nearly completed. The work yet to be done on the interior is the finishing of the slopes to the western staircase. The building is occupied throughout, except the apartments of the Comptroller in the second story. The State Treasurer is occupying the apartments assigned to his department, but they are not quite finished. It will be seen that there is little to be done except the granite work required to complete the exterior and the tower. The only mason work remaining to be done is that in connection with the exterior granite work and some repairs to the interior of the building. There is a small amount of carpenter work to be done, together with some repairs. There will be but little employment for unskilled labor. The maximum number of men that could be employed to advantage on the Capitol is 700 in all branches of the work, and they principally stonecutters. Special attention should be given to the exterior walls of the building, as they are suffering for much-needed repairs. The pointing has worked out of many of the joints in portions of the outside and court walls, and as a matter of preservation to the structure a good deal of work is necessary to be done to restore it to a sound condition.
Originally the stone gutters were not lined with metal. The joints were calked with lead. Experience has demonstrated that by the expansion and contraction of the granite the joints could not be kept water tight by this method. The consequence was that they leaked badly for many years. During the last four years the gutters have been lined with copper and are now water tight. Many of the outer and court walls were damaged by reason of the leaky gutters, and it would be advisable to thoroughly repair the walls, fill and point the joints and clean down the walls, in which case they would be preserved, and the building would present a better appearance than it does now. A force of men has been kept employed for the past four years in lining gutters and repairing the roof. The flashings and many of the dormer windows and walls were once in a bad condition, and this combined to make the roof leak badly at many points. The flashings were taken out and new ones put in. The mortar had worked out from beneath the coping of the windows, and the joints had to be leveled and retained. [relined?] The copings back of the gutters were in an unsound condition and the mortar had fallen out of the joints. Now all the stone work back of the gutters has been covered with sheet lead and the stone pointed up. The slate and tile roof was in a leaky condition, but it is now repaired and made water tight. The curtain roof next to the southeast pavilion was in a leaky condition by reason of being a flat roof and the slate broken. The slate was taken off and a tin roof put on. The terra cotta finials of the pavilions and other roofs of the building which were in an unsound condition have been repaired, and the hip rolls have also been made sound, pointed up, and the stone work has been repaired so that the roofs are in pretty good condition, except certain ones which face on State street and Washington avenue, and which should be covered with copper. The slate on the copper roof on the north side should be taken down and covered with tin."
The commissioner then enters upon a careful description of the eastern approach to the building. He says:
"The eastern and principal approach to the Capitol provides for an entrance to both the first and second stories through an arcade in the first story and through a portico over the arcade in the second story. The foundation for the approach was laid in 1891, since which time the work has been steadily progressed each year when money was available for the purpose. The plans of the structure are on a liberal scale, and the eastern approach extends out from the building a distance of 166 feet 7 inches and connects with the central and projecting section of the eastern facade. The first section is 111 feet broad, measuring to the outside of the pedestals. The strings and steps curve outward at the lower ends and terminate in original pedestals, on which are designed to be placed statuary bearing electric lights. The first run of sixteen steps are 100 feet 7 inches broad and are constructed on convex curves, the height of each step being increased over the lower one and stopping on a broad curved platform, at which point there is a great corbel, supporting pedestals at the end of the platform. Both the corbels and pedestals are designed to be richly adorned with carving. From this platform there are sixteen additional straight steps landing on a platform, and from which run the steps leading to the second story. Resting on a great pier at the junction of the terrace and the upper run of steps is a great cap 4 feet 11 1/2 inches by 7 feet 3 inches, rising about 16 inches above the platform. This cap is designed to be carved and to support pedestals with carved bases, and which will receive the strings, balustrade, and rails and form a proper platform for supporting statuary bearing electric lights. This is contemplated by the drawings.
"Six terraces extend on either side of the upper run of steps to the roadway. This roadway forms a porte cochere in the first story of the Capitol. This roadway is 24 feet in width by 67 feet long, and is divided into three bays with stone groin ceilings supported on piers with columns in the angles, the caps of which are designed to be carved. The foundations were built up to a height of 14 feet, constructed in a most thorough manner. The four piers which rest on the above-mentioned foundations are constructed of finely wrought granite, and have been carried up to a level with the inside of the pavement to receive the superstructure. The piers on either side of the roadway are carried up on a rectangular form to a height of seven feet, from which point the piers are circular in form, each flanked by four columns, cut on the solid and crowned with a block of granite, preparatory to carving. The piers and columns have molded bases and represent a very great amount of work and have a substantial and beautiful appearance.
"The eastern facade in its present condition is greatly inferior in its appearance from an architectural standpoint. The centre section extends up to a level of the fourth-story floor, at which point it is discontinued. From this level the granite wall of the centre section is recessed from the front section and is carried to the roof lines, making an offset of sixteen feet and presenting a bad construction and unarchitectural design. This is to be remedied.
"The first and second story of the building will be entered through the roadways and the porticos. From the level of the top of the arches of the second story the piers and columns will extend up through two stories, with broad and substantial piers at the outer angles, to the steps between the piers divided into three broad openings by the intersection of granite piers and columns. When this work is completed the eastern approach will be most imposing and grand, and will be thoroughly redeemed from its present unarchitectural appearance. East of the arched driveways, the porte cochere to the first story is of two sections, divided into three bays, each with elliptical, ramped granite groin ceilings between the main elliptical arches, supported on piers flanked with columns of stone preparatory to carving. The effect of this is substantial and grand. On the west of the driveway, next to the building and opposite the roadway, is a fourth bay, treated in the same manner as the ones above described. The section of the terrace next to the roadway is curved outward, greatly increasing the width of the platform on either side and making a fine effect, especially in the colonnade. The pilasters and columns which support the terraces connect with the retaining walls of the roadway on the north and south side, which extend at right angles to the terraces. These retaining walls are embellished with pilasters with molded bases."
The Commissioner then minutely describes each platform of the approach. "Two corbels there are, one on each side of the approach. They are richly carved: one has upon it the head of Jupiter, the other the head of Mercury. It will be borne in mind that the material used in this great approach is of finely wrought granite from the Halloway Granite Works, and that the work has been done with greatest care and precision. The stone has been cut by men of long experience in this work, who performed their duties most faithfully." Although much attention and care has been used by the Commissioner in describing the eastern approach, it is the grand western staircase that receives his most careful attention. His explanation of it is that of the true artist, whose heart and soul is in his work. He says:
"The next great work in progress at the time work was suspended, on Oct. 5. 1894, is the great staircase in the western section of the building. The work of erecting the structure was commenced March 22, 1884. and continued at intervals, when appropriations were available, the actual time expended on the same being five and one-half years. The structure occupies a space 70 feet 10 1/2 inches north and south by 69 feet 10 1/2 inches east and west. The east and west corridors of the main section of the building extend along past the great staircase in the first, second, third, and fourth stories, except on the west side of the second story, where the entrance is located and connects with all four of the entrances. The effect produced in viewing the stairs from the second story is most imposing. All the walls within the section in which is the great staircase have been made harmonious with other portions of the structure. The plan consists of broad central landings, drawing in the corridors of each story and extending through the centre openings between cylindrical piers, flanked with columns near the east and west corridors in the first story, in the east corridor and west part of the second story, and in the opening corridor in the third story. The central runs curve outwardly from the centre line of the steps, increasing the length of the lower steps, which are constructed on converse curves and extend up a little more than one-third of the height of each story and lean on central platforms. These platforms are flanked by short runs of stairs on two sides at right angles with the central runs and lean on platforms reaching to the walls, from which are four runs of steps, two on each side along the walls next to the north and south corridors, thereby making four landings, two in each corridor of the second, third, and fourth stories. By this plan the construction of the staircase is such as to form four liberal-sized walls, to which light is admitted through the glazed dormer and other windows in the side walls.
"The central portion of the stairs is supported on eight piers, resting upon molded granite bases and extending up from the foundations at angles of all the platforms through three full stories. Glazed columns with molded bases rest upon pedestals, except in the fourth story, and are embellished with carved caps. From the lower eight pilasters and piers to the north, south, east, and west walls in each story are elliptical arches, carrying the upper runs of steps which land in the corridors. On these are supported the various runs and steps, the arches being furnished with groin ceilings. The various forms of arches make a pretty picture as viewed from the many points on the staircase, and prove that the utmost scientific and skillful work has been accomplished. The successful result brings to the beholder many most beautiful and interesting vistas."
The Commissioner then goes on to describe the openings on the various floors which the staircase connects. He says:
"The north and south corridors in the third story are completed. The lower section of the walls is of the same material as employed in the stairs, and the walls of the outer section are faced with Indiana limestone. The paneled ceilings are of the same material. At either side of the window opening to the stops to the angles, figures are represented. Much careful attention has been given to the form and decoration of the balustrades in the third story. They stand out prominently from the staircase on ledges and are adorned with spirited carvings. On the centre ledge on the north side is an excellently carved head of Columbus in relief, and the three caravels in which he and his company made their first voyage. Upon the western ledge is carved the Viking ship, and on the east ledge a modern steamship is represented—the two latter in bas relief. The railings of the third opening and the stops of the same on each side are richly carved and present a fine effect. On the south and corresponding ledge of the openings is carved the head and bust of a typical American girl, the arms of which are concealed by foliage and projecting through the same, finally bringing the hands to view. On the west ledge is a ploughing scene, and on the east a schoolhouse, set in a clearing, the scene representing a forest of timber and children on their way to school. The ploughing and school scenes are in bas relief, supported by rich foliage.
"The entrance to the State library is from the western corridor on the same floor. A broad string course is situated just below the springs of the arches of the door, and the recess extends the whole length of the west wall, and returns along the north and south end walls, extending to and including the caps of the columns at the junctions of the north and south corridors. This string course, together with the caps of the columns and pilasters, have been completed. Much care has been given to the designs. On the transom over the State library is a carved representation of the head and neck of Minerva, with a wreath of oak leaves falling down on either side of the same, and the whole set in well-designed and carefully executed foliage. On the lower section of the transom are the words "State Library," with carvings representing holly leaves springing out from behind the caps of the columns on either side, with a branch of ivy entwined around the letters. The doorway is flanked with columns, the caps of which are exquisitely carved, as are also the caps of the central column on either side of the recesses. On caps of columns near the doorway are carvings of heads representing Homer and Shakespeare, Cupids are represented in the spaces between the pilasters and columns at either side of the library doorway and at other points in the string courses. Heads representing old men and cupids are introduced at intervals on the string courses among entwined foliage.
"On the east side of the first story are carved corbels under the arches supporting the centre runs on the steps, representing 'Justice' on one and 'Liberty' on the other. On the west side the corbals are carved to represent a lamp and open book on one and a cross on the other. The emblems are supported by richly carved foliage. The corbels supporting the third-story arches, which carry the centre runs of steps on the east, bear the words 'Excelsior' on the one and 'E Pluribus Unum' on the other. On the west side is a quotation from the Declaration of Independence, the letters carved on a smooth surface, surrounded by natural foliage. On one is the head of Thomas Jefferson, which is carved between the caps or columns of the pier just below. The corresponding corbel supporting the opposite arch represents the Stars and Stripes. The head of George Washington is carved between the caps of the columns and the pier below. The voussoirs of the arches that carry the various runs of steps are two feet in height, with heavy carved beads at the angles, formed by the face of the arch and the soffits."
The report, after complimenting the manner in which the workmen have performed their duty, says:
"In case the balustrade in the grand staircase is completed up to the various runs of stairs from the second to the fourth story, it will be most imposing and graceful, that is, providing the same care is taken to complete the work that has characterized it thus far. The staircase is lighted by windows opening into the north and south courts, and through broad openings in the west wall of the corridor on the first, second, and third stories. The wires which are used to light the staircase are skillfully concealed underneath the stairs." The report then describes the ceilings in the various stories near the staircase. The ceiling in the first is of pressed brick, in the second red sandstone, in the third Indiana limestone, supported by beams of polished granite. Most interesting is the description given of the faces in granite which adorn the corridor between the Attorney-General's office and the office now occupied by the State Board of Health. "Piers stand on either side of the stairs. On the right hand pier leading from the western lobby on the inside is carved the head of Gen. George Washington. On the opposite pier facing Washington is the face of Thomas Jefferson. One the side facing the lobby are the heads of Gen. Scott and Zachary Taylor. Flanking these heads are those of Gen. Wool [sic-Worth?] and Gen. Thomas. On the inside of the piers is the head of J. Fennimore Cooper, with smaller heads surrounding it representing the subjects of many of his writings. There is also the head of Americus Vespucci’s. On the opposite piers of the east corridor are also historical heads. On the inside of the right-hand pier, looking across the steps, can be seen the head of Gen. Schuyler, and on the opposite pier that of Gen. Jackson. Facing the corridor are heads of Benjamin Franklin and De Witt Clinton, while flanking the same on the right and left respectively are the heads of Henry Hudson and Charles Champlain. On the inside of the piers, as viewed when descending the steps, are the heads of Jay and Silas Wright. A portion of the piers has been prepared for the heads of the late President Lincoln, William H. Seward, Alexander Hamilton, George W. Curtis, and Henry and Fulton. The models of these heads are now on exhibition at the Capitol, and, so far as they have been examined by competent judges, are good representations of the distinguished subjects."
The report says that the steps of the staircase are of freestone from quarries near Albion, Orleans county, and one of the best known material for steps, from the fact that it will wear almost equal to granite and is just gritty enough to prevent it becoming slippery. The report closes with a description of the new quarters of the Comptroller and State Treasurer. Those of the Comptroller are on the second floor of the Capital building, and take in the old Court of Appeals room of the defunct second division and almost half of the Washington avenue side of the Capitol. The Treasurer's Quarters are on the ground floor and extend along the west side. Supplementary to the report is a financial statement which contains an itemized account of all the appropriations made for the building.
February 1, 1895, The World,
TO WORK ON THE CAPITOL. Bill Providing for Its Completion by Contract.
ALBANY, Jan, 31.—Mr. Nixon, of Chautauqua, Introduced a bill in the Assembly to-day providing for the completion of the Capitol building by contract. It creates a Capitol commission to consist of the Comptroller, the Attorney-General, the Capitol Commissioner and two persons appointed by the Governor, one of whom shall be as architect of at least ten years experience. The commission shall advertise for bids for contracts to finish the Capitol in accordance with plans and specifications furnished by the commission before Jan. 1, 1897. The contractors may receive monthly reports from the State as their work progresses. The Capitol Commissioner shall be the superintending architect of the Capitol, and see that the work to performed properly.
March 14, 1895, Sag Harbor Express,
Editorial,
It now looks as if that great Albany elephant the New-York State Capitol building would be finished in a business like manner and without any further swindling of the people. Monday night Senator O'Connor introduced a bill which should be come law. It is to create a Capitol Commission consisting of Comptroller Roberts, Attorney-General Hancock and Capitol Commissioner Perry to finish the new capitol by contract. This new building, which has been almost long enough in course of erection to already be an old one, has already cost the State nearly $21,000,000, and still it is not finished. And now, instead of making any further appropriations to be squandered, it is proposed to finish the structure by contract. Governor Morton thinks that it can be completed more cheaply by contract than by State labor, so recommended in his message, and Senator O'Conner, by introducing his bill, is carrying out the Governor's suggestion.
August 7, 1895, Albany Evening Journal,
CAPITOL COMMISSIONERS THEY APPOINT MR. RUSSELL. A COMMITTEE TO CONFER WITH MR. PERRY ON PLANS FOR THE COMPLETION OF THE CAPITOL—
April 24, 1896, New York Times, A DAY'S WEDDINGS. Sweny-Parker
ALBANY, April 23.--Miss Louisa Parker, oldest daughter of Gen. Amasa J. Parker, and Harry Roy Sweny, only son of the late Capt. Alfred Sweny, were married in St. Peter's Church this afternoon by the Rev. Dr. Battershall. The bride was given away by her brother Amasa J. Parker, Jr. Dr. C. C. Schuyler of Plattsburg acted as best man. There were no bridesmaids. Lewis R. Parker, Dr. Frederick Cox, R.V. , D.W. Walsh, and Harry Whiting Garfield were the ushers
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Jan. 15, 1898, New York Times Saturday Review of Books and Art, Page 33, Free Archive.
New York State in American History
The report of the State Historian, Mr. Hugh Hastings, from which passages are reprinted elsewhere in this issue, brings prominently to public attention the sad state of neglect in which important and valuable historical papers belonging to this State have remained for more than a hundred years. No one has ever attempted to investigate the colonial and revolutionary history of any part of the state without soon finding that much information he was in search of and ought to have could be obtained only from unpublished papers preserved in the capitol at Albany. Beyond the stately quartos published under Dr O'Callaghan's editorship and the few volumes Mr Berthold Fernow edited, there was little at his disposal in printed form. Calendars there were of state papers laid away there, but these simply told him what he might find by going to Albany; they served to emphasize still more the surprising indifference of state officers and legislators to the rich collections that are stored in the capitol.
The share of New York in the making of history on this continent has been far too great to make it any longer pardonable that any useful knowledge on the subject shall be concealed from those who wish to see it. Not only was New York one of the earliest places in the United States where Europeans founded settlements, but all through the formative history that embraced conflicts with the Indians, with the French, and with England, it was the vital center around which the long struggle, first between barbarism and civilization, next between Latin and Anglo-Saxon forms of government, and finally between English liberty and English personal government, was fought out and won. The valley of the Mohawk, the headwaters of the Susquehanna, the shores of lakes Champlain and George, and the valley of the Hudson supplied battlefields for a conflict extending over a full century and a half. Schenectady and German Flats, Lake George and Ticonderoga, Minisink and Cherry Valley, Elmira and Saratoga, Oriskany and Stony Point, Harlem Heights, Brooklyn, and White Plains recall those scenes and bring to mind the names of the men who on New York soil gave direction to the cause of humanity, which finally had its splendid triumph here— Sir William Johnson and Nicholas Herkimer, John Sullivan and Anthony Wayne, Israel Putnam and Nathaniel Greene, Philip Schuyler and George Washington.
There has never been lack of men competent and willing to undertake the laborious task of editing and printing these colonial and revolutionary papers. The thing lacking has been a legislature which would provide the funds for doing the work. No great sum would be needed whatever scale of typographic display might be proposed. Men whom the project has interested grow sick at heart when they reflect how small this sum would be, compared with expenditures that are constantly and easily made for less urgent purposes. Some years ago many thousands of dollars were expended on several resplendent quartos devoted to the Public service of the State of New York, volumes as striking in their form of manufacture as in their curious inutility.Those thousands of dollars expended in the publication of the colonial and revolutionary papers would have made a splendid start — something more than a start, in fact — toward their preservation for all time in print, and not only their preservation but their wide distribution.
In the stately edifice where these papers now find a resting place are staircases and corridors, vaulted ceilings, and wainscoted chambers to which the legislator points with pride, and upon which his untraveled constituents gaze with wondering eyes. But for men who think more of vital things in the life of a state, it is melancholy to remember how one of these show places represents outlays that might have saved New York from the disgrace which neglect of her historical manuscripts has fastened so deeply upon her. The stains of that neglect, though deep enough, are not indelible. A Legislature could at any time wipe them out.
On past Legislatures, however, stains must remain, and stains indelible. But shall the present and future Legislatures also bear them?
Free Archive Full Page
January 15, 1898, New York Times Saturday Review of Books and Art, Page 37, NEW YORK STATE IN THE REVOLUTION.
Records of That Conflict and of Colonial Times Getting Published.
Men and women who have been seeking industriously for information concerning the part taken by ancestors of theirs in Colonial and Revolutionary times will be among the most diligent readers the State Historian of New York, Mr. Hugh Hastings, will have for his annual report, just published. It is a volume of more than a thousand pages, many of which are filled with muster rolls to which there is an elaborate index. The present volume, filled as it is with valuable records, is merely the beginning of a series that is to be devoted to Colonial records. How great the neglect of these papers has been by the State Mr. Hastings sets forth, as well as the demands that pour in upon him for the information they contain. Indeed, it is this topic and the extent of New York's contribution in men to the armies of the Revolution that form what are perhaps the most triking passages in the report. They are given below:
The declaration in the State Historian's report last year that New York State furnished forty thousand troops during the War of the Revolution was met with a storm of denials and criticism, that, beginning with a Philadelphia newspaper, swept through this State from Buffalo to New York. Several writers, with more presumption than judgment, even charged that such a "preposterous statement" utterly discredited the work of the department. Puerile State jealousy has in many ways and by many shallow writers striven to deny to New York credit for the exalted patriotism it has ever been her pride to display and her record to exert in the hour of her country's peril.
New York's placid indifference to exploiting her great achievements has encouraged a certain class of so-called historical writers of other States for a period running over a hundred years in belittling the Empire State at almost every historical crisis. From the adoption of the Federal Constitution New York has been exposed to virulent attacks from New England writers, not only for her position in the convention that adopted the Federal Constitution, but for her course during the second war with Great Britain.
And it seems perfectly appropriate that a writer from the sister State of Pennsylvania should ridicule New York's patriotism during the trying years from 1775 to 1789, but in the absence of positive proof to the contrary, the willingness with which certain influential newspapers in this State reproduced these denials and joined issues with New York's assailants to the detriment of their own State was as surprising as their motive was inexplicable. Fortunately, what was known by this department to be a fact a year ago will soon be established within the reach of the public generally, and the statement then made will be more than verified.
In order that all the records extant should be amalgamated, what co-operation New York rendered to her sister Colonies during the War of the Revolution, a project was set on foot last Spring which had in contemplation the consolidation of all the Revolutionary records in the possession of the State of New York and the War Department at Washington, D. C. Early in May, 1896, Col. D. S. Lamont, Secretary of War, put himself in communication with Gov. Morton and made a formal request that the State, through the Regents of the University, should loan the United States Government whatever Revolutionary muster rolls were filed away in our State Library. Gov. Morton's interest in the subject was at once aroused, ande without delay he submitted the matter to the Regents, supplemented by request that Col. Lamont's project should be consummated.
At the annual convocation in June last, the Regents failed to see the expediency of the request made by the Federal Government and the Governor, and declined to permit our Revolutionary records to leave the State, on the ground that the risk covered in transportation to Washington and return was altogether too hazardous. It was contended that the policy of the Regents never to permit the State archives to leave the fire-proof and water-proof vaults in which they were kept should not be broken. Besides, it was contended, a dangerous precedent would be established--that by loaning the records to the Government the door was opened to those of our sister States that might be disposed to make the same sort of a request. As a concession, however, the Regents offered the National Government every access, should the War Department see fit to detail a number of copyists for the purpose of transcribing the records. Inasmuch as the War Department had no funds fixed by statute--and therefore no authority--for the transportation of clerks from Washington to Albany and return, or for their maintenance while they remained in this city, the laudable enterprise fell through. This refusal of the Regents left New York State in any but an enviable position when the National Government determined to print its Revolutionary records. The State of New York would have had no position whatever commensurate with the services it ahd rendered to the cause. Its record, as a matter of fact, would not have appeared. The State would have been at a marked disadvantage.
Fortunately, however, State Controller Roberts had in the Summer of 1895 discovered in the attic of the old State Hall a great mass of Revolutionary records that had lain undisturbed for nearly eighty years. Realizing their value and the necessity of putting them in shape for public use, Controller Roberts, governed by a high sense of public spirit and patriotism, entered into an agreement with Secretary Lamont, through Col. Fred C. Ainsworth, United States Army, Chief of the Record and Pension Office, for the interchange of these records with those relating to New York State on file in the War Department. This patriotic demonstration of reciprocity has proved of incalculable value to the history of this State and of the United States. So that to-day in the War Department in Washington, D. C., and in the State Controller's office in Albany the muster and pay rolls of the troops furnished by New York State to the War of the Revolution are in more complete condition as to names and numbers furnished than at any previous time in the history of this State or of the United States. From documents and rolls whose authenticity cannot be questioned, of which each one bears the stamp of official accuracy, the statement can be iterated without the fear of successful contradiction that the number of troops furnished by New York State during the War of the Revolution will aggregate between 40,000 and 41,000.
In addition to these nuster and pay rolls there are other records bearing the name of regiments with their field, staff, and line officers, without the name of a single private, thus indicating that there were skeleton regiments, duly officered, whose ranks, it is safe to assume, were only partially filled. Then again, in the Controller's possession there are the names of pensioners whose claims are duly certified as New York soldiers, but whose names cannot be found on any of the existing muster or pay rolls. The fact that they obtained the pension is a sufficient guarentee that they must have seen service. In the consideration of the lists of regiments and organizations prepared from the official rolls there can be no question that if all the facts could be brought to light, it would be found that New York State supplied nearer forty-five thousand troops than forty thousand.
The resources of the department have been sorely tried during the past year by the many queries, letters, and demands for information from people interested in their ancestors who settled in this State during the Colonial period, or who enlisted from this State during the War of the Revolution or the War of 1812. These queries have come from nearly every State in the Union, demonstrating the constantly expanding interest in matters of this kind. The study of American history and of American ancestry has become a very prominent part of our political existence; a scarcity of material has only whetted the appetites of the people for more detailed information. To satisfy this demand, which is as healthy as it is natural, our sister States of Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Massachusetts, and Maryland are pushing forward the publication of Colonial and Revolutionary Records--records that have long lain neglected, and have only been accessible to a limited number of influential persons. Up to the present time the State of Pennsylvania has printed three series of her Colonial archives, embracing thirty volumes; the fourth series, constituting twenty volumes, is now in process or preperation. The example set by the three States mentioned above should certainly be followed by the State of New York, the peer of them all. Even the comparatively modern States of Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Montana have printed their early archives.
It is a crying shame that this great State ever abandoned printing its records, so well begun and continued by the late Dr. E. B. O'Callaghan. The Colonial records and other valuable manuscripts now in the State Library belong of right to the people, and the people will never have the true history of the early period of this State until these records are printed and distributed. The collection of manuscripts owned by the State of New York is more valuable and their contents are more interesting than those of any other collection in the country outside of the City of Washington. The longer this work is neglected the more difficult will be the transcribing of our archives. Year byn year the ink becomes less legible, and year by year the danger of mutilation and destruction increases. It is the fashion for a few alleged economists to decry the expense necessary in the preperation and publishing of valuable records of this character. The growth of patriotic societies in this State, male and female, the constantly developing interest manifested in our early history, would seem to indicate that a very large class of our people who are not active in politics except on election day beleive that the State should use its resources in giving the public in printed form all the historical records that are now under lock and key.
The American Historical Review for January contains many articles of exceeding interest. Among these are Edward Channing's "Justin Winsor," Charles H. Haskin's "The LIfe of Mediaeval Students as Illustrated by Their Letters," Herbert Tuttles's "The Prussian Campaign of 1758, II.," Herbert L. Osgood's "The Proprietary Province as a Form of Colonial Government, III.," Max Farrand's "The Taxation of Tea, 1767-1773," Gaillard Hunt's "Office Seekers During Jefferson's Administration," and Arthur M. Mowry's "Tammany Hall and the Dorr Rebellion."
March 12, 1890, New York Times,
THE SNAITH CLAIM.; MORE EXPERT TESTIMONY REGARDING THE ASSEMBLY CEILING.
April 11, 1890, New York Times, Page 2, Column 3,
THE CEILING SCANDAL.
INTERESTING TESTIMONY BEFORE THE BOARD OF CLAIMS.
ALBANY, April 10,-Some interesting testimony was brought out to-day in the hearing before the State Board of Claims on Contractor John Snaith's Assembly ceiling claim. Roland A. Gove, who is a brother-in-law of Charles B. Andrews and who acted as Andrews's storekeeper when the latter was superintendent of Public Buildings, was the prinoipal witness. Owing to a family quarrel Gove had decided to peach, and his testimony was calculated to show that Andrews, Sullivan, and Snaith entered into a conspiracy to rob the State in the construction of the Assembly ceiling and the repairs on the staircase. The cross-examlnation of the witness by counsel for Snaitb shook his testimony somewhat, but the witness stuck to the main facts.
Gove swore that for the five weeks during the Fish investigation Mrs. Andrews was confined in his house, and during that time she did not leave town to visit a "sick friend" as her husband testified before the committee. Two days after her arrival at Gove's house a box was brought to her from the Andrews homestead which contained $375 in gold coin, $14,000 in currency, and $40,000 in stocks and bonds. There was also an agreement, dated June 27, between Snaith and Andrews for an equal division of the money made on the ceiling and staircase work. Gove stated that the alleged staircase contract between Snaith and Sullivan was made during the Ainsworth investigation. Sullivan and Andrews had both told him this. This was the paper upon which the ink was hardly dry when it was presented for the inpection of the committee. Andrews swore at that time that it had been drawn up during the preceding Summer.
Gove, continuing, said that he had seen a number of vouchers for material which was not furnisned. Andrews had told him that the vouchers were so made that Snaith would have to make a division of the Spoils or be exposed. The original bill of Snaith had been changed by the insertion of the clause allowing the use of papier maehe. Prior to the meeting of the Ceiling Committee Andrews had "fixed up" the bids.
April 25, 1890, The Sun, Page 2, Column 6,
Mr. Fish's Capitol Commissioners' bill, putting almost all of the State building in the charge of the Commission, was killed, owing to the antagonism against the independent leader of the House that is felt in the more subservient Senate. Mr. Fish and Speaker Husted favored the measure, and say that it would save the State $150,000 a year.
May 14, 1890, New York Times,
THE CAPITOL'S CONDITION BAD, GOV. HILL SUDDENLY FINDS IT OUT AND WANTS IT IMPROVED.
ALBANY, May 13. -- Gov. Hill late this afternoon signed the bill appropriating $365,125 for work upon the Capitol. Having previously vetoed similar bills, he deemed it expedient to file a long memorandum, which, however, does not disclose how he so suddenly discovered that the Capitol is so badly in need of repair, nor give any information as to his investigation in regard to the politicians to be benefited by the bill.
May 15, 1890, New York Times, THE NEW CAPITOL COMMISSION.
August 5, 1890, New York Times,
REPAIRING THE CAPITOL.; MANY DEFECTS DISCOVERED-- THE GOLDEN CORRIDOR A THING OF THE PAST.
ALBANY, Aug. 4. -- The restoration of the north central section of the Capitol is well under way, with prospects of its completion by Fall. The work was begun none too soon, for bad workmanship, together with frost disintegrations, had rendered six of the granite dormer windows and the heavy stone balustrade at the base of the steep roof over the Assembly Chamber unsafe, and the mass was ready to fall apart. These have been reset and made secure.
One of the greatest defects was found in the construction of the gutters. These were carved out of granite and the joints cemented. By degrees the water worked its way through the cementing, and as a result the walls were damp continually and frescos and expensive decorations were ruined. Commissioner Perry had just finished lining all the gutters with copper, and hopes thereby to preserve the walls from further damage. When he constructed the west end the gutters of it were all protected with copper.
The big chimneypieces in the Senate Chamber contained flues 8 inches square. These have been enlarged during the Summer to openings 18 inches by five feet. These, it is considered, will be sufficient to remove the vitiated air from the chamber and keep it pure. In other parts of the building the smoke flues have been enlarged and ventilating ducts and shafts cut in the solid masonry floors and walls, measuring from 8 to 10 inches to 5 by 6 feet. There was heretofore almost an entire absence of any ventilation.
The golden corridor, whose beauties were extolled during the early life of the Capitol, remains only in memory. Its space, with a little of that which was in the room originally set apart for the Court of Appeals, has been made into six spacious committee rooms. The corridor on the second floor floor north was broken by the old Court of Appeals room. Now it is carried continuously from east to west ends of the building.
In the execution of this work, which necessitated the tearing away of many hundred cubic feet of masonry, two discoveries were made. One was that the wall on the north side of the open court was never "tied." Experts who examined this wall at different times gave decisions that it was forced out by the pressure of the original stone ceiling of the Assembly Chamber. This proved to be not the fact. Now that the fractured work has been removed, it is shown that the wall was crowded out by the great east and west walls of the Assembly Chamber, which stands at right angles. These walls extended from the big arches in the golden corridor up to and on a line with the roof trusses.
It is evident that the weight of these walls was so great as to compress the arches, and thereby force the walls out. Four large wrought-iron tie rods extending through the granite wall of the court and connected with the four great plate girders which carry the Assembly floor, will hereafter hold the wall in position without doubt.
September 1, 1890, New York Times,
MAKING THE CAPITOL SAFE.
FRESH AIR FOR THE SENATORS AND ASSEMBLYMEN. WHAT COMMISSIONER PERRY IS DOING TO REMEDY THE DEFECTIVE WORK OF THE ARCHITECTS.ALBANY, Aug. 31.--For the first time in the history of the new Capitol the members of the Legislature at the next session will sit in comfort, with safe surroundings, and in a pure and healthful atmosphere. The Capitol is at the present time undergoing thorough renovation from cellar to roof, and the more it is torn apart the more flagrant are the violations of natural and scientific laws that are brought to light.
June 5, 1891, Erie County Independent, Page 3,
Work of the Recent Session of the New York Legislature.
About $650,000 was appropriated to continue the work on the new capitol--making over $19,000,000 in all appropriated down to the present time. Nearly all of the appropriation will in used in carrying up the western staircase one story and in commencing the approaches on the main or eastern front.
December 23, 1894, The Sun,
NEW YORK STATE CAPITOL. COMMISSIONER PERRY'S REPORT ON THE PROGRESS OF THE WORK,
The Great Building Nearly Complete Except the Approaches, Terraces, Porticos, and Towers-Description of the Eastern Approach and the Six Terraces.
ALBANY, Dec. 23.—The time has passed when people say, "Never will the Capitol building at Albany be completed." It has been steadily growing toward completion for the eleven years that Capitol Commissioner Perry has been in charge of the work. When he, a humble architect, packed his grip in Binghamton and went to Albany be found there a mass of disordered stone, and before him a work which, he thought, would bring but little reward. But the capitol became a part of the life of Mr. Perry—his very being—and, wrapped in his work, he has built a monument that will last long after he has gone forever.
Not for four years has any report been made as to the progress of work on the Capitol building. Much improvement, however, is evident as the result of the four years' work, and the expenditure by the State of about $20,700,000. When the Legislature convenes and Governor-elect Morton has taken the Gubernatorial chair there will be presented to the people of the State through the Legislature a report from Capitol Commissioner Perry covering his work for four years. It has been prepared, in view of the fact that the control of New York State's affairs has passed from the Boards of the Democrats to those of the Republicans. The years reported upon are 1891, 1892, 1893, and 1894 to Dec. 22. The Commissioner has been at work upon the report for some weeks, and the main part of it is now offered to the readers of The Sun. It begins by saying that during the four years past work has been concentrated upon the eastern approach and terraces, the western staircase, the library, the apartments of the Comptroller and Treasurer, and generally extensive repairs to many parts of the building. The report says:
The remaining work to be done to complete the Capitol is the eastern approach and terraces, north, south, and western porticos, the tower, repairs to the granite walls to complete the western staircase, the furnishing of the apartments for the Comptroller and Treasurer, the completion of the fifth story and the pinnacle of the sixth story of the State library. The work of finishing and furnishing the interior of the Capitol is nearly completed. The work yet to be done on the interior is the finishing of the slopes to the western staircase. The building is occupied throughout, except the apartments of the Comptroller in the second story. The State Treasurer is occupying the apartments assigned to his department, but they are not quite finished. It will be seen that there is little to be done except the granite work required to complete the exterior and the tower. The only mason work remaining to be done is that in connection with the exterior granite work and some repairs to the interior of the building. There is a small amount of carpenter work to be done, together with some repairs. There will be but little employment for unskilled labor. The maximum number of men that could be employed to advantage on the Capitol is 700 in all branches of the work, and they principally stonecutters. Special attention should be given to the exterior walls of the building, as they are suffering for much-needed repairs. The pointing has worked out of many of the joints in portions of the outside and court walls, and as a matter of preservation to the structure a good deal of work is necessary to be done to restore it to a sound condition.
Originally the stone gutters were not lined with metal. The joints were calked with lead. Experience has demonstrated that by the expansion and contraction of the granite the joints could not be kept water tight by this method. The consequence was that they leaked badly for many years. During the last four years the gutters have been lined with copper and are now water tight. Many of the outer and court walls were damaged by reason of the leaky gutters, and it would be advisable to thoroughly repair the walls, fill and point the joints and clean down the walls, in which case they would be preserved, and the building would present a better appearance than it does now. A force of men has been kept employed for the past four years in lining gutters and repairing the roof. The flashings and many of the dormer windows and walls were once in a bad condition, and this combined to make the roof leak badly at many points. The flashings were taken out and new ones put in. The mortar had worked out from beneath the coping of the windows, and the joints had to be leveled and retained. [relined?] The copings back of the gutters were in an unsound condition and the mortar had fallen out of the joints. Now all the stone work back of the gutters has been covered with sheet lead and the stone pointed up. The slate and tile roof was in a leaky condition, but it is now repaired and made water tight. The curtain roof next to the southeast pavilion was in a leaky condition by reason of being a flat roof and the slate broken. The slate was taken off and a tin roof put on. The terra cotta finials of the pavilions and other roofs of the building which were in an unsound condition have been repaired, and the hip rolls have also been made sound, pointed up, and the stone work has been repaired so that the roofs are in pretty good condition, except certain ones which face on State street and Washington avenue, and which should be covered with copper. The slate on the copper roof on the north side should be taken down and covered with tin."
The commissioner then enters upon a careful description of the eastern approach to the building. He says:
"The eastern and principal approach to the Capitol provides for an entrance to both the first and second stories through an arcade in the first story and through a portico over the arcade in the second story. The foundation for the approach was laid in 1891, since which time the work has been steadily progressed each year when money was available for the purpose. The plans of the structure are on a liberal scale, and the eastern approach extends out from the building a distance of 166 feet 7 inches and connects with the central and projecting section of the eastern facade. The first section is 111 feet broad, measuring to the outside of the pedestals. The strings and steps curve outward at the lower ends and terminate in original pedestals, on which are designed to be placed statuary bearing electric lights. The first run of sixteen steps are 100 feet 7 inches broad and are constructed on convex curves, the height of each step being increased over the lower one and stopping on a broad curved platform, at which point there is a great corbel, supporting pedestals at the end of the platform. Both the corbels and pedestals are designed to be richly adorned with carving. From this platform there are sixteen additional straight steps landing on a platform, and from which run the steps leading to the second story. Resting on a great pier at the junction of the terrace and the upper run of steps is a great cap 4 feet 11 1/2 inches by 7 feet 3 inches, rising about 16 inches above the platform. This cap is designed to be carved and to support pedestals with carved bases, and which will receive the strings, balustrade, and rails and form a proper platform for supporting statuary bearing electric lights. This is contemplated by the drawings.
"Six terraces extend on either side of the upper run of steps to the roadway. This roadway forms a porte cochere in the first story of the Capitol. This roadway is 24 feet in width by 67 feet long, and is divided into three bays with stone groin ceilings supported on piers with columns in the angles, the caps of which are designed to be carved. The foundations were built up to a height of 14 feet, constructed in a most thorough manner. The four piers which rest on the above-mentioned foundations are constructed of finely wrought granite, and have been carried up to a level with the inside of the pavement to receive the superstructure. The piers on either side of the roadway are carried up on a rectangular form to a height of seven feet, from which point the piers are circular in form, each flanked by four columns, cut on the solid and crowned with a block of granite, preparatory to carving. The piers and columns have molded bases and represent a very great amount of work and have a substantial and beautiful appearance.
"The eastern facade in its present condition is greatly inferior in its appearance from an architectural standpoint. The centre section extends up to a level of the fourth-story floor, at which point it is discontinued. From this level the granite wall of the centre section is recessed from the front section and is carried to the roof lines, making an offset of sixteen feet and presenting a bad construction and unarchitectural design. This is to be remedied.
"The first and second story of the building will be entered through the roadways and the porticos. From the level of the top of the arches of the second story the piers and columns will extend up through two stories, with broad and substantial piers at the outer angles, to the steps between the piers divided into three broad openings by the intersection of granite piers and columns. When this work is completed the eastern approach will be most imposing and grand, and will be thoroughly redeemed from its present unarchitectural appearance. East of the arched driveways, the porte cochere to the first story is of two sections, divided into three bays, each with elliptical, ramped granite groin ceilings between the main elliptical arches, supported on piers flanked with columns of stone preparatory to carving. The effect of this is substantial and grand. On the west of the driveway, next to the building and opposite the roadway, is a fourth bay, treated in the same manner as the ones above described. The section of the terrace next to the roadway is curved outward, greatly increasing the width of the platform on either side and making a fine effect, especially in the colonnade. The pilasters and columns which support the terraces connect with the retaining walls of the roadway on the north and south side, which extend at right angles to the terraces. These retaining walls are embellished with pilasters with molded bases."
The Commissioner then minutely describes each platform of the approach. "Two corbels there are, one on each side of the approach. They are richly carved: one has upon it the head of Jupiter, the other the head of Mercury. It will be borne in mind that the material used in this great approach is of finely wrought granite from the Halloway Granite Works, and that the work has been done with greatest care and precision. The stone has been cut by men of long experience in this work, who performed their duties most faithfully." Although much attention and care has been used by the Commissioner in describing the eastern approach, it is the grand western staircase that receives his most careful attention. His explanation of it is that of the true artist, whose heart and soul is in his work. He says:
"The next great work in progress at the time work was suspended, on Oct. 5. 1894, is the great staircase in the western section of the building. The work of erecting the structure was commenced March 22, 1884. and continued at intervals, when appropriations were available, the actual time expended on the same being five and one-half years. The structure occupies a space 70 feet 10 1/2 inches north and south by 69 feet 10 1/2 inches east and west. The east and west corridors of the main section of the building extend along past the great staircase in the first, second, third, and fourth stories, except on the west side of the second story, where the entrance is located and connects with all four of the entrances. The effect produced in viewing the stairs from the second story is most imposing. All the walls within the section in which is the great staircase have been made harmonious with other portions of the structure. The plan consists of broad central landings, drawing in the corridors of each story and extending through the centre openings between cylindrical piers, flanked with columns near the east and west corridors in the first story, in the east corridor and west part of the second story, and in the opening corridor in the third story. The central runs curve outwardly from the centre line of the steps, increasing the length of the lower steps, which are constructed on converse curves and extend up a little more than one-third of the height of each story and lean on central platforms. These platforms are flanked by short runs of stairs on two sides at right angles with the central runs and lean on platforms reaching to the walls, from which are four runs of steps, two on each side along the walls next to the north and south corridors, thereby making four landings, two in each corridor of the second, third, and fourth stories. By this plan the construction of the staircase is such as to form four liberal-sized walls, to which light is admitted through the glazed dormer and other windows in the side walls.
"The central portion of the stairs is supported on eight piers, resting upon molded granite bases and extending up from the foundations at angles of all the platforms through three full stories. Glazed columns with molded bases rest upon pedestals, except in the fourth story, and are embellished with carved caps. From the lower eight pilasters and piers to the north, south, east, and west walls in each story are elliptical arches, carrying the upper runs of steps which land in the corridors. On these are supported the various runs and steps, the arches being furnished with groin ceilings. The various forms of arches make a pretty picture as viewed from the many points on the staircase, and prove that the utmost scientific and skillful work has been accomplished. The successful result brings to the beholder many most beautiful and interesting vistas."
The Commissioner then goes on to describe the openings on the various floors which the staircase connects. He says:
"The north and south corridors in the third story are completed. The lower section of the walls is of the same material as employed in the stairs, and the walls of the outer section are faced with Indiana limestone. The paneled ceilings are of the same material. At either side of the window opening to the stops to the angles, figures are represented. Much careful attention has been given to the form and decoration of the balustrades in the third story. They stand out prominently from the staircase on ledges and are adorned with spirited carvings. On the centre ledge on the north side is an excellently carved head of Columbus in relief, and the three caravels in which he and his company made their first voyage. Upon the western ledge is carved the Viking ship, and on the east ledge a modern steamship is represented—the two latter in bas relief. The railings of the third opening and the stops of the same on each side are richly carved and present a fine effect. On the south and corresponding ledge of the openings is carved the head and bust of a typical American girl, the arms of which are concealed by foliage and projecting through the same, finally bringing the hands to view. On the west ledge is a ploughing scene, and on the east a schoolhouse, set in a clearing, the scene representing a forest of timber and children on their way to school. The ploughing and school scenes are in bas relief, supported by rich foliage.
"The entrance to the State library is from the western corridor on the same floor. A broad string course is situated just below the springs of the arches of the door, and the recess extends the whole length of the west wall, and returns along the north and south end walls, extending to and including the caps of the columns at the junctions of the north and south corridors. This string course, together with the caps of the columns and pilasters, have been completed. Much care has been given to the designs. On the transom over the State library is a carved representation of the head and neck of Minerva, with a wreath of oak leaves falling down on either side of the same, and the whole set in well-designed and carefully executed foliage. On the lower section of the transom are the words "State Library," with carvings representing holly leaves springing out from behind the caps of the columns on either side, with a branch of ivy entwined around the letters. The doorway is flanked with columns, the caps of which are exquisitely carved, as are also the caps of the central column on either side of the recesses. On caps of columns near the doorway are carvings of heads representing Homer and Shakespeare, Cupids are represented in the spaces between the pilasters and columns at either side of the library doorway and at other points in the string courses. Heads representing old men and cupids are introduced at intervals on the string courses among entwined foliage.
"On the east side of the first story are carved corbels under the arches supporting the centre runs on the steps, representing 'Justice' on one and 'Liberty' on the other. On the west side the corbals are carved to represent a lamp and open book on one and a cross on the other. The emblems are supported by richly carved foliage. The corbels supporting the third-story arches, which carry the centre runs of steps on the east, bear the words 'Excelsior' on the one and 'E Pluribus Unum' on the other. On the west side is a quotation from the Declaration of Independence, the letters carved on a smooth surface, surrounded by natural foliage. On one is the head of Thomas Jefferson, which is carved between the caps or columns of the pier just below. The corresponding corbel supporting the opposite arch represents the Stars and Stripes. The head of George Washington is carved between the caps of the columns and the pier below. The voussoirs of the arches that carry the various runs of steps are two feet in height, with heavy carved beads at the angles, formed by the face of the arch and the soffits."
The report, after complimenting the manner in which the workmen have performed their duty, says:
"In case the balustrade in the grand staircase is completed up to the various runs of stairs from the second to the fourth story, it will be most imposing and graceful, that is, providing the same care is taken to complete the work that has characterized it thus far. The staircase is lighted by windows opening into the north and south courts, and through broad openings in the west wall of the corridor on the first, second, and third stories. The wires which are used to light the staircase are skillfully concealed underneath the stairs." The report then describes the ceilings in the various stories near the staircase. The ceiling in the first is of pressed brick, in the second red sandstone, in the third Indiana limestone, supported by beams of polished granite. Most interesting is the description given of the faces in granite which adorn the corridor between the Attorney-General's office and the office now occupied by the State Board of Health. "Piers stand on either side of the stairs. On the right hand pier leading from the western lobby on the inside is carved the head of Gen. George Washington. On the opposite pier facing Washington is the face of Thomas Jefferson. One the side facing the lobby are the heads of Gen. Scott and Zachary Taylor. Flanking these heads are those of Gen. Wool [sic-Worth?] and Gen. Thomas. On the inside of the piers is the head of J. Fennimore Cooper, with smaller heads surrounding it representing the subjects of many of his writings. There is also the head of Americus Vespucci’s. On the opposite piers of the east corridor are also historical heads. On the inside of the right-hand pier, looking across the steps, can be seen the head of Gen. Schuyler, and on the opposite pier that of Gen. Jackson. Facing the corridor are heads of Benjamin Franklin and De Witt Clinton, while flanking the same on the right and left respectively are the heads of Henry Hudson and Charles Champlain. On the inside of the piers, as viewed when descending the steps, are the heads of Jay and Silas Wright. A portion of the piers has been prepared for the heads of the late President Lincoln, William H. Seward, Alexander Hamilton, George W. Curtis, and Henry and Fulton. The models of these heads are now on exhibition at the Capitol, and, so far as they have been examined by competent judges, are good representations of the distinguished subjects."
The report says that the steps of the staircase are of freestone from quarries near Albion, Orleans county, and one of the best known material for steps, from the fact that it will wear almost equal to granite and is just gritty enough to prevent it becoming slippery. The report closes with a description of the new quarters of the Comptroller and State Treasurer. Those of the Comptroller are on the second floor of the Capital building, and take in the old Court of Appeals room of the defunct second division and almost half of the Washington avenue side of the Capitol. The Treasurer's Quarters are on the ground floor and extend along the west side. Supplementary to the report is a financial statement which contains an itemized account of all the appropriations made for the building.
February 1, 1895, The World,
TO WORK ON THE CAPITOL. Bill Providing for Its Completion by Contract.
ALBANY, Jan, 31.—Mr. Nixon, of Chautauqua, Introduced a bill in the Assembly to-day providing for the completion of the Capitol building by contract. It creates a Capitol commission to consist of the Comptroller, the Attorney-General, the Capitol Commissioner and two persons appointed by the Governor, one of whom shall be as architect of at least ten years experience. The commission shall advertise for bids for contracts to finish the Capitol in accordance with plans and specifications furnished by the commission before Jan. 1, 1897. The contractors may receive monthly reports from the State as their work progresses. The Capitol Commissioner shall be the superintending architect of the Capitol, and see that the work to performed properly.
March 14, 1895, Sag Harbor Express,
Editorial,
It now looks as if that great Albany elephant the New-York State Capitol building would be finished in a business like manner and without any further swindling of the people. Monday night Senator O'Connor introduced a bill which should be come law. It is to create a Capitol Commission consisting of Comptroller Roberts, Attorney-General Hancock and Capitol Commissioner Perry to finish the new capitol by contract. This new building, which has been almost long enough in course of erection to already be an old one, has already cost the State nearly $21,000,000, and still it is not finished. And now, instead of making any further appropriations to be squandered, it is proposed to finish the structure by contract. Governor Morton thinks that it can be completed more cheaply by contract than by State labor, so recommended in his message, and Senator O'Conner, by introducing his bill, is carrying out the Governor's suggestion.
August 7, 1895, Albany Evening Journal,
CAPITOL COMMISSIONERS THEY APPOINT MR. RUSSELL. A COMMITTEE TO CONFER WITH MR. PERRY ON PLANS FOR THE COMPLETION OF THE CAPITOL—
April 24, 1896, New York Times, A DAY'S WEDDINGS. Sweny-Parker
Full Page
Jan. 15, 1898, New York Times Saturday Review of Books and Art, Page 33, Free Archive.
New York State in American History
The report of the State Historian, Mr. Hugh Hastings, from which passages are reprinted elsewhere in this issue, brings prominently to public attention the sad state of neglect in which important and valuable historical papers belonging to this State have remained for more than a hundred years. No one has ever attempted to investigate the colonial and revolutionary history of any part of the state without soon finding that much information he was in search of and ought to have could be obtained only from unpublished papers preserved in the capitol at Albany. Beyond the stately quartos published under Dr O'Callaghan's editorship and the few volumes Mr Berthold Fernow edited, there was little at his disposal in printed form. Calendars there were of state papers laid away there, but these simply told him what he might find by going to Albany; they served to emphasize still more the surprising indifference of state officers and legislators to the rich collections that are stored in the capitol.
The share of New York in the making of history on this continent has been far too great to make it any longer pardonable that any useful knowledge on the subject shall be concealed from those who wish to see it. Not only was New York one of the earliest places in the United States where Europeans founded settlements, but all through the formative history that embraced conflicts with the Indians, with the French, and with England, it was the vital center around which the long struggle, first between barbarism and civilization, next between Latin and Anglo-Saxon forms of government, and finally between English liberty and English personal government, was fought out and won. The valley of the Mohawk, the headwaters of the Susquehanna, the shores of lakes Champlain and George, and the valley of the Hudson supplied battlefields for a conflict extending over a full century and a half. Schenectady and German Flats, Lake George and Ticonderoga, Minisink and Cherry Valley, Elmira and Saratoga, Oriskany and Stony Point, Harlem Heights, Brooklyn, and White Plains recall those scenes and bring to mind the names of the men who on New York soil gave direction to the cause of humanity, which finally had its splendid triumph here— Sir William Johnson and Nicholas Herkimer, John Sullivan and Anthony Wayne, Israel Putnam and Nathaniel Greene, Philip Schuyler and George Washington.
There has never been lack of men competent and willing to undertake the laborious task of editing and printing these colonial and revolutionary papers. The thing lacking has been a legislature which would provide the funds for doing the work. No great sum would be needed whatever scale of typographic display might be proposed. Men whom the project has interested grow sick at heart when they reflect how small this sum would be, compared with expenditures that are constantly and easily made for less urgent purposes. Some years ago many thousands of dollars were expended on several resplendent quartos devoted to the Public service of the State of New York, volumes as striking in their form of manufacture as in their curious inutility.Those thousands of dollars expended in the publication of the colonial and revolutionary papers would have made a splendid start — something more than a start, in fact — toward their preservation for all time in print, and not only their preservation but their wide distribution.
In the stately edifice where these papers now find a resting place are staircases and corridors, vaulted ceilings, and wainscoted chambers to which the legislator points with pride, and upon which his untraveled constituents gaze with wondering eyes. But for men who think more of vital things in the life of a state, it is melancholy to remember how one of these show places represents outlays that might have saved New York from the disgrace which neglect of her historical manuscripts has fastened so deeply upon her. The stains of that neglect, though deep enough, are not indelible. A Legislature could at any time wipe them out.
On past Legislatures, however, stains must remain, and stains indelible. But shall the present and future Legislatures also bear them?
Free Archive Full Page
January 15, 1898, New York Times Saturday Review of Books and Art, Page 37, NEW YORK STATE IN THE REVOLUTION.
Records of That Conflict and of Colonial Times Getting Published.
Men and women who have been seeking industriously for information concerning the part taken by ancestors of theirs in Colonial and Revolutionary times will be among the most diligent readers the State Historian of New York, Mr. Hugh Hastings, will have for his annual report, just published. It is a volume of more than a thousand pages, many of which are filled with muster rolls to which there is an elaborate index. The present volume, filled as it is with valuable records, is merely the beginning of a series that is to be devoted to Colonial records. How great the neglect of these papers has been by the State Mr. Hastings sets forth, as well as the demands that pour in upon him for the information they contain. Indeed, it is this topic and the extent of New York's contribution in men to the armies of the Revolution that form what are perhaps the most triking passages in the report. They are given below:
The declaration in the State Historian's report last year that New York State furnished forty thousand troops during the War of the Revolution was met with a storm of denials and criticism, that, beginning with a Philadelphia newspaper, swept through this State from Buffalo to New York. Several writers, with more presumption than judgment, even charged that such a "preposterous statement" utterly discredited the work of the department. Puerile State jealousy has in many ways and by many shallow writers striven to deny to New York credit for the exalted patriotism it has ever been her pride to display and her record to exert in the hour of her country's peril.
New York's placid indifference to exploiting her great achievements has encouraged a certain class of so-called historical writers of other States for a period running over a hundred years in belittling the Empire State at almost every historical crisis. From the adoption of the Federal Constitution New York has been exposed to virulent attacks from New England writers, not only for her position in the convention that adopted the Federal Constitution, but for her course during the second war with Great Britain.
And it seems perfectly appropriate that a writer from the sister State of Pennsylvania should ridicule New York's patriotism during the trying years from 1775 to 1789, but in the absence of positive proof to the contrary, the willingness with which certain influential newspapers in this State reproduced these denials and joined issues with New York's assailants to the detriment of their own State was as surprising as their motive was inexplicable. Fortunately, what was known by this department to be a fact a year ago will soon be established within the reach of the public generally, and the statement then made will be more than verified.
In order that all the records extant should be amalgamated, what co-operation New York rendered to her sister Colonies during the War of the Revolution, a project was set on foot last Spring which had in contemplation the consolidation of all the Revolutionary records in the possession of the State of New York and the War Department at Washington, D. C. Early in May, 1896, Col. D. S. Lamont, Secretary of War, put himself in communication with Gov. Morton and made a formal request that the State, through the Regents of the University, should loan the United States Government whatever Revolutionary muster rolls were filed away in our State Library. Gov. Morton's interest in the subject was at once aroused, ande without delay he submitted the matter to the Regents, supplemented by request that Col. Lamont's project should be consummated.
At the annual convocation in June last, the Regents failed to see the expediency of the request made by the Federal Government and the Governor, and declined to permit our Revolutionary records to leave the State, on the ground that the risk covered in transportation to Washington and return was altogether too hazardous. It was contended that the policy of the Regents never to permit the State archives to leave the fire-proof and water-proof vaults in which they were kept should not be broken. Besides, it was contended, a dangerous precedent would be established--that by loaning the records to the Government the door was opened to those of our sister States that might be disposed to make the same sort of a request. As a concession, however, the Regents offered the National Government every access, should the War Department see fit to detail a number of copyists for the purpose of transcribing the records. Inasmuch as the War Department had no funds fixed by statute--and therefore no authority--for the transportation of clerks from Washington to Albany and return, or for their maintenance while they remained in this city, the laudable enterprise fell through. This refusal of the Regents left New York State in any but an enviable position when the National Government determined to print its Revolutionary records. The State of New York would have had no position whatever commensurate with the services it ahd rendered to the cause. Its record, as a matter of fact, would not have appeared. The State would have been at a marked disadvantage.
Fortunately, however, State Controller Roberts had in the Summer of 1895 discovered in the attic of the old State Hall a great mass of Revolutionary records that had lain undisturbed for nearly eighty years. Realizing their value and the necessity of putting them in shape for public use, Controller Roberts, governed by a high sense of public spirit and patriotism, entered into an agreement with Secretary Lamont, through Col. Fred C. Ainsworth, United States Army, Chief of the Record and Pension Office, for the interchange of these records with those relating to New York State on file in the War Department. This patriotic demonstration of reciprocity has proved of incalculable value to the history of this State and of the United States. So that to-day in the War Department in Washington, D. C., and in the State Controller's office in Albany the muster and pay rolls of the troops furnished by New York State to the War of the Revolution are in more complete condition as to names and numbers furnished than at any previous time in the history of this State or of the United States. From documents and rolls whose authenticity cannot be questioned, of which each one bears the stamp of official accuracy, the statement can be iterated without the fear of successful contradiction that the number of troops furnished by New York State during the War of the Revolution will aggregate between 40,000 and 41,000.
In addition to these nuster and pay rolls there are other records bearing the name of regiments with their field, staff, and line officers, without the name of a single private, thus indicating that there were skeleton regiments, duly officered, whose ranks, it is safe to assume, were only partially filled. Then again, in the Controller's possession there are the names of pensioners whose claims are duly certified as New York soldiers, but whose names cannot be found on any of the existing muster or pay rolls. The fact that they obtained the pension is a sufficient guarentee that they must have seen service. In the consideration of the lists of regiments and organizations prepared from the official rolls there can be no question that if all the facts could be brought to light, it would be found that New York State supplied nearer forty-five thousand troops than forty thousand.
The resources of the department have been sorely tried during the past year by the many queries, letters, and demands for information from people interested in their ancestors who settled in this State during the Colonial period, or who enlisted from this State during the War of the Revolution or the War of 1812. These queries have come from nearly every State in the Union, demonstrating the constantly expanding interest in matters of this kind. The study of American history and of American ancestry has become a very prominent part of our political existence; a scarcity of material has only whetted the appetites of the people for more detailed information. To satisfy this demand, which is as healthy as it is natural, our sister States of Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Massachusetts, and Maryland are pushing forward the publication of Colonial and Revolutionary Records--records that have long lain neglected, and have only been accessible to a limited number of influential persons. Up to the present time the State of Pennsylvania has printed three series of her Colonial archives, embracing thirty volumes; the fourth series, constituting twenty volumes, is now in process or preperation. The example set by the three States mentioned above should certainly be followed by the State of New York, the peer of them all. Even the comparatively modern States of Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Montana have printed their early archives.
It is a crying shame that this great State ever abandoned printing its records, so well begun and continued by the late Dr. E. B. O'Callaghan. The Colonial records and other valuable manuscripts now in the State Library belong of right to the people, and the people will never have the true history of the early period of this State until these records are printed and distributed. The collection of manuscripts owned by the State of New York is more valuable and their contents are more interesting than those of any other collection in the country outside of the City of Washington. The longer this work is neglected the more difficult will be the transcribing of our archives. Year byn year the ink becomes less legible, and year by year the danger of mutilation and destruction increases. It is the fashion for a few alleged economists to decry the expense necessary in the preperation and publishing of valuable records of this character. The growth of patriotic societies in this State, male and female, the constantly developing interest manifested in our early history, would seem to indicate that a very large class of our people who are not active in politics except on election day beleive that the State should use its resources in giving the public in printed form all the historical records that are now under lock and key.
The American Historical Review for January contains many articles of exceeding interest. Among these are Edward Channing's "Justin Winsor," Charles H. Haskin's "The LIfe of Mediaeval Students as Illustrated by Their Letters," Herbert Tuttles's "The Prussian Campaign of 1758, II.," Herbert L. Osgood's "The Proprietary Province as a Form of Colonial Government, III.," Max Farrand's "The Taxation of Tea, 1767-1773," Gaillard Hunt's "Office Seekers During Jefferson's Administration," and Arthur M. Mowry's "Tammany Hall and the Dorr Rebellion."
THE SNAITH CLAIM.; MORE EXPERT TESTIMONY REGARDING THE ASSEMBLY CEILING.
April 11, 1890, New York Times, Page 2, Column 3,
THE CEILING SCANDAL.
INTERESTING TESTIMONY BEFORE THE BOARD OF CLAIMS.
ALBANY, April 10,-Some interesting testimony was brought out to-day in the hearing before the State Board of Claims on Contractor John Snaith's Assembly ceiling claim. Roland A. Gove, who is a brother-in-law of Charles B. Andrews and who acted as Andrews's storekeeper when the latter was superintendent of Public Buildings, was the prinoipal witness. Owing to a family quarrel Gove had decided to peach, and his testimony was calculated to show that Andrews, Sullivan, and Snaith entered into a conspiracy to rob the State in the construction of the Assembly ceiling and the repairs on the staircase. The cross-examlnation of the witness by counsel for Snaitb shook his testimony somewhat, but the witness stuck to the main facts.
Gove swore that for the five weeks during the Fish investigation Mrs. Andrews was confined in his house, and during that time she did not leave town to visit a "sick friend" as her husband testified before the committee. Two days after her arrival at Gove's house a box was brought to her from the Andrews homestead which contained $375 in gold coin, $14,000 in currency, and $40,000 in stocks and bonds. There was also an agreement, dated June 27, between Snaith and Andrews for an equal division of the money made on the ceiling and staircase work. Gove stated that the alleged staircase contract between Snaith and Sullivan was made during the Ainsworth investigation. Sullivan and Andrews had both told him this. This was the paper upon which the ink was hardly dry when it was presented for the inpection of the committee. Andrews swore at that time that it had been drawn up during the preceding Summer.
Gove, continuing, said that he had seen a number of vouchers for material which was not furnisned. Andrews had told him that the vouchers were so made that Snaith would have to make a division of the Spoils or be exposed. The original bill of Snaith had been changed by the insertion of the clause allowing the use of papier maehe. Prior to the meeting of the Ceiling Committee Andrews had "fixed up" the bids.
April 25, 1890, The Sun, Page 2, Column 6,
Mr. Fish's Capitol Commissioners' bill, putting almost all of the State building in the charge of the Commission, was killed, owing to the antagonism against the independent leader of the House that is felt in the more subservient Senate. Mr. Fish and Speaker Husted favored the measure, and say that it would save the State $150,000 a year.
May 14, 1890, New York Times,
THE CAPITOL'S CONDITION BAD, GOV. HILL SUDDENLY FINDS IT OUT AND WANTS IT IMPROVED.
ALBANY, May 13. -- Gov. Hill late this afternoon signed the bill appropriating $365,125 for work upon the Capitol. Having previously vetoed similar bills, he deemed it expedient to file a long memorandum, which, however, does not disclose how he so suddenly discovered that the Capitol is so badly in need of repair, nor give any information as to his investigation in regard to the politicians to be benefited by the bill.
May 15, 1890, New York Times, THE NEW CAPITOL COMMISSION.
August 5, 1890, New York Times,
REPAIRING THE CAPITOL.; MANY DEFECTS DISCOVERED-- THE GOLDEN CORRIDOR A THING OF THE PAST.
ALBANY, Aug. 4. -- The restoration of the north central section of the Capitol is well under way, with prospects of its completion by Fall. The work was begun none too soon, for bad workmanship, together with frost disintegrations, had rendered six of the granite dormer windows and the heavy stone balustrade at the base of the steep roof over the Assembly Chamber unsafe, and the mass was ready to fall apart. These have been reset and made secure.
One of the greatest defects was found in the construction of the gutters. These were carved out of granite and the joints cemented. By degrees the water worked its way through the cementing, and as a result the walls were damp continually and frescos and expensive decorations were ruined. Commissioner Perry had just finished lining all the gutters with copper, and hopes thereby to preserve the walls from further damage. When he constructed the west end the gutters of it were all protected with copper.
The big chimneypieces in the Senate Chamber contained flues 8 inches square. These have been enlarged during the Summer to openings 18 inches by five feet. These, it is considered, will be sufficient to remove the vitiated air from the chamber and keep it pure. In other parts of the building the smoke flues have been enlarged and ventilating ducts and shafts cut in the solid masonry floors and walls, measuring from 8 to 10 inches to 5 by 6 feet. There was heretofore almost an entire absence of any ventilation.
The golden corridor, whose beauties were extolled during the early life of the Capitol, remains only in memory. Its space, with a little of that which was in the room originally set apart for the Court of Appeals, has been made into six spacious committee rooms. The corridor on the second floor floor north was broken by the old Court of Appeals room. Now it is carried continuously from east to west ends of the building.
In the execution of this work, which necessitated the tearing away of many hundred cubic feet of masonry, two discoveries were made. One was that the wall on the north side of the open court was never "tied." Experts who examined this wall at different times gave decisions that it was forced out by the pressure of the original stone ceiling of the Assembly Chamber. This proved to be not the fact. Now that the fractured work has been removed, it is shown that the wall was crowded out by the great east and west walls of the Assembly Chamber, which stands at right angles. These walls extended from the big arches in the golden corridor up to and on a line with the roof trusses.
It is evident that the weight of these walls was so great as to compress the arches, and thereby force the walls out. Four large wrought-iron tie rods extending through the granite wall of the court and connected with the four great plate girders which carry the Assembly floor, will hereafter hold the wall in position without doubt.
September 1, 1890, New York Times,
MAKING THE CAPITOL SAFE.
FRESH AIR FOR THE SENATORS AND ASSEMBLYMEN. WHAT COMMISSIONER PERRY IS DOING TO REMEDY THE DEFECTIVE WORK OF THE ARCHITECTS.ALBANY, Aug. 31.--For the first time in the history of the new Capitol the members of the Legislature at the next session will sit in comfort, with safe surroundings, and in a pure and healthful atmosphere. The Capitol is at the present time undergoing thorough renovation from cellar to roof, and the more it is torn apart the more flagrant are the violations of natural and scientific laws that are brought to light.
June 5, 1891, Erie County Independent, Page 3,
Work of the Recent Session of the New York Legislature.
About $650,000 was appropriated to continue the work on the new capitol--making over $19,000,000 in all appropriated down to the present time. Nearly all of the appropriation will in used in carrying up the western staircase one story and in commencing the approaches on the main or eastern front.
December 23, 1894, The Sun,
NEW YORK STATE CAPITOL. COMMISSIONER PERRY'S REPORT ON THE PROGRESS OF THE WORK,
The Great Building Nearly Complete Except the Approaches, Terraces, Porticos, and Towers-Description of the Eastern Approach and the Six Terraces.
ALBANY, Dec. 23.—The time has passed when people say, "Never will the Capitol building at Albany be completed." It has been steadily growing toward completion for the eleven years that Capitol Commissioner Perry has been in charge of the work. When he, a humble architect, packed his grip in Binghamton and went to Albany be found there a mass of disordered stone, and before him a work which, he thought, would bring but little reward. But the capitol became a part of the life of Mr. Perry—his very being—and, wrapped in his work, he has built a monument that will last long after he has gone forever.
Not for four years has any report been made as to the progress of work on the Capitol building. Much improvement, however, is evident as the result of the four years' work, and the expenditure by the State of about $20,700,000. When the Legislature convenes and Governor-elect Morton has taken the Gubernatorial chair there will be presented to the people of the State through the Legislature a report from Capitol Commissioner Perry covering his work for four years. It has been prepared, in view of the fact that the control of New York State's affairs has passed from the Boards of the Democrats to those of the Republicans. The years reported upon are 1891, 1892, 1893, and 1894 to Dec. 22. The Commissioner has been at work upon the report for some weeks, and the main part of it is now offered to the readers of The Sun. It begins by saying that during the four years past work has been concentrated upon the eastern approach and terraces, the western staircase, the library, the apartments of the Comptroller and Treasurer, and generally extensive repairs to many parts of the building. The report says:
The remaining work to be done to complete the Capitol is the eastern approach and terraces, north, south, and western porticos, the tower, repairs to the granite walls to complete the western staircase, the furnishing of the apartments for the Comptroller and Treasurer, the completion of the fifth story and the pinnacle of the sixth story of the State library. The work of finishing and furnishing the interior of the Capitol is nearly completed. The work yet to be done on the interior is the finishing of the slopes to the western staircase. The building is occupied throughout, except the apartments of the Comptroller in the second story. The State Treasurer is occupying the apartments assigned to his department, but they are not quite finished. It will be seen that there is little to be done except the granite work required to complete the exterior and the tower. The only mason work remaining to be done is that in connection with the exterior granite work and some repairs to the interior of the building. There is a small amount of carpenter work to be done, together with some repairs. There will be but little employment for unskilled labor. The maximum number of men that could be employed to advantage on the Capitol is 700 in all branches of the work, and they principally stonecutters. Special attention should be given to the exterior walls of the building, as they are suffering for much-needed repairs. The pointing has worked out of many of the joints in portions of the outside and court walls, and as a matter of preservation to the structure a good deal of work is necessary to be done to restore it to a sound condition.
Originally the stone gutters were not lined with metal. The joints were calked with lead. Experience has demonstrated that by the expansion and contraction of the granite the joints could not be kept water tight by this method. The consequence was that they leaked badly for many years. During the last four years the gutters have been lined with copper and are now water tight. Many of the outer and court walls were damaged by reason of the leaky gutters, and it would be advisable to thoroughly repair the walls, fill and point the joints and clean down the walls, in which case they would be preserved, and the building would present a better appearance than it does now. A force of men has been kept employed for the past four years in lining gutters and repairing the roof. The flashings and many of the dormer windows and walls were once in a bad condition, and this combined to make the roof leak badly at many points. The flashings were taken out and new ones put in. The mortar had worked out from beneath the coping of the windows, and the joints had to be leveled and retained. [relined?] The copings back of the gutters were in an unsound condition and the mortar had fallen out of the joints. Now all the stone work back of the gutters has been covered with sheet lead and the stone pointed up. The slate and tile roof was in a leaky condition, but it is now repaired and made water tight. The curtain roof next to the southeast pavilion was in a leaky condition by reason of being a flat roof and the slate broken. The slate was taken off and a tin roof put on. The terra cotta finials of the pavilions and other roofs of the building which were in an unsound condition have been repaired, and the hip rolls have also been made sound, pointed up, and the stone work has been repaired so that the roofs are in pretty good condition, except certain ones which face on State street and Washington avenue, and which should be covered with copper. The slate on the copper roof on the north side should be taken down and covered with tin."
The commissioner then enters upon a careful description of the eastern approach to the building. He says:
"The eastern and principal approach to the Capitol provides for an entrance to both the first and second stories through an arcade in the first story and through a portico over the arcade in the second story. The foundation for the approach was laid in 1891, since which time the work has been steadily progressed each year when money was available for the purpose. The plans of the structure are on a liberal scale, and the eastern approach extends out from the building a distance of 166 feet 7 inches and connects with the central and projecting section of the eastern facade. The first section is 111 feet broad, measuring to the outside of the pedestals. The strings and steps curve outward at the lower ends and terminate in original pedestals, on which are designed to be placed statuary bearing electric lights. The first run of sixteen steps are 100 feet 7 inches broad and are constructed on convex curves, the height of each step being increased over the lower one and stopping on a broad curved platform, at which point there is a great corbel, supporting pedestals at the end of the platform. Both the corbels and pedestals are designed to be richly adorned with carving. From this platform there are sixteen additional straight steps landing on a platform, and from which run the steps leading to the second story. Resting on a great pier at the junction of the terrace and the upper run of steps is a great cap 4 feet 11 1/2 inches by 7 feet 3 inches, rising about 16 inches above the platform. This cap is designed to be carved and to support pedestals with carved bases, and which will receive the strings, balustrade, and rails and form a proper platform for supporting statuary bearing electric lights. This is contemplated by the drawings.
"Six terraces extend on either side of the upper run of steps to the roadway. This roadway forms a porte cochere in the first story of the Capitol. This roadway is 24 feet in width by 67 feet long, and is divided into three bays with stone groin ceilings supported on piers with columns in the angles, the caps of which are designed to be carved. The foundations were built up to a height of 14 feet, constructed in a most thorough manner. The four piers which rest on the above-mentioned foundations are constructed of finely wrought granite, and have been carried up to a level with the inside of the pavement to receive the superstructure. The piers on either side of the roadway are carried up on a rectangular form to a height of seven feet, from which point the piers are circular in form, each flanked by four columns, cut on the solid and crowned with a block of granite, preparatory to carving. The piers and columns have molded bases and represent a very great amount of work and have a substantial and beautiful appearance.
"The eastern facade in its present condition is greatly inferior in its appearance from an architectural standpoint. The centre section extends up to a level of the fourth-story floor, at which point it is discontinued. From this level the granite wall of the centre section is recessed from the front section and is carried to the roof lines, making an offset of sixteen feet and presenting a bad construction and unarchitectural design. This is to be remedied.
"The first and second story of the building will be entered through the roadways and the porticos. From the level of the top of the arches of the second story the piers and columns will extend up through two stories, with broad and substantial piers at the outer angles, to the steps between the piers divided into three broad openings by the intersection of granite piers and columns. When this work is completed the eastern approach will be most imposing and grand, and will be thoroughly redeemed from its present unarchitectural appearance. East of the arched driveways, the porte cochere to the first story is of two sections, divided into three bays, each with elliptical, ramped granite groin ceilings between the main elliptical arches, supported on piers flanked with columns of stone preparatory to carving. The effect of this is substantial and grand. On the west of the driveway, next to the building and opposite the roadway, is a fourth bay, treated in the same manner as the ones above described. The section of the terrace next to the roadway is curved outward, greatly increasing the width of the platform on either side and making a fine effect, especially in the colonnade. The pilasters and columns which support the terraces connect with the retaining walls of the roadway on the north and south side, which extend at right angles to the terraces. These retaining walls are embellished with pilasters with molded bases."
The Commissioner then minutely describes each platform of the approach. "Two corbels there are, one on each side of the approach. They are richly carved: one has upon it the head of Jupiter, the other the head of Mercury. It will be borne in mind that the material used in this great approach is of finely wrought granite from the Halloway Granite Works, and that the work has been done with greatest care and precision. The stone has been cut by men of long experience in this work, who performed their duties most faithfully." Although much attention and care has been used by the Commissioner in describing the eastern approach, it is the grand western staircase that receives his most careful attention. His explanation of it is that of the true artist, whose heart and soul is in his work. He says:
"The next great work in progress at the time work was suspended, on Oct. 5. 1894, is the great staircase in the western section of the building. The work of erecting the structure was commenced March 22, 1884. and continued at intervals, when appropriations were available, the actual time expended on the same being five and one-half years. The structure occupies a space 70 feet 10 1/2 inches north and south by 69 feet 10 1/2 inches east and west. The east and west corridors of the main section of the building extend along past the great staircase in the first, second, third, and fourth stories, except on the west side of the second story, where the entrance is located and connects with all four of the entrances. The effect produced in viewing the stairs from the second story is most imposing. All the walls within the section in which is the great staircase have been made harmonious with other portions of the structure. The plan consists of broad central landings, drawing in the corridors of each story and extending through the centre openings between cylindrical piers, flanked with columns near the east and west corridors in the first story, in the east corridor and west part of the second story, and in the opening corridor in the third story. The central runs curve outwardly from the centre line of the steps, increasing the length of the lower steps, which are constructed on converse curves and extend up a little more than one-third of the height of each story and lean on central platforms. These platforms are flanked by short runs of stairs on two sides at right angles with the central runs and lean on platforms reaching to the walls, from which are four runs of steps, two on each side along the walls next to the north and south corridors, thereby making four landings, two in each corridor of the second, third, and fourth stories. By this plan the construction of the staircase is such as to form four liberal-sized walls, to which light is admitted through the glazed dormer and other windows in the side walls.
"The central portion of the stairs is supported on eight piers, resting upon molded granite bases and extending up from the foundations at angles of all the platforms through three full stories. Glazed columns with molded bases rest upon pedestals, except in the fourth story, and are embellished with carved caps. From the lower eight pilasters and piers to the north, south, east, and west walls in each story are elliptical arches, carrying the upper runs of steps which land in the corridors. On these are supported the various runs and steps, the arches being furnished with groin ceilings. The various forms of arches make a pretty picture as viewed from the many points on the staircase, and prove that the utmost scientific and skillful work has been accomplished. The successful result brings to the beholder many most beautiful and interesting vistas."
The Commissioner then goes on to describe the openings on the various floors which the staircase connects. He says:
"The north and south corridors in the third story are completed. The lower section of the walls is of the same material as employed in the stairs, and the walls of the outer section are faced with Indiana limestone. The paneled ceilings are of the same material. At either side of the window opening to the stops to the angles, figures are represented. Much careful attention has been given to the form and decoration of the balustrades in the third story. They stand out prominently from the staircase on ledges and are adorned with spirited carvings. On the centre ledge on the north side is an excellently carved head of Columbus in relief, and the three caravels in which he and his company made their first voyage. Upon the western ledge is carved the Viking ship, and on the east ledge a modern steamship is represented—the two latter in bas relief. The railings of the third opening and the stops of the same on each side are richly carved and present a fine effect. On the south and corresponding ledge of the openings is carved the head and bust of a typical American girl, the arms of which are concealed by foliage and projecting through the same, finally bringing the hands to view. On the west ledge is a ploughing scene, and on the east a schoolhouse, set in a clearing, the scene representing a forest of timber and children on their way to school. The ploughing and school scenes are in bas relief, supported by rich foliage.
"The entrance to the State library is from the western corridor on the same floor. A broad string course is situated just below the springs of the arches of the door, and the recess extends the whole length of the west wall, and returns along the north and south end walls, extending to and including the caps of the columns at the junctions of the north and south corridors. This string course, together with the caps of the columns and pilasters, have been completed. Much care has been given to the designs. On the transom over the State library is a carved representation of the head and neck of Minerva, with a wreath of oak leaves falling down on either side of the same, and the whole set in well-designed and carefully executed foliage. On the lower section of the transom are the words "State Library," with carvings representing holly leaves springing out from behind the caps of the columns on either side, with a branch of ivy entwined around the letters. The doorway is flanked with columns, the caps of which are exquisitely carved, as are also the caps of the central column on either side of the recesses. On caps of columns near the doorway are carvings of heads representing Homer and Shakespeare, Cupids are represented in the spaces between the pilasters and columns at either side of the library doorway and at other points in the string courses. Heads representing old men and cupids are introduced at intervals on the string courses among entwined foliage.
"On the east side of the first story are carved corbels under the arches supporting the centre runs on the steps, representing 'Justice' on one and 'Liberty' on the other. On the west side the corbals are carved to represent a lamp and open book on one and a cross on the other. The emblems are supported by richly carved foliage. The corbels supporting the third-story arches, which carry the centre runs of steps on the east, bear the words 'Excelsior' on the one and 'E Pluribus Unum' on the other. On the west side is a quotation from the Declaration of Independence, the letters carved on a smooth surface, surrounded by natural foliage. On one is the head of Thomas Jefferson, which is carved between the caps or columns of the pier just below. The corresponding corbel supporting the opposite arch represents the Stars and Stripes. The head of George Washington is carved between the caps of the columns and the pier below. The voussoirs of the arches that carry the various runs of steps are two feet in height, with heavy carved beads at the angles, formed by the face of the arch and the soffits."
The report, after complimenting the manner in which the workmen have performed their duty, says:
"In case the balustrade in the grand staircase is completed up to the various runs of stairs from the second to the fourth story, it will be most imposing and graceful, that is, providing the same care is taken to complete the work that has characterized it thus far. The staircase is lighted by windows opening into the north and south courts, and through broad openings in the west wall of the corridor on the first, second, and third stories. The wires which are used to light the staircase are skillfully concealed underneath the stairs." The report then describes the ceilings in the various stories near the staircase. The ceiling in the first is of pressed brick, in the second red sandstone, in the third Indiana limestone, supported by beams of polished granite. Most interesting is the description given of the faces in granite which adorn the corridor between the Attorney-General's office and the office now occupied by the State Board of Health. "Piers stand on either side of the stairs. On the right hand pier leading from the western lobby on the inside is carved the head of Gen. George Washington. On the opposite pier facing Washington is the face of Thomas Jefferson. One the side facing the lobby are the heads of Gen. Scott and Zachary Taylor. Flanking these heads are those of Gen. Wool [sic-Worth?] and Gen. Thomas. On the inside of the piers is the head of J. Fennimore Cooper, with smaller heads surrounding it representing the subjects of many of his writings. There is also the head of Americus Vespucci’s. On the opposite piers of the east corridor are also historical heads. On the inside of the right-hand pier, looking across the steps, can be seen the head of Gen. Schuyler, and on the opposite pier that of Gen. Jackson. Facing the corridor are heads of Benjamin Franklin and De Witt Clinton, while flanking the same on the right and left respectively are the heads of Henry Hudson and Charles Champlain. On the inside of the piers, as viewed when descending the steps, are the heads of Jay and Silas Wright. A portion of the piers has been prepared for the heads of the late President Lincoln, William H. Seward, Alexander Hamilton, George W. Curtis, and Henry and Fulton. The models of these heads are now on exhibition at the Capitol, and, so far as they have been examined by competent judges, are good representations of the distinguished subjects."
The report says that the steps of the staircase are of freestone from quarries near Albion, Orleans county, and one of the best known material for steps, from the fact that it will wear almost equal to granite and is just gritty enough to prevent it becoming slippery. The report closes with a description of the new quarters of the Comptroller and State Treasurer. Those of the Comptroller are on the second floor of the Capital building, and take in the old Court of Appeals room of the defunct second division and almost half of the Washington avenue side of the Capitol. The Treasurer's Quarters are on the ground floor and extend along the west side. Supplementary to the report is a financial statement which contains an itemized account of all the appropriations made for the building.
February 1, 1895, The World,
TO WORK ON THE CAPITOL. Bill Providing for Its Completion by Contract.
ALBANY, Jan, 31.—Mr. Nixon, of Chautauqua, Introduced a bill in the Assembly to-day providing for the completion of the Capitol building by contract. It creates a Capitol commission to consist of the Comptroller, the Attorney-General, the Capitol Commissioner and two persons appointed by the Governor, one of whom shall be as architect of at least ten years experience. The commission shall advertise for bids for contracts to finish the Capitol in accordance with plans and specifications furnished by the commission before Jan. 1, 1897. The contractors may receive monthly reports from the State as their work progresses. The Capitol Commissioner shall be the superintending architect of the Capitol, and see that the work to performed properly.
March 14, 1895, Sag Harbor Express,
Editorial,
It now looks as if that great Albany elephant the New-York State Capitol building would be finished in a business like manner and without any further swindling of the people. Monday night Senator O'Connor introduced a bill which should be come law. It is to create a Capitol Commission consisting of Comptroller Roberts, Attorney-General Hancock and Capitol Commissioner Perry to finish the new capitol by contract. This new building, which has been almost long enough in course of erection to already be an old one, has already cost the State nearly $21,000,000, and still it is not finished. And now, instead of making any further appropriations to be squandered, it is proposed to finish the structure by contract. Governor Morton thinks that it can be completed more cheaply by contract than by State labor, so recommended in his message, and Senator O'Conner, by introducing his bill, is carrying out the Governor's suggestion.
August 7, 1895, Albany Evening Journal,
CAPITOL COMMISSIONERS THEY APPOINT MR. RUSSELL. A COMMITTEE TO CONFER WITH MR. PERRY ON PLANS FOR THE COMPLETION OF THE CAPITOL—
April 24, 1896, New York Times, A DAY'S WEDDINGS. Sweny-Parker
ALBANY, April 23.--Miss Louisa Parker, oldest daughter of Gen. Amasa J. Parker, and Harry Roy Sweny, only son of the late Capt. Alfred Sweny, were married in St. Peter's Church this afternoon by the Rev. Dr. Battershall. The bride was given away by her brother Amasa J. Parker, Jr. Dr. C. C. Schuyler of Plattsburg acted as best man. There were no bridesmaids. Lewis R. Parker, Dr. Frederick Cox, R.V. , D.W. Walsh, and Harry Whiting Garfield were the ushers
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Jan. 15, 1898, New York Times Saturday Review of Books and Art, Page 33, Free Archive.
New York State in American History
The report of the State Historian, Mr. Hugh Hastings, from which passages are reprinted elsewhere in this issue, brings prominently to public attention the sad state of neglect in which important and valuable historical papers belonging to this State have remained for more than a hundred years. No one has ever attempted to investigate the colonial and revolutionary history of any part of the state without soon finding that much information he was in search of and ought to have could be obtained only from unpublished papers preserved in the capitol at Albany. Beyond the stately quartos published under Dr O'Callaghan's editorship and the few volumes Mr Berthold Fernow edited, there was little at his disposal in printed form. Calendars there were of state papers laid away there, but these simply told him what he might find by going to Albany; they served to emphasize still more the surprising indifference of state officers and legislators to the rich collections that are stored in the capitol.
The share of New York in the making of history on this continent has been far too great to make it any longer pardonable that any useful knowledge on the subject shall be concealed from those who wish to see it. Not only was New York one of the earliest places in the United States where Europeans founded settlements, but all through the formative history that embraced conflicts with the Indians, with the French, and with England, it was the vital center around which the long struggle, first between barbarism and civilization, next between Latin and Anglo-Saxon forms of government, and finally between English liberty and English personal government, was fought out and won. The valley of the Mohawk, the headwaters of the Susquehanna, the shores of lakes Champlain and George, and the valley of the Hudson supplied battlefields for a conflict extending over a full century and a half. Schenectady and German Flats, Lake George and Ticonderoga, Minisink and Cherry Valley, Elmira and Saratoga, Oriskany and Stony Point, Harlem Heights, Brooklyn, and White Plains recall those scenes and bring to mind the names of the men who on New York soil gave direction to the cause of humanity, which finally had its splendid triumph here— Sir William Johnson and Nicholas Herkimer, John Sullivan and Anthony Wayne, Israel Putnam and Nathaniel Greene, Philip Schuyler and George Washington.
There has never been lack of men competent and willing to undertake the laborious task of editing and printing these colonial and revolutionary papers. The thing lacking has been a legislature which would provide the funds for doing the work. No great sum would be needed whatever scale of typographic display might be proposed. Men whom the project has interested grow sick at heart when they reflect how small this sum would be, compared with expenditures that are constantly and easily made for less urgent purposes. Some years ago many thousands of dollars were expended on several resplendent quartos devoted to the Public service of the State of New York, volumes as striking in their form of manufacture as in their curious inutility.Those thousands of dollars expended in the publication of the colonial and revolutionary papers would have made a splendid start — something more than a start, in fact — toward their preservation for all time in print, and not only their preservation but their wide distribution.
In the stately edifice where these papers now find a resting place are staircases and corridors, vaulted ceilings, and wainscoted chambers to which the legislator points with pride, and upon which his untraveled constituents gaze with wondering eyes. But for men who think more of vital things in the life of a state, it is melancholy to remember how one of these show places represents outlays that might have saved New York from the disgrace which neglect of her historical manuscripts has fastened so deeply upon her. The stains of that neglect, though deep enough, are not indelible. A Legislature could at any time wipe them out.
On past Legislatures, however, stains must remain, and stains indelible. But shall the present and future Legislatures also bear them?
Free Archive Full Page
January 15, 1898, New York Times Saturday Review of Books and Art, Page 37, NEW YORK STATE IN THE REVOLUTION.
Records of That Conflict and of Colonial Times Getting Published.
Men and women who have been seeking industriously for information concerning the part taken by ancestors of theirs in Colonial and Revolutionary times will be among the most diligent readers the State Historian of New York, Mr. Hugh Hastings, will have for his annual report, just published. It is a volume of more than a thousand pages, many of which are filled with muster rolls to which there is an elaborate index. The present volume, filled as it is with valuable records, is merely the beginning of a series that is to be devoted to Colonial records. How great the neglect of these papers has been by the State Mr. Hastings sets forth, as well as the demands that pour in upon him for the information they contain. Indeed, it is this topic and the extent of New York's contribution in men to the armies of the Revolution that form what are perhaps the most triking passages in the report. They are given below:
The declaration in the State Historian's report last year that New York State furnished forty thousand troops during the War of the Revolution was met with a storm of denials and criticism, that, beginning with a Philadelphia newspaper, swept through this State from Buffalo to New York. Several writers, with more presumption than judgment, even charged that such a "preposterous statement" utterly discredited the work of the department. Puerile State jealousy has in many ways and by many shallow writers striven to deny to New York credit for the exalted patriotism it has ever been her pride to display and her record to exert in the hour of her country's peril.
New York's placid indifference to exploiting her great achievements has encouraged a certain class of so-called historical writers of other States for a period running over a hundred years in belittling the Empire State at almost every historical crisis. From the adoption of the Federal Constitution New York has been exposed to virulent attacks from New England writers, not only for her position in the convention that adopted the Federal Constitution, but for her course during the second war with Great Britain.
And it seems perfectly appropriate that a writer from the sister State of Pennsylvania should ridicule New York's patriotism during the trying years from 1775 to 1789, but in the absence of positive proof to the contrary, the willingness with which certain influential newspapers in this State reproduced these denials and joined issues with New York's assailants to the detriment of their own State was as surprising as their motive was inexplicable. Fortunately, what was known by this department to be a fact a year ago will soon be established within the reach of the public generally, and the statement then made will be more than verified.
In order that all the records extant should be amalgamated, what co-operation New York rendered to her sister Colonies during the War of the Revolution, a project was set on foot last Spring which had in contemplation the consolidation of all the Revolutionary records in the possession of the State of New York and the War Department at Washington, D. C. Early in May, 1896, Col. D. S. Lamont, Secretary of War, put himself in communication with Gov. Morton and made a formal request that the State, through the Regents of the University, should loan the United States Government whatever Revolutionary muster rolls were filed away in our State Library. Gov. Morton's interest in the subject was at once aroused, ande without delay he submitted the matter to the Regents, supplemented by request that Col. Lamont's project should be consummated.
At the annual convocation in June last, the Regents failed to see the expediency of the request made by the Federal Government and the Governor, and declined to permit our Revolutionary records to leave the State, on the ground that the risk covered in transportation to Washington and return was altogether too hazardous. It was contended that the policy of the Regents never to permit the State archives to leave the fire-proof and water-proof vaults in which they were kept should not be broken. Besides, it was contended, a dangerous precedent would be established--that by loaning the records to the Government the door was opened to those of our sister States that might be disposed to make the same sort of a request. As a concession, however, the Regents offered the National Government every access, should the War Department see fit to detail a number of copyists for the purpose of transcribing the records. Inasmuch as the War Department had no funds fixed by statute--and therefore no authority--for the transportation of clerks from Washington to Albany and return, or for their maintenance while they remained in this city, the laudable enterprise fell through. This refusal of the Regents left New York State in any but an enviable position when the National Government determined to print its Revolutionary records. The State of New York would have had no position whatever commensurate with the services it ahd rendered to the cause. Its record, as a matter of fact, would not have appeared. The State would have been at a marked disadvantage.
Fortunately, however, State Controller Roberts had in the Summer of 1895 discovered in the attic of the old State Hall a great mass of Revolutionary records that had lain undisturbed for nearly eighty years. Realizing their value and the necessity of putting them in shape for public use, Controller Roberts, governed by a high sense of public spirit and patriotism, entered into an agreement with Secretary Lamont, through Col. Fred C. Ainsworth, United States Army, Chief of the Record and Pension Office, for the interchange of these records with those relating to New York State on file in the War Department. This patriotic demonstration of reciprocity has proved of incalculable value to the history of this State and of the United States. So that to-day in the War Department in Washington, D. C., and in the State Controller's office in Albany the muster and pay rolls of the troops furnished by New York State to the War of the Revolution are in more complete condition as to names and numbers furnished than at any previous time in the history of this State or of the United States. From documents and rolls whose authenticity cannot be questioned, of which each one bears the stamp of official accuracy, the statement can be iterated without the fear of successful contradiction that the number of troops furnished by New York State during the War of the Revolution will aggregate between 40,000 and 41,000.
In addition to these nuster and pay rolls there are other records bearing the name of regiments with their field, staff, and line officers, without the name of a single private, thus indicating that there were skeleton regiments, duly officered, whose ranks, it is safe to assume, were only partially filled. Then again, in the Controller's possession there are the names of pensioners whose claims are duly certified as New York soldiers, but whose names cannot be found on any of the existing muster or pay rolls. The fact that they obtained the pension is a sufficient guarentee that they must have seen service. In the consideration of the lists of regiments and organizations prepared from the official rolls there can be no question that if all the facts could be brought to light, it would be found that New York State supplied nearer forty-five thousand troops than forty thousand.
The resources of the department have been sorely tried during the past year by the many queries, letters, and demands for information from people interested in their ancestors who settled in this State during the Colonial period, or who enlisted from this State during the War of the Revolution or the War of 1812. These queries have come from nearly every State in the Union, demonstrating the constantly expanding interest in matters of this kind. The study of American history and of American ancestry has become a very prominent part of our political existence; a scarcity of material has only whetted the appetites of the people for more detailed information. To satisfy this demand, which is as healthy as it is natural, our sister States of Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Massachusetts, and Maryland are pushing forward the publication of Colonial and Revolutionary Records--records that have long lain neglected, and have only been accessible to a limited number of influential persons. Up to the present time the State of Pennsylvania has printed three series of her Colonial archives, embracing thirty volumes; the fourth series, constituting twenty volumes, is now in process or preperation. The example set by the three States mentioned above should certainly be followed by the State of New York, the peer of them all. Even the comparatively modern States of Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Montana have printed their early archives.
It is a crying shame that this great State ever abandoned printing its records, so well begun and continued by the late Dr. E. B. O'Callaghan. The Colonial records and other valuable manuscripts now in the State Library belong of right to the people, and the people will never have the true history of the early period of this State until these records are printed and distributed. The collection of manuscripts owned by the State of New York is more valuable and their contents are more interesting than those of any other collection in the country outside of the City of Washington. The longer this work is neglected the more difficult will be the transcribing of our archives. Year byn year the ink becomes less legible, and year by year the danger of mutilation and destruction increases. It is the fashion for a few alleged economists to decry the expense necessary in the preperation and publishing of valuable records of this character. The growth of patriotic societies in this State, male and female, the constantly developing interest manifested in our early history, would seem to indicate that a very large class of our people who are not active in politics except on election day beleive that the State should use its resources in giving the public in printed form all the historical records that are now under lock and key.
The American Historical Review for January contains many articles of exceeding interest. Among these are Edward Channing's "Justin Winsor," Charles H. Haskin's "The LIfe of Mediaeval Students as Illustrated by Their Letters," Herbert Tuttles's "The Prussian Campaign of 1758, II.," Herbert L. Osgood's "The Proprietary Province as a Form of Colonial Government, III.," Max Farrand's "The Taxation of Tea, 1767-1773," Gaillard Hunt's "Office Seekers During Jefferson's Administration," and Arthur M. Mowry's "Tammany Hall and the Dorr Rebellion."
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