The voice of freedom. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1839-1848, 1846-01-15
From The Boston Courier.
WASHINGTON, Dec. II, lS45.

! OH Tue HSI. Dut TIC STATE vi SVHiC tbPoi
tant question in the S.nale, in regard to
which, if can do pothiEg more, wish
10 record my vote, confines me 10 my
place.
am happy to learn that 80 many gen
tlemen from New York will be with you:
come up to the Rock to lay claim to kin,
dred blood, and to unite ia comnemora>
ting the memory, and the virtues, of the
Fathers.
II was on the third day OF September,
in the year Of our Lord one thousand six
hundred and nine, that small vessel,
which for five or six months had been
tossed upon the ocean, sometimes on the
coast Of Nova Zembla and along the fix
ed ices of the Northern sea, and some
times as far South as the Chesapeake at
last made her way within the protection
of the land, and let 60 her anchor, to
take hold of bottom, to which nothing
that hoated on the sea had ever before
been moored.
She showed small and tattered flag,
bearing a modest Crescent. She herself
was called the "HaJ Noon" The man
who tired her little deck, with the author
ity of master. was Henry Hudson She
was now riding inside Of Sandy Hook,
and her little Crescent, dimmed by time
and weather, was displayed over what is
now the outer harbor Of New York
Here, was the origin of New York.
Henry Hudson was man whose en-
terprising character, active life, and la.
mentable end, render him one of the
most interesting personages in our early
American annals: but he little thought
what he had done, either for himself, or
for poster.:y, when he brought civiliza.
ton to the mouth of the river which now
bears his name. According to the fan.
cies of those times. he was seeking
passage to India; and, like others, was,
no doubt disappointed, to find that he
had run against continent.
When he looked over the bay, and in
to the river, land upon the high mountains,
and unbroken wilderness, which presen-
ted themselves, what country was be
fore him But it was country, the
extent or Importance Of which he did not
at all comprehend. Disappointed in mis-
hopes of getting to India, by this route,
he was thinking of fishing, furs, and
the profits of trade with the Indians
not Of large and permanent settlements
not Of the transfer, from Europe, OF poIit-
ical power, in time to come and OF ulti-
mate empire. And what a future, what
a history to come, was before that coun-
try, the frs. step in the settlement o!
which he had then taken
That future, however, was not dis.
cerned that history to come had not dis.
displayed itself, even family and dimIy,
to the most sagacious minds ofthe age.
The early voyagers to this continent, ad
venturous and enterprsing as they were
yet looked principally to the finding Of
mines Of gold and to making sudden &c
QUESTIONS ofwealth. The real and true
Importance Of the discovery and settle
ment Of North America, hardly appears
to have been perceived by any. 1t lay
IN the future. and was concealed from
sight.
Bacon was doubtless the most pro-
found and universal genius of the age.
AND he wrote an essay on Plantations"
but all his views were limi ed and mar,
row. lie not only did not comprehend
The force of such motives DIS those which
brought the Pilgrims to Plymouth, but he
seems never to have imagined that polit-
Ical rule, authority and power could
spring up on this Continent ev n in
hose ''next ages" to which in his will
ne so pathetically leaves his "name and
1t did not occur to him, nor 10 any of.
bis contemporaries, 10 exclaim to his
country
"ln other realms, another England see.
And what thou art, America shall be!'
The commerce Of New. York did not
shoot rapidly forward at first, nor make
great progress, in early times. For sew,
,rai years, it only exhibited a respecta-
,lc invoice Of otter skins and beaver
klns And at the end of century it |
vas thought to be high praise tina! "tbe
:ity contained eight hundred h0Eses, The
'sry meanesI wortA hundred pounds;
md parish church, piM a minister,
clio had settled on him a hundred pounds
, gear" The high destinies of New
York were then still in the future.
II would exceed the necessary limits
If this letter, to alude to all the events,
brought about by human agency, to
which New-York owes her present great
iess, and future prospects Two may
'e mentioned: and first and chiefly, the
establishment Of the present General
Government. Never within her broad
borders was there acted a scene of so
much true grandeur and Importance, of
70 much moral subimity, as when on
he spot which Hudson had found a vii,
lernes' filed with fierce savages, the ,
Constitution Of the United States was
irst put into operation and G. orue