MEMORIAL 
 
 OF 
 
 THE INHABITANTS 
 
 OF 
 
 THE CITY OF NEW YORK. 
 
 MARCH 21, 1806. 
 
 Referred to the committee of the whole house on the state 
 
 of the union. 
 
 CITY OF WASHINGTON : ■ 
 
 A. & G. WAT, PRINTERS. 
 
 1806, 
 
JAWOM3M 
 
 Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library 
 Gift of Seymour B. Durst Old York Library 
 
MEMORIAL. 
 
 To the senate and house of representatives of 
 the United States, in congress assembled. 
 
 THE MEMORIAL OF THE INHABITANTS OF THE 
 CITY OF NEW-YORK, 
 
 RESPECTFULLT SHEWEfH, 
 
 THAT your memorialists, in common with 
 their fellow citizens throughout the United States, are 
 alarmed at the threatening aspect of public affairs, and, 
 in addition to the general solicitude, are particularly 
 impressed by the sense of immediate danger. Trust- 
 ing that the wisdom of government would consider 
 the port of New York as of primary importance, your 
 memorialists were in tranquil expectation that season- 
 able provision would be made for its security. Re- 
 lying, also, as they ought, on the assurances of peace, 
 repeatedly given; concurring in the opinion, that it 
 was of the utmost consequence to pay the national 
 debt, and rejoiced to learn, that by adhering to jus- 
 tice in our foreign relations, and to economy in our 
 domestic concerns, we could meet the public exi- 
 gencies and command the respect of foreign nations, 
 they shut their ears to every suggestion of doubt, 
 difficulty or danger. They mean not now to ex- 
 press diffidence in the public councils ; but when they 
 view the property collected in their city, and its de- 
 fenceless condition, they are compelled to intreat the 
 attention of government. 
 
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 Your memorialists say, with no vain exultation, but 
 
 with anxious concern, that New York may be consi- 
 dered as the emporium of American commerce. The 
 general sense of its natural advantages will appear 
 from the unparalleled increase of population, by the 
 establishment of useful citizens from every state, and 
 from the extent of its domestic trade. In either view 
 of the subject, New York is as well the common 
 property and concern of the union as of its own par- 
 ticular citizens. The produce of other states finds 
 there a valuable market, and there also, is to be found 
 a cheap and ready supply of foreign commodities. 
 Tobacco, rice, cotton and naval stores, from the 
 southern, as well as salted provisions, ashes and furs, 
 from the northern states, are among the exports of 
 New York. For, the facility with which assorted 
 cargoes can be procured for ports where large quanti- 
 ties of a single article would not find a market, ena- 
 bles an intelligent merchant to give the cultivators of 
 those states an advanced price for their produce. And 
 in like manner, nearly half of the five eastern states 
 and New Jersey, and no inconsiderable part of the 
 four southern states, find it most convenient and ad- 
 vantageous to supply themselves at New York with 
 articles of foreign growth and manufacture. Thus 
 the large capital accumulated by the successful labor 
 of your memorialists, is poured through a thousand 
 channels, ministering to the convenience, supplying 
 the wants and gratifying the wishes of their fellow 
 citizens in every part of the union. 
 
 In the conviction that New York is to be consi- 
 dered as the political centre of this widely extended 
 dominion, Great Britain collected in it her main force 
 during the war of our independence ; and the same 
 conviction would probably lead any other foe to take 
 possession of it, or to lay it in ashes, according to his 
 means and views, whether contemplating with ade- 
 quate force, a permanent conquest, or, at inferior ex- 
 pense, a diminution of the national resources. And 
 
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 even supposing that it should escape public hostility, 
 still the property it contains, and the facility with 
 which it may be assailed, point it out as the object of 
 predatory warfare. 
 
 Your memorialists are far from arraigning the wis- 
 dom of measures which government has already 
 adopted, or may now contemplate; neither do they 
 pretend to know the exigencies or resources of the 
 country. But while they express their willingness to 
 bear such burdens, as it may be thought proper to im- 
 pose, they conceive it their duty to represent, that-if 
 the acquisition of new territory is contemplated, and 
 the condition of the country will not enable the go- 
 vernment to accomplish, both that object, and provide 
 for the defence of our principal sea ports, it is the dic- 
 tate not only of wisdom, but of justice, to prefer the 
 security of those places from whence the revenue is 
 drawn, to expending it on remote objects of less im- 
 portance. 
 
 Placed in a situation, where, as well from their re- 
 lations to the whole empire, as from the accumulations 
 of their own industry, their property, their persons, 
 and what is still more dear, their wives and children, 
 are exposed to peril and outrage ; while the revenue 
 drawn from them in a single year, might, if properly 
 applied, provide for permanent defence; if your me- 
 morialists could, in submissive silence, suppress the 
 feelings which arise out of their condition, they must 
 be more or less than men. 
 
 Strong in the consciousnesss of right, and in the 
 sentiment of freedom ; convinced that they have per- 
 formed towards the union all the duties of faithful ci- 
 tizens, they claim, in return, the performance of that 
 great duty of government, protection. 
 
 With the utmost respect for the legislature of the 
 union, and confiding in their wisdom and justice, your 
 memorialists, therefore, entreat your attention to the 
 importance of their situation and the dangers to which 
 they are exposed, and they humbly pray, that per- 
 
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 manent defences for the city and port of New York, 
 may be speedily commenced, on a scale that will in- 
 sure protection, against national hostility ; and, as a 
 security against predatory incursions, that this harbour 
 may be made the station of such ships of war, as are 
 not otherwise employed. 
 
 And your memorialists, &c. 
 
 Signed on behalf of the inhabitants of the second ward of the 
 city of New York, in virtue of their resolves at a meeting 
 held at the Union hotel the 14th day of March, 1806, pursu- 
 ant to a recommendation of the common council of the said 
 city, 
 
 ELIAS NEXSEN, Chairman. 
 JOHN W. MULLIGAN, Sec'ry. 
 
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