This volume reports in detail how a particular portion of the American wilderness developed into a settled farming community. To fully comprehend the history of the American people in the early national period, an understanding of this transformation from forest to community—and the pattern of life within such communities where the vast majority of the people live—is essential. Three major conclusions emerge from Philip L. White's study of Beekmantown, New York. First, the economic advantages of the frontier attracted a first generation of settlers relatively high in social and economic status, but the disappearance of frontier conditions brought a second generation of settlers appreciably lower in status. Second, White rejects the romantic notion that the frontier fostered equality and argues instead that the frontier's economic opportunities fostered inequality. Finally, in contrast to revisionist arguments, he affirms that in Beekmantown the Jacksonian period does indeed warrant characterization as the era of the "common man." This book represents a model in community history: the narrative is full of human interest; the scholarship is prodigious; the applications are universal.

Decisions of the Public Service Commissions, Board of Claims, and Education Department; opinions of the Attorney-General; rulings of the Secretary of State, Comptroller, State Engineer, Commissioner of Agriculture, Superintendent of Banks, Superintendent of Insurance, Civil Service Commission, Conservation Commission, Commissioner of Excise and State Tax Commissioners, etc., etc.; and messages of the Governor.

Containing authentic biographies of New Yorkers who are leaders and representatives in various departments of worthy human achievement including sketches of every army and navy officer born in or appointed from New York and now serving, of all the congressmen from the state, all state senators and judges, and all ambassadors, ministers and consuls appointed from New York.