Disposition of the quarantine grounds on Staten Island : speech of Hon. Smith Ely in the assembly of New York, April 3d and 4th, 1862.

  • Ely, Smith, 1825-1911.
Date:
1862
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Disposition of the quarantine grounds on Staten Island : speech of Hon. Smith Ely in the assembly of New York, April 3d and 4th, 1862. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    dented wrong. What must have been his embarrassment and conscious weakness on discovering who his antagonists were? Could any one ordinary man hope successfully to contend against the power then brought to bear against him? He constituting but the one hundred and eighth, while his opponents of New York county were the one- eighth part, numerically, of the strength of the House. And that was not his greatest misfortune. That eighth part (or thirteen members) from New York, was led by one of the shrewdest managers that this country has produced. Sir, when we consider that that skilful politician was placed at the bead of the committee on whose decision were depend- ing the prosperity, health and live- of the inhabitants of Richmond County for the following sixty years, could the results have been considered doubtful'. Had Aaron Burr at that time represented Richmond County; had he then lived where he afterwards died, could that great calamity have befallen a quiet and unoffending people? No, Sir, never. Had Staten Island been kept \'n^' from the greatest curse ever legislated upon a county, she would not to-day find herself so feebly represented here. Her population and wealth would now entitle her to at least four member.- in this House, and one senator in the other. Were it not trespassing too much on the time of this honorable body, it would afford me great pleasure to read letters received from gentlemen of the highest respecta- bility, in New York and Richmond County, showing de- cidedly the great propriety of the proposed measure; but 1 will defer so doing for the present. It occurred to me recently, while listening to the eloquent remarks made by gentlemen in favor of the Susquehanna Hail Road, that what was said then respecting taxes paid by the Counties of Broome, Delaware. Otsego and Schoharie, and appropriated in part to improving the north- ern counties of the State, (when those counties were ask- ing and receiving nothing for their own localities), that those remarks could be applied to Richmond County with great propriety. It became necessary, last Summer, for me to examine the relative taxation of the different parts of the State. I then found that Richmond County paid more