The Governor having poured into the Bay the keg of Lake Water, and concluded his observations, Dr. Mitchill was invited by the Recorder, pursuant to the order of business, to perform the next part of the ceremony. This consisted of an effusion of waters from various bottles, derived from several European rivers, significant of the connexion between our North American States, by navigation and commerce, with the countries through which they respectively run; though, in mingling these samples from abroad with the stream of the Hudson, there was a more particular allusion to the trading and social intercourse between New York and the cities on their several banks.

The waters from the Elbe, the Thames, the Seine, and Tagus, having been thus disposed of, though various others were on hand, the solemn act was followed by an address in the following words, from Doctor Mitchill to R. Riker, Esq. as the representative of the Common Council and Chairman of the General Committee of Arrangement.

"The present is a day memorable in this eventful age. Let it be scored white in the calendar for ever. The celebration now held is a sequel of that which took place a little more than two years ago at Albany; then, in the figurative language allowed to poets and orators, the LORD OF THE SEAS wedded the LADY OF THE LAKES.

"Man delights in types and symbols. They are often very useful and significant. The ring presented to the bride is a token of her husband's earnest affection and plighted love; a handful of soil, and a cutting from a tree received from the granter of an estate, give rightful possession to a purchaser; the olive-branch is the emblem of peace; in the rite of baptism, the application of pure water to the body is intended to denote the state of the soul under newness of life; and, on the late occasion, the mixture of the briny fluid from the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans, with the saltless water of the Canal, was an emblem of the consummated union between the high and mighty parties.

"The imagination possesses a sort of creative power - it can vivify and enliven every thing. Johnson wrote of Shakspeare,

It is an admirable trait in the constitution of the human mind. Fact, in many instances, acquires illustration from fancy. Fable, ever since the instructive invention of Jotham, and the moral compositions of Pilpay, has been acknowledged to be one of the agreeable and impressive modes of conveying truth; and fiction, even in the grave proceedings of the law, is resorted to for the purpose of happy elucidation.

"Hence the ancients, in consideration of the great importance belonging to rivers, elevated them to the rank of deities, and constructed temples near their sources, where the figure of the presiding one was placed. His posture was that of reclining on an urn, from which water gushed: a grotto was generally the seat of it. Thus, the Tiber, the Nile, the Tigris, the Danube, and the Po, among numerous other streams, were considered as having a tutelary genius of exalted rank, sung by the bards, and even figured by the sculptors. The river-gods were attended by beings of a nymph-like character, called Naiads. It was a modern and happy improvement in these matters to ascribe a female form and attributes, to the chief allegorical personage of the fountains, and to distinguish her by the becoming title already mentioned.

"Under similar impressions it has become customary to portray personified Liberty, with her staff and cap; Hope, with her anchor; Faith, with her cross; Temperance, with her pitchers; Justice, with her sword and balance; and even Death itself, a negative power, or non-entity, with a dart, and the power to strike. So Time has his scythe and hour-glass; Janus, or Space, his four faces; and the Soul of Man the shape of a butterfly.

"It was no wonder that the Ruler of the Deep should have become enamoured of our incomparable Belle; it was natural enough he should, during the years of assiduity it cost him to win her, have composed stanzas like these -

"Since the nuptials were celebrated, she has taken time to arrange her lands and tenements, with their appurtenances, and to superintend many internal and domestic concerns of peculiar moment. These, having been completed, she now comes forth, as a lawful and virtuous partner, to behold and possess the domain of her august spouse. This is the liquid expanse now open before us, equal to three-fourths of the surface belonging to the terraqueous globe; in it she has full jointure and dower, which should any pirate, freebooter, or disturber of any kind, dare to invade, the wrong will be avenged by ten millions of freemen, who owe her homage, and are ready to assert her rights, with all the courage, strength, and blood, that may be necessary. These are the citizens who, by that combination of labour and skill called Industry, have rendered the quaking bog arable, and the solid upland navigable.

"She has been received with a most cordial welcome. Her progress through an artificial river, more than three hundred miles long, was unexampled. At her annunciation obstacles of every kind disappeared. Was an excavation necessary for her accommodation? - the rocks disparted and made room. Was an embankment required? - the ground rose to its proper elevation. Were locks and reservoirs necessary to go up and down declivities? - they sprung into being and performed their functions. What happened to Homer's Juno before, might almost be said to have again befallen this divinity of ours -

Was water demanded to facilitate conveyance? - the ponds and brooks joyfully furnished their stores. During her journey, the voices of freemen all along the line, uttered shouts of gladness. The mouths of cannon told in strong accents her majestic movement. Illumination, song, and dance, honored the dignified march.

"And, what an accompaniment was there? Michigan, and Huron, and Erie sent their flotillas. Greenbay and Chicago now consider Michillimakinac and Detroit, heretofore frontier posts, as but places of refreshment on the voyage. She arrives rich in friends and produce. Never was there an indication of so much wealth and fortune brought by a wife to her husbands; the farm, the mine, and the manufactory, send their diversified and invaluable products; and, what is more, cultivated man, in the image of his Creator, attends in his best mood and array, to witness and assist the exhibition.

"Appear then, thou Monarch of the boundless Main, who, being immortal like thy helpmate, never waxeth old, and gaze at the spectacle! a procession through this estuary or arm of thy dominion, in boats, vessels, and floating structures, never equalled in kind or equipment, by any aquatic expedition, for the distance of more than fifty leagues. The sail and the oar were not enough to urge the moving mansions along - the irresistible force of steam was made auxiliary in the work, or rather it may be said to have performed the part of a principal. Such was the appearance that it brought to mind Virgil's notice of the Roman fleets at Actium -

"Advance, I pray, and salute thy visiter. Thy attention is also solicited, surrounded as thou are by Nereids, with their corals, and by Tritons, with their shells, to the intelligence newly arrived from distant climes.

"Offerings, of amicable meaning, meet us here. The foreign river-gods, on hearing that this celebration was meditated, have begged leave to join their libations to ours. Their petition has been granted.

"The ELBE, whose water has been poured out and united with that of the Hudson, has been informed that his donation was most acceptable; that it was considered a token of the commercial connexion subsisting between the noble rivers; and, that, in the pacific relations of the two hemispheres, it was prophesied, for a long time, there would be no interruption. He was requested to tell the Bohemian, Saxon, Prussian, and Danish Kings, - the cities of Dresden, Hamburg, Altona, Bremen, and all the towns situated on or near his banks, that the kindest feelings existed towards them.

"The THAMES, whose fluid is famous for its potable qualities, as well as for brewing and dyeing, was told that his contribution had been well received and applied. The mingling was understood as the sign of a cement between nations which ought never to have been divided; but having been separated by destiny, ought, nevertheless, always to cultivate the best relations. He was instructed to proclaim from his residence, near the confines of the Severn, to the learned bodies of Oxford - to the Royal House at Windsor - to the commercial and high-minded inhabitants of London - to the naval constructors and heroes at Deptford, Greenwich, and Chatham, and to all others within his reach and influence, that his meaning was perfectly comprehended and duly appreciated.

"The gift of the SEINE, that affords drink to the metropolitans of a most polished and important nation, has been cordially accepted, and similarly employed. His genius has been informed, at his abode, away behind the calcarious basin of Paris and the formation of quartzybuhr, when our manufacturers of flour procure the material for their preferable mill-stones, that he was honored in grand form, on this auspicious day.

"The contribution of the TAGUS has been received and disposed of like the preceding samples. A message has been forwarded to his residence, beyond the mountains of Estremadura, to this effect; and he has been instructed to inform the people who speak the Castilian tongue, from Biscay to Andalusia, how we entertain the expectation that the valiant Spaniards may soon experience a happy deliverance from their commotions. A corresponding expression of sentiment has been directed to the Portuguese. To both was extended the sentiment, that as we might be accommodated with certain productions of theirs, and themselves with certain articles of ours, the parties were sufficiently apprised of the reciprocal accommodation, to forbid, without the gravest cause, even a suspension of the intercourse.

"Turning from the Eastern hemisphere to the Southern section of the Western, the offerings of the Oronoko, the Amazon, and the Plata, entreat an incorporation with our liquid element; their presidents, seated high on the snow-capped and cloud-covered Cordilleras, have been already told that we are not wholly uninformed of the regions their floods penetrate on their route to the vast receptacle of waters; that we hail their emancipation from European dependence; and that we look forward to the time when their almost illimitable countries shall be inhabited by a self-governed and virtuous people.

"In performing those acts of the day, there is another occurrence too memorable to be omitted. As in the celebration of religious rites, the water, in the hands of pious and qualified ministers at the altar, becomes consecrate and holy, so, the several portions of aqueous element employed in these ceremonies have become renovate and republican. Strange as it may seem, the operation has not ended here: the virtue infused with them (and although heretofore possessed by our own, never with so strong a tincture) has spread from this spot by a combination of mechanical impulse, chemical attraction, and diffusive propagation, through the whole mass of waters, with an electrical rapidity and a magnetical subtilty, that authorises me to pronounce the circumfluent Ocean republicanized!

"IT IS DONE!

"Sire! he who now accosts you, has no contrivance to conjure up new associations of ideas, nor to utter them in phrases novel, or unheard before; yet, if he did possess that power, he would tell you how this recently-imparted influence would henceforward co-operate with its phosphorence to render it luminous, and with its salinity to continue it wholesome; - he would portray freedom pervading the billows, and rolling with every wave to the shores, and trace its workings upon the compacted continents and scattered islands comprehended within its embrace. Had he the ability, he would observe that this renovating and regenerating spirit would rise, by exhalation, into the atmosphere, and impart some of its qualities; - that it would inpregn the clouds, and descend in rains and dews; - that it would enter the vegetables and animals which constitute the food of the human race; - and that, finally, the frame of man himself would be gradually so modified and mended by it, that at length even the sable and savage tribes dwelling in the tracts bordering on the Senegal, the Gambia, and the Congo, shall lay aside their ferocity, and enjoy, as we do ourselves, LIBERTY UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF THE LAW.

"It does not occur to me that much more remains to be said. It may however, be solicited after this testimony of our allegiance that leave be granted us to depart, that the brilliant assemblage now present, may join their friends and fellow-citizens, occupied during the time we have been here, in processions and rejoicings on shore, and who anxiously wait the communication of the message you may vouchsafe to authorise.

"I pronounce this connection - Blessed; for perpetual and incalculable will be its benefits."

After which Mr. Colden made his communication, &c. &c.

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Transcribed from the original text and html prepared by Bill Carr, last updated 5/21/99.