CIVIL DIVISIONS, AND CENSUS OF THE STATE;
POLITICAL, STATISTICAL AND OTHER INFORMATION,
STATE OF NEW-YORK AND THE UNITED STATES.
COUNTY OFFICERS, ATTORNEYS, &c.
PUBLISHED BY J. DISTURNELL.
Entered, according to act of Congress, in the year 1843, by JOHN DISTURNELL, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New-York.
THE proper design of a publication of this kind, is to furnish a compre-
hensive and detailed account of the actual condition of the State, embracing
its civil divisions, population, productions, trade, and resources; its public
works, its means of general intercourse, and its principal local improve-
ments; its wealth, revenue, and expenditures; the organization of its govern-
ment, with a record of the persons to whom the administration of that govern-
ment throughout its various departments is committed; the general scope and
character of its legislation, as exemplified and illustrated by its various insti-
tutions and methods for the promotion of education, morals, and religion—
for the protection and relief of the destitute, infirm, and helpless-for the
repression and punishment of disorder and crime-and for the encouragement
of enterprise, industry, science, and the arts; in short, a picture of the liv-
ing, acting, growing commonwealth, with the manifold means and agencies
by which its affairs are conducted, its resources unfolded, the business of its
people transacted, and the good order, comfort, improvement, prosperity, and
happiness of the community secured and advanced.
The multiplied relations and connections that exist between the different
portions of the State, and their continually increasing importance to each
other as their intercourse extends, all combine to render such a publication not
merely interesting to the general or occasional inquirer, but eminently con-
venient and practically useful, especially to those who are engaged in the pro-
fessional employments of the community, in the various branches of active
business, or are in any way connected with the administration of the laws, or
with the management of the more important public and local institutions.
A simple reference to the Table of Contents will show that this Register has
been compiled and arranged on the plan and according to the design above
indicated; and to all persons employed in public offices, whether of general or
local jurisdiction-to attorneys and other agents and ministers of the laws-to
merchants, bankers, manufacturers, and men extensively engaged in business
of any description, or in the management of important institutions—to all who
have occasion to transact affairs at a distance and by correspondence with pub-
lic officers, or with professional men, or who have occasion to make inquiries
about local matters appertaining to places in which they have no personal
acquaintance—this Register will be found an exceedingly valuable manual of
information of many kinds constantly at hand, and which they can procure in
no other way at so small a cost of time, money, or trouble.
Besides the daily convenience and utility of the work to professional and
business men, and public officers, the political events and statistics which it
records, will render this Register exceedingly convenient and serviceable to
politicians and political economists, in assisting their inquiries, and in facili-
tating their examination of political questions. The value of the work is, it
is believed, very much enhanced in this and other respects, by the National
Statistics, and other important matter which it embodies in relation to the Na-
tional Government and the organization of its various departments. Indeed, in
reference to all matters of ordinary interest and convenience, this work may
be regarded as constituting a NATIONAL as well as a STATE REGISTER.
In respect to the range of matter embraced in the work, it is believed to be
as comprehensive, in reference to the topics, and as minute in point of detail,
as its patrons will desire; and as to the accuracy of its statements, it may be
truly affirmed that they have been made as exact and reliable as several
months of assiduous labor and vigilant care could render them.
There is one more topic, which is regarded as particularly important in this
connection, and on which a remark may, it is hoped, be found serviceable both
to the publisher and his patrons. The value of such a work is materially en-
hanced by being regularly and punctually continued from year to year. A sin-
gle volume, or a Register for only one year, is of little use; it is, in truth, not
worth publishing. But if it can be continued punctually and regularly, every
successive volume rises in intrinsic value. To the transient convenience of
each number for a single year, is gradually added the permanent value of a
connected series, till, in the lapse of time, the annual publication becomes a
great work of perpetual reference, of the most authentic character and of pecu-
liar interest, from its combination of the two features of contemporaneousness
and connected succession. Its Tables of Statistics and Institutions, compiled at
first for the transient purposes of the flying year, are by and by converted
into the solid materials of everlasting history, and its lists of familiar names,
collected for the temporary convenience of current business, are soon trans-
formed into the undecaying records of a departed generation, and muster-rolls
of leading men of their times.
Considerations like these, it will be at once admitted, enter into the very es-
sence of the value of compilations like this Register; and they are suggested
in the belief that they will be regarded as legitimate grounds of appeal to the
public for that patronage, which is indispensable to secure the regular continu-
ance of the publication. If such patronage shall be afforded, the annual con-
tinuation of this Register may be depended on; and as its compiler shall be-
come more familiar with the sources of information and the wants of the
public, he will be enabled to render his work more and more acceptable and
useful.
One more remark, and this Preface will conclude :-
The compiler of this Register has within the past year furnished the public
with a Gazetteer of this State. The two publications so entirely harmonize in
their objects and in the character of their contents, that they may be fairly re-
garded as parts of the same general plan, and as calculated, if taken together,
to increase the convenience and usefulness of each other: both combined, cover
the whole ground of civil geography and local description and statistics.
Elections of President and Vice-President of the United States,
Extract from a Law respecting Elections,
Post-Offices and Post-Masters in the State,.
Newspapers, &c. published in the State,.
Banks,
List of Chartered Banks, showing original Capital, &c.,
Free Banking Associations,
Extracts from Bank Commissioners' Report, Jan., 1843,
Safety Fund Bank Statement,
Free Bank Statement,...
Banks in Operation and Bank Capital, 1843,.
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