who shall lead in public affairs. May they be clothed
with a spirit of wisdom and knowledge akin to that which inspired
those who conceived and executed the great work which we receive at
your hands and dedicate to-day.

ADDRESS OF HON. ABRAM S. HEWITT.

Two hundred and seventy years ago the good ship "Tiger," commanded by
Captain Adraien Block, was burned to the water's edge, as she lay at
anchor, just off the southern end of Manhattan Island. Her crew, thus
forced into winter quarters, were the first white men who built and
occupied a house on the land where New York now stands; "then," to
quote the graphic language of Mrs. Lamb, in her history of the City,
"in primeval solitude, waiting till commerce should come and claim its
own. Nature wore a hardy countenance, as wild and as untamed as the
savage landholders. Manhattan's twenty-two thousand acres of rock,
lake and rolling table land, rising at places to a height of one
hundred and thirty-eight feet, were covered with sombre forests,
grassy knolls and dismal swamps. The trees were lofty; and old,
decayed and withered limbs contrasted with the younger growth of
branches; and wild flowers wasted their sweetness among the dead
leaves and uncut herbage at their roots. The wanton grapevine swung
carelessly from the topmost boughs of the oak and the sycamore; and
blackberry and raspberry bushes, like a picket guard, presented a bold
front in all possible avenues of approach. The entire surface of the
island was bold and granitic, and in profile resembled the
cartilaginous back of the sturgeon."

This primeval scene was the product of natural forces working through
uncounted periods of time; the continent slowly rising and falling in
the sea like the heaving breast of a world asleep; glaciers carving
patiently through ages the deep estuaries; seasons innumerable
clothing the hills with alternate bloom and decay.

The same sun shines to-day upon the same earth; yet how transformed!
Could there be a more astounding exhibition of the power of man to
change the face of nature than the panoramic view which presents
itself to the spectator standing upon the crowning arch of the Bridge,
whose completion we are here to-day to celebrate in the honored
presence of the President of the United States, with their fifty
millions; of the Governor of the State of New York, with its five
millions; and of the Mayors of the two cities, aggregating over two
millions of inhabita