Excerpt from Souvenir of the Centennial Celebration of Washington's Inauguration: Held in New York City, April 29th and 30th, 1889 From the balcony of the hall that stood where the statue now is, the Declaration of Independence was first read to the citizens of New York; the Continental Congress sat here in its closing days, and here the first Federal Congress assembled. America offered no place more becoming and more honorably identified than this with the history of American liberty. The scene around is marvellously changed by the flight of years and modern progress, from the colonial, the provincial, the revolutionary city. The street is transformed from the resort of fashion, the seat of government, the modest and quiet residence of merchants, statesmen and diplomatists, which was the Wall street in the days of our forefathers. Then it was the social and political heart of a small and struggling community; now it is the financial nerve centre of America. The bustling, roaring street is but a picture painted over. Under the kaleidoscopic characters of the maelstrom of speculative life and of eager trade constantly traced upon the pavements of the modern metropolis, lies the undimmed and indelible patriotic record of old New York. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.