Excerpt from The Impress of Nationalities Upon the City of New York: A Paper Read Before the New York Historical Society It is proposed to review such formation as applicable to our ancient city. New York was termed ancient, in the Dongan charter of 1686; and the Batavian, the anglo-saxon, the Celt, the Teuton, the Gaul, and even the sons of Ham and Shem, have been factors, in various degrees, in forming its civic character. It began its life when man was bloodthirsty, when natu ral rights were little respected, when religion was intolerant, when science was in its cradle, when tyranny made the laws: and, when Civilization herself, still inhumane, en forced her progress by the sword. 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.