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The following has been excerpted and transcribed from a New York State government report.

Note: The recommendations made in this report led to the passage of the 1824 law which required the establishment of County Poorhouses in almost every county in New York State.

We have kept the text exactly as written in the original document. However, we have adopted the use of RED font to call attention to specific items; RED font in BRACKETS is our own editorial material meant to make it easier for the reader to locate material on specific subjects. These yellow-filled boxes are, of course, also editorial comment. PHL

NOTE: THIS SECTION of The POORHOUSE STORY is still UNDER CONSTRUCTION

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REPORT of the Secretary of State in 1824 on the Relief and Settlement of the Poor.

In obedience to concurrent resolutions of the honourable the Senate and Assembly, of the 16th and 18th of April, 1823, instructing the Secretary of State among other things, "to collect from the several towns cities and counties of this state, such information as would be necessary to give a distinct view of the expenses and operation of the laws, for the relief and settlement of the poor; and also such information from other states, with respect to their poor laws, as would shew the effect of those systems, and suggest improvements in our own; and that he communicate an abstract or digest of such information to the legislature," the following report is respectfully submitted.

During a considerable portion of the preceding year, the secretary was engaged in directing his enquiries to every source from which intelligence could be procured, on the subjects embraced in the preceding resolutions. The important nature of those resolutions, no less than his own sense of duty, induced him to use every exertion for aiding in the accomplishment of an object so deeply interesting to the community, as an inquiry into the cause and nature of the evils of pauperism, and the best means for meliorating or removing them. The statistical information thus procured, from different parts of this state, and of the United States, he has now the honor of presenting to the legislature, consisting of two parts, in a form as digested and condensed as the subject would admit.

The first part exhibits the number of paupers in the several cities, towns and counties in this state; the sums of money expended for their maintenance and relief; the sums expended for the costs and fees of justices, overseers of the poor, and constables, in the examination and removal of paupers, and in other incidental services, together with the costs and expenses of instituting, conducting, managing, and defending appeals from orders of removal; the number of paupers removed; the ration of pauperism in each county, and the ratio of taxation imposed on each county for the maintenance and relief of the poor; the amount of taxes raised for that purpose, in the several counties, for the last six years; and extracts of letters from mayors of cities, supervisors and clerks of counties, overseers of the poor of towns, and from other sources entitled to credit; shewing the management, general success, and effect of the various local experiments in the state, for the support of the poor, either by towns or in poor houses. ... (continued)

The second part exhibits a digest or analysis of the poor laws of most of the states in the union, with extracts from official letters and documents, shewing the operation and effect of those

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laws, together with a view of the state of pauperism in Europe, and brief extracts from works of American and European writers, illustrative of the evils of pauperism, and suggesting plans for their melioration and removal.

Although the information received from the several towns and counties in answer to the communications transmitted to them, is not, in every instance, as full and satisfactory as could have been desired, (as several towns neglected to make returns, and others made imperfect ones.) Yet it is believed, that sufficient data appear for the purposes contemplated by the concurrent resolutions of the Senate and Assembly. It is also observable, that the information derived from some of our sister states, is more limited than had been anticipated.

From these several digests, or abstracts, the following general views, connected with some necessary details, are respectfully presented to the legislature.

The poor of this state consist of two classes—the permanent poor, or those who are regularly supported, during the whole year, at the public expense; and the occasional, or temporary poor, or those who receive occasional relief, during a part of the year, chiefly in the autumn or winter.

Of the first class [permanent], according to the official reports and estimates received, there are, in this state, 6,896; and of the last [occasional], 15,215; making a grand total of 22,111 paupers. Among the permanent paupers, there are 446 idiots and lunatics; 287 persons who are blind; 928 who are extremely aged and infirm; 797 who are lame, or in such a confirmed state of ill health, as to be totally incapable of labor; 2604 children, under the age of 14 years of age, and 1789 paupers of both sexes, all of whom, though not in the vigor of life, may yet be considered capable of earning their subsistence, if proper labor were assigned, and suitable means used to induce them to perform it, and whose labor might produce at least 150,000 dollars annually to the state. Of the whole number of permanent paupers, the returns and estimates will warrant the assertions, that at least 1585 male persons were reduced to the state by the excessive use of ardent spirits;

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and of consequence, that their families, (consisting of 989 wives, and 2167 children,) were reduced to the same penury and want; thus presenting strong evidence of the often asserted fact, that “Intemperance has produced more than two-thirds of all the permanent pauperism in the state:” and there is little hazard in adding, that to the same cause may be ascribed more than one half of the occasional pauperism. Of the whole number of both classes of paupers, 10,523 are males, and 11,588 are females, (being an excess of 1065 female paupers:) 5883, including their children in that number, are either aliens or naturalised foreigners; and 16,228, including also their children, are native citizens.

There are 8753 children of both classes under 14 years of age, the greater number of whom is entirely destitute of education, and equally in want of that care and attention, which are so necessary to inculcate correct moral habits: It is feared that this mass of pauperism, will at no distant day form a fruitful nursery for crime, unless prevented by the watchful superintendance of the legislature.

In eighteen counties bordering on the ocean, and on the Hudson river, with a population of only 582,225 souls, being somewhat more than a third of our entire population, no less than 12,270 permanent and occasional paupers, are maintained or relieved, being for more than one half of all the paupers in the state. The city of New-York alone maintains 1698 permanent paupers, and relieves 7858 occasional paupers, being more than three sevenths of all the paupers of both classes, and nearly one fourth of all the permanent poor.

It will hardly be necessary to explain in the cause of this great disparity. It will be found in the dense population of that city, and of the large villages and towns, which, from their convenient situation for navigation and commerce, allure to their haunts and recesses, the idle and dissolute of every description.

Pouplous places have at all times, been burthened with a larger proportion of paupers, than places where a thin or scattered population is found; and the evil sufficiently indicates the necessity of a rigid police, for compelling the sturdy vagrant