During the century, the State has expended for lands, construction, enlargement or permanent improvement:

Of its five canals$74,347,000 00
Of its new Capitol22,254,023 60
Of the twelve hospitals erected by it$15,204,099 59
Of its seventeen other charitable institutions6,369,110 70
Of its forty-five armories and arsenals3,349,543 73
Of its three State prisons4,528,058 65
Of its twelve normal schools1,826,350 06
Making a total expenditure for those various purposes of$127,878,186 33

Far the greater part of this money has been handled by, and drawn on the warrant of, the Comptroller, and no suspicion has ever arisen that this duty was not honestly performed. Nearly all of the sinking funds of the various bonded debts of the State have been managed by the Comptrollers, who, in these 100 years, have never been the occasion of the loss of a single dollar.

Jenkins, in his political history of New York, says that the Comptroller bears the same relation to the State that the Secretary of the Treasury does to the National Government, and this is largely true. I cannot do better in closing this brief sketch of the Comptroller's office than by quoting from Thurlow Weed's autobiography. His opportunities for, and keenness of, observation make his statement of peculiar value. He says: "It seems proper to say, amid all the mutations of party, and the liability under our form of popular government to occasionally find unworthy men elevated to high places, our State has ever been singularly fortunate in its highest financial officer. We have had unfaithful men in almost every other department of the State Government. We have had, in two or three instances, comparatively weak men in the office of Comptroller, but as a rule its incumbents have been capable, firm and incorruptible."

Transcriber's Notes

The transcriber made these changes to the text to correct obvious errors:

1. p. 19 Fom --> From
2. p. 41 place, Mr. Cook's --> place. Mr. Cook's
3. p. 70 James W. Wadworth --> James W. Wadsworth
4. p. 82 protuded, --> protruded,