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General View of the County

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We marvel how mothers can thus act, though the fact has ever been known. The solution lies in these facts:—woman is a finer and more delicately strung instrument than man. Her whole nature vibrates by a less force. She is more a creature of impulse and feeling than of reason. Her perceptions are quicker, and of right and wrong almost unerring. She knows a thing because she feels it; goes across lots for her conclusions, and does not argue to them. Her perceptions are not only quick, but innate, as it were a kind of instinct, possessed by other animals. She believes without a reason, and belief and opinion with her are fixed principles, and she acts accordingly. She loves and hates with the greatest intensity, and rarely changes her opinion. She loves those who love her, and will shelter and protect them. Her hearth is sacred, her home a castle, and she loves and will defend them as men love and defend the country; the motives and principles of action in both are alike.

From these facts, founded in the nature and organization of woman, she can do, what man can; and though she weeps when she does it, it is no evidence that she relents, but of the truthfulness and sincerity with which she does it. A mother then can clothe her son in armor, bid him go and meet the enemy of his country, and if dishonored see her no more.— Such things are proved by the unbroken line of history in every age.

In this County are many places around which linger and thickly duster dear and interesting memories of Revolutionary time; among which the patriot delights to revel, as they insensibly lead him back to the moving incidents then and there transacted. But these are too numerous to mention here, and we refer only to a few, lest we fail at the proper time to place a patriot offering upon the common altar of our County. In the east is situated West Point, truly called the Gibraltar of America, the scene of Arnold’s deep dereliction from duty, in selling himself to ruin his country, which damned him to American fame. Here also are forts Putnam and Montgomery, spots of thrilling adventure and heroic deed. Fort Putnam, in the back ground of West Point, stands naked and hoary upon an uplifted peak of the Highlands, in the lonely grandeur of many ages, dismantled and in ruins. Within its walls dwelt the guardian genius of the Point, now departed to more peaceful scenes, not to return we trust for years to come. The Point is in the especial keeping of the nation, being beautifully improved and adorned with all the various structures and edifices necessary and convenient to accommodate and afford facilities to the strong arm of the nation in the art of war.

In Newburgh stands the old Hasbrouck Stone House, the Head Quarters of Washington, before and at the Declaration of Peace, still in good repair. Here the father of his country matured his counsel and crushed in a moment beneath his feet the rising spirit of rebellion in the army, excited and stimulated by the celebrated Newburgh Letters, saved its patriot and hard earned character and the blood of our citizens. This mansion remains deeply engraven, not only on the affect only of the citizens of Newburgh, hallowed by the presence of the greatest, best and wisest hero of any age, but a shrine of patriotism, visited by pilgrim strangers from all parts of the Union, who would ere this, had it been possible, have carried away the building in their pockets, as relies of pure devotion. May this spirit and devotional feeling remain forever in the bosoms of our countrymen.