STATE OF NEW-YORK. 
No. J 90. 
IN ASSEMBLY, 
February 16, 1835, 
REPORTS 
Of the majority and minority of the select committee 
on several petitions relative to the repeal of the law 
restraining Botanic Practice. 
Mr. J. Haskell, from the minority of the select committee to 
whom was referred the petition of about 30,000 inhabitants of this 
State, praying for the repeal of the laws which proscribe botanic 
practice, beg leave to present the following 
REPORT: 
The number of the petitioners, and the nature of the subject re* 
ferred to your committee, combine to give it an importance which 
entitles the former to great respect, and the latter to the deliberate 
consideration of your committee; and under these impressions 
they have endeavored to discharge the duty imposed upon them. 
No fact is presented in the petitions, sustained by satisfactory 
proof excepting the single fact, that " a law was passed, during 
the last session of the Legislature, imposing a fine of $25, on 
any botanic practitioner of medicine, if he receive any compensa- 
tion for services rendered in the capacity of a physician." Evi- 
dence of this fact is to be found in chapter 68 of the Session Laws 
of 1834, and the petitioners speak of that law in the language of 
complaint; alleging that "one of the dearest privileges of commu- 
nity is sacrificed, viz. a free and unmolested choice of their physi- 
cian:" that "they believe said law is a direct infringement of 
their constitutional privileges," &c.: and they close with a respect- 
ful prayer to the Legislature, " that all law proscribing botanic 
Assem. No. 190. 
1 2 
Assemble 
physicians from a just fee and reward for services rendered may 
be repealed; and that they be permitted to collect their dues, in 
the same manner as other free citizensr" and in another form of 
words, "that the law which was passed April 7th, 1830, and 
which amended the past winter, may be reinstated to its primitive 
purity, as when first enacted." 
There is another fact alleged, however, which the petitioners 
only " beg leave to represent" but it is supported by no additional 
evidence whatever. They represent that, during the last session 
of the Legislature, " the medical society of this State, through 
their influence, caused a law to be enacted, which prohibits the 
botanic practitioner from receiving compensation for services 
rendered, under penalty of $25, for each offence." Although 
your committee have been referred, by some of the persons con- 
cerned in the success of this application, to the petitions presented 
to this House in the year 1834, for proof, that among 1,430 peti- 
tioners for the passage of the law now sought to be repealed, 383 
of them were Doctors, your committee do not sec in that fact, ad- 
mitting its truth, sufficient evidence to justify the broad assertion, 
that " the medical society of the State, through their influence 
caused the law to be enacted." And although for this reason, 
your committee have pronounced the allegation to be " supported 
by no additional evidence whatever," and, for the same reason, 
would have been justified in giving it no place in this report, yet 
there is a reflection in the language that gives it consequence, per- 
mitting, if not calling for, some freedom of animadversion. The 
allegation bears on its face an inference of too grave an import to 
be presented to this House on slight grounds, and be allowed here 
to pass off in silence. 
This Chamber, dedicated to honorable and unbiassed delibera- 
tion, is represented as having been the arena for an extrinsic influ- 
ence, incompatible with the purity of legislation. Your committee 
deem it due to the place we occupy, and no less to the integrity of 
the last Legislature, to pronounce an unqualified disapproval of an 
imputation so unjust. But in these remarks upon the terms, in 
which the exceptionable portion of the petition is couched, your 
committee would exempt from their bearing, avast majority of the 
petitioners, and impute to them, no impropriety of intention. It is 
to a different class of the persons interested, perhaps few in num- 
ber, they arc intended to apply,-and to have them understand, No. 190. 
3 
that imputations impugning the motives of the Legislature, past as 
well as present, should be withheld from this place, or followed up 
with evidence to support them. 
In the allegation just now considered-in the general tenor of 
the petitions--and indeed, in all the past history of the botanic 
practitioner and licensed physician, as contained in petitions and 
remonstrances, the parties are found arrayed in belligerent atti- 
tude, and much pomp of military phrase has been heard in allusion 
to them. But a due regard to the appropriate duties assigned to 
your committee, excuses them from taking any part in the fight. 
To them, belong the exemptions and privileges of non-combatants. 
It is not for them to decide between the virtues of steam, and the 
efficacy of the lancet. They have no business in the mineral nor 
in the vegetable kingdom. Rush and Thompson are both alike to 
be excluded from their deliberations. Your committee cannot par- 
ticipate in this war of words, carried on as it is, with the missiles 
of opprobrium, and bandying from host to host the reproachful epi- 
thets of quack and empirick, on the one side, and repelled with 
other hard names, as tyrant and aristocrat, on the other. The in- 
dex of duty no where points your committee to a solution of the 
questions, w'hether tyranny and aristocracy pertain alone to the 
sprig of the lancet, or occasionally may not be found in the prowler 
after roots and herbs-whether the dispenser of nostrums and spe- 
cifics exclusively deserves the cognomen of empirick-nor whether 
the doctor of physic may not sometimes divide with him the honors 
of the quack. Nor does it pertain to your committee to decide 
upon the comparative effect produced by the fire of a battery, 
belching forth the bitterness of the Bolus; or that caused by the 
humbler works, which discharge only the seemingly simple sourness 
of Number Six. Your committee, therefore, proceed to the dis- 
charge of their proper duties, leaving the laurels to be won in this 
field of honor, to adorn other brows, and the glory to be reported, 
in another bulletin. 
In making their first direct approaches to the work before them, 
your committee comprise the matter of the petitions in two propo- 
sitions: the laics complained of, and the relief claimed. 
The existing laws on the subject under consideration, arc to be 
found in the Revised Statutes, part 1st, chap. 15, title 7, section 
22, page 455, of the first volume ; Revised Statutes, vol. 3, page 4 
'Assembw 
104, of the Appendix, and Session Laws of 1834, page 72. It is 
alleged by the agents of the petitioners, that the Jaw, even as it 
stood previous to the last session, was susceptible of a construction 
so uncertain, that the judgments pronounced under it by different 
justices of the peace, were opposite and conflicting, some allowing 
recoveries in favor of the botanic doctor, and others denying them. 
But it is the opinion of your committee, and they find it to be the 
admitted opinion of some in the legal profession, that the legisla- 
tive intendment and the fair construction of the law, as it then 
stood, are favorable to such recoveries. But since the act of 1834, 
the botanic practitioner may indeed practise and administer, but he 
is interdicted all compensation for his services. 
Your committee, being bound by the rule of the house which, 
governs their proceedings, cannot but declare their opinion, that a 
law .producing these results is an anomaly in legislation. If it lay 
within the range of legitimate investigation, for your committee 
to explore the history of the legislation on this subject, the remon- 
strances and reports on your files and documents, against botanic 
practice, would be found full of arguments to prove that it exposed 
the patient to the hazard, and frequently to the loss of life and 
limb; consequences dreadful and deleterious-lasting as life and 
incurable as death. 
If, then, a due regard to the public health be the justifying in- 
ducement to legislative interposition on this subject, why not ap- 
proach the evil with a direct and positive prohibition ? and enact a 
penalty as large, as sure and as enduring as the mischief? Why 
give your legislation on this vexed and exciting question, so much 
likeness to that rigid and merciless policy of war, which encoura- 
ges and approves the treason, while it despises and degrades the 
traitor? Why permit the botanic doctor to accomplish mischief 
to the full extent of his ability, and punish him only with the mere 
denial of compensation? Why legislate a state of things which 
allow him to inflict hopeless wretchedness upon his patient, and 
then escape with the simple loss of his services ? 
Your committee arc of opinion, that the provisions of the law 
should be palpable and undisguised, and the penalty, clear and dis- 
tinct. Where crime does not exist, there needs no law; but where 
it does exist, and is definable, your laws in the case should be di- 
rect and unequivocal No. 190.) 
5 
Your committee are aware of the answers to these questions, 
and of a disposition to justify, with the same answers, a continu- 
ance of the laws now sought to be repealed. It is affirmed, that 
the present legal inability to collect pay for botanic services, 
is a sufficient safeguard to the community, against the evils and 
dangers to be apprehended from the root doctor, because he will 
cease to practise when his pay is withheld. 
All the experience and information of your committee on this 
subject, are adverse to this proposition. Botanic physicians are 
men of like passions with other men. Like the rest of the spe- 
cies, they are humane, benevolent, sympathetic and strong in their 
attachments to their friends. And these passions and predilections 
are not incompatible with even all the ignorance imputed to them. 
And men are to be found in their ranks, who, for purity of mo- 
rals, strength of intellect, clearness of judgment and perseverance 
of investigation, have raised themselves to at least a medium level 
with the mass of their fellow citizens; and many of them have a 
competency of learning, and a considerable knowledge of the hu- 
man system, and of the medicinal qualities of the vegetable king- 
dom. 
In their surrounding vicinities, these men have acquired a repu- 
tation for doing good in their way. They have inspired the peo- 
ple with an abiding confidence in their skill and usefulness. But 
whether this confidence reposes on the ground of merit, your com- 
mittee do not stop to inquire. It is sufficient for the argument, 
that such is the fact, or at least that such is believed to be the fact. 
And this confidence reposed in them by a respectable portion of 
the people, entiles them to compete with legalized physicians for 
a proportionate share in the benefits of a doggrel truism down 
east-" where men believe in doctors, doctors cure." 
Of the truth of these conclusions, your committee have before 
them nearly 30,000 witnesses; and they believe, that this House 
need not be told by them, that botanic skill, resting on a confidence 
like this, whether weZZ-placed or mz's-placed, would not be permit- 
ted, in times of common pestilence, to remain dormant, nor un- 
called for, where single families or individuals were sick and suf- 
fering for its aid. The House need not be informed by its com- 
mittee, that the calls of confidence and the sufferings of friends, 
would arouse the sympathies of the botanic doctor, and bring his 6 
Assembly 
efforts into action, to a general or circumscribed extent, as the exi- 
gencies of individuals or the country should require. The people 
would take no denial, and the doctor would give no refusal, when 
an inmate of a family was struggling with disease or parleying 
with death; though pains and penalties and prisons should stare 
them both in the face, on every page of the statute book. It is 
known to your committee, that these things have transpired not 
unfrequently, even since the enactment of the law of thirty-four. 
And but recently, before he left the place of his residence, one of 
your committee witnessed the denunciation of that law, by citi- 
zens of substantial respectability, as infringing their right to choose 
their own physician, and followed by a threatened defiance of its 
provisions, should necessity require the employment of a botanic 
physician. 
From these views of the subject, your committee arc clearly of 
opinion, that the law should be so modified as to secure commu- 
nity against the evils to be apprehended from all botanic practice, 
or else allow the fair practitioner to recover pay for his services 
and medicines. There is such apparent incongruity on the face of 
the existing laws on this subject, that your committee cannot but 
view the reserved right of the botanic doctor to practise, but with- 
out pay, in the light of an apology for doubtful legislation; or as 
an excuse for that species of lawgiving, which resembles the ma- 
gic performance of holding the shadow in a stationary position, 
after its witching dexterity has abstracted the substance. 
But there is another ground on which the petilioners insist for 
the repeal of the obnoxious laws, unconditionally and without al- 
ternative. 
This brings your committee to the consideration of the second 
branch of the subject-"the relief claimed." This claim is based 
upon the broad ground of equal rights, in the enjoyment of "life, 
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," as secured to the petition- 
ers in the Constitution of this State and the United States. Con- 
scious of its inability to enlighten the House on the momentous 
questions of constitutional law, your committee would not be jus- 
tified in consuming its time and drawing upon its patience by an 
unprofitable attempt. But they allow themselves to say, that their 
closest examinations of those instruments, have not furnished them 
with a satisfactory answer to this claim of the petitioners. It is 
true, that statutory provisions, guarding the privileged rights of No. 190. 
7 
the doctor according to law, are to be found older than the Consti- 
tution; but in the opinion of your committee, they are among the 
enactments abrogated by its adoption, because inconsistent with 
the spirit of its provisions and declarations. 
The laws regulating the practice of physic are of remote date, 
and they seem to have been enacted with great carefulness in pro- 
tecting the legalized doctor, from invasion of his privileges by the 
unlicensed practitioner. But since the adoption of the Constitu- 
tion, there has been one, if not more, periods when the disfran- 
chisement of the botanic physician was suspended, and he stood 
forth, like his fellow citizens, a free man. In other words, his 
knowledge and skill in the republic of roots and herbs, were put 
in requisition for the benefit of his fellow citizens in distress; and 
they both stood together under the J3gis of the law, equally pro- 
tected in his rights, impleading each other in the contest of litiga- 
tion, for and against a recovery for his services, "according to the 
very right of the case." But so far as the history of that period 
has come down to your committee, they are not informed of any 
consequences, resulting from the practice of the botanic doctor, 
to justify a forfeiture, by legislative enactment, of the immunities 
enjoyed in common with his fellow citizens. It is enacted in a 
code of laws, coming from a source whose wisdom excludes all 
occasion for repeal or amendment, that " the laborer is worthy of 
his hire," and the spirit of this enactment is infused into your 
Constitution with so much of its native sacrcdness as should stay 
every attempt of human legislation, to reduce it to the standard 
of a dead letter. 
Standing upon their rights, reserved to them in the Constitution, 
and secured by laws, both human and divine, as they affirm, about 
30,000 of their fellow citizens have arrayed themselves before your 
committee, demanding an answer to the simple question, " Why 
they are not permitted to enjoy the common rights of their fell ;w 
citizens, in choosing their own phisician ? Why they are not al- 
lowed to enjoy the benefits of his skill, in which they repose so 
much confidence I and the satisfaction of paying him an equiva- 
lent for his services, without resorting to the secrecy of stealth? 
Why he, is denied the use of his knowledge and inventions for 
their good, or has it only granted as a degrading indulgence, with 
the invididious condition imposed upon him, if he serve in his na- 
tural avocation, to do so under the restrictions of an unnatural 
law?" Assembly 
8 
To these interrogatories your committee are of opinion there is 
no answer that will justify themselves to this host of petitioners, 
or satisfy their reasonable and constitutional complaints. In their 
searches, and researches into the statutes, and constitutions, (and 
admit there have been necessarily but partial and superficial,) they 
find no answer to justify a continuance of the law's, " regulating 
the practice of physic," as they now exist. 
Your committee cannot allow themselves, in drawing to a close, 
consistently with their sense of duty, to pass over one other pro- 
minent feature in the subject of reference; and that is, the exci- 
ted state of the public mind. The number of the petitioners has 
already been stated; and they are scattered over many counties 
in the State, and the elements of society seem to be moving in 
commotion. All history shows that when the people are stirred, 
it is not commonly the result of imaginary causes. Something sub- 
stantially wrong has usually been found among the exciting cau- 
ses, when they manifest a general restlessness and concern. An 
instance of recent date in Western New-York confirms the truth 
and correctness of these positions, and demonstrates that the peo- 
ple in their strength, are not to be disregarded with impunity.- 
And if in the present instance, they fail of relief here, it requires 
no great struggle of apprehension to see, that the time is at hand, 
when they will appeal, as in that instance, to the ballot boxes. 
Already have some of your committee, witnessed decided indica- 
tions of a disposition, to direct this excitement to a bearing on our 
elections. Experience has taught your committee, that conse- 
quences so hurtful, as are certain to follow such measures of re- 
dress, are greatly to be deprecated; and that proper steps should 
not be omitted to prevent their recurrence. 
These considerations, your committee admit, have had their 
merited influence in bringing them to a conclusion favorable to the 
petitioners. It remains therefore for your committee to announce 
their opinion, that the prayer of the petitioners is just and reason- 
able, and ought to be granted. 
And here the House may well expect the labors of your com- 
mittee should terminate; having, though imperfectly, discharged 
the specific duty assigned them. But, by permission of the 
House, they are desirous before they conclude, to give a pass- 
ing consideration to what they deem an important connexion of No. 190.' 
9 
the subject, though not directly embraced in the petitions, and 
consequently, not included in the appropriate range of the refe- 
rence. 
Your committee are aware that the numerous and prevalent ob- 
jections to the botanic practice, are but too well grounded; that 
the evils complained of, have increased to an alarming amount, 
under the system, called by way of distinction, " Thomsonian." 
And this startling state of things, has resulted, in the opinion of 
your committee, more from the facilities given to ignorant pre- 
tenders, by the indiscriminate sale of the Thomsonian patent, with- 
out proper regard to the qualifications and character of the pur- 
chaser, than from any defect, which your committee are compe- 
tent to allege, in the system itself. An apparent mercenary dis- 
position in the earliest venders of the patent, or a desire to dis- 
seminate a sudden and extensive use of the invention, appear to 
have sought gratification in hawking about these facilities, until a 
mushroom phalanx consisting of the old and the young, and of both 
sexes, till then only distinguished by their ignorance and obscurity, 
started into notoriety, claiming to be the guardians and safe depo- 
sitories of the public health. And a credulity existing among a 
portion of the people, corresponding with that ignorance, gave 
ample scope to their marvellous pretensions, and in too many in- 
•stances, fatal experiments. 
Among the deleterious results of their empyrical exploits, in- 
stances of misapplied steam or other prescriptions have come to 
the painful knowledge of your committee, where loss of speech 
and of the use of limbs have followed among the disastrous con- 
sequences. And here your committee deem it but just to remark, 
in relation to the discreet and experienced botanic practitioner, 
that, in their opinion, he was among the severest sufferers from 
these destructive operations. For it brought him under the ban 
of a law, which was especially designed to arrest their career, and 
which, butybr them, most probably would not have been enacted. 
Your committee would also exempt him from the severity and ap- 
plication of the remarks they have found it their duty to aim at 
the measures herein alluded to, so justly obnoxious to universal 
reprobation. 
Your committee owe it to a right understanding of their views, to 
add, that the point and severity of the foregoing remarks are not in- 
Assem. No. 190. 10 
Assembly 
tended to apply exclusively to that side of the controversy to 
which they have now more particularly been directed. Quackery 
is an identity, in all its forms and exhibitions, and it is never more 
odious than when it is under the protection of law and the sanc- 
tion of a diploma. And to deny its occasional appearance under 
these advantages, would be to belie both experience and observa- 
tion. More belongs to an impartial comparison between the two 
conflicting parties of the healing art, than simply to affirm its harm- 
less existence, without looking to results and consequences, some- 
times produced by the licensed practitioner. And, therefore, to 
guard against partial conclusions being drawn from the allusions 
your committee have deemed it their duty to make to quackery 
on the one side, they feel it just to declare, from knowledge and 
experience, that calamity and mishap, proportioned to the number 
of pretenders, have marked the footsteps of the other. 
Your committee owe it to themselves, as well as to the two 
classes of their fellow citizens whose interests may be affected by 
this report, to add further in this place, in order to prevent all im- 
proper constructions being applied to it, that they entertain the 
best feelings towards, and the highest confidence in, the regular 
physicians as a profession, and as a body of men, who are largely 
contributing to individual happiness and national character; and 
whose knowledge and skill in the healing art, especially in diseases 
of an acute description, commands their first patronage, while 
they award due respect to the skill, understanding and qualifica- 
tions of a considerable portion of the botanic practitioners for do- 
ing good in the more lingering and chronic classes of complaints. 
And such are entitled, in the judgment of your committee, to the 
testimony of their personal observation, where they have witness- 
ed the patient abandoned by the former, brought up from the side 
of the grave and restored to comfort and usefulness by the perse- 
vering efforts and attention of the latter. 
To proceed, your committee are also aware, that public policy, 
and a suitable regard to the public health, not only justify, but 
seem also to require, in the existing state of society, that the ad- 
ministration of medicinal remedies, in all the forms of both mine- 
ral and vegetable preparations, be made the subject of legislative 
regulation. This policy grows out of the same associations of com- 
munity, on which nations, ancient and modern, have based their 
legislation in regard to quarantine, pauperism, education, &c. An- No. 190. 
11 
cient nations have claimed, and certainly, a nation with institutions 
free and enlarged as ours, with more propriety have a right to claim, 
a common property in the individuals composing it. And in pro- 
portion as those nations have advanced from a state of barbarism, 
have these claims derived force and strength. And insomuch, as 
the freedom of our institutions, and the 'continuance of our liber- 
ties, depend upon an enlightened and cultivated public mind, is the 
community interested in providing the means for public improve- 
ment. And that they do so depend, entirely and absolutely, is a 
proposition universally admitted without controversy. Hence the 
fitness and propriety of all our laws for the establishment of colle- 
ges, academies and common schools. And hence it is a full an- 
swer, for any complaint arising from unavoidable inequalities in 
their operation, to say, " the public good requires it" On like prin- 
ciples, the public have an interest, though of a different character, 
in raising up hale and robust soldiers for the public defence. Re* 
garding the personal for your army, your marine and militia, 
the public have a deep stake in these important arms of its 
strength. And so far as the public right is concerned in the health 
of the citizen, the legislative department of any government, ap- 
pears to your committee, should have the right to interpose for 
its guardianship and protection. Hence also arises the right on 
which are founded all laws regulating quarantine; and the exercise 
of that right would seem to become a duty, as appertaining to that 
department, and it would need no excuse for legislating to regulate 
the administration of medicine, much less for interdicting and pu* 
nishing the dangerous experiments of ignorant pretenders; and ha- 
ving done so much, the personal rights of every citizen, should be 
left free, equal and unrestricted. But there is a Collateral consi- 
deration, of some importance, to be noticed in connexion with this 
branch of the subject, as affecting the rights of the smaller local 
communities of which the State is composed, and as fortifying the 
positions herein taken. 
Your committee refer to the operation of the poor-laws in the 
towns and counties. By the operation of these laws, the burden 
of pauperism is increased, by every victim of malpractice, botanic 
or licensed, who is thereby disqualified for his own support, and 
otherwise destitute of the necessary means. In this consideration, 
your committee believe, that the most zealous and fastidious advo- 
cate of unrestrained botanic practice, will see the rights of the 
public so distinctly marked, as to admit the duty of the Legislature, 12 
Assembly 
to regulate that practice; at least so far as prevent the rash and 
ignorant practitioner from fitting, or increasing the number of can- 
didates for the poor-house. 
Your committee have entered upon this discussion with great 
diffidence, being sensible that these views are obnoxious to objec- 
tions of considerable weight. Among these objections, they anti- 
cipate one, and perhaps the one most difficult to obviate, that even 
granting the existence of the public rights, they are so evanescent 
and untangible, and the line of separation between them and the 
unquestionable rights of individuals is so faintly described-and 
the former are so undefined and undefinable, compared with the 
prominent features of the latter, that any legislation affecting theser 
would be dangerous. Candor requires of your committee to admit 
the force of this objection, while they consent only in part to the 
conclusion; for most surely, so much legislation against illiterate 
mummery, and indiscriminate distributions of deleterious prescrip- 
tions, as would save the life or limb of no more than a tingle indi- 
vidual, or shield him from the entailment of perpetual wretched- 
ness and misery, at the hands of any prescriber, would be, in the 
opinion of your committee, a justifiable and salutary enactment. 
Finally, if the existing laws regulating the practice of physic 
are necessary, as regards the encouragement of medical science, 
and the protection of the faculty, your committee do not per- 
ceive any good reason why the fair botanic practitioner is not 
entitled to equal protection, nor why his branch of medical know- 
ledge and improvement, may not receive the same encouragement 
at the hands of the Legislature. Nor do your committee see that 
a greater stretch of legislative wisdom is necessary, to give sys- 
tem and organization to the worthy and deserving class of botanic 
physicians, than has been exercised in according legal regulation 
to the medical faculty. 
Your committee are sensible of the hazard to which they expose 
themselves in making this suggestion, not doubting but the first 
essays to-impose regulations upon the botanic community, would 
be beset with many serious, if not insurmountable difficulties, and 
they may have erred entirely in their judgment. If, however, the 
project were admitted to be impracticable, and your committee 
were left to choose between the alternatives of no law to regulate 
the practice of physic, or the present laws on that subject, they 
would be constrained to elect the former as the lesser evil, and as No. 190. 
13 
most consistent with the genius of our institutions. And your 
committee are sustained in this conclusion, by the history and ex- 
ample of our sister State of Pennsylvania, where medical science 
has reached an elevated standard, and where the faculty have 
never enjoyed the monopoly of a privileged order, protected by 
law. Ohio, too, as your committee understand, has left this 
profession to stand upon its own merits, without a legislative 
nurse, and without any legal restriction, implying either a right 
in the Legislature to confine the people to statutory restric- 
tions, or a want of discrimination in them for self-government, in 
so delicate a matter as the choice of their physician. Your commit- 
tee, therefore, are clear in their judgment that it would be more 
discreet, as well as more republican, to leave the whole matter to 
be regulated by public opinion, than undertake to control or re- 
press the action of that opinion by legislative provision. Your 
committee would place both orders of the healing art upon the 
same footing, either with or without legal restraint or regulation. 
They would leave the field of benevolent competition open to both; 
and while they award due honor and respect to the son of science, 
who emaciates in the pale glimmer of the midnight lamp, for the 
good of his fellow, they would not withhold from the more hardy 
explorer of the forest, the meed he deserves for industry and per- 
severance in the pursuit of means for the mitigation of human 
misery. 
In conclusion, your committee feel it to be due the courtesy of 
the House, to ask its indulgence for thus travelling out of the re- 
cord; and now, confining themselves to the proper limits assigned 
them by the prayer of the petitioners and the scope of the refe- 
rence, they proceed, in pursuance of the intimation contained in a 
former part of this report, that the prayer of the petitioners ought 
to be granted, to ask leave to introduce a bill. 
JOB HASKELL, Chairman, 
G. PETTIT, 
GEORGE FISHER, 
SAMUEL RICHMOND, 
JOSEPH CLARK. REPORT OF THE MINORITY. 
Mr. Livingston, in behalf of the minority of the select commit- 
tee to which was referred the petition of sundry inhabitants of 
many of the counties of this State, praying for a repeal of the law 
passed at the last session of the Legislature, imposing a fine upon 
the botanic practice of medicine, 
REPORTED: 
That the minority of said committee have given to the subject 
referred to them as full an examination as their time and attention 
to other duties would allow. 
In discharging the duty assigned to the members of the commit- 
tee, the undersigned have thought it proper to look into the history 
of the legislative enactments upon the subject matter referred to 
them. They do not desire to go back to the dark ages, (as has 
been asserted by the majority of the committee,) for examples to 
guide them, but they have endeavored to discover and state what 
opinions have been heretofore entertained upon this important sub- 
ject by our predecessors, in legislating upon the subject committed, 
in part, to our charge. 
The minority of your committee have also thought it proper, 
with a view of fully understanding the merits of the question re- 
ferred to them, to state in their report the existing provisions of 
the law which it is proposed, by the petitioners, should be repeal- 
ed, in order to present clearly to the House the true question and 
the precise character of the prayer of the petitioners. 
Upon examination, the committee find that, as early as the year 
1760, a law was enacted for the promotion of medical science, con- 
fined in its operation to the city and county of New-York. The 
reasons which gave rise to the passage of that law are clearly 
stated in the preamble to the act, which is in these words, viz: 
" Whereas, many ignorant and unskilful persons in physic and [Assembly 
16 
surgery, in order to gain a subsistence, do take upon themselves 
to administer physic, and practise surgery, in the city of New- 
York, to the endangering the lives and limbs of their patients; 
and many poor and ignorant persons inhabiting the said city, who 
have been persuaded to become their patients, have been great 
sufferers thereby: for preventing such abuses in future, Be it 
enacted, &c." 
This act provided for an examination of students, and the grant- 
ing, to such as should be approved upon such examination, a cer- 
tificate or license to practice, and also prescribed a certain term 
of tuition and study to be performed by every student of medicine 
before he could be permitted to present himself for an examina- 
tion. It also provided that a penalty of five pounds might be re- 
covered from any person who should practice without complying 
with the provisions of that act. 
On the twenty-seventh day of March, 1792, there was an addi- 
tional act passed upon this subject, which was also confined in its 
operation to the city and county of New-York. The reasons for 
the passage of this act, are also set forth in its preamble, which is 
in these words: "Whereas, many ignorant and unskilful persons 
presume to administer physic and practise surgery within the city 
and county of New-York, to the detriment and hazard of the lives 
and limbs of the citizens: therefore, for the prevention of such 
abuses in future: Be it enacted," &c. This act provides for the 
examination of every student by three practitioners of medicine, 
other than the one with whom the student shall have previously 
studied; and that such examination shall be had before the Gover- 
nor and certain other public officers: and for the granting to such 
student, (if approved,) a certificate or license to practise physic 
and surgery. It also required the student to have studied under 
the tuition of a practising physician and surgeon the full term of 
two years, (if a graduate of some college,) or three years, if not 
such graduate, before he could be admitted to an examination. 
In this act every person who shall thereafter practise physic 
and surgery, without having obtained a license according to the 
provisions of the act, is made liable to a forfeiture of the sum of 
seven pounds; and is, moreover, declared incapable of suing or 
maintaining a suit for any services rendered. ^o. 190. 
17 
The first general law upon this subject was enacted March 23d, 
1797. By this act every student of medicine in this State, was 
required to produce satisfactory evidence before certain public of- 
ficers, &c. of having faithfully Studied physic and surgery, under 
the instruction of some physician or surgeon the full term of four 
years, (if not a graduate of some college,) and of three years, if 
such graduate. 
In this act also it is declared that if any person shall practise 
physic and surgery without having first obtained such license, he 
-shall forfeit and pay the sum of twenty-Jive dollars. 
This, as was observed above, was the first general act passed 
upon this subject in this State, and this act has in it another pro- 
vision, to which the minority of your committee desire particu- 
larly to call the attention of the House; it is in these words: " And 
whereas, upon sudden emergency it may be necessary to apply 
for aid from persons not qualified to practise physic or surgery, in 
conformity to this act: Therefore, 
" Be it further enacted, that, in every such case, it shall and 
may be lawful for any person not authorized by this act to prac- 
tise physic or surgery to administer medicine, and to perform sur- 
gical operations, but shall not ask, demand oi' recover any com- 
pensation therefor." 
This act continued in force, and was not materially altered or 
amended until the 4th of April, 1806: when the first act incorpo- 
rating a State medical society and county medical societies was 
-enacted. The general provisions of this act were very similar to 
those of the act of March 23d, 1797, except that the term of study 
for every student was definitely fixed at three years, and his ex- 
amination was to be had before certain officers called censors, to 
be chosen by each medical society that should be organized under 
said act. By this act it was also declared that no person should 
practise physic and surgery within any of the counties in this 
State, without having first obtained such diploma as is directed to 
be given by the terms of the act: " And if any person shall so 
practise without having obtained a diploma for that purpose, he 
shall forever thereafter be disqualified from collecting any debt or 
debts incurred by such practice, in any court in this State." 
[Assem. No. 190.] 18 
Assembly 
This act was not materially altered or amended, until the gene- 
ral revision of the laws in the year 18'13. 
The minority of the committee beg Iteave here to stop one mo- 
ment, for the purpose of calling the particular attention of the 
House to the fact, that in all the laws thus far enacted to regulate 
the practice of this important and indispensable profession, first in 
the city and county of New-York, and subsequently in the whole 
State, special care is manifested, in order to protect the ignorant 
and unwary from becoming the dupes of unqualified, unskilful and 
incompetent persons; who, by artful contrivances and pretended 
specifics, were enabled to deceive the honest citizen; and, by ope- 
rating upon his superstition and fears in some instances, and his 
prejudices in others, might not only endanger his health, but even 
his life. Hence were enacted, in all the laws above recapitulated, 
the provisions for a penalty ; and in most.of the acts, as striking 
more effectually at the root of the evil, it was provided that no 
person should maintain a suit for the recovery of remuneration for 
services rendered as a physician and surgeon who had not previ- 
ously obtained a diploma according to the provisions of the acts 
referred to. 
It it believed that every person who will examine the history of 
the times alluded to will find that then, as well as now, there might 
be found a very large number of pretended doctors, who practised 
medicine and surgery under the popular names of the times, such 
as " herb doctors," " root doctors/' " Indian doctors/'' and a great 
variety of equally ridiculous and unmeaning names. 
If it was then thought wise and judicious to pass legislative 
enactments for the protection of the unwary and honest citizen, 
it is apprehended that the same reason ought to apply at present, 
and in a degree greaty increased. 
But to return to the progress of our legislation upon this subject. 
The minority of your committee find that the general provisions 
of the act of April 4th, 1806, were enacted in the revision of the 
laws in 1813, with the addition of this remarkable proviso : 
" That nothing in this act contained, shall be construed to ex- 
tend to debar any person from using or applying for the benefit of 
any sick person, any roots, barks or herbs, the growth and pro- 
duce of the United States." No. 190.' 
19 
This was the first step in the history of the legislation of this 
State, in which the indirect and illegal practice of physic and sur- 
gery ^received any encouragement; for it will readily occur to eve- 
ry one upon a moment's reflection, that unqualified and unlicensed 
persons were admitted into full and complete competition with the 
regularly bred physician, by the practical operation of this proviso. 
AH that was required of the "root doctor," was to convince his 
patient that the medicine which he gave him, and recommended., 
was some " root, bark or herb," the growth and produce of the 
United States, and the whole object of the " doctor" was obtain- 
ed, and the end which the Legislature had in view in the penal en- 
actments against illegal practitioners, was entirely frustrated and 
defeated. 
In order to demonstrate this result, the minority of the commit- 
tee will state a case: A man is attacked by disease; he from some 
cause, (no matter what,) is induced to call upon a ■" root doctor" or 
•" Thompsonian doctor." The doctor comes, whose first business 
is to assure his patient, that all the medicine which he proposes to 
administer, not only in this particalar case, but in all other cases, is 
composed solely and wholly of roots, barks and herbs, the growth 
and produce of the United States; and that most certainly, there is 
no mercury in it. This done, and the doctor may and can, with im- 
punity, give any and all the various articles and compounds to be 
found in the whole range of materia medica. It is easy to conceal 
chemical, mineral and foreign medicines from detection, by the 
eye even of a very competent judge; and it is not to be supposed 
that our citizens generally are able to contradict the " doctor" with 
regard to the character of the composition, or nature of the me- 
dicine which he may prescribe. Hence the operation of this 
proviso, opened the door for the practice of the unlicensed physi- 
cian and surgeon, as effectually as if there had been no penalty em- 
braced in the act. 
While this door was thus, as the minority of your committee 
believe, unintentionally opened for the illegal practitioner, restric- 
tions were continued upon the regular student and physician: and 
by an act passed April 20th, 1818, were greatly increased, espe- 
cially by requiring every student to study with some practising 
physician or surgeon four years, (one of which might be spent in 
pursuing classical studies,) before he could become a candidate for 
examination before the medical censors. 20 
Assembly 
'The substantial parts of the Revised Laws of 1813, upon this 
subject, continued without alteration until the revision of the sta- 
tutes in 1828, when this law was again remodelled, and some im- 
portant alterations adopted; one of which was, the adoption of a 
section making it a misdemeanor, punishable by fine and imprison- 
ment in the discretion of the court, to practise without a license,, 
and to receive compensation therefor.. 
The consequence of the passage of that law was, that all those 
who were interested in the continuance of illegal practice, whe- 
ther they were called " Thompsonian doctors,,r " steam doctors,,r 
w patent doctors," " Indian doctors," " root doctors," " herb doc- 
tors," " stick doctors," or " botanic physicians," made common 
cause in petitioning the Legislature for a repeal of that section in 
the Revised Statutes, inflicting the penalty above mentioned. 
On the 7th of April, 1830, the Legislature passed an act repeal- 
ing the clause above alluded to, and added a section re-enacting in 
substance the provisions of the Revised Laws of 1813, with its re- 
markable proviso, rendering substantially the penalty declared in 
the same section wholly inoperative. 
During the last session of the Legislature, the proviso above men- 
tioned was stricken out, and a section added, similar in its provi- 
sions to the one contained in the first general law upon this sub- 
ject, passed March 23, 1797, excepting, however, from the penalty 
any person who should use domestic medicine for the benefit of 
any sick person without receiving any fee or reward therefor. 
It is for a repeal of this law, that the petitioners ask. In the 
argument of the petitioners, (and their names most generally ap- 
pear to be attached to the same common copy of a petition from 
every quarter of the State,) an appeal is made to the constitutional 
right of the citizen to employ such physician as he may deem most 
proper, and an inference is attempted to be drawn that the law 
which they pray to have repealed, is an infringement upon their 
natural rights. 
The substantial provisions of the law, regulating the practice of 
physic and surgery, as it now stands, are as follows : Every stu- 
dent is required to study medicine with some practising physician 
or surgeon four years, one year of which may be deducted for 
pursuing any of the studies usually taught in any of the colleges in No. 190. 
21 
this State, or for attending a full course of medical lectures, in one 
of the medical colleges of this State. The student may then be ad- 
mitted to an examination, and if approved, is to receive a diploma. 
This constitutes him a regular physician and surgeon. If any per- 
son practices physic and surgery, without having first obtained such 
diploma, and shall take and receive any compensation for such prac- 
tice, he shall forfeit for every such offence, a sum not exceeding 
twenty-five dollars, and shall be forever precluded from recovering 
by any suit (in this State,) for such services. 
The minority of your committee are incapable of discovering 
any unconstitutional actin these provisions, or any infringement of 
the rights of any citizen; nor are they able to discover any exclu- 
sive privileges granted to one set of men, which are not freely of- 
fered to any and all persons. 
It is merely a question of general policy, whether or not the law 
in question is wise and salutary. That it is so, the minority of 
your committee entertain the most confident belief; and in this 
opinion they are strengthened by the uniform and almost uninter- 
rupted course of the Legislature of this State. 
As early as 1760, the salutary provision which is now asked to 
be repealed, was enacted, so far as the city of New-York was 
concerned, and remained in force during an interesting portion of 
the civil and political history of the country. 
It will strike the mind of every man, with great force, that du- 
ring the long period, in which this subject (as has already been 
shown) has so often been before the Legislature, and which has 
undergone so many changes, that the idea of the unconstitution- 
ality of the law, was never before seriously urged, but that it has 
remained for those interested in the illegal and unauthorized prac- 
tice of this day under the insidious name of " botanic physicians," 
to make the assertion. 
It appears to the minority of your committee, that from the ne- 
cessity of the case, the power of the Legislature to provide by 
enactments for the preservation of the public health is most clear- 
ly invested in the Legislature; and further, that the legislation of 
every civilized community, testifies in behalf of the opinion they 
have offered. Look at our quarantine laws; at our law in rela- 
tion to the prevalence of pestilential and infectious diseases; at 22 
Assembly 
our law relative to boards of health. And let us look also to our 
laws which infringe upon the natural rights of individuals, by hold- 
ing out inducements to persons to make themselves skilled in va- 
rious professional and mechanical pursuits. 
If the petitioners are right in their assertions, or in their argu- 
ment, it must be unconstitutional to lisense either attornies or car- 
men. Can such an opinion as that of the petitioners, be for a mo- 
ment tolerated I We think not. It would do away with the es- 
tablished doctrine, that in entering into the social compact, we ne- 
cessarily cede for the benefit of the community, such individual 
rights, as may, and have generally been found to be necessary to 
be given up for the general good. It is upon this basis, that large 
sums of money have beert expended by this State, in rearing up 
medical and other colleges. We cannot sanction the doctrine of 
the petitioners, as we believe the practical result of adopting it 
would be fatal to some of the best of our scientific institutions, 
which hitherto, it has been the pride and glory of our State to 
foster and cherish. 
The minority of your committee do not consider this objection 
of sufficient force to detain the House with any further remarks, 
and more especially so, as the majority of the committee admit 
that the law which the petitioners ask to be repealed is constitu- 
tional. 
They will, therefore, proceed to examine another point, parti- 
cularly urged by the petitioners, to wit: the benefits to be deriv- 
ed from botanic practice. This term appears to be used by the 
petitioners, in contradistinction to the term of a physician regular- 
ly educated and licensed, and an impression is thereby sought to 
be made, that the regular physician is unacquainted with botany, 
and rejects all botanic substances from investigation and use, than 
which, a greater error cannot be entertained. Botany, strictly 
speaking, merely treats of the natural orders of plants, or of the 
artificial modes of classifying them, so that they can be distin- 
guished from one another; but does not investigate their medici- 
nal and economical use. The science of materia medica is the one 
which embraces the investigation of the botanical characters; the 
medical properties; the best mode of preparing the active parts of 
plants, and the diseases and particular circumstances of each dis- 
ease in which they can, with advantage, be administered. Mate- No. 190/ 
23 
ria medica is not confined to articles belonging to the vegetable 
kingdom only, but embraces the range of vegetable, animal, and 
mineral kingdoms. 
The regular practitioner is obliged to make himself acquainted 
with the various articles of the materia medica, before he is al- 
lowed to practise. Four-fifJis of the articles used in medicine by 
physicians are derived from the vegetable kingdom, and the inves- 
tigation of the properties and uses of these constitute one of the 
most important departments in every medical college; and occu- 
pies a principal share of the time ot every student in a private office. 
Whilst regular practitioners are thus taught the properties and me- 
dicinal uses of a very extensive catalogue of vegetable articles, 
the self-styled " botanic physician" is in ninety-nine cases in a 
hundred, as ignorant of the science of botany as he is of Hebrew. 
His knowledge, such as it is, is confined to a few articles, which 
he exhibits on all occasions, without discrimination, whether the 
disease be small-pox, scarlet fever, measles, or dropsy. All dis- 
eases are one in his estimation/ If the patient will take his medi- 
cine, he is willing to leave the effects to providence, be the result 
life or death. He is totally ignorant of the structure and func- 
tions of the human body, and equally so of the characteristic 
marks of the various diseases that flesh is heir to. 
It is a vulgar error to believe that medicines derived from the 
vegetable kingdom are more innocent in their effects on the con- 
stitution than those derived from the mineral kingdom: some of 
the most deadly poisons are derived from the vegetable kingdom, 
and are the growth of the United States. Only a small number 
of the most valuable medicines derived from vegetables are the 
growth of the United States, whilst our extensive territory pro- 
duces its full share of poisonous and deleterious articles, such as 
can not be used in rash and ignorant hands, with safety to the 
lives of the sick: consequently the proviso allowing the use of the 
roots, barks and herbs of the United States must have crept into 
the statute book through ignorance, and a belief that vegetable 
medicines were safer than mineral. It is also an error of general 
prevalence that steam is used as a remedial agent only by botanic 
or steam doctors: steam is in various ways extensively used by 
the regular profession, and has been for ages, in the form of sim- 
ple watery vapour, or impregnated with different vegetable and 
mineral agents, according to the disease, and the object to be ac- 24 
Assembly 
complished. Regularly educated practitioners avail themselves of 
the whole field of nature to furnish the means of alleviating hu- 
man suffering, and have the experience of former ages to guide 
them, instead of the limited experience of one or two illiterate and 
ignorant individuals, whom chance or necessity have made ac- 
quainted with some of the properties of a few articles which they 
apply in all cases, without discrimination or judgment. 
If an individual has studied the prescribed length of time, has 
made himself acquainted with the structure and functions of the hu- 
man body, and with the virtues ascertained to belong to the many 
articles already used in medicine; if after acquiring all this prelimi- 
nary information he finds that steam, or any particular articles the 
growth of the United States, are more efficacious in the removal 
of disease, he is at liberty to employ them, and to enlighten the 
world by publishing his experience; but until he shall have so 
studied, and have made such proficiency, the safety of the public 
demands that his random experiments upon the lives of citizens 
should, by law, be prohibited. It. is the interest of the commu- 
nity that calls for protection, and not that of the medical profes- 
sion; all the legislation on the subject has had in view the safety 
of the people, not the elevation or advantage of the medical 
practitioner. 
Much is claimed by the " botanic doctors," on the strength of 
the large number of persons who have signed petitions in their 
favor. They claim that thirty thousand citizens are friendly to 
their cause. May not the minority of your committee trium- 
phantly ask whether there are not in this State nearly three hun- 
dred thousand legal voters at our elections, who have not signed 
against the abandonment of an existing and proper legislative pro- 
tection, in favor of science and skill in the healing art. 
The experience of every member of this House will demonstrate 
to him how easily signatures to petitions can be obtained, no mat- 
ter for what object or end. That many persons have signed the 
petitions referred to your committee through a common facility of 
disposition to oblige an applicant, by doing that which at first 
blush he may think can not affect his personal interests, they think 
will not be doubted by the House. That others may have signed 
the petitions under erroneous notions, which the botanic doctors 
have sedulously attempted to inculcate, is not improbable, as the No. 190. 
25 
botanic doctors endeavor to create the belief that it is against the 
existing law to prescribe as drinks either mullen or catnip teas. 
If a measure should be adopted for taking the sense of the peo- 
pie upon this subject, through the ballot boxes, the minority of your 
committee would cheerfully submit to the decision that should be 
made by that great and true democratic test of public opinion. 
That the provision requiring every student to study a specified 
term under the direction of some practising physician and surgeon, 
and then to submit to an examination and be approved, before 
a competent board of officers, previous to his admission into so- 
ciety as a physician, is a wise and wholesome regulation, the mi- 
nority of your committee feel confident that none will deny. If 
this conclusion be just, is it right to require the regularly educated 
physician to conform to these stipulations, and still allow others 
to come into practice upon equal terms with him, from whom no 
such requirements have been exacted ? The minority of your com- 
mittee can not for a moment consent to the justice of such a con- 
-elusion. 
If true policy and sound reason require that all physicians and 
surgeons should have devoted time and exertion in the prosecution 
and acquisition of medical science, then even handed justice would 
dictate that they should be protected in the enjoyment of the fruits 
to be derived from their scientific attainments. If this be just, is it 
not also reasonable 1 Why should one set of men be required to 
perform a certain course of study, and to submit to a rigid and 
scrutinizing examination, in order to qualify themselves as physi- 
<cians, and at the same time another set be allowed to come into 
practice without any previous preparation. That any person can, 
by nature or instinct, and without a long previous course of study 
and observation, become acquainted with the human system, with 
disease in all its numerous and diversified characters, and with the 
most judicious mode of treatment, is assuming too much for the in- 
telligence of the age, and totally at variance with the observation 
of all. 
There is another mode by which, (as the minority of your com- 
mittee are informed,) the " botanic doctors" seek to recommend 
themselves to the credulous, and upon which they found preten- 
sions even more remarkable than their claim to instinctive or natu- 
ral capacity to practise medicine, to wit, through the medium of 
[Assem. No. 190.] 26 
AseEMBL* 
a " patent," by the agency of which " botanic physicians," are 
manufactured with as great facilily and ease as patent plough 
shares or " hob nails." What peculiar virtue a piece of parch- 
ment, under the great seal of the United States, may be supposed 
to impart, and how far it may advance, in this instance, its pos- 
sessor, in medical science, the minority of your committee will not 
undertake to say; but they may be permitted, they trust, (without 
the imputation of prejudice,) to express their doubts in the infaMi- 
billity of such an evidence of skill and science. What possible ad- 
vantage such a patent may be to its possessor, or benefit to the 
community, it is impossible to conceive. Every person, upon a 
moment's reflection, will at once perceive that it can not impart 
to its recipient any knowledge of the construction or organization 
of the human frame, or give him any knowledge of the nature and 
character of disease; neither can it be supposed to convey any 
special information upon the subject of botany or of medicinal sub- 
stances, or of native roots, barks and herbs, or of chemical, mi- 
neral and foreign articles. 
Therefore, the minority of your committee are convinced that the 
great seal and patent of the United States, will not be urged before 
this House as a sufficient qualification for a physician; as if that of 
itself was able at once to bestow upon its possessor all the requi- 
site knowdedge necessary for a safe, prudent and useful member of 
this important profession. 
Finally, the minority of your committee believe that the present 
law is not only just of itself and reasonable in its character, but 
also of great practicable benefit to the public interest. 
It is averred by the petitioners, that the State Medical Society 
improperly influenced the last Legislature to enact the statute of 
which they complain. This we view as an unjust imputation, both 
as regards the medical society and the members of the last Legis- 
lature. It amounts to saying, that the members of the last Legis- 
lature suffered themselves knowingly to be governed in their con- 
duct by improper means. 
It is asserted by the majority of the committee, that the present 
Jaw is useless, and that it does not go far enough to remedy the 
evils which it was intended to prevent, and that therefore it ought 
to be repealed. 
To this reasoning we dissent. The fact that the botanic doctors 
are crying out against the law passed last winter, affords strong No. 190. 
27 
reason to believe that that law has already begun to produce its 
intended effect upon the illegal practice of medicine. 
It ought to be borne in mind, that if the provisions of the law be 
repealed pursuant to the prayer of the petitioners, there will then 
be left no well grounded hope that any student of medicine will 
hereafter qualify himself by a sufficient term of study and submit 
to an examination before he commences the practice of physic and 
surgery. How can it be expected that any young man wishing to 
engage in this profession, will employ four years of the prime of 
his life, and expend from five hundred to one thousand dollars in 
money to fit and prepare himself for this profession, while he is 
left at perfect liberty to commence practice, under the assumed 
name of " botanic doctor," without any previous preparation.- 
Where is the man, young or old, who will submit to a long, tedi- 
ous and laborious course of study, if proper and sufficient induce- 
ments are not held out to him as an eventual reward for such labor 
and study. 
The minority of the committee believe, that if the act in ques- 
tion should be repealed, there would be reason to apprehend that 
a great portion of the medical science which has grown up under 
the fostering protection of our laws, and of which the State has 
just reason to be proud, will be in danger of being prostrated, and 
that the necessary consequence would be to fill the country with 
unlearned, ignorant and unskilful practitioners of physic and sur- 
gery-a consequence to be dreaded by aZZ, and desired by no friend 
to the happiness, comfort or liberty of the people. 
From the foregoing examination of the subject referred, and for 
the reasons above assigned, the minority of your committee have 
come to the conclusion, that to grant the remedy asked for by the 
petitioners, would be detrimental to the best interests of the com- 
munity. 
It is with great diffidence in their own judgments that the mi- 
nority venture to recommend the denial of the prayer of so large 
a number of petitiones; and they aver, that a sense of what they 
deem due to the public welfare, has alone constrained them to re- 
commend, (as they now do,) that the prayer of the petitioners be 
denied. 
All which is respectfully submitted. 
EDWARD LIVINGSTON, 
DUBOIS BURHANS, 
A. R. MOORE.