Assembly Documents, 1859, No. 157

STATE OF NEW YORK.

No. 157.

IN ASSEMBLY, MAR. 9, 1859.

REPORT
Of the committee on Medical Colleges and Societies, upon the act for the registration of births, marriages and deaths.

The committee on medical colleges and societies, to which was referred the Assembly bill entitled “An act to provide for the more effectual registration of births, marriages and deaths, in the State of New York,”

REPORT:

         That they have had said bill under their consideration, have made some amendments thereto, and recommend the same to the favorable consideration of the House.
         The committee take occasion to state some of the reasons which have influenced their minds in arriving at this conclusion. Upon the question of the importance of an accurate, reliable and permanent record of the three most prominent events, in a legal point of view, in the history of each of the constituent elements of which the State is composed, there is believed to be no difference of opinion. Of the numerous and diversified interests, which claim the attention of the government, there is none so immediate and imperative in its just demands, as that which directly pertains to the individual, the human being, the man. No matter how obscure his lineage, how humble his intellectual or social position, nor how debased his moral nature, it is the duty of the enlightened government, to keep its vigilant eye upon the inchoate citizen, the child, from the earliest period of his independent existence, through all the journey and vicissitudes of his mortal life, until the final event of his earthly career, and his burial out of the sight of men. This vigilance should attend him and the protecting ægis of our laws overshadow him, that he may not live as the brute liveth, and die as the brute dieth, and no
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note be made that he ever existed. Accordingly, in all nations, as they emerge from the twilight of barbarism and take their position among the civilized governments of the earth, we observe this increasing importance attached, and attention given to the individual unit of that great whole, the people. Particularly ought this to be the case in our favored country, where under its Republican institutions, every child is born a free and equal sovereign, and is destined at no distant period to assume the prerogative and exercise the functions of a ruler of the great nation, of whose throne he has the distinguished fortune to be heir apparent. Acting upon these considerations, nearly all of the older States of the confederacy have enacted statutes more or less efficient, with a view of accomplishing the objects of a registration, and have, from time to time, amended the same until in many of them, comparative accuracy has been attained, and every year seems but to strengthen and establish the public sentiment in their favor, and give them permanence and stability. Your committee confidently believe, that these examples will be imitated in those States which have not yet actively moved in the matter, until every member of the confederacy shall have inaugurated and perfected a system of registration adopted to its peculiar wants, but which will produce the same substantial results aimed at by all.
Having thus stated the importance of the subject to which this bill under consideration relates, it will necessarily be inferred that some mode of obtaining and preserving an accurate and permanent record of the essential facts and particulars connected with the history of each individual, should be devised and adopted. The bill now recommended by your committee, will answer the chief demands of a system of registration.
The three events which by common consent, in all enlightened countries, are especially included in every system, are the birth, marriage and death, with such particulars relating to each as may be necessary to carry out the specific and general objects of the plan adopted. The great desideratum in reducing the plan to actual practice, is to provide for a simple, economical and accurate collection of the primary dates. This being accomplished, the arrangement of these data with a systematic record is comparatively easy. The elaboration of tabular statements, showing results in the aggregate, can then be performed in a satisfactory manner without difficulty. Your committee are of the opinion that the mode of obtaining these primary elements, for the basis of the system provided for in the bill now under consideration

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combines simplicity and effectiveness, and that it will secure a record approximating exactness. In the preparation of this bill, the systems of other states, especially, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island, have been consulted, and advantage taken of the experience of those states in the arrangement of its details, as well as its general scope and tenor.
The act provides for the appointment by the recorded of the city of New York, and by the county judge of each of the other counties of the State, of a Registrar in each town and ward, whose business it shall be, to ascertain by such means as are designated in the various sections of this act, the facts relating to all the births, marriages and deaths, occurring in their respective towns and wards, and form out of them a local town or ward registry. It is believed that the appointment of these local registrars by the judicial officers in whom the appointing power is by the terms of this bill vested will secure a better selection of these important agents; will secure the appointment of men better fitted for the peculiar duties of the office, than would be obtained if they were chosen by a popular election. The high character which our judges have hitherto maintained for integrity, will be the surest guaranty for the proper discharge of the responsible duties herein imposed upon them. The registrars are to be assisted in the performance of their labors, by the persons who will have the best opportunities to obtain an accurate account of the particulars to be recorded; to wit, the physician, midwife or other person who shall have professional charge of the mother at the period of the birth; the clergyman or officiating officer at the solemnization of the marriage, and the physician who attended the deceased person at the time of death. These persons are required respectively to report, under a pecuniary penalty or forfeiture, for neglect to refusal to perform the duty assigned them, and clearly described in the act, and that the discharge of that duty may not be wholly gratuitous, a small fee is granted for the performance of the service demanded of them. These reports are to be made monthly in the cities and quarterly in the rural districts, to the local registrars, and by them entered upon books prepared for that purpose, in a systematic manner. At the end of the quarter in the wards, and of the year in the towns, this record is thoroughly examined and corrected, and a full and perfect copy of the same transmitted to the county clerk, who enters it upon his book for a county record. These copies are to be verified by the oath or affirmation of the registrar, and any falsifi-

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cation of either copy or original record, or of any primary certificate is made a misdemeanor, punishable with fine or imprisonment. An abstract of these copies is promptly prepared by the county clerk, and forwarded to the Secretary of State, there to be rearranged in a convenient and methodical form. The Secretary of State is required to collate these abstracts, to construct such tables as will best exhibit the general results, and promote the objects of the law. An annual report to the Legislature is directed to be made, of the working and results attained, with such suggestions as may be deemed fitting.
The expense to the people of the State will be absolutely small, while the benefits which will result will be of an important character, in both a statistical and legal aspect. Therefore, the committee urge upon the Assembly, the early consideration and the speedy passage of this beneficent measure, so necessary to bring up our great state into the line of those enlightened commonwealths, which have inaugurated and established in full force and vigor, effective systems of registration.