1. New York’s exceptional ethos of diversity and pluralism sprang from the
jurisprudence of religious tolerance and freedom of conscience. These foundational
principles for the nation’s fundamental values originated first in the New World on
Governors Island in 1624. *
The New York State legislature acknowledged the credo of tolerance – New York
State’s historic birthright of 1624 and a universal value since 1948 – as intrinsic in
the conception of American freedom and recognized Governors Island as New York
State’s birthplace (NY State Senate Resolution No. 2708 and Assembly Resolution
No. 5476 of May 2002.)
The precept of tolerance – the universal principle of morality – accepts the full
humanity of others and lies at the root of the United States of America as a secular
democratic republic wherein all religions, ethnicities and races are ‘equal’ and,
therefore, free.
This historic wellspring for New York’s unique cultural heritage of inclusion and
social legacy of national historic significance provides a compelling rationale for
NAMING or DESIGNATING forty-plus acres out of 172-acre-large Governors
Island for America’s foundational doctrine of tolerance as the bedrock for
liberty-for-all thus imbuing the Island with national symbolic value for the
common good and in the public interest.
* In 1643, a visiting Jesuit priest, reported that more than eighteen languages were spoken in New Amsterdam on
Manhattan and that beside Calvinists there were “Catholics, English Puritans, Lutherans, Anabaptists, etc.” William
Byrd, a Virginian visiting New Amsterdam in 1682 remarked; “they have as many sects of religion there as at
Amsterdam.” In 1686, the English Governor, Thomas Dongan, described the City’s religious diversity as “Here be
not many of the Church of England; few Roman Catholics; abundance of Quakers; preachers, men and women
especially; singing Quakers; ranting Quakers; Sabatarians; Antisabatarians; some Anabaptists; some
Independents; some Jews; in short of all sorts of opinion there are some, and the most of none at all.”
NYStateGovernorAndrewCuomo