Mayor Bloomberg stopped by the editorial rooms of The New York Sun yesterday to issue, as we commenced our third year of publication, a formal proclamation of “New York Sun Day.” The newsroom was filled with dignitaries, colleagues, readers, advertisers, and friends of the paper.

The mayor’s proclamation described the Sun as being, from its launch in 2002, “not like other broadsheets, a fact evident simply from skimming the headlines; from its name to its headlines, it was devoted to the people, events and concerns of our city.” The mayor noted, “With a rapidly increasing circulation and a rate base guarantee of 50,000, it is the fastest-growing major metro market daily newspaper in the country.”

One of the things the mayor said is that the Sun “shines from newsstands throughout the five boroughs, ensuring that we have access to the stories and issues that affect us every day.” The Sun, he said, “approaches the news through the eyes of New Yorkers, and it has struck a chord with its audience.” And he predicted it will reach more and more New Yorkers in the years to come.

We don’t mind saying that we were touched by the mayor’s remarks, all the more so because our launch two years ago was greeted with nearly unanimous predictions of our early demise. The New York Post took a poll of its newsroom about when we would fold. A newspaper in Ireland said we were “foolhardy.” The London Guardian actually called us insane.

Shortly before the mayor spoke, the editor of the Sun, Seth Lipsky, told the gathering that the paper had just concluded a formal agreement on its second financing. It comprises a commitment from our partners for investments over several years that, if the paper meets its plan, will carry the Sun toward its goal of profitable publication. And he shared with the gathering what he called “a little of the basis for our optimistic spirit.”

One is that the Sun is but one of four newspaper startups in which he’d had a hand. The Asian Wall Street Journal, The Wall Street Journal/Europe, and the Jewish Forward in English, all, he said, were set down at the start as being impractical, ideologically driven ventures likely to fail. Yet today, the Wall Street Journal in Asia is nearing its 30th anniversary, in Europe its 21st, and the Forward its 14th. And all are thriving.

Another common feature is that each of those newspapers was launched into a world-class story. In Asia it was the astounding boom touched off by the idea of political and economic liberty for which America — and the Wall Street Journal — stood. In Europe the story was the final drive to victory in the Cold War, when America’s resolve was tested. At the Forward it was the historic turning point at which the Jewish community here suddenly began to meet a rising hostility abroad and a dwindling population with a profound reawakening among many of its young generation.

Well, we have launched the Sun into a story every bit as compelling — the story of America’s greatest metropolis confronting the bankruptcy of an old political orthodoxy and the emergence of a new generation of leadership at a moment that coincides with the eruption of a new world war.

Mr. Lipsky spoke of the editor who built the original New York Sun, Charles Dana, and of how he was fired from the Tribune for his agitation in favor of a war against slavery at time when the city was for appeasing the South. And of how Dana came back after service under Lincoln and took over the Sun, which went into Reconstruction arguing for a new combination of ideas: supply-side tax cuts, economic growth, equality under the law, constitutionalism, honest government, limited government, immigration. The Sun was not the racist right. It was built by the most abolitionist editor of his day.

That there is a tradition in New York and on the right for this combination of ideas had been somewhat forgotten. It is why when our partnership decided to go forward with a new paper we picked up the flag of the Sun.

And we have been enormously encouraged by the results. Not only has circulation been running solidly above 50,000, but it has been ahead of our business plan for half a year. We are now beginning to see some genuinely encouraging results in advertising revenues, which, in the first quarter of this year, were up nearly 80% over the first quarter a year ago.

We don’t mind saying that we find this all the more encouraging for the fact that there is an old-fashioned newspaper war going on in New York, pitting two free dailies, two broadsheets, and three tabloids against one another.

It is a sign that proprietors believe there is a market here, and we are thrilled to be part of it. On behalf of all of us here at the Sun, we thank our advertisers and readers, a magnificent group, and we look forward to covering our city, our country, and our world for years to come. To all our readers and the mayor, too, we say, happy New York Sun Day.