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 A DISCOURSE f 
 
 // / 
 
 THE LIFE, SERVICES AND CHARACTER 
 
 OF 
 
 STEPHEN VAN RENSSELAER; 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE 
 
 THE ALBANY INSTITUTE, 
 APRIL. 15, 1839. 
 
 AN HISTORICAL SKETCH 
 
 OF THE COLONY AND MANOR 
 
 Benssclaeriuscfe 
 
 AN APPENDIX. 
 
 By DANIEL D. BARNARD. 
 
 ALBANY: 
 PRINTED BY HOFFMAN & WHITE. 
 
 Mii: 1839. 
 
-p."' 
 
 ?3 
 
 \lzi'd 
 
 [Entered according to act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred 
 and thirty-nine, by Hoffman & White, in the Clerk's Office of the Northern Dis- 
 trict Court of New-York.] 
 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 Hon. Daniel D. Barnard. 
 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 At a meeting of the Albany Institute, held April 15, 1839, it was unan- 
 imously resolved, that the thanks of the Institute be presented to the Hon. Daniel 
 D. Barnard, for his able and interesting Discourse on the Life and Services of 
 Stephen Van Rensselaer, and that he be requested to furnish a copy of the same 
 for publication. 
 
 As Chairman of the Committee of Arrangements, I have been instructed to 
 make this communication. 
 
 I remain, with sentiments of high respect and esteem, 
 Yours truly, 
 
 T. ROMEYN BECK. 
 
 April 16, 1839. 
 
 Albany, AprU 17, 1839. 
 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 My Discourse on the Life and Services of our late President, Stephen Van Rens] 
 selaer, having been prepared and delivered at the request of the Institute, the 
 Manuscript will be placed at the disposal of that Body. 
 
 With great respect and regard, 
 I am, dear sir, 
 
 Faithfully yours, 
 
 D. D. BARNARD. 
 
 Dr. T. RoMEYN Beck. 
 
ADVERTISEMENT, 
 
 Those who did the Author the honor to attend the delivery of this 
 Discourse, will find in it some passages and paragraphs which were 
 then omitted for the sake of brevity. 
 
 The Historical Sketch contained in the Appendix, was read before 
 the Institute at one of its regular meetings; and has been thought of 
 sufficient public interest to be worth preserving. It was prepaied chief- 
 ly from a personal examination of the Manuscript Records in the Office 
 of the Secretary of State at Albany. It is presented, by request, in 
 connection with the Discourse delivered before the Institute, as belong- 
 ing not inappropriately to the subject and the occasion ; indeed, it will 
 be seen that it formed originally a part of the Discourse itself, from 
 which it was necessarily severed on account of its length — its place be- 
 ing supplied in the body of that paper by a brief reference to some of 
 the leading facts contained in the Sketch. 
 
DISCOURSE. 
 
 The Albany Institute, embracing in its objects a wide field 
 for observation and study, is made up of three principal De- 
 partments, each having its President, Vice-President, and 
 other appropriate Officers. It was formed originally by the 
 union of two Societies previously existing under separate 
 charters. At the organization of the Institute, on the 5th 
 May, 1824, Stephen Van Rensselaer, then at Washington 
 as the Representative in Congress from this District, was 
 unanimously selected to preside over its deliberations. He 
 filled, at the time, the Presidency of the Albany Lyceum of 
 Natural History, henceforth to be merged in the Institute ; 
 and there was every thing in his position and stan :'ing, as well 
 as in his direct connection in many ways with the objects of 
 the new Society, to make the compliment of the selection 
 deserved and proper ; yet it was found that his own regards, 
 with characteristic modesty, had been directed towards anoth- 
 er worthy and eminent citizen, as fittest to occupy the Chair; 
 and it was only alter much hesitation and reluctance that he 
 communicated to a friend on the spot, his permission and 
 request to decide the question of acceptance or refusal for 
 him. It hardly need be added that the office was promptly 
 accepted in his behalf. By the Charter of the Institute, this 
 office is made elective annually ; and every year, since the 
 same agreeable act was first performed, and with the same 
 unanimity, have the Members of this Society oflfered the same 
 grateful testimonial of their respect and affection for their 
 beloved President. Alas ! my Friends and Fellow-Members, 
 that offering of ours has been made for the last time. We 
 are now called, in common with the whole country, to mourn 
 his loss. He departed this lil'e on Saturday, the twenty- 
 sixth DAY OF January last. It was at four o'clock in the 
 afternoon, of a day which had dawned upon him with as fair 
 a promise of closing on him in life, as any, perhaps, which he 
 had seen for the last two years, that in a small Cabinet of his 
 ample mansion, which his infirmities had made his chief asy- 
 lum and sanctuary for many months, sitting in his chair, with 
 
6 
 
 just warning enough to convey the intimation to his own mind 
 that his hour had come, without enough of pre\'ious change 
 seriously to alarm the fears of anxious, watchful and tremb- 
 ling hearts around him, the venerable man bowed his head, 
 and died. 
 
 In the affecting ceremonies of his funeral, the Members of 
 the Institute had their humble part. It had been resolved, in 
 special session, that they would attend the funeral of their 
 President in a body. This, however, was not all their duty. 
 It was thought to belong appropriately to them to gather up 
 the memorials of his life and services, and cause them to be 
 arranged and presented before the Society in a regular Dis- 
 course. It has pleased those whose charge it was to make 
 the selection, to assign the duty of preparing and presenting 
 this tribute, to me. They might have found many to perform 
 the service more acceptably ; not one, since the time had 
 come when the duty must be discharged by some body, to 
 whom it could have been a more grateful office. 
 
 In entering on the execution of this trust, I should have 
 been glad, if time had permitted, to have claimed the indul- 
 gence of my audience, first of all, to carry them back to a 
 period in history somewhat remote from the times to which 
 the distinguished subject of this Memoir more immediately 
 belonged. Some of the acts of his individual career, and the 
 traits of his beautiful character, when we should reach them 
 in the progress of our narrative, would, I think, have devel- 
 oped themselves much the more strongly for the light which 
 might thus have been thrown on them from the past. They 
 would have been found, some of them at least, to have been 
 linked backward, by unbroken chains, to the times and events 
 of other and even distant generations. Men's virtues, any 
 more than their vices, are not all their own. To some extent 
 they are inheritors of virtues, and to some extent they are 
 moulded by circumstances. They may be trained in schools 
 of which the masters are dead long and long before, and of 
 which nothing remains but the transmitted lessons that were 
 taught without intending to teach them. In his personal his- 
 tory, Mr. Van Rensselaer was subjected to the strong in- 
 fluence of great events — events powerfully affecting property, 
 and rights, and ideas, and character. He was born the sub- 
 ject of a King, and he was born to a Chartered Inheritance, 
 which gave him the right to a considerable share of Feudal 
 honors and Feudal power ; at twenty-one, however, he had 
 become, through a forcible and bloody Revolution, a citizen 
 of a free Republic, with only his own share, as such, with all 
 
his fellow-citizens, in the popular sovereignty of the country* 
 He was the proprietary of a remarkable landed interest — re- 
 markable for any country — connecting him and his affairs 
 directly with an ancestry, and through that ancestry with a 
 people, in a portion of whose doings and history are bound 
 up some interesting and valuable materials for the proper il- 
 lustration of events and characters in later and even present 
 times, in this part of our country. As such proprietary, look- 
 ing to the earlier periods of his life, he represented, in his own 
 person, a state of things in regard to property and its inci- 
 dents, and the structure of social and political institutions, 
 which in his own time and in his own hands, passed away 
 forever — not, however, without leaving behind them their 
 strongly-marked and indehble traces; and, looking at him 
 ■ from the days of his manhood onward, he was, in his charac- 
 ter and in his relations, a living witness and illustration of" 
 some important contributions which a former age had made 
 to the present, and by which the features of the latter, as 
 stamped by a new order of things, were not a little modified. 
 Undoubtedly we change with the times; yet no age can 
 choose but wear, more or less strongly, the lineaments of its 
 parent age — the complexion, even a very great way off, will 
 shew a tinge from the blood that was in the original fountain. 
 He, the subject of our present reflections, stood, in one sense, 
 between the present and the past ; between two distinct and 
 even opposite orders of things, and he belonged in a manner 
 to both. His life reached forward well into the heart of the 
 Republican system — and the whole country did not contain a 
 more thorough Republican than he was — while his days ran 
 back to a period when a feudal Aristocracy, of which he was 
 himself a part, had a legalized and legitimate growth in the 
 soil of this our native land. He was a thorough Republican, 
 in a Republican State, and yet he bore to his death, by com- 
 mon courtesy and consent — never claimed but always conce- 
 ded — the hereditary title which had anciently attached to the 
 inheritance to which he had been born. 
 
 The title, as is well known to you, by which he was usually 
 addressed and spoken of amongst us, was that of Patroon, 
 This title was derived, evidently, from the Civil Law, and the 
 Institutions of Rome. In the time of the Roman Republic, 
 the Latin Patronus was used to denote a Patrician, who had 
 certain of the people under his immediate protection, and for 
 whose interests he provided by his authority and influence. 
 At a later period, and after the power of Rome had been 
 greatly extended by her conquests, individuals and families 
 
8 
 
 of the noble order, became Patrons of whole Cities and Pro- 
 vinces, and this protective authority, with large and extensive 
 legal and political rights and powers, in some instances de- 
 scended by inheritances. The family of the Claudii was 
 vested with this patronage over the Lacedemonians ; and that 
 of the Marcelli over the Syracusans. It was partly from 
 this source, it may well be supposed, that the Dutch, who 
 had adopted the Civil Law, derived the idea of governing a 
 remote territory, not easily to be reached by the Central 
 Authorities, by committing it to the ample Jurisdiction of a 
 Patroon.* This title was not applied in Holland, so far as I 
 know, to any order in the State there, nor was it employed 
 in, or by, any other of the Countries of Europe. It was not 
 a title of personal nobility, as that term is understood in 
 Europe since the time when Monarchs assumed the right of 
 conferring these distinctions by creation or patent. It be- 
 longed exclusively to the Proprietors of large Estates in lands, 
 occupied by a Tenantry ; and like the title of Seignior, which 
 the French bestowed with their Seigniories, or large territo- 
 rial estates and jurisdictions in Lower Canada, on the first 
 colonization of that country, it was deemed especially proper 
 for Transatlantic use. Yet it had attached to it, in connec- 
 tion with proprietorship, the usual incidents and privileges 
 of the old feudal Lordships, in direct imitation of which, both 
 title and estate, with their jurisdictions, were instituted. It 
 may be added as worth remarking, that, in the case before 
 us, this title has run on, and been regularly transmitted, with 
 the blood of the first Patroon, down to our day, though it is 
 now a Century and three Quarters since the Inheritance 
 ceased to be a Dutch Colony, to which alone the title proper- 
 ly attached, and became, by Royal Authority, after a foreign 
 conquest, an English Manorial possession ; and though, in 
 later time, a Revolution has intervened by which the Estate 
 was fully shorn of its Manorial character and attributes, leav- 
 ing to the proprietor, now for the last fifty years, to hold his 
 property merely by the same simple tenure and owner- 
 ship, with which every freeholder in the country is in- 
 vested. 
 
 Mr. Van Rensselaer was the fifth only in the direct line 
 of descent from the original Proprietor and Patroon of the 
 Colony of Rensselaerwyck. This personage, the founder of 
 the Colony, was a man of substance and character. He was 
 
 * I Iiave seen the " J?w Patronatus" of the Roman Law expressly referred to, in an 
 Official MS. of the Dutch Authorities themselves, as the foundation of the powers and 
 jurisdiction committed to the Patroons of New Netherlands. 
 
9 
 
 a merchant of Amsterdam, in Holland, wealthy, and of high 
 consideration in his class, at a time when the Merchants of 
 Holland had become, in effect, like those of Italy, the princes 
 of the land. He was that Killian Van Rensselaer referred 
 to in our recent Histories as having had a principal share in 
 the first attempts made by the Dutch towards colonization in 
 America. 
 
 I think this occasion would have been held to justify a 
 more particular reference to the part which this Ancestor 
 of the late Mr. Van Rensselaer had in American Coloni- 
 zation, and especially at the important point where we are now 
 assembled ; and that it would not have been out of place, to 
 have introduced the personal memoirs of the latter, by a por- 
 tion at least of that curious and hitherto neglected history 
 which attaches to the Colony and Manor of Renssclaer- 
 wyck — that identical landed estate and inheritance, which, 
 nearly in its original integrity, though stript of its accesso- 
 ries, we have seen held and enjoyed, in our time, by a lineal 
 descendant of the first Proprietor. But the unavoidable 
 length to which the briefest outline of that History runs — ■ 
 though fully prepared, after the labor of considerable re- 
 search — has compelled me, reluctantly I confess, to lay 
 it entirely aside. I must needs content myself now with 
 some very general facts and observations in this connec- 
 tion. 
 
 Killian Van Rensselaer — to whom I just now referred — 
 was a large proprietor, and a Director in the Amsterdam 
 Branch of the Dutch West India Company. This Company 
 was incorporated in 1621, and was composed of an asso- 
 ciate band of merchant-warriors and chiefs, with a chartered 
 domain and jurisdiction as well for conquests, as for trade 
 and colonization, extending in Africa from Cancer to the 
 Cape, and in America from the extreme South to the frozen 
 regions of the North, and with tLe right to visit and to figtit 
 in every sea where their own or a national enemy could be 
 found. Ample powers of government also attended them 
 every where. After they had obtained a footing in this coun- 
 try, a College of Nine Commissioners was instituted to take 
 the superior direction and charge of the affairs of New 
 Netherland. Killian Van Rensselaer was a member of this 
 College. This was in 1629. The same year, a liberal Char- 
 ter of Privileges to Palroons and others was obtained from 
 the Company. Colonization by the Dutch had its origin and 
 foundation in this extraordinary Instrument. The same In- 
 strument provided also for founding a landed and Baronial 
 
 2 
 
to 
 
 Aristocracy for the Provinces of the Dutch in the New 
 World. Early in the next year, with the design of estab- 
 lishing his Colony under the Charter, Van Rensselaer sent 
 out an Agency, when his first purchase of land was made of 
 the Indian Owners, and sanctioned by the Authorities of the 
 Company at New Amsterdam. Other purchases were made 
 for him in subsequent years, until 1637, when, his full com- 
 plement of territory having been made up — nearly identical 
 with the Manor of our day, and forming, as subsequently de- 
 fined, a tract of about twenty-four miles in breadth by Ibrty- 
 eight in length — Killian Van Renssellaer himself came to 
 take charge of this Colony. Many of his colonists were al- 
 ready here, and others were sent out to him — all at his own 
 cost. The full complement for his Colony, required by the 
 Charter, was one hundred and fifty adult souls, to be 
 planted within four years from the completion of his pur- 
 chases. 
 
 The power of the Patroon of that day was analagous to 
 that of the old feudal Barons ; acknowledging the govern- 
 ment at New Amsterdam, and the States General, as his Su- 
 periors. He maintained a high military and judicial autho- 
 rity within his territorial limits. He had his own fortresses, 
 planted with his own cannon, manned with his own soldiers, 
 with his own flag waving over them. The Courts of the 
 Colony were his own Courts, where the gravest questions 
 and the highest crimes were cognizable ; but with appeals in 
 the more important cases. Justice was administered in his 
 own name. The Colonists were his immediate subjects, and 
 took the oath of fealty and allegiance to him. 
 
 The position of the Colony was one of extreme delicacy 
 and danger, it was situated in the midst of warlike and 
 conquenng Tribes of Savages, which, once angered and 
 aroused, were likely to give the Proprietors as much to do in 
 the way of defence, and in the conduct of hostile forays, as 
 were used to fall to the lot of those bold Barons of the Mid- 
 dle Ages, whose castles and domains were perpetually sur- 
 rounded and besieged by their hereditary and plundering ene- 
 mies. Happily, however, the Patroons of the period, and 
 their Directors, or Governors of the Colony, by a strict ob- 
 servance of the laws of justice, and by maintaining a cautious 
 and guarded conduct in all things towards their immediate 
 neighbors, escaped — but not without occasions of great ex- 
 citement and alarm — those desolating wars and conflicts 
 which were so common elsewhere among the infant Colonies 
 of the country. 
 
11 
 
 While, however, they maintained, for the most part, peace- 
 able relations with the Indian Tribes around them, they were 
 almost constantly in collision, on one subject or another, with 
 the authorities at New Amsterdam, and those in Holland. 
 The boundaries of rights and privileges between them and 
 their feudal Superiors were illy defined, and subjects of disa- 
 greement and dispute were perpetually arising. Here, at this 
 point, was the chief mart of trade, at the time, in the Pro- 
 vince ; and this trade fell naturally into the hands of the Pro- 
 prietors of the Colony. Not a little heart-burning and jea- 
 lousy, on the part of the Company, was excited on this ac- 
 count, especially when the Director of the Colony was found 
 to have set up his claim to " staple-right," amounting to a 
 demand of sovereign control over the proper trade of the 
 Colony against all the world, the Company alone excepted, 
 and had made formidable preparations to enforce his right 
 by the establishment of an Island Fortress, planled with can- 
 non, and frowning over the channal and highway of the 
 river. The little village of Beverwyck too, clustering under 
 the guns of Fort Orange — the germ of the City of Albany — 
 became debatable ground. The soil belonged to the Colony, 
 and was occupied with the proper colonists and subjects of 
 the Patroon. The Company thought fit to assert a claim to 
 as much ground as would be covered by the sweep of their 
 guns at the Fort. This was of course resisted on one side, 
 and attempted to be enforced on the other; and so sharp did 
 this controversy become, and so important was it deemed, 
 that Gov. Stuyvesant, on one occasion, sent up from Fort 
 Amsterdam, an armed expedition, to invade the disputed ter- 
 ritory, and aid the military force at Fort Orange in support- 
 ing the pretensions of the Company — an expedition wholly 
 unsuccessful at the time, and happily too as bloodless as it 
 was bootless. But I cannot pursue this singular history in 
 this place. 
 
 In 16()4, the English Conquest of the Province took place. 
 The Colony of Rensselaerwyck fell with it. Jeremiah Van 
 Rensselaer, the second son of Killian, was then in possession. 
 He died in possession in 1674. The line of the eldest son 
 of Killian, the original proprietor, became extinct; and in 
 1704, a Charter from Queen Anne confirmed the estate to 
 Killian, the eldest son of Jeremiah Van Rensselaer. The 
 subject of our present Memoir was the third only in the di- 
 rect line of descent, in the order of primogeniture, through 
 the second son of this Killian Van liensselaer — the eldest 
 son having died without issue. The Estate came to him by 
 
12 
 
 inheritance, according to the canons of descent established 
 by the law of England. It never passed, at any time, 
 from one proprietor to another by will, nor was it ever 
 entailed. 
 
 By a Royal Charter of 1685, the Dutch Colony of Rens- 
 selaerwyck had been converted and created into a regular 
 Lordship, or Manor, with all the privileges and incidents be- 
 longing to an JCnglish estate and Jurisdiction of the Manorial 
 kind. To the Lord of the Manor was expressly given autho- 
 rity to administer justice within his domain in both kinds, 
 in his own Court-leet and Court-baron, to be held by him- 
 self or by his appointed Steward. Other large privileges 
 were conferred on him ; and he had the right, with the free- 
 holders and inhabitants of the Manor, to a separate repre- 
 sentation in the Colonial Assembly. All these rights con- 
 tinued unimpaired down to the Revolution. 
 
 P^or eighty-four years immediately preceding the Revolu- 
 tion, the Manor w^as never without its Representative in the 
 Assembly of the Province — always either the Proprietor 
 himself, or some member, or near relative, or friend of the 
 family. Nearly the whole of this entire period was filled 
 up with a series of hot political controversies between the 
 Assemblies and the Royal Governors. I have looked into 
 the records of these contests, and I have not found an in- 
 stance from the earliest time, in which the Proprietor or Re- 
 presentative of the Manor was not found on the side of popu- 
 lar liberty. The last of the Representatives was that stern 
 patriot and Whig, Gen. Abraham Ten Broeck. He was the 
 uncle of the late Mr. Van Rensselaer, the last of the Ma- 
 norial Proprietors, and his Guardian in his non-age, and had 
 a right, therefore, to speak and act in the name of his Ward. 
 His official efforts, though often in a minority in the Assem- 
 bly, were untiring to bring the province of New-York into a 
 hearty co-operation with her sister Colonies in their move- 
 ments towards Revolution. 
 
 This brief reference to the connection of the Manor, 
 and of the family whose possession and estate it was, with 
 the political history of the period, preceding the Revolution ; 
 may serve not only to do justice to the parties concerned, and 
 thence incidentally to vindicate, if there were need of it, the 
 conduct of the Dutch inhabitants of this Province with refer- 
 ence to the progress of free principles — but also to shew that 
 great as the change certainly was in the personal fortunes 
 and prospects of the late Mr. Van Rensselaer, between 
 his birth and his majority, yet, in truth, that change was 
 
13 
 
 neither sudden nor violent ; that it was altogether easy and 
 natural ; that the way had already been prepared ; and that, 
 though born as he was to hereditary honors and aristocratic 
 rank, he yet, while still a youth, was carried, by the strong 
 current of the times, over the boundary — to him, at the pe- 
 riod, but little more than an imaginary line — between two 
 very opposite political systems ; and found himself, at his 
 prime of manhood, and when called to take his own part 
 in the active scenes of life, not only a contented, but a glad 
 and rejoicing subject and citizen of a free Republic. With 
 the history of the past before him ; in possession of an estate 
 which connected him nearly with feudal times and a feudal 
 ancestry, and which constituted himself, in his boyhood, a 
 Baronial Proprietor, instead of what he now was — the mere 
 fee-simple owner of acres, with just such political rights and 
 privileges as belonged to his own freehold tenantry, and no 
 other — it would not, perhaps, have been very strange, if he 
 had, sometimes, turned his regards backwards, to contem- 
 plate the fancied charms of a life, sweetened with the use of 
 inherited power, and gilded with Baronial honors. Nothing, 
 however, 1 feel warranted in saying, was ever farther from 
 his contemplations. He had no regrets for the past. He 
 was satisfied with his own position ; and though the Revo- 
 lution, in giving his country independence had stript him of 
 power and personal advantages, yet as it had raised a whole 
 nation of men to the condition and dignity of freemen, and 
 so to a political equality with himself, it was an event which, 
 to a mmd attuned as his always was to a liberal and enlight- 
 ened philanthropy, was only to be thought of with the 
 strongest approbation and pleasure. 
 
 But I come now to recount — which I propose to do in the 
 plainest and simplest manner, as best according with the 
 modesty of his own pretensions and character — those events 
 in the life of Mr. Van Rensselaer which constitute his 
 personal history. 
 
 He was born on the first day of November, 1764, in the 
 city of New York. His father was Stephen Van Rensselaer, 
 the Proprietor of Rensselaerwyck. His mother was Catha- 
 rine, daughter of Philip Livingstone, Esquire, of the family 
 of that name to which belonged the Manor of Livingston. 
 Mr. Livingston was conspicuous among those lofty and disin- 
 terested spirits brought out by the American Revolution in 
 devotion to hinnan liberty. He was one of the Signers of 
 that undying instrument — the Declaration of Independence. 
 At the period of the birth of his grand-child, which took 
 
14 
 
 place in his own house, he was a member of the General 
 Assembly, and at that time, more than ten years in advance 
 of the Revolution, in an Answer to the Speech of Lt. Gov. 
 Golden, which was reported by him, he put forth and insisted, 
 in explicit terms, on that great doctrine of "taxation only 
 with consent," the denial of which by Great Britain finally 
 brought on the conflict of arms. 
 
 The present Manor House of Rensselaerwyck was com- 
 pleted in 1765, when the subject of our Memoir was a year 
 old. It took the place of a structure, the site of which was 
 near by, and which had answered, in its day, the uses of a 
 fortress, as well as a dwelling. To this, the new Manor 
 House, his father directly resorted. His occupation of it, 
 however, was short. He died in 1769, of a pulmonary dis- 
 ease, leaving his son, his eldest born, a few days less than five 
 years old, and transmitting to him a constitutional weakness 
 of the chest, which shewed itself in very alarming symptoms 
 in his minority, but happily afterwards disappeared. His 
 father left two other children, a son and daughter. The latter 
 still survives. 
 
 On the death of his father, the care of that great landed 
 and feudal estate, which fell exclusively to him, by the rule of 
 primogeniture, was committed to his uncle. Gen. Ten Broeck, 
 by whom it was faithfully inanaged — as far as the disturbed 
 state of the times would allow — during the minority of his 
 Ward. For a while he remained under the control and su- 
 pervision of his excellent and pious mother — long enough no 
 doubt to receive those deep impressions of the value of reli- 
 gious faith and the beauty of holy things, which were finally 
 wrought firmly into the texture of his character. 
 
 His first experience in school was under the labors of Mr. 
 John Waters, a professional Schoolmaster, at a period when 
 a Schoolmaster was what he always should be, a man of con- 
 sideration. It was before the days of Webster and printed 
 Spelling-books, and when the letters and elements were stu- 
 died and taught from a horn-book. And thus was he initiated 
 into these mysteries. The school-house, with its sharp roof, 
 and gable to the front, still holds its ground in North Market- 
 street, nearly opposite the stuccoed church of the Colonic, in 
 this city. And the blood of John Waters — the professional 
 Schoolmaster — is still with us, and running in the veins of 
 some of our most worthy and respectable citizens. 
 
 But the education of the young Proprietor was to be pro- 
 vided for in a way which required his early removal from the 
 side and hearth of his mother. This care devolved on his 
 
15 
 
 grand-father ; and he was first placed by Mr. Livingston at a 
 school in Elizabeth Town, in New-Jersey. When the stirring 
 and troubled times of the Revolution came on, Mr. Living- 
 ston was driven with his family from the city of New York, 
 and took refuge at Kingston. Here, fortunately, was estab- 
 lished a Classical School, or Academy, which attained no 
 small celebrity under the direction of Mr. John Addison. — 
 Addison was a Scotchman, possessing the thorough scholar- 
 ship of an educated man of his nation, and without any lack 
 of the shrewdness and strong sense so apt to be found among 
 his countrymen. He became a man of consideration in the 
 State, and filled the office of State Senator about the' begin- 
 ning of the present century. Mr. Livingston, much absent 
 from home himself on public affairs, caused his young charge 
 to be domesticated in his own family, for the convenience of 
 his attendance on the instruction of Addison. He acquired 
 the elements of a classical education at the Kingston Acade- 
 my. The late venerable Abraham Van Vechten — one of the 
 noblest specimens of humanity which it has pleased God ever 
 to create — was his fellow-student at this school; and here was 
 formed between the two a close and confidential intimacy 
 and friendship which death alone was able to interrupt. 
 
 But the time soon came when it was necessary to suppl}'- 
 the growing student with more ample advantages. The cele- 
 brated Dr. Witherspoon — scholar, divine, patriot, and states- 
 man — had arrived in this country a few years before the Re- 
 volution, and, taking charge of the College of New-Jersey at 
 Princeton as President, had raised the reputation of that In- 
 stitution to a very high pitch. The Revolution dispersed the 
 students and broke up the College, and the learned and ardent 
 Witherspoon, driven from Academic shades, plunged into the 
 business of the War. He, too, was a Signer of the Declara- 
 tion. He was still in Congress in 1779; but he had deter- 
 mined to retire at the close of that year, and resuscitate his 
 beloved College. In the summer of that year Congress insti- 
 tuted a Commission, the members of which were to proceed 
 northward to investigate, on the spot, the troubles to which 
 the country was then subjected by the inhabitants of the New 
 Hampshire Grants. The Doctor was in the North on this 
 Commission, and on his return, took, by arrangement, young 
 Van Rensselaer with him, to make one of the few who 
 should be gathered, in the autumn, under the wing of the re- 
 animated College. Gen. Washington's Head Quarters were 
 then in the Highlands, at New Windsor. Stony Point had 
 just fallen into the hands of the enemy, who had also a foot- 
 
16 
 
 ng in New Jersey. The worthy Commissioner and his 
 charge, received from the General the protection which the 
 times required. Our student passed on his way to his first 
 essay in College life, under a military escort. He was placed 
 in the family of the Rev. Dr. Samuel Smith, the son-in-law 
 of Dr. Witherspoon, and Vice-President of the College, to 
 whom the immediate care of conducting the instruction of the 
 Institution was now committed. But New-Jersey was not yet 
 safe from the incursions of the enemy; Princeton was still 
 too near the seat of war ; and the next year it was thought 
 advisable to remove the young Collegian to the University at 
 Cambridge, then, as now, a distinguished and leading school 
 of the higher kind in the United Slates. Here, in 1782, in 
 the nineteenth year of his age, with respectable attainments 
 in the classical and other learning of the time, he took his first 
 degree in letters as a Bachelor of Arts. It may be added in 
 this connection, that in 1825, he received from Yale College, 
 a Diploma conferring upon him the iionorary degree of Doc- 
 tor of Laws. 
 
 The war of the Revolution was ended in 1782, though peace 
 was not proclaimed till the next year. Mr. Van Rensselaer 
 was now at home, still two years under age, too late escaped 
 from the University to put on armor for his country, without 
 any motive to apply himself to the acquisition of professional 
 learning of any sort, his estate yet under guardianship and 
 properly cared for ; and what was he to do 1 The natural 
 refuge of a young man thus situated, and no doubt as safe as 
 any which he would be likely to take, was in matrimony. He 
 was married, before he was twenty, at Saratoga, to Marga- 
 ret, the third daughter of Gen. Philip Schuyler; and thus 
 was he connected, by a near relationship, and one as it proved, 
 of great confidence and affection, with another of those ex- 
 traordinary men whose names so crowd and illumine the 
 pages of our Revolutionary history. 
 
 His excellent mother, a discreet and exemplary christian, 
 had, in 1775, united herself in marriage with the Rev. Dr. 
 Eilardus Westerlo, an original Dutchman, a fine scholar, an 
 eminent divine, and, at the time, and long before and long 
 after, the installed pastor of the Dutch Church in this city, 
 where he preached in the Dutch language for the first fifteen 
 or twenty years of his ministry. The mother of Mr. Van 
 Rensselaer still resided with her husband at the Manor 
 House, at the time of his marriage ; but the ample Parsonage 
 of the good Domine, in North Market-street, was then unoc- 
 cupied, and there he bestowed his bride, to await the period 
 
17 
 
 when, having attained his legal majority, he should take pos- 
 session of his inheritance. When that time came, the proper 
 exchange of domiciles took place between him and his 
 mother. 
 
 The occasion of his reaching the important age of twenty- 
 one was celebrated with much of that kind of rousing observ- 
 ance, which, without being inappropriate, would have fitted 
 more perfectly, perhaps, his relations as a Landlord, if the 
 event had transpired ten years earlier. But as it was, and 
 changed as the political relations between him and his tenants 
 had become within that time, they were not to be restrained 
 from offering, on this event, the testimony of their joy, and 
 their affection for liis person, as if he was still, instead of be- 
 ing simply a contracting party with them in regard to their 
 lands, as much their Patroon and feudal Superior, as his an- 
 cestor was of their fathers in the time of Petrus Stuyvesandt. 
 The Tenantry were certainly not as numerous, by any means, 
 as they have since become ; but such as they were, they 
 poured in upon him from the extremes of the broad territory, 
 nor did they leave him till they had done ample justice to the 
 liberal cheer which he had provided for their entertainment. 
 
 This event fairly disposed of, Mr. Van Rensselaer found 
 it necessary to look somewhat critically alter his interests in 
 the Manor. He was in possession of a very large landed 
 interest, but one which could not be managed without great 
 expense, and from which he found the returns not only mode- 
 rate, but small. The interests of the country too, as well as 
 his own, required that these lands should be cultivated. Com- 
 paratively few of them had yet been converted into farms. 
 The Revolution had just closed, and left the country poor. 
 Speculators would buy lands — as they always will — but far- 
 mers, the laborious tillers of the soil, were unable, or unwil- 
 ling, to contract for the fee. By offering Leases in fee, or for 
 long terms, at a very moderate rent — sometimes hardly more 
 than nominal — Mr. Van Rensselaer succeeded readily, in 
 bringing a large proportion of his lands, comprising the grea- 
 ter part of the present counties of Albany and Rensselaer, 
 into cultivation ; and thus secui'ing to himself a valuable and 
 competent income. This policy once adopted by him, was 
 never changed. Nor did he ever after attempt, as he might 
 easily have done, greatly to increase his current means deri- 
 ved from this source. The net returns from his lands, never 
 exceeded, probably, two, if they did one, per cent upon them, 
 considered as a capital at a very moderate valuation. But 
 finding himself in the receipt of a current income, large 
 
 3 
 
18 
 
 enough for his simple and unostentatious habits, and those of 
 his family, with something liberal to spare for his charities, 
 he was not only not desirous of adding to his wealth by en- 
 hancing his receipts, but he was positively and strenuously 
 averse to such a course. He had none of that morbid appe- 
 tite for wealth which grows ravenous by what it leeds on. 
 And this it was, I have no doubt — the strong disinclination to 
 cumber himself with useless accumulations — which led him 
 to neglect improvements, suggested often by the interest of 
 others, and on account of which, because he could not bring 
 himself to feel and indulge that passion for profit and gain 
 which consumed those around him, he was sometimes sub- 
 jected to heavy censures. 
 
 Mr. Van Rensselaer received his first military commis- 
 sion, as a Major of Infantiy, in 1786; then at the age of 
 twenty-tvi^o ; and he was promoted to the Command of a Re- 
 giment two years afterwards. In 1801, Gov. Jay directed 
 the Cavalry of the State to be formed into a separate Corps, 
 divided from the Infantry to whicti the Horse had before been 
 attached. The Cavalry formed a single Division, with two 
 Brigades, and the command of the whole was conferred on 
 Mr. Van Rensfelaer. This Commission of Major General 
 of Cavah'y he bore to his death. 
 
 In presenting, as nearly as may be in the order of time, the 
 events of this good man's life, I must not omit to mention one 
 in this place, certainly of no inconsiderable importance, if 
 only considered as affecting our right judgment of his charac- 
 ter. It was in the spring of 1787, when he was short of twen- 
 ty-three years of age, in the vigor of manhood, just on the 
 threshold of mature life, which sparkled brightly before him, 
 with large possessions, and wealth enough to lay the world 
 under contribution for whatever it can afford to pamper appe- 
 tite and passion, and supply the means of wanton and luxu- 
 rious indulgence ; it was then, and under snch circumstances, 
 that he dehberately chose, by a formal profession of religious 
 faith, and a personal vow of religious obedience, according to 
 the doctrines and discipline of the Christian Church as adopt- 
 ed by the Dutch Reformers, to pledge himself to a life of tem- 
 perance, simplicity, truth and purity. How well he kept his 
 vow, is known to all who had occasion to observe him ; and 
 how eminently he was blest in keeping it, was seen in all those 
 quarters, where, I think, the Christian is wont to look for the 
 promise of the life that now is — in the calm and quiet of a 
 peaceful existence, in domestic relations of the most tender, 
 
19 
 
 harmonious and beautiful character, and in a resigned, appro- 
 priate and happy death. 
 
 Towards the close of the year 1787, the Convention which .. 
 sat at Philadelphia to frame the Federal Constitution, termi- 
 nated its labors, and submitted its work to the judgment of 
 the people. All over the country a desperate conflict arose, 
 and, no doubt, the fate of the Republic was suspended on the 
 issue. Mr. Van Rensselaer took ground promptly and de- 
 cidedly in favor of the Constitution. In the Spring of 1788, 
 Delegates to the State Convention, which was to pass sen- 
 tence of condemnation, or approval, on the Constitution, in 
 the name of New York, were to be chosen from the county 
 of Albany. The anti-federal party, strong throughout the 
 State, was particularly formidable here. This was the resi- 
 dence of Yates and Lansing, both popular and influential, 
 and both of whom, having acted as Delegates, had left the 
 Convention at Philadelphia before its labors were finished, 
 and published a joint letter to the Governor, setting forth their 
 reasons for refusing to put their names to the Constitution. 
 That their counsels, and the counsels of those with whom 
 they were associated politically, would prevail in this quarter 
 of the State, on this important trial of the strength of parties, 
 was hardly to be doubted. Yet were the friends of the Con- 
 stitution bound to make the effort, and, in so doing, to leave 
 no part of their moral force out of the controversy. AVith 
 this object, Mr. Van Rensselaer was solicited, and consent- 
 ed, to stand as a Candidate for the Assembly, at the same elec- 
 tion. The sway of anti-federal opinions and feelings at the 
 period, may be estimated from the fact that, with all his per- 
 sonal popularity and influence — already very great in the dis- 
 trict — he was beaten by an overwhelming majoritv. But 
 popular majorities, even where the right of voting is restrict- 
 ed as it then was, are not always remarkable for their stabili- 
 ty ; and happy they should not be — certainly when they 
 chance to be in the wrong. 
 
 The Constitution having been adopted after a fearful strug- 
 gle, the government was to be organized and put in full ope- 
 ration under it. Ground enough of difTerence in regard to it, 
 was still left — barely enough — tor parties to stand on ; but the 
 popular mind began to sway strongly over to the side of the 
 Constitution. In the Spring of the very next year, 1789, Mr. 
 Van Rensselaer was again a candidate for the Assembly, 
 and was now carried into ofhce by a majority nearly as great 
 as that by which he had been before defeated. And now, 
 having once got right, never was a constituency more stead- 
 
20 
 
 fast to a faithful public servant. In the course of the next 
 forty years after, he had occasion often to try the strength of 
 their attachment to him ; and on ho occasion did the county 
 of Albany, whether comprising more or less territory, and 
 whether the elective privilege was lessor more extended, ever 
 desert him. 
 
 The first Session of the Legislature, to which Mr. Van 
 Rensselaer was now elected, was held in the summer, under 
 the Proclamation of the Governor, for the special purpose of 
 electing, for the first time. Senators m Congress. The same 
 question which has since, and more than once, been agitated, 
 respecting the mode of election, divided the councils of the 
 State at that period. The federal party, and those who de- 
 sired to clothe the Federal Government with all necessary 
 strength and stability, insisted on a mode of election which 
 should give the Senate, equally with the popular branch of 
 the Legislature, a separate and independent action. Mr. 
 Van Rensselaer was of this number. The anti federal par- 
 ty preferre.l a mode of election, by joint ballot or otherwise, 
 which should subject Senators in Congress more certainly to 
 the popular will of the State, as it should be currently expres- 
 sed in the annual elections to the Assembly. The question to 
 be sure was one growing out of the language of the Federal 
 Constitution, and, therefore, a question of constitutional law ; 
 but men of different parties at that day, as well as at this, 
 were wont to read the Constitution through an atmosphere of 
 their own, usually too much clouded to allow the light from 
 any objects to pass through it in straight lines ; hence of course 
 they read it differently, and not unfrequently both sides read 
 it wrong. The Legislature on this occasion separated with- 
 out settling on any mode of electing Senators — except for it- 
 self; Senators were elected by the Joint Resolution of the 
 two Houses. 
 
 Mr. Van Rensselaer w'as now fairly embarked in politi- 
 cal life. The next Spring — 1790 — he was elected to the 
 Senate of the State, from the Western Senatorial District. 
 When we look over this State, and see what the West now 
 is, wo hardly know how to credit the fact that, within so few 
 years, the County of Albany, on the North River, was one of 
 the Western Counties of the State. In the Spring of 1794, the 
 same Senator from the same Western District was re-elected. 
 He was a member of the Senate from his first election down 
 to 1795. In the whole of this Legislative period, he was a 
 faithful, vigilant, highly influential and useful member. There 
 were few standing Committees at that period; but he was 
 
21 
 
 from the first, and always, a member of one or more of these, 
 and always of the most important. 
 
 In the second year of his Senatorial services, 1792, parties 
 were thrown into a prodigious ferment by certain proceed- 
 ings of the State Canvassers, in regard to a portion of the 
 votes taken at the Gubernatorial election of that year. Mr. 
 Jay and Mr. Clinton had been the opposing candidates. The 
 popular voice had declared itself, by a moderate majority, 
 in favor of Mr. Jay ; but the Canvassers found some infor- 
 malities, and legal difficulties, which induced them, by a party 
 vote, to reject the returns from three counties, by which Mr. 
 Jay's majority was lost, and Mr. Clinton was declared elect- 
 ed. When the Legislature met in the autumn, petitions were 
 poured in upon it from the people, and a legislative investi- 
 gation was had. It appeared in testimony, that the rejected 
 ballots had at first been regularly deposited in appropriate 
 boxes in the record-room of the Office of the Secretary of 
 State ; and that afterwards, without consent obtained at the 
 office, Mr. Thomas Tillotson, a State Senator, and one of 
 the Canvassers, in the presence however of several of his 
 fellows, took from their place of deposit among the archives 
 of the State, the boxes containing the rejected ballots, and 
 committed them to the flames. However pure the motives 
 for an act of this sort, the act itself was not one which was 
 likely to meet the approbation of the pure and single-minded 
 Van Rensselaer. His scornful reprobation of the part en- 
 acted by Mr. Tillotson, uttered in no equivocal terms, 
 brought him into a personal collision with that gentleman, 
 which was likely to put his life, or his reputation, or both, 
 into imminent hazard. But those who attempted to deal 
 with him had quite mistaken the temper of the man. Though 
 one of the mildest of men in his ordinary demeanor, he was 
 yet one of the firmest. He was the last person on earth to 
 be moved by intimidations. Being in the right, or thinking 
 himself so, he would allow nothing to be wrung from him 
 which would abate, by a feather's weight, the full moral force 
 of the language he had used. Happily, this admirable firm- 
 ness, with the steadiness and quiet which distinguished his 
 manner, when most pressed upon by difficulties and danger, 
 saved him from an abyss into which, no doubt, the least wa- 
 vering or trepidation would have plunged him. 
 
 When the next election for Governor approached, in 1795, 
 Mr. Jay was again placed in nomination, and, with him, Mr. 
 Van Rensselaer was nominated for Lt. Governor. The 
 circumstances under which Mr. Clinton had served, as Gov- 
 
22 
 
 ernor, during the current ternn, were deenned, by his party, 
 such as to render unwise his re-nomination at the present 
 time. Mr. Yates and Mr. Floyd were the opposing candi- 
 dates. Mr. Jay and Mr. Van Rensellaer were elected by 
 handsome majorities. In 1798, both were re-nominated, and 
 both re-elected, to the same offices. On this occasion, Chan- 
 cellor Livingston was Mr. Jay's opponent — only very lately 
 his strong friend, political as well as personal. The Lt. Gov- 
 ernor had no opposing candidate. He was named universal- 
 ly throughout the State, by the anti-federalists, on their ticket 
 with Chancellor Livingston. The design was to detach him, 
 if possible, after the example of the Chancellor, from the 
 federal party, and from the support of Gov. Jay. No doubt 
 it was in his power to have given to the Chancellor and his 
 friends a complete triumph. It is probable that no one indi- 
 vidual in the State, at the period, carried with him a greater 
 personal influence and sway. So desirable was it deemed to 
 secure him, or at least to make the people believe he was se- 
 cured — that the Chancellor's party did not hesitate to em- 
 ploy the fact before the electors, though without the least 
 warrant, as if it had been true. Of course, he took the 
 most prompt and effectual measures, to disabuse the public 
 mind on a point of so much importance. 
 
 I will not hesitate, on an occasion like this, and when deal- 
 ing with matters of great historical interest, to say what I 
 think. I think, then, that New York has never seen so pure 
 an administration of its government, as that which was con- 
 ducted by Mr. Jay. I think this is already the settled verdict 
 of an enlightened public sentiment. He could not have had, 
 during the six years.of his administration, a purer, or more wor- 
 thy coadjutor than Lt. Gov. Van Rensselaer. Never could 
 there have been, or could there be, a moral spectacle of 
 higher beauty, than was seen in the lofty and universal 
 harmonies of thought and intent, of feelings, character and 
 purposes — the periisct blending of harmonious colors, till no- 
 thing was visible but the white light of truth and integrity — 
 when the honest and true-hearted Huguenot, and the honest 
 and true hearted Dutchman united to administer the govern- 
 ment of a free people. 
 
 It is not surprising then, when the community — such of 
 them as were attached to the administration and principles 
 of Gov. Jay — came to look after a fit person to be his suc- 
 cessor, that all eyes should have rested on the Lt. Governor. 
 In January, 1801, a large body of the most respectable free- 
 holders, from various and distant parts ot the State, assem- 
 
23 
 
 bled at the Tontine Coffee House in Albany, and unani- 
 mously named Mr. Van Rensselaer as their candidate for 
 Governor at the ensuing election. How he received this 
 mark of public approbation and esteem, and with what diffi- 
 culty his acceptance was finally obtained, appears from the 
 publications of the time. His opponents, for lack of better 
 matter, took serious exceptions, if not to him, to his party, 
 because he had given to the invitation, more than once, a 
 positive refusal. His nomination w^as enthusiastically second- 
 ed in the City of New York, and in public meetings held in 
 every quarter of the State. His election was advocated 
 every where by his friends, on grounds which shewed that his 
 character — young as he was — was already developed, and 
 was thoroughly understood and appreciated. His compe- 
 tent acquaintance with the interests and business of the State ; 
 his tried and reliable judgment ; his unconquerable firmness ; 
 his decision and energy in emergencies; his purity ; his many 
 virtues; his retiring and domestic habits; his humility; his 
 urbane and gentle manners — these were the qualities attribu- 
 ted to him by his friends, and in no case denied by his oppo- 
 nents. The rage of party politics was becoming extreme, 
 and, in their rancor, poisoned the blood of friends and fami- 
 lies, and seemed ready, vulture-like, to tear the vitals of the 
 Republic. He was the man — so at least his friends thought — 
 above any other man of the period — the man of peace — fit- 
 ted to soften the asperities, to reconcile the enmities and calm 
 the turbulent agitations of the time. If his opponents thought 
 differently, they scarcely ventured to say so. They thought 
 he was rich, and that those with whom he had business re- 
 lations would be likely to vote for him, and hence they 
 thought the genuiness of his republican prmcipies was fairly 
 to be doubted — this they thought, and this they ventured 
 to say. But I should do a great wrong to tlie party opposed 
 to him, if I should leave it to be inferred that he was de- 
 feated on such grounds — or that I supposed so. Mr. Clinton, 
 after having been laid aside for six years, was now brought 
 forward as his opposing candidate. Mr. Clinton was popu- 
 lar, and there was much in his character and history to make 
 him deservedly so. But besides this, the Republican party — 
 in which the anti-federalists were now merged — liad acquired 
 prodigious strength from the serious apprehensions which 
 were felt in the country on account of some of the measures, 
 and the apparent tendencies of the Federal Government, in 
 the course of the last four years. In the midst of the cam- 
 paign in this State, the election of Mr. Jefferson to the Presi- 
 
24 
 
 dency was announced ; the fate of parties in this State was 
 decided, and decided for a long time to come. Mr. Yan 
 Rensselaer was defeated, by a majority of a little less than 
 four thousand votes. 
 
 With this defeat, Mr. Van Rensselaer's official service 
 in the civil departments of the Government — with a single 
 exception, to which I shall advert directly — was ended for 
 several years. I feel certain that, on his own account, he 
 was very far from regretting this discomfiture. It left him, 
 as it chanced, the very leisure and quiet, which he need- 
 ed. It was in the month of March of this year, and while 
 the election canvass was going on most actively and viru- 
 lently, that he was called to part with the companion and 
 wife of his youth. How sensibly he was affected by it, I 
 have reason to know, when nearly thirty years afterwards, 
 he referred to this event in a very touching manner, and, 
 with many tears, poured his generous sympathy into the 
 bosom ot a friend under similar bereavement. By his first 
 marriage, he had three children, one of whom only — his eld- 
 est son — survives. 
 
 In October, 1801, a State Convention met at Albany, to 
 consider and revise the Constitution, m regard to two speci- 
 fied subjects. One of these subjects was the proper con- 
 struction to be given to the twenty-third Article of the Con- 
 stitution, which established the old Council of Appointment. 
 A violent party controversy had arisen in Mr. Jay's time, 
 concerning the right of nomination. It was claimed by the 
 Governor, from precedent and otherwise, to belong exclusive- 
 ly to him ; the members of the Council challenged an equal 
 right to make nominations. The Convention was called main- 
 ly to determine this question, and, having a strong party cha- 
 racter, was regarded as having been instructed to reverse the 
 doctrine and decision of the Governor. The subject of our 
 Memoir was a member of this body, and was opposed to the 
 majority. Col. Burr was the President, but Mr. Van Rens- 
 selaer piesided during much the greater part of the delibe- 
 rations, as Chairman of the Committee of the Whole. 
 
 In May, 1802, Mr. Van Rensselaer formed an appropri- 
 ate, and highly fortunate and happy matrimonial union with 
 Cornelia, only daughter of the late William Patterson, a dis- 
 tinguished citizen of New Jersey, and one of the Judges of 
 the Supreme Court of the United States. This excellent 
 lady, and nine children of the marriage, survive the husband 
 and father. Delicacy would forbid my saying more of the 
 living than concerns the just memory of the dead. These 
 
25 
 
 children are all of an age to have developed already their 
 individual characters ; and to those who, like myself, believe 
 that the characters of children, as a general thing, are just 
 what they are educated to be at the domestic board, they 
 afford the most satisfactory and gratifying proof that the ex- 
 ample, instruction and influence of the parents have been 
 worthy of all approbation 
 
 In 1807, the subject of our notice was elected to the As- 
 sembly, and with him, as a colleague, his early and tried Iriend, 
 Abraham Van Vechten. They were elected and served to- 
 gether in the Assembly for three successive years. 
 
 In 1810, he was called to a new and distinguished service. 
 In March of that year, a Commission was instituted by the 
 Legislature, for exploring a route for a Western Canal ; and 
 then was laid the foundation of that great system of Internal 
 Improvements by which New-York has so much signalized 
 herself Seven persons composed the Commission — though 
 all, I think, did not act. Mr. Van Rensselaer's was the 
 second name ; the first was that of Governeur Morris ; Mr. 
 Clinton was one of the number. In the summer of this year, 
 these gentlemen, accompanied by a surveyor, personally in- 
 spected and explored tlie route of a Canal from the Hudson 
 to Erie. They travelled for the most part on horseback ; not 
 always without serious difficulty and much d privation, from 
 the uncultivated state of the country ; sometimes they made 
 the Canopy their covering and shelter for the night. They 
 made their Report in February, 1811. Mr. Van Rens- 
 selaer was in the Assembly when the project of this Com- 
 mission was first agitated, and, startling as the idea was to 
 most men at that day, he entered warmly and heartily into 
 the measure, and contributed materially to its success, by his 
 exertions and influence. From the earliest period, he 
 was the unwavering and efficient friend of the Erie Ca- 
 nal. 
 
 The favorable Report made by the Commissioners on this 
 occasion, drawn by Mr. Morris, with consummate ability, 
 and yet not without great defects, gave an impulse to the 
 Canal project which it never wholly lost, though it shortly 
 after suffered interruption by the intervention of the war. In 
 April, 1811, the Legislature again acted on the project, by 
 raising a Commission to consider "of all matters relating to 
 inland navigation." Mr. Van Rensselaer was still one 
 of the Commissioners. It was proposed by this Commission 
 to enlist Congress, and as far as possible the States individu- 
 ally, to contribute their aid and support to the work — a 
 
 4 
 
26 
 
 scheme which, most happily, completely failed. In March, 
 1812, the Commissioners reported, and appealed strongly 
 and eloquently to the pride of New York, to construct the 
 Canal, from her own resources, and on her own account. 
 The appeal was so far effectual, that the Legislature, in June, 
 authorized them to borrow five millions of dollars, on the 
 credit of the State, for the prosecution of the enterprise. 
 The war occurring just then, the project slept for nearly 
 four years. 
 
 ^ The War with Great Britain was declared in June, 1812. 
 This occurrence brought with it, the great crisisin the public life 
 of our worthy and distinguished fellow-citizen. The coun- 
 try was without any adequate preparation for the conflict ; a 
 state of things which, from the necessity of our political con- 
 dition and the frame of our institutions must always exist, I 
 apprehend, whenever, and as often as we may be driven to 
 make our appeal to arms. Such, at any rate, was the case 
 now. Gen. Dearborn had been assigned to the command of 
 the Northern frontier, with some undigested designs upon 
 Canada. He established his Head Quarters at Greenbush, as 
 being on the open and natural military route to the enemy's 
 territory, by way of Lake Champlain. But there was a great 
 deficiency of troops for any olFensive operations. A regular 
 army, of much magnitude, is not to be recruited and disci- 
 plined for service, in such a country as ours, without time. 
 And hence the necessity in all such cases of a resort to the 
 Militia. The first reliance for defence, at least, if not for 
 conquest, must be upon citizen soldiers. A requisition was 
 made on Gov. Tompkins, to order into immediate service a 
 considerable body of New York Militia. The patriot Gov- 
 ernor promptly obeyed the requisition, and selected Ma- 
 jor General Stephen Van Rensselaer for the Com- 
 mand. 
 
 The public relations between these two individuals were 
 peculiar, and deserve to be stated. They were already re- 
 garded as rival candidates for the Chief Magistracy of the 
 State at the next Spring's election — the friends of the Gene- 
 ral having already named him for that office in their own cir- 
 cles, The lines of party, too, were now very distinctly 
 drawn, and it was the w^ar that was made to divide them. 
 The federalists were charged by their opponents, not only 
 with being hostile to the war as having been both premature 
 and unnecessary, but also with dispositions and designs averse 
 to its vigorous or successful prosecution. Gen. Van Rens- 
 selaer was a federalist, and about to become the candidate 
 
27 
 
 of the federal party for the office of Governor, and to him, 
 therefore, without any express declaration to the contrary, 
 might, perhaps, with an equal show of justice, be attributed 
 the same unpatriotic and odious sentiments which were im- 
 puted to the great body of his friends. Without any desire, 
 or attempt, to penetrate the motives which led to the selec- 
 tion of the General for command under such circumstances, 
 and admitting that they might have been good and even gen- 
 erous, it is easy to see that, personally, the General was 
 placed in a position of extreme embarrassment and hazard, 
 and that results of great political importance might flow from 
 any determination he might make. If he should decline the 
 command, the proof of a culpable defection, against both him 
 and his party, would be complete. On the other hand, con- 
 sidering his own inexperience in the trade and business of 
 war, the impracticable materials he had to deal with, and the 
 very extraordinary extent of exposed and defenceless terri- 
 tory committed to his immediate military care and keeping — 
 being no less than the entire " Northern and Western fron- 
 tiers of the State between St. Regis and Pennsylvania"* — 
 considering these things, and considering, too, how often mis- 
 fortune alone, in warlike operations, though accompanied 
 with unexceptionable conduct, brings with it the most tho 
 rough disgrace, we cannot help seeing that his acceptance of 
 this command must subject him, personally, to a fiery ordeal, 
 from which he might escape unharmed, and possibly with a 
 burnished and brighter fame, but where the chances were 
 fearfully prevalent that he would be utterly consumed. 
 
 But the noble-minded man did not for an instant hesitate, 
 when the question was between a probable sacrifice of him- 
 self, and a possible service of great value rendered to his 
 country within the line of his admitted duty. Whatever 
 might be the views of other federalists, his own were sound 
 and thoroughly patriotic. It was his country that called him 
 to the field, and that was a voice which he could never dis- 
 obey. Nor was he a loiterer, or a laggard. In an increda- 
 bly short time after receiving the order, he had formed, with 
 excellent and ready judgment, his military family, thrown 
 off the citizen and put on the soldier, and having taken hasty 
 leave of the domestic circle at the Manor House — from 
 which he parted under circumstances of the most delicate 
 and tender interest — he took up his line of March for the 
 Frontier. In ten days only from the date of his orders, we 
 
 * General Orders of the Commander in Chief "July 13, 1812. 
 
28 
 
 find him at Ogdensburgh, having visited and inspected the 
 the post at Sackett's Harbor on his way. On the 13th of 
 August, he was in the camp at Lewiston — just one month 
 from the date of the call that had been made upon him ; and 
 just two months from that day — on the 13th of October — in 
 one of the most gallant and brilliant affairs of the whole war, 
 he carried his victorious arms into the enemy's territory, and 
 planted the American flag triumphantly on the Heights of 
 Queenstown. Unhappily, it was a triumph of brief dura- 
 tion. He gained a complete and glorious victory ; sufficient, 
 if maintained, as it might have been, to have secured the Pen- 
 insula of the Upper Province of Canada for the winter, as a 
 conquest to the American arms ; but a victory lost as soon as 
 won, by the shameful cowardice and defection of his 
 troops. 
 
 I cannot, in this place, enter into a history of this cam- 
 paign, or of the brilliant, but finally disastrous affair with 
 which it closed. The abundant materials are already before 
 his countrymen, from which their judgment, and that of pos- 
 terity, will be made up. There, 1 thmk, with perfect secu- 
 rity, may his friends rest his claims as a military Commander. 
 His merits in this respect will brighten, as the current of 
 time runs on, and wears away the error, the envy and the 
 prejudice of the day. It is the soldier's hard task to con- 
 quer difficulties, as well as enemies. He did it. It would 
 not be easy to find another instance, in which an army has 
 been gathered — created I may say — and formed into a well- 
 trained and well-disciplined corps, fit for active and efficient 
 service, in so brief a space of time, with such wretched ma- 
 terials, under such adverse and discouraging circumstances, 
 and where there was such an utter destitution of appropriate 
 and necessary means. The plan, too, which he projected, 
 for briging the brief campaign to a brilliant close, the mo- 
 ment that he found himself possessed of an army, by which 
 he proposed to conquer and possess himself of an extensive 
 border territory of the enemy ; cut off the forces of the ene- 
 my in the upper country, just flushed with victory, from all 
 communication with the lower country ; wipe out the dis- 
 grace with which the American arms had been already tar- 
 nished in that quarter ; procure winter lodgings for his sol- 
 diers in the comfortable dwellings of a British town, easily and 
 safely accessible with all kindsof supplies ; and be ready, in the 
 Spring, to begin a new campaign, with superior and eminent 
 advantages already secured — a plan perfectly practicable, 
 with rehable troops — not only justifiable at the time he form- 
 
29 
 
 ed it, but positively justified by every thing that subsequently 
 transpired — this plan must forever commend itse[f to the ap- 
 proval and admiration of his countrymen, as having been 
 formed with the discretion, the judgment and the skill of a 
 master in the trade of war. I allude here, to his enterprise 
 originally planned, by which Fort George would have been 
 stormed by the regular troops, while he should have carried 
 the Heights, and by which, at one blow, the conquest of 
 the Peninsula w^ould have been complete — an enterprize 
 which certainly failed only for want of co-operation, where 
 co-operation was due by every consideration of patriotism 
 and honor- 
 In regard to the enterprize, which he actually attempted, and 
 which formed only a part of the original design, there is little 
 hazard, at this time of day, in saying, that it was perfectly 
 feasible, well devised, and skillfully executed. It was, more- 
 over, as an enterprize, completely successful. With a mere 
 handful of men, the Hights were carried early in the morning, 
 under the direction of his Aid, the brave Col. Solomon Van 
 Rensselaer; and they remained in his possession till late in the 
 afternoon of that day. The position was one that was easily 
 defensible, and he had within trumpet-call men enough, twice 
 or thrice over, to have maintained it, and put at defiance any 
 force with which the enemy might or could have assailed him. 
 And yet, after all this, he must see his victory turned into de- 
 feat and his triumph into disaster, by the shameful refusal of 
 his yeoman soldiery, under the plea of constitutional scruples, 
 to march into the safe camp that had already been won for 
 them on the other side of the hues ! 
 
 The official account of this affair, furnished by the Com- 
 manding General the next day after its occurrence, was strong- 
 ly characteristic of the man. It was a simple and unvarnish- 
 ed relation of facts and events ; the truth was plainly told ; 
 but no complaint was made, no reproaches were uttered. 
 His own duty had been done, and fearlessly and faithfully 
 done ; and with perfect equanimity and confidence he submit- 
 ted himself to the judgment of his Country. He expressed 
 regrets on her account, but he intimated none whatever on his 
 own 
 
 In the sequel of this severe and sanguinary conflict, the 
 General found occasion for the exercise of that sympathizing 
 and generous kindness by which he was so much distinguish- 
 ed; and he seems to have met in the British General Sheafte, 
 a correspondent temper. On one side. General Brock had 
 fallen ; on the other, Col. Van Rensselaer was desperately 
 
30 
 
 wounded ; and there were other brave spirits on both sidesr 
 who had shared the fate of one or the other of these. A ces- 
 sation of all hostile demonstrations was agreed upon. For 
 six days, the throat of brazen war was closed, while, with the 
 tender of mutual services, the parties on either side proceed- 
 ed to discharge the offices of humanity due to the living, and 
 pay to the dead the appropriate tribute and ceremonies of re- 
 spect. Gen Sheaffe offered every thing his camp could afford 
 to promote the comfort of the wounded Col. Van Rensselaer, 
 Gen. Van Rensselaer informed his antagonist that he should 
 order a salute to be fired at his camp, and also at Fort Niaga- 
 ra, on the occasion of the funeral solemnities of the brave and 
 lamented Brock. ' " I feel too strongly," said the stern but 
 afflicted Gen. Sheaffe, " the generous tribute which you pro- 
 pose to pay to my departed friend and chief, to be able to ex- 
 press the sense I entertain of it. Noble-minded as he was, 
 so would he have done himself." 
 
 With the campaign just referred to, closed the services of 
 Gen. Van Rensselaer in the field. The next Spring, 1813, 
 the Gubernatorial election was to come on, when the contest 
 for power in the State betvk^een him and Gov. Tompkins, or 
 rather between their respective parties, was to be decided. 
 The General's friends shewed that, in his brief military ca- 
 reer, he had lost none of the high consideration and confi- 
 dence with which they had been used to regard him, by plac- 
 ing him promptly, and with great unanimity, in open nomina- 
 tion as their candidate for the Chair of State : and when the 
 time came, they gave him a hearty support. But his party 
 was found to be, as it had long been, in a minority. He was 
 defeated, but with a majority against him of only 3,600, out 
 of eighty-three thousand votes which had been cast in the 
 canvass. 
 
 With no disquieting ambition for political distinction, and a 
 candidate for high office at any time, only by a reluctant sub | 
 mission to the will and judgment of his friends. Gen. Van 
 Rensselaer was not a man to feel any regrets on his own 
 account, for defeat at an election canvass. In his own affairs, 
 in his own family, and in the secret opportunities which he 
 was always seeking for the practice of benevolence, he had 
 resources enough for the agreeable and useful occupation of 
 all his time. 
 
 During all the period of the war, it should be remembered, 
 that the Commission which had been instituted for the promo- 
 tion of Interna! Improvement, by a great Canal, and of which 
 he was a member, continued in existence. The war was no 
 
31 
 
 sooner ended, than measures were taken to revive the subject, 
 and the interest which had been felt in it. A Memorial, on 
 the subject, of great abihty, drawn by Mr. CHnton, was pre- 
 sented to the Legislature of 1816, and in March of the same 
 year, the Commissioners, with Mr. Van Rensselaeu at their 
 head and acting as Chairman, presented their Report, setting 
 forth the difficulties which had been interposed to prevent the 
 execution of the trust confided to them four years before, 
 and urging the Legislature to renew the authority, to adopt 
 immediate measures lor the prosecution of the enterprize. 
 In April, 1816, the law was passed by the Legislature, which 
 authorized, and directed this great work to be entered upon ; 
 and the management and execution of it were committed to 
 a Board of Canal Commissionei's, of whom — as usual — Gen. 
 Van Kensselaer was one. From that period down to his 
 death, he was a member of that body, and he was the Presi- 
 dent of the Board for nearly fifteen years — from April. 1824, 
 when the name of his friend, the great Clinton, was struck 
 from the roll of Commissioners. In the Spring of 1816, he 
 was again, and for the last time, elected to the Assembly of 
 the State ; and his presence and influence in that body in the 
 Session of 1817, were especially useful as affecting those im- 
 mense interests — as yet but little understood, much abused 
 and contemned, and most violently opposed — which belonged 
 to the Canals, and the system of Internal Improvements, then 
 in the extremest weakness of their infancy. 
 
 I shall have occasion directly to advert more particularly to 
 the important services rendered by Gen. Van Rensselaer to 
 the cause of Learning and Education ; and I will simply refer, 
 therefore, in this place, as being in the proper order of time, 
 to the official connection which he had with our State system 
 of Public Instruction. In March, 1819, he was elected by 
 the Legislature a Regent of the State University, and at the 
 time of his death he was the Chancellor, having been elevated 
 to that station, on the decease of the late venerable Simeon 
 De Witt, m 1835. 
 
 In 1821, the present Constitution of this State was formed. 
 In the progress of time, since the old Constitution was framed, 
 ideas were found to have advanced also. Changes were 
 deemed necessary, as well to meet a condition of things in 
 some respects new, as to satisfy the demands of a generation 
 which thought itself — and should have been, if it was not — 
 wiser than that which had preceded it. But wherever the 
 spirit of reform is abroad and active, and speculations and 
 theories in matters of government are broached freely, and 
 
32 
 
 Councils are to be held with a view to giving body and effect 
 to the conceptions of ardent minds, it is not unimportant to 
 secure the presence and assistance of" a few men of conser- 
 vative tempers and habits, in order to make sure, if possible, 
 that the deep foundations of things shall not be wholly bro- 
 ken up, nor the moral elements of society utterly dissipated 
 and destroyed. In the Convention of 1821, a few spirits of 
 this sort were gathered, and of these, by no means the least 
 valuable among them, was Stephen Van Rensselaer. He 
 brought with him there, his character — one of uncommon 
 purity ; his experience — not now inconsiderable ; his stead- 
 fastness I f principle; his notions of men and things — descend- 
 ed from old schools, but fashioned and modernized in the new; 
 his excellent strong sense, and his judgment of almost intui- 
 tive accuracy and soundness; and with such qualifications, 
 without being accustomed either to write much or debate 
 much, it would be hard to say if there was another member 
 of the Convention, among all the great and good names that 
 belonged to it, who was more valuable, or more indispensable 
 than himself, if the business of that body was to be brought 
 to a safe and happy conclusion. 
 
 In considering the doings of that Convention, it is evident 
 that nothing, in all the various business undertaken by it, was 
 equal in magnitude of interest to the single question in regard 
 to the Right of Suffrage. Here the firm fouiidations both of 
 Government and of Freedom were to be laid : while the dan- 
 ger was that, at this very point, if not sufficiently guarded, a 
 flood might be let in to sweep both Government and Free- 
 dom away in ruins. Mr. Van Rensselaer was one of the 
 Committee appointed to consider and report on this momen- 
 tous subject. He dissented from the Report made to the 
 Convention by a majority of the Committee, and he submit- 
 ted to the Convention a Proposition of his own, as a substi- 
 tute for the Report, which he accompanied with some re- 
 marks, briefly explanatory of his views and apprehensions on 
 this great questian. 
 
 It must be remembered, that up to this period, none but 
 freeholders had been allowed to v(jte for the higher officers of 
 government. Not only had a property qualification been 
 adopted, but retaining the old notions, evidently of feudal 
 origin, respecting tlie superior value and sacredness of landed 
 possessions, the former Constitution of the State had thrown 
 the higher and most important branches of the government 
 exclusively into the hands of the landed interest. Mr. Van 
 Rensselaer was the largest landed proprietor in the State, 
 
33 
 
 and he had inherited his interest in the soil originally from a 
 feudal source, and held it by a feudal title ; but ne was an en- 
 lightened and patriotic citizen of a free State, and, as such, he 
 was ready to take his chance with others under the protection 
 of a government essentially popular and free. He had no 
 difficulty whatever in agreeing to the propriety of at once 
 abolishing the old distinciions between landed and personal 
 property as affecting the higher rights of citizenship, and 
 making the qualification of electors for all the officers of go- 
 vernment equal and uniform. And he was equally ready to 
 abandon the notion of a property qualification of any sort for 
 electors. He agreed perfectly to the principle — which was 
 the one professedly adopted by his colleagues of the Commit- 
 tee — that those who really contribute to the support and the 
 defence of the government, should make the government. So 
 far he was willing and anxious to go ; but here he w^ould stop. 
 He insisted upon guarding tLe principle strictly, by limiting 
 the privilege to such as should seem to have something of the 
 character of fixedness and stability in their residence, and 
 their attachment to the State, and he was entirely unwilling 
 to extend this privilege — to use his own expression — to "a 
 wandering population, men who are no where to be found 
 when the enemy, or the tax-gatherer comes." Believing that, 
 in pushing a theory into details, the Committee would violate 
 the maxims of a sound and practical policy, by some of their 
 propositions, he felt himself bound to dissent from the conclu- 
 sions of their Report. He conducted his opposition, before 
 the Convention, as he had done in Committee, in his own di- 
 rect and manly way ; and presenting a distinct Amendment 
 of his own, he exerted himself to induce the Convention to 
 place the Right of Suffrage on a g'ound, at once, according to 
 his opinions, of great liberality and of perfect safety. But 
 his opinions were not the opinions of the majority of the 
 Convention, and his efforts, and the efforts of those with whom 
 he was more immediately associated, though not without their 
 strong and salutary influence, were in the main unsuccessful. 
 After a long and laborious Session, the new Constitution was 
 adopted by the Convention. There had been other subjects 
 of disagreement, of great magnitude and importance, among 
 the members; and Mr. Van Rensselaer, with twenty-two 
 others, declined to give their assent and sanction to the Instru- 
 ment, by putting their names to it. 
 
 [n 1819, the Legislature of this State was induced, through 
 the exertions of a number of disinterested and patriotic gen- 
 temen, among whom was Mr. Van Rensselaer, to pass an 
 
 5 
 
34 
 
 Act for the encouragement and improvement of Agriculture. 
 A sum of money was appropriated, to be divided rateably 
 among the several Counties of the State ; County Societies 
 were to be formed with the proper officers ; and the Presi- 
 dents of these Societies, or Delegates instead of the Presi- 
 dents from such of them as should choose to elect them, were 
 to form a Central Board of Agriculture. Such was the out- 
 line of the proposed organization. In January, 1820, the 
 Presidents, or Delegates, from twenty-six County Societies, 
 already organized, met at the Capitol in Albany, and elected 
 Stephen Van Rensselaer President of the Board. The 
 life of this Board of Agriculture was made a very brief one 
 by law, and when the legal limit was out, it was suffered to 
 expire. It lasted long enough, however, to demonstrate the 
 inappreciable value of legislative aid and encouragement to 
 the Agricultural interests ; and it raised to itself an enduring 
 and noble monument, by the publication of three very valua- 
 ble volumes of Transactions and Memoirs. 
 
 Each of the first two volumes of the Board, contains, 
 amongst other things, a very curious and remarkable Paper. 
 These papers present a complete view of the Geological and 
 Agricultural features of the Counties of Albany and Renssel- 
 aer, as gathered from accurate and minute surveys, and from 
 actual and extensive analysis. They are the Reports of distin- 
 guished scientific gentlemen, employed, exclusively at the 
 expense of the President of the Board of Agriculture, to 
 make the examinations and surveys, the results of which are 
 here embodied. It was believed then, and it is believed now, 
 that these were the first attempts made in this country, "to 
 collect and arrange Geological facts, with a direct view to the 
 improvement of Agriculture." The time, perhaps, has not 
 even yet came, when the incalculable advantages of such a 
 labor are generally appreciated ; but I express only my hum- 
 ble and sober conviction, when I say, that in the example of 
 these attempts, and their success— followed up as they will be 
 in time, to swell the profits and increase the business and the 
 benefits of Agriculture, and withal to connect this employ- 
 ment with better knowledge, and a competent degree of sci- 
 entific attainment, in the cultivators of the soil — he has ren- 
 dered a higher service to his country, than it he had been the 
 man to win twenty hard-fought battles for her in a just and 
 necessary war. 
 
 The laws for the encouragement of Agriculture expired, as 
 I have said, by their own limitation; and all attempts to re- 
 vive them from that day to this — strange that it should be so — 
 
35 
 
 have proved utterly unavailing. But Mr. Van Rensselaer, 
 
 though without any convenient Society, or Board of Agricul- 
 ture, under cover of whose name he might pursue his plans 
 for the benefit of the State, had only just now entered on a 
 series of extraordinary efforts and experiments for the ad- 
 vancement of science, of education, and the public prosperity, 
 which he afterwards prosecuted with equal perseverance and 
 effect. After the surveys of the counties of Albany and Rens- 
 selaer had been completed, under his direction, presenting, 
 besides a view of their Geological f trmations, a thorough 
 analysis of their soils, in all their principal varieties — on a 
 plan new at the time, and since extensively approved and em- 
 ployed — and accompanied, particularly in tiie survey of Rens- 
 selaer county, with a view of the proper Methods of Culture 
 adapted to the various soils ; and after he had caused the Sur- 
 veys to be published, at his own cost, in a separate and con- 
 venient form, for extensive and gratuitous distribution; he 
 next turned his attention to a more extended scientific survey, 
 to be carried through the entire length of the State on the line 
 of the Erie Canal. This was commenced and prosecuted, 
 under his orders, in the fall of 1822, by Professor Amos Ea- 
 ton, aided by two competent Assistants. The next year, by 
 the direction of his Patron, the work was resumed, and the 
 survey greatly extended. The truth seems to be, that, al- 
 though the surveys of Albany and Rensselaer Counties were 
 made, at the time, with an avowed and more immediate re- 
 ference to the interests of Agriculture, yet they were not, 
 even then, unconnected with a plan wliich had been formed 
 for offering a large and generous contribution to the science 
 of Geology. This plan embraced a particular examination of 
 the strata and formation of American rocks, by the survey of 
 a transverse section, running across the great primitive ranges 
 of New England, and the transition and secondary ranges of 
 Eastern and Western New- York. With the experience ob- 
 tained in the local examinations already referred to, and a 
 partial review of the Erie Canal line. Professor Eaton com- 
 pleted, in 1823, his grand Survey. His section extended from 
 Boston to Lake Erie, a distance of about five hundi-ed and 
 fifty miles, stretching across nine degrees of longitude, and 
 embracing a belt about fifty miles wide. At the same time, 
 Prof. Hitchcock was employed to make a similar survey of a 
 section across New England, a few miles North of that taken 
 by Prof. Eaton. In 1824, a Publication was made, contain- 
 ing the results of these surveys, with maps exhibiting a profile 
 view of the rocks in each of the sections. It is not, 1 believe, 
 
36 
 
 to be doubted, that this work presents a connected view of 
 mineral masses, with their nature and order, taken from ac- 
 tual inspection and survey, of greater extent than had ever 
 before been offered to Geology. Discoveries were made, and 
 a mass of facts was gathered, which could not fail, as they 
 did not, to arouse and quicken enquiry and investigation, and 
 contribute essentially and largely to advance Geological Sci- 
 ence. Attention was strongly attracted, both in this country 
 and in Europe, to the very creditable and laithful labors of 
 Prof Eaton, prosecuted under the direction of his munificent 
 Patron ; and this example it was, unquestionably, which has 
 led, at last, to the adoption in several of the States, and this 
 amonir the number, of plans for exploring their territories at 
 the public expense, in search of scientific facts, and of the 
 mineral riches, and other substances of economical value, to 
 be found upon or beneath the surface of their respective por- 
 tions of the earth. 
 
 But the crowning effort of this good man's life — whom we 
 have now followed on, in liis career, to his three score years — 
 remains to be noticed. It was an efibrt in behalf of the dear- 
 est interest of his country, and of mankind ; it was an effort 
 to advance the cause of Education, and human improvement. 
 He had satisfied himself that there were great defects in the 
 ordinary and prevalent systems of Instruction ; at any rate 
 he saw that some of the most useful subjects of human knowl- 
 edge were scarcely communicated at all, in quarters where 
 they seemed most needed for the practical purposes of life; 
 and he determined that the proper remedy, if possible, should 
 be applied. 
 
 His first movement was to employ Prof Eaton, with a com- 
 petent number of Assistants, to traverse the State, on or near 
 the route of the Erie Canal, with sufficient apparatus, speci- 
 mens and the like, and deliver, in all the principal villages and 
 towns w here an audience of business men, or others, could 
 be gathered, familiar Lectures, accompanied with experi- 
 ments and illustrations, on Chemistry, Natural Philosophy, 
 and some or all of the branches of Natural History. This 
 scientific and educational progress through the State, was 
 made in the summer of 1824, at the Patron's cost; incon- 
 siderable contributions only having been made in the villages 
 where Lectures were delivered. The experiment was en- 
 tirely successful ; a prodigious interest in behalf of natural 
 science had been excited; and the Patron was encouraged 
 to prosecute a plan of operations which he had meditated for 
 a considerable time. 
 
37 
 
 He had long been accustomed to send the schoolmaster 
 abroad among the poorer portions of his numerous tenantry ; 
 and he had been led to observe, as the result of these experi- 
 ments — having been obliged to employ persons, for this ser- 
 vice, of very slender qualifications, for want of better — that 
 the improvement of the masters, as a general thmg, was 
 much more considerable than that of their pupils .It was 
 from this hint, that he was led to consider, and finally to di- 
 gest, a plan for a school, the leading feature of which should 
 be, that the learner should himself take the place, and per- 
 form the regular duties, of teacher or instructor, in all the 
 business and exercises of the school. Securing, ia this way, 
 as he believed he should, the most ready and thorough im- 
 provement of the students, he proposed that the chief busi- 
 ness of the School should be to furnish insti'uction " in the ap- 
 plication of Science to the common purposes of life." He 
 declared one of his principal objects to be " to qualify 
 teachers for instructing the sons and daughters of Mechanics, 
 in the application of Experimental Chemistry, Philosophy, 
 and Natural History, to Agriculture, Domestic Economy, aud 
 the Arts and Manufactures." 
 
 On the 5th of November, 1824, having provided a suita- 
 ble building at Troy, and employed an Agent to procure 
 the necessary Apparatus and Library, he enclosed to the Rev. 
 Dr. Blatchford a set of Orders for the government of the 
 School, and requested him to proceed to its organization, and 
 act himself as President of a Board of Trustees, whom he 
 named. He named, at the same time, a Senior and a Junior 
 Professor, whom he endowed with liberal salaries. The 
 Senior Professor was Mr. Eaton, who had already been en- 
 gaged to take the charge of instruction in the Institution 
 The School was soon after organized, and put into successful 
 operation. In 1826, it was incorporated, and is now known 
 as the Rensselaer Institute. Its success, under the care of the 
 veteran Eaton, has been complete — but with a very heavy and 
 continued outlay on the part of its generous Patron. Instruc- 
 tion in the Sciences is wholly experimental and demonstra- 
 tive, and it is always, therefore, practical and thorough. 
 
 In 1828, the Patron, after having, at his own cost, estab- 
 lished and liberally endowed this School, and while he was, 
 then as since, bearing from his own purse, not Ios.-j than one 
 half of its current expenses, caused an invitation to be given 
 to each County in the State, to furnish a Studcrit, selected by 
 the Clerk of the County, for gratuitous instruction at the In- 
 
38 
 
 stitute.* The invitation was accepted in nearly all the Coun- 
 ties, and that large number of persons, within less than three 
 years, was sent forth from the Institute, with a complete prac- 
 tical education, obtained without the cost of a dollar to them 
 for tuition. Other instances of instruction there, wholly gra- 
 tuitous, have not been wanting. 
 
 The Patron first proposed to himself to sustain this School, 
 as an experiment, for three years, with a reasonable expecta- 
 tion certainly, that at the end of that time, if successful at 
 all, public attention would be sufficiently attracted towards 
 this novel method, to enable him to hand it over to the co.ti- 
 munity, with a confident reliance on the patronage of the 
 public to support and perpetuate it. But all observation 
 shews that no improvements are so slow in gaining adoption 
 and support at the hands of the community, as improvements 
 in the methods of Education. In this case, almost of course, 
 while the Patron saw at the end of three years, that the ad- 
 vantages secured by his methods and course of instruction 
 were great, beyond all his original expectations, he yet saw 
 that the public must continue to enjoy them, if at all, for 
 years to come, chiefly at his cost He submitted to the sacri- 
 fice, and thus has this invaluable institution been continued 
 for upwards of fourteen years. 
 
 The course of instruction in this Institution has been con- 
 siderably enlarged since its organization, by the direction of 
 the Patron. It may be described as a School for thorough 
 and complete instruction in the circle of the natural Sciences, 
 applicable, in any way, to the economy or the business of 
 life, in all its civil departments — not, however, including those 
 usually denominated professional. The peculiarity in the 
 mode of instruction, originally introduced, has been adhered 
 to ; and the distinguishing and eminent advantage gained by 
 this peculiarity of method has been, not only that the stu- 
 dents themselves have been thoroughly taught, and are ready, 
 at all limes, professionally or otherwise, to make a practical 
 and highly useful application of their knowledge, for their 
 own benefit or the benefit of others, but that, whether such 
 is their occupation and business, or not, they go out to the 
 world as an army of teachers, so familiar with the various 
 subjects of their knowledge, and so fitted and accustomed, 
 from long habit, to impart it, that they become involuntarily 
 the schoolmasters and instructors of every circle into which 
 
 * The Patron, however, imposed on these Students a condition — the benefits of which 
 would of course go to the community — that they should instruct in their own Coun- 
 ties for one year, on the experiinenlaJ and demonstrative method. 
 
39 
 
 they enter. They are lights and luminaries to the prevalent 
 darkness that may surround them, gentle and mild, but ra- 
 dient and stead}^ in whatever orbit they may chance to 
 move. 
 
 Jt is impossible to compute, or perhaps to give any ra- 
 tional conjecture, about the amount of good which has already 
 been effected through this munificent and skillfully-devised 
 charity — much more impossible is it to compass, in thought, 
 the benefits which coming generations must reap from that 
 system and plan of Education, of which the example was 
 first set, and the eminent utility satisfactorily tested, in the 
 Rensselaer Institute. Schools have been set up on the Rens- 
 selaer method, in various and distant parts of our country ; 
 and it has been stated to me as a fact, from calculations ac- 
 tually made, that the Institute has itself furnished to the com- 
 munity, more experimental Teaf'hers and Professors, State 
 Geologists, Principal and Assistant Engineers on Public 
 Works, and practical Chemists and Naturalists, than have 
 been furnished, in the same time, by all the Colleges in the 
 Union. If the half of this statemeni be true, the result, in 
 this single particular, is a proud one for the memory of the 
 Patron, through whose almost unknown munificence it has 
 been eflTected. 
 
 But I pass to one or two other particulars, which must be 
 noticed, before I close the history of the personal career of 
 the subject of this Memoir. He was connected with the in- 
 stitution of Masonry, having been initiated as a Mason in 
 178G, when he was twenty-two. In this Association, as else- 
 where, he was very early placed in official station. He first 
 held the post of Junior Warden, as I find it called ; then of Se- 
 nior Warden ; and then of Master. In 1793, he declined 
 any further election in the Master's Lodge. In 1825, an 
 imposing Masonic ceremony was performed in this city, 
 when he was installed in the office of Grand Master, the 
 highest office in Masonry. The ceremony of installation 
 was performed by Gov. Clinton, who was his predecessor in 
 the same high office. Both the Past and the Elect Grand 
 Master delivered addresses ; that of the former of great 
 length, and full of power, beauty and brilliancy ; that of the 
 latter, in reply, was shorter, full of simplic ity, mingled with 
 sterling good sense, and characterized by his usual kindness, 
 benevolence and fraternal affection. In 182G, he was re- 
 elected to the same office ; but he declined any further official 
 connection with Masonry the next year. It is supposed that 
 whatever there was, or is, in Masonry, worth knowing, he 
 
40 
 
 knew ; and that he had been initiated into some mysteries 
 connected with it, which, since the death of Baron Steuben, 
 by wliom they were communicated, were known to a very 
 few others only, in this country. It is well known, that no 
 abuses committed in the name of this Fraternity, ever re- 
 ceived the least sanction from him ; and certainly no man in 
 our community thought, or spoke, with more unaffected ab- 
 horrence of the outrage, which, in 1820, was offered by Ma- 
 sons to an American citizen in ihe Western part of this State, 
 than he did. He regarded this Institution as formed for 
 practical and benevolent uses, and whatever cormection he 
 had with it, down to the last, was continued principally, as a 
 convenient means of practising those secret acts of charity 
 and kindness in which he so much delighted. 
 
 In December, 1S23, Gen. Van Rensselaer took his seat, 
 for the first time, in Congress, as a Representative from the 
 City and County of Albany. He was continued in his 
 place by re-election for three successive terms, and retired on 
 the fourth of March, 1829. During his whole Congressional 
 service of six years, he held the station of Chairman of the 
 Committee on Agriculture. In March, 1824, he made a 
 valuable Report to the House, in answer to a Resolution of 
 enquiry touching the effect of the Tariff Laws on the inter- 
 ests of Agriculture. In February, 1825, the imposing cere- 
 mony of an election to the Presidency took place in the 
 House of Representatives. His vote determined that of the 
 Delegation from this State in favor of Mr. Adams, and as it 
 resulted, produced the election of that gentleman on the first 
 ballot. Gen. Van Rensselaer never mingled in the con- 
 flict of debate ; but he was not, for that reason, the less val- 
 uable or influential member. His faithfulness, his integrity, 
 his eminent honesty, his kindness of manner, his ready per- 
 ception of the true and the right in all questions presented 
 for the action of the House, and his freedom from the pre- 
 judices and trammels of party, gave him a standing and in- 
 fluence in the House, far beyond what ever belongs, in such 
 a body, to the mere ability, however distingushed,to conduct 
 a skillful argument, or pronounce an eloquent harangue. The 
 great moral sway which character alone, commanding gene- 
 ral admiration and respect, bears in a deliberative Assembly, 
 was never more conspicuous, than in the case of Stephen 
 Van Rensselaer, in the American House of Representa- 
 tives. 
 
 Our review of this eminent man's life is drawing to a con- 
 clusion ; and it will occur no doubt to many, probably as 
 
41 
 
 strange, that as yet, no distinct notice has been taken of cer- 
 tain particulars, by which he was more known and distin- 
 guished in the popular estimation, than by any thing else — 
 namely — first, his connection with various Societies, foreign 
 and domestic, particularly with those whose objects were be- 
 nevolent ; and, finally, his private charities. These have not 
 been forgotten, but they cannot be enumerated in this Dis- 
 course. I may mention, in general terms, that he was an 
 honorary member of many and various learned Associations, 
 at home and abroad ; some pursuing particular branches of 
 science, of arts or learning, and others more comprehensive 
 and general in their objects. He was the President of seve- 
 ral local Sucieties designed for charitable or religious uses ; 
 while of the great Institutions of the day, so general as to be 
 designated American, and employed to aggregate immense 
 numbers, and combine their united Strength for the prosecu- 
 tion of great Christian enterprizes, there was scarcely one, 
 perhaps not one, with which he was not, or had not been, con- 
 nected by membership, and frequently by the highest, always 
 by high official station. 
 
 In regard to his private charities, there are two difficulties 
 in the way of any attempt to particularize them ; one is, that 
 they were private, and they are, therelore, to a great extent 
 unknown ; and the other is, that, so far as known, they are 
 numberless. It would be tedious and difficult to enumerate 
 the cases alone, in which he gave by hundreds and by thou- 
 sands. Two of our American Colleges received from him, 
 in one subscription, five thousand dollars each. It is compu- 
 ted, that lie expended, through a single agent, in prosecutmg 
 scientific researches, and for the advancement of his educa- 
 tional methods and plans, and for gratuitous instruction, not 
 less than thirty thousand dollars. And, taking the cause of 
 learning in its various branches, the support and spread of 
 Christianity, and the plans of benevolence and mercy, as 
 found, eacli of them, in ihe hands of voluntary Associations, 
 and dependant on individual munificence — taking these ob- 
 jects together, I suppose it can liardly be doubted that he was 
 the largest contributor to them, of pecuniary means, during 
 his life time, in the Union. In respect to his minor benevo- 
 lencies, nobody can number or compute them. They flowed 
 from him in streams which were perpetual — never dry, and 
 never scanty. It was impossible they should fail, so long as 
 objects could be found to call them forth — and these never 
 fail. There is not, probably, a profession, and hardly a 
 department of active life amongst us, in which some could 
 
 
 
42 
 
 not be found — few or many — who owe the advantages of 
 their position to him ; while it is nearly certain that he fed more 
 that were hungry, warmed more that were cold, clothed more 
 that were naked, covered more shelterless heads, dried up 
 more bitter tears, and comforted more despairing hearts, than 
 any other man living among us in his time. 
 
 But I pass from these particulars, to the conclusion of this 
 imperfect notice and tribute. The last year or two of the 
 life of this eminent citizen was marked by disease and severe 
 suffering. For several years, indeed, he had been subject to 
 attacks which indicated that a cruel malady was fastening it- 
 self upon him, and that his sun was destined to set in a trou- 
 bled sky. His disorder finally showed itself fully about 
 eighteen months ago, and created, at the time, considerable 
 alarm, lest its termination should be speedily fatal. During 
 the whole of the winter before the last, he was regarded as 
 scarcely ever free Irom danger. Considerable abatement 
 took place in the Spring, and he was able to leave home, for 
 a short time. Wh6n winter returned, he was again wholly 
 confined to his house, and much to his own apartment, endu- 
 ring more than can be tol !, with only brief intervals of re- 
 lief, till the day of his departure came — when his candle 
 went out, suddenly indeed, but not without circumstances of 
 mitigation and mercy. As his faithful and honored friend 
 and biographer, 1 must not omit to record, that he died, as 
 he had lived, a Christian ; exhibiting a patience and resolute- 
 ness in his sufferings, aiid a calmness and fearlessness with 
 the Angel of Death ia his presence, which — however much 
 others might have supposed there was of reliable stuff for 
 such scenes in his natural courage and firmness — he himself 
 referred and attributed wholly to the efficacy and sufficiency 
 of his Cliristian faith and his Christian principles. 
 
 His own desire had been frequently expressed, that when 
 the time camt, his body should be borne to the common 
 Tomb of his Fathers, with simple ceremonies only, and with 
 an entire absence of ostentatious parade. This injunction 
 was obeyed by his iamily, as far as the public, and public 
 bodies, would consent it should be. It was arranged that the 
 reliuious solemnities of his funeral should be celebrated at the 
 North Dutch Church in this city — his own place of public 
 worship — and in the presence of that fellowship of Christians 
 belonging there, with which he had been connected, as a 
 Member in Communion, for more than half a century. From 
 thence to the family vault near his late residence, a procession 
 was formed. The Body, in its simple and unadorned Coffin, 
 
43 
 
 was borne on mens' shoulders — the bearers frequently reliev- 
 ing each other — the pall supported by those who had known 
 him lonj^ and loved him well. No hearse was permitted to 
 receive the burthen. The mouners followed ; after them, the 
 Municipal Authorities of the City; several public Societies; 
 the Chief Magistrate and other Executive Officers of the 
 State ; and the Legislature in order ; and then came citizens 
 and strangers, falling in by two and two, until the procession 
 was extended to a most usual and imposing length. All were 
 on foot. No carriages were used. The Military were in 
 citizens' dress. All badges of office had been laid aside. No 
 plumes nodded; no helmets gUstened ; no music murmured; 
 solemn, slow, and silent, the procession moved on, through 
 thick and thronging, but orderly and respectful ranks, crowd- 
 ing the streets, and lining the casements of every dwelling on 
 either side. And thus were the remains of the good man 
 carried, and deposited in their resting place ; and thus were 
 they attended. None ever had a more simple funeral ; none 
 were ever followed by a larger train of sincere and sorrow- 
 ing mourners. 
 
 Here, then, we part with him. The man dies, but his me- 
 mory and virtues live. I shall not attempt to give a separate 
 and extended sketch of his character. It is found in the sen- 
 timents, the acts, and the practices of his life, as already de- 
 tailed. His mind was of that order which combines quickly,, 
 and reaches conclusions so readily, and with such intuitive 
 accuracy, that laborious investigation, as the need of it is not 
 soon felt, finally becomes irksome, and is seldom or never 
 used. It reposes on itself with a confidence which experience 
 only confirms, while the process by which it comes to results, 
 are seldom stated to itself, and never to others. His heart 
 was not uniike his mind, in its impulsive and intuitive habits ; 
 it made him a man of mercy and of charity, without the ne- 
 cessity of any elaborate discipline, or any long training. It 
 was his nature to be kind and humane. He was tenderly 
 attached to his family, where his aftections, without making 
 an uncommon case of it, might have rested and terminated ; 
 yet he saw a friend or a brother in every worthy man he met. 
 His benevolence was of that large kind which loves an ex- 
 pansive range, and is offended at limitations and restraints. 
 And his humanity was not satisfied with stopping short of cru- 
 elty, or with relieving misery, but was itselt distressed, if, by 
 the most unconscious act, pain were inflicted on another, or 
 his sensibility wounded. He had the tenderness of a very 
 woman, laid side by side in his temperament with a manly 
 
44 
 
 courage, and an unconcernedness which made him, if occa- 
 sion demanded, laugh and mock at fear or danger. There 
 was that in him, too, which made his spirit always self-poised 
 and conservative. He was temperate in all things ; in his 
 personal indulgencies ; in his personal predilections or preju- 
 dices; in his party attachments or aversions; in his new opin- 
 ions or feelings, whenever he acquired them ; in his love of 
 the world ; and in his religious faith and practice. And, to 
 sum up all, there was in him, with a reasonable facility for 
 changing with the times, a steadfastness of character and pur- 
 pose — but no unimpressibility — derived, perhaps, by inheri- 
 tance from his nation, but so mingled in him with other ele- 
 ments, as to belong essentially and individually to himself. 
 But I forbear. 
 
 The best part of a good man's life is his example. Him 
 we may meet no more ; but this we may meet at uvery turn. 
 This is immortal, and cannot die. It lives in memory ; lives 
 in tradition; lives in history. It is present with us, and will 
 be present with those who come after us — to teach, to in- 
 struct, to influence, and to guide. It is a light which never 
 goes out, and never grows dim. And, for my part, I know 
 not what we, or the world, ought to thank God tor devoutly, 
 if not, that a good man has lived, and, dying, has left us the 
 legacy of his example and his virtues. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 At the period when the settlement of the North Ameri-' 
 can Colonies was begun, the Dutch were, by far, the most 
 Commercial people in Europe. The Republic of Holland 
 boasted of twenty thousand vessels, and more than two hun- 
 dred thousand mariners. A bloody war, waged for National 
 Independence, through a long series of years, seemed to have 
 had no other effect than to multiply their numbers, and turn 
 rivers of wealth to flow into the lap of the Nation. Liberty, 
 too, was a great gainer ; and Civilization marched forward 
 by rapid strides, and with manly vigor, under the lead of 
 Commerce. The City of Amsterdam took the lead of all 
 others in the Netherlands. In population, in wealth, and in 
 political power, she was pre-eminent. The affairs of the 
 Nation were conducted, and wars were prosecuted, expressly 
 in a manner to favor and promote the operations of trade ; and 
 much of the political authority, directly or indirectly, was in 
 the hands of the Municipalities where the Merchants bore 
 sway. 
 
 In the first years of the Seventeenth Century, the Merchants 
 of Holland, like those of every other country in Europe, 
 still worshipped with their regards turned towards the Ea^t. 
 In 1602, the Dutch East India Company was established — 
 one of those extraordinary organizations of the period, em- 
 bracing half a world in its exclusive commercial grasp, and 
 clothed, at the same time, with unlimited and independent 
 powers for conquest and for government. It was while en- 
 gaged in the service of this Company, that Hudson, after 
 another unsuccessful attempt to find his way to Southern 
 Asia, through the ice-bound Seas of the North, ran down 
 the American Coast, and, finally, enlered and explored our 
 own noble River, which still bears his name. This was in 
 1609. The Dutch claimed no other territorial rights, in 
 new countries, as ihe consequence of Discovery, than such 
 as they might secure by actual possession, taken in reasonable 
 time. For several successive years after the Discovery, the 
 
46 
 
 country on the Hudson was visited by the trading ships of 
 various Merchants of Amsterdam. In 1614, the Slates 
 General passed an Edict, vi^hich excluded, for four years, 
 from the trade on this River, all competition with those un- 
 der whom the Discovery had been made, from such time 
 as the latter might see fit to enter upon and monopolize it. 
 It was under this Edict, that an unincorporated Trading Com- 
 pany, made up, probably, in whole or in part, from Mem- 
 bers of the East India Company, sent out a trading adven- 
 ture, which found a position for itself, in the fall of that 
 year, on the upper part of Castle Island, the first below this 
 city, and known to us as Van Kensselaer's, or the Patroon's 
 Island, and where a rude fortification was then erected.* 
 
 This establishment was purely Commercial, looking almost 
 solely to the trade in peltries, with so much of military power 
 incorporated with it, as might serve for protection, in its out- 
 cast lodgement in the deep of a savage wilderness. Its pre- 
 sence here, as the pioneer of Colonization, was fortunate and 
 salutary. From the first, it conciliated the favor and friend- 
 ship of the Mohawks, and with them, the warlike and con- 
 quering Confederacy of Indians, known as the Five Nations ; 
 and, within three years, its managers succeeded in con- 
 cluding a solemn and formal Treaty of Friendship and Al- 
 liance with the Confederacy, which stood the parties con- 
 cerned, and their successors, for long years to come, in much 
 better stead, than their fortification, " with two brass pieces, 
 eleven stone guns, and a dozen soldiers," would have been 
 likely to do under other circumstances. This Treaty was 
 concluded at the Fort of the Traders, which was situated on 
 the banks of the Norman's Kill, a short distance south of the 
 position originally assumed, and from which they had been 
 driven by the floods.f 
 
 But as yet, it will be observed, there was no Dutch Colo- 
 ny here. There were only the Commercial Agents of a Tra- 
 ding Association. Not a family, or a female, had yet emi- 
 grated.J There had been no formal appropriation of any 
 portion of the soil, except for present or temporary use ; 
 no purchase of land had been made ; and the public Autho- 
 rities at home had, as yet, advanced no claim to the Terri- 
 
 * Mr. Bancroft, in his admirable History of the United States, insists that this trading 
 settlement was not made until 16iS ; and he claims, in his Notes, that this fact is proved 
 by the Albany Records. I think he is mistaken. The proof to which he refers is too in- 
 definite and uncertain, to control the direct testimony in the case. 1 Banc. Hist. 27ii-3. 
 
 t Vide iMoulton's Hist. N. Y. Part ii, p. 346. 
 
 i The first child of European parentage, born in New Netherland, had its birth in 
 1625. Moult. Part ii. p. 371. 
 
47 
 
 tory. But the way to Colonization was about to be opened. 
 With objects on the part of the Government, having little 
 to do, immediately, with the settlement and reclaiming of a 
 new and savage world, a great National Society was in- 
 stituted by the States General, under the name of the Dutch 
 West India Company, which possessed the most extraordi- 
 nary privileges, and was clothed with the most extraordinaiy 
 powers. This was in 1621. It was invested with the ex- 
 clusive right " to traffic and plant Colonies on the Coast 
 of Africa, from the Tropic of Cancer to the Cape of Good 
 Hope ; and on the Coast of America, from the Straits of Ma- 
 gellan to the remotest North." It was to be an armed Asso- 
 ciation from the start, and especially, it was expected to set 
 out with a powerful Marine. The enemies of the Republic 
 were to be its enemies. And whenever it should go to war 
 on its own account, as it had the prerogative of doing, its 
 enemies were to be also the enemies of the Republic. The 
 States General were to be its allies. With more than half a 
 hemisphere of land and water for its operations, it was to car- 
 ry its arms and its merchandize — to traffic and to conquer — 
 wherever it might be found profitable and practicable to do 
 so. Wherever its standard might be planted, there the abso- 
 lute right of government in the Company attached, with only 
 this condition, that every thing must be done to the satisfac- 
 tion of the high Authorities from which its power was de- 
 rived. The Central power of the Company was divided, for 
 the more efficient exercise, among five Branches, established in 
 the different cities of the Netherlands. Of these, that at Am- 
 sterdam was the chief, and had charge of the affairs of New 
 Netherland. The general supervision and government of 
 the affairs of the Company, however, was lodged ia a Col- 
 lege, or Congress, of Nineteen Delegates. These Deputies, 
 and the Managers of the Five Chambers, were styled the 
 Lord's Directors, and they wielded a commercial and politi- 
 cal authority, of the first magnitude. The home of their 
 power was to be both on the water and on the land. They 
 commenced their operations in 1023, and at once they swept 
 the Ocean with their fleets, and made their descent on the 
 shores of two Continents, wherever they could spoil or an- 
 noy an enemy, or secure profits to themselves. Spain, 
 the ancient enemy and oppressor of their country was made 
 to feel the weight of the right arm of their power ; and 
 Piracy, wnich, at this juncture, was well nigh having the 
 common command of the Ocean, was met every where, and 
 beaten into submission and good behavior. 
 
48 
 
 With objects like these to occupy the attention of the Di- 
 rectors, it is not surprising that the Colonization of a new 
 country — the planting of a Christian population in a heathen 
 and wilderness land, with a view to making it, in time, the 
 abode of civilization and refinement — siiould not at first have 
 given them much concern. They did indeed prepare, at once, 
 to take possession of the country on the North River ; for in 
 the very first year of their full organization — in 1G23 — they 
 set up the ensigns of their authority here in two fortifica- 
 tions. Fort New Amsterdam, occupied a position near the 
 confluence of the North and East Rivers ; and Fort Orange 
 was planted near the head of navigation, on the alluvial 
 ground now occupied by the business part of the City of Al- 
 bany.* But even yet, and for some years after, these were 
 the mere trading stations of the Company. Fort Orange was 
 a walled and armed Custom-House, into which was made to 
 flow a commerce in peltries, drawn from a country extending 
 to Quebec, and bounded thence by the course of the waters 
 inland to Niagara and the Lake above it ; while New Am- 
 sterdam was the Head Quarters of the local government, 
 vested in an Upper and an Under Merchant, or Comniissary,f 
 and the place of rendezvous for the ships and coasters of the 
 Company. 
 
 I have entered into this little detail of history, in order to 
 shew the more clearly how, and under what auspices, Colon- 
 ization was in fact commenced, and where the credit of it 
 ought to attach. De Heer Kiilian Van Rensselaer, as he was 
 called, and who became the first Patroon of Rensselaerwick, 
 was a Director of the Dutch West India Company at Am- 
 sterdam, and, as described in some old Manusc: ipts, a chief 
 partner. In 1625, De Laet, also a DireC .r, and afterwards 
 associated with Van Rensselaer in eifort j to plant a Colony, 
 published a book on the New World, which had distinC' f"'' 
 its object to recommend Colonization to the attention ot lii 
 countrymen. Attention was aroused, but no mo' nent was 
 eflfected for four years. In 1629, a change was f . oduced in 
 the Constitution of the Central Government, so far as to al- 
 low the appointment of Nine Commissioners at Amsterdam, 
 for the government of the affairs of New Netherland. Of 
 this Commission, Van Rensselaer was one ; and it is fair to 
 infer, froiuhis position and wealth, as well as from subsequent 
 events, that he had already conceived strongly the idea and 
 
 * The site was that on which stands the building hitely known as tha Fort Orange 
 Hotel— formerly the mansion of the late Simeon De Witt, 
 t Opper Koo'pman and Onder Koopmau — or Comniis. 
 
49 
 
 intention of planting a Colony in America, and hence that 
 he had a principal share, by his influence and exertions, in 
 brinijing about that event which first, and shortly after, led 
 to Colonization in this quarter, under the Company. This 
 was the adoption, in the same year— 1629— by the College 
 of XIX, of a hberal Charter of Privileges for Patroons 
 planting Colonies in New Netherland.* Van Rensselaer lost 
 no time in preparing to avail himself of the terms of this 
 Charter. The very first purchase of land made by the 
 Dutch, for a regular Colony, within this State, so far as I 
 have been able to discover, was made for Killian Van Rens- 
 selaer. The land lay near Fort Orange, but below it, and, 
 having its extent on the River defined, was to run " two days 
 journey in landwards ;" and the purchase was made, on the 
 8th day of April, 16^0, of four Indian owners, or Chiefs, 
 at Fort Orange, in the presence and by the agency of Gov. 
 Minuit himself, then holding the chief authority,! and with 
 payments in merchandize to the full satisfaction of the native 
 lords of the soil. J Other purchases, from various owners, 
 were soon after made for the same proprietor— one the same 
 year, and the last in 1637— which, all together, made up the 
 full complement of Territory, constituting, finally, the Col- 
 ony of Rensselaerwyck. These acquisitions were confirm- 
 ed to the purchaser shortly after they were severally made, 
 by the public authorities at Fort Amsterdam. 
 
 The way was now prepared, and Van Rensselaer, very 
 promptly, after the first purchases had been made for him. 
 in 1630, sent out his Colonists to occupy the ground. The 
 condition of the Charter to Patroons required, that every 
 Colony of ^. Patroon, within four years, should consist of 
 fifty persons, an \ none under fifteen years of age, and that 
 one fourtf T)art o these should be planted within the first 
 year. TL. re can ue little doubt that this requisition was 
 complieo with in Rensselaerwyck. Nor did this satisfy the 
 Propriety He was shrewd and careful enough to take ad- 
 vantage < a clause in the Charter — inserted there, as would 
 seem from subsequent events, with scarcely a belief that the 
 provision could possibly be available to any body— which 
 
 * Vide Cliarter at length, in Moulton's New-York— Part ii. p. 389. „ . ^ 
 
 t WoBter Van Twilltr, afterwards Governor, was then here, sent out under the orders 
 of the Nine Commissioners of Amsterdam prohahly with a view to further the designs of 
 some of them in regard to Colonization, but not yei, it would seem, in command, since 
 it is certain that he bore no supersedeas to Minuit. Van Twiller returned to Holland, and 
 came back again in an armed ship, and with some stale, to taKe possession ot the Oov- 
 
 „„» i.. 1R)1 
 
 ernment in 1633 
 
 Moult. Hist. Part ii. 419— also vide lb. p. 400. 
 
 { Book of Patents Translated— Sec. of State' s Office— p. 6. 
 
50 
 
 offered to any Patroon who would settle a larger number of 
 persons than fifty in his Colony, liberty to extend his pur- 
 chases and possessions proportionably beyond the limits 
 originally prescribed in the Charter.* These prescribed 
 limits, were a stretch of eight English miles on a Naviga- 
 ble River, with land running back into the country on 
 either side.f The Patroon of liensselaerwyck provided him- 
 self with a Territory for his Colony, extending twenty-four 
 miles on the River, and embracing the land on either shore, 
 and obliging himself, therefore, according to the terms of the 
 Charter, to begin his little Empire in the West, with a sub- 
 ject population of one hundred and fifty adult souls, besides 
 the usual complement of children. 
 
 The Colony of Rensselaerwyck, planted under the direc- 
 tion and at the sole expense of the Patroon, was the first 
 successful Colony, planted expressly as such by the Dutch, 
 in America. The first settlement of this State by a body 
 of emigrants from the Netherlands, forming a regular Colo- 
 nial establishment, under tha provisions of the Company's 
 Charter, was at Albany. But this was not the only eftbrt 
 to promote and effect Colonization in America, made by the 
 enterprising and sagacious Van Rensselaer. One of his as- 
 sociates in the Direction of the West India Company, and 
 a fellow Commissioner, had caused a tract to be secured to 
 him, by purchase from the Indian Owners, lying on the 
 Delaware, then within the ample boundaries of New 
 Netherlaiid. It would seem that Godyn, the purchaser, felt 
 himself alone unequal to the burthen of planting a Colony 
 there ; and an Association was formed for the purpose, con- 
 sisting of several Directors, of whom Killian Van Rensselaer 
 was one. In the tall of 1630, they fitted out an expedition, 
 under De Vries, a skilful conductor, and set down on the Del- 
 aware a Colony of thiity souls. This Colony was unfor- 
 tunate. Within two years, every soul had perished by the 
 weapons of the Savages, in revenge of an unprovoked and 
 w^anton injury. But calamitous as the result was to the set- 
 tlers, the attempt was not without its value, and it led to im- 
 portant consequences. This was the first settlement in Dela- 
 ware, and was earlier than any in Pennsylvania or New Jer- 
 
 * The henvy expense of planting a Coloiiy, at that time, may be judged of, in some 
 measure perhaps, by a single esiini pie. Ihave found the record of an account presented 
 by Gov. Van Twiller to Sir Killian Van Kenssellaer (us Van Derkenipt has it,) in August 
 1638, for the fare and iransporlation of /wo families only, in the Company's ships, the 
 whole of whitfh account amounted to £1,413 12. (^'urrency. I cannot help suspecting that 
 there must have been something besides fare in this account. — 1 Alb. Records — Trans. 
 
 1 Or sixteen miles on such River, with land on one side of the River only. 
 
51 
 
 sey ; and it is due to Killian Van Rensselaer and his asso- 
 ciates in fitting out this Colonizing expedition, that Delaware 
 exists, at this day, as an Independent State.* 
 
 Colonization was now fairly commenced at and around Fort 
 Orange, on the shores of the noble Hudson ; and about 
 1637, the Patroon of this Colony appeared in person to take 
 charge of his Estate and his People. The full history of 
 the Colony of Rensselaerwick would not only be interesting, 
 but would contribute, not a little, towards pouring a full and 
 steady light on the condition and circumstances of the Pro- 
 vince of New-York, in the period of its birth and early 
 years. On this occasion, however, I can only recall its 
 prominent features. 
 
 The United Provinces of Holland, it must be remember- 
 ed, never themselves undertook Colonization any where. 
 They encouraged it, but they would not put their own hand 
 to the work ; and the mode in which encouragement was 
 given in the case before us, shewed clearly the intention 
 of transferring to America the feudal and aristocratical insti- 
 tutions of thj Father land. The old Aristocracy, however, 
 content with the power and the consideration it enjoyed 
 at home, was not to be transplanted ; but the New World 
 was to h«ve a new Aristocracy, formed out of the best 
 materials ttiat could be spared trom the old. The Prince 
 would not come here, and, as a general thing, the old nobles 
 would not come ; but out of that new and enterprising class 
 which commerce had formed, and by the forming of which 
 liberty had been greatly a gainer, a feudal and landed Aris- 
 tocracy was to be created for the uses of the rising world of 
 New Netherland. 
 
 In the Charter of the West India Company, it was made 
 the duty of the Lords Directors to provide, in some form, for 
 the settlement, in time, of the Countries of which they should 
 possess themselves ; while yet the Stations of the Company 
 every where were to be governed by their own high officers, 
 with military and brief authority, and Commerce, and the 
 spoil of the national enemy, were evidently the chief con- 
 sideration. When, however, the College of XIX came to 
 
 * About a quarter of a century after the first purchase had been made for Van Renssel- 
 aer, at Fort Orange, a claim was set up by Godyn, De Laet and others, or their descend- 
 ants, to a partnership interest in the Colony of Kensselaerwyck. The claim was present- 
 ed by Petition, before the Lords Directors ot the Company at Amsterdam, and. by them, 
 was referred to the Director General and Council at Amsterdam. The demand was not 
 allowed. It rested in written Articles of Agreement, which were produced, and bore date 
 Oct. 16, 1630. They had reference, no doubt, to the Delaware Colony; and the attempt 
 to make them apply to the Colony of Ilensseluerwyck, probably grew, honestly enough, 
 out of the vagueness of ideas with which every thing belonging to territorial matters in 
 the New World was viewed at this period. 
 
52 
 
 look after the subject of Colonization, they adopted, very na- 
 turally, a system in perfect harmony, with the political com- 
 plexion of the Government at home. In the Charter of 
 Privileges framed by them, they held out inducements to 
 Particular Persons and Masters, as they were there called, as 
 well as to Patroons. But though Holland was a Republic, and 
 fit, therefore, to be the Mother of a Republic ; though by her 
 Federal Union of Provinces she was about to offer to Amer- 
 ica a most valuable precedent for the guaranty of National 
 Liberty ; though by her toleration and her steady good sense, 
 her soil was now the Asylum of the oppressed for religious 
 opinions, of all nations ; and though, on the whole, Freedom 
 in the Netherlands, instructed in long wars for Independence, 
 was greatly superior to any thing of the sort among her 
 neighbors ; yet popular liberty was, as yet, but little advanced 
 in Holland. Citizens and artizans had begun to look up, for 
 personal wealth and personal worth were beginning to be ap- 
 preciated; and Municipal othce, and even the Aristocratic 
 station of Burgomaster, were not wholly beyond their line of 
 vision. But, then, the tillers of the soil — the boors of the farms 
 and the fields, knew little of Freedom — they had hardly yet 
 heard so much as a note from her trumpet. They knew what 
 protection was, and what kindness was; but they had none 
 of that consciousness of being free, and feeling power, which 
 alone could prompt them to dtsire a change of place as like- 
 ly to lead to the bettering of their condition and prospects. 
 Voluntary emigration, therefore, was not to be expected from 
 them. They had no religious persecution to fly from, as 
 other American Colonists had, and indeed few, if any, per- 
 secutions of any sort, and they had not begun yet to hanker 
 after a share in politics. It is evident enough, therefore, that 
 the hopes ot Colonizing their possessions in America, rested, 
 almost wholly, on the Patroons, and to them they offered the 
 inducements proper to make them contemplate with favor 
 the idea of changing their country. The feudal Lordships of 
 Europe — those Baronial possessions and establishments which 
 abounded on the Continent and in England, and which were 
 not unknown in Holland — enjoying more or less indepen- 
 dence, and having more or less the prerogatives of sove- 
 reignty — these offered the example of establishments for the 
 North American Province of the Dutch. The model was 
 proposed, and we have seen that Killian Van Rensselaer was 
 prompt to act upon the suggestion. 
 
 What, then, was the political Constitution of the Colony of 
 Rensselaerwyck ? And what was the power and authority of 
 
53 
 
 the Lord of this Colony ? Doubtless some modification took 
 place, from the originals, to suit the circumstances of its con- 
 dition in a distant and barbarous country. Holland had thrown 
 off the oppressions of bigotry and absolutism ; and liberty 
 there consisted in preserving the Commercial Aristocracy of 
 the Municipalities, and the feudal immunities of the landed 
 interest, against any tendencies to Executive encroachments 
 on the part of their own chosen Stadtholder. This was the 
 sort of liberty to be planted here ; the same general system 
 was to prevail here, as soon as time and events should ripen 
 the country for it ; with this difference of course, that besides 
 the fealty due from the Cities, and the Colonies of Patroons, 
 to the Central Authorities in the Province, all, and the Pro- 
 vince itself, were to owe a general allegiance and subjection 
 to the Slates General in Holland. Colonies of Patroons were 
 an important feature in this system ; and of these Colonies, 
 that of Rensselaer wyck was the most notable and important. 
 The Colony of course, had its foundation in the Charter of 
 Privileges; but the full powers of the Patroon can only be 
 understood by reference to the analagous powers of feudal 
 dignitaries. The design was to give l»im, or rather to leave 
 him, as much authority as would enable him to protect and 
 govern his people, and protect and defend himself and 
 his possessions, as well against foreign aggression, as against 
 domestic revolt. His position, in the midst of a wilder- 
 ness, pressed closely on every side by rude, warlike and 
 powerful tribes, was not altogether unlike that of the feu- 
 dal Lord in his solitary castle, hemmed m v;ith hereditary, 
 and revengeful foes ; and we have abundant evidence to 
 shew that, in construing their own authority, the Patroons of 
 this Colony, and those who acied for them, regarded their 
 powers for military defences and operations, as fully equal to 
 the exigencies of their condition and times. At first, indeed, 
 and in the feebleness of his young Colony, the Patroon bor- 
 rowed a principal means of defence against violence from 
 without, from the Military Station still held by the West India 
 Company, in the midst of his possessions. His first Trading, 
 or Custom House, with some other tenantries, were placed, 
 for this purpose, under cover of the stone guns and other 
 pieces which defended the walls of Fort Orange.* The first 
 residence of the Patroon himself — which was on the upper 
 end of the Patroon's Islandf — was not too far off, perhaps, to 
 have been within the range of protection afforded by the Com- 
 
 '■ 7 Alb. Records, p. 197. 
 
 t This appears from an ancient Map in the possession of the family. 
 
54 
 
 pany's Cannon. But this means of defence, was not long, if 
 it ever was, exclusively relied upon. We find the Patroon 
 himself possessed of the munitions of war, and having Forts 
 of his own, planted with cannon. We find him at an early 
 period fortifying an Island in the River, and claiming so much 
 of the I'egal power, which seems to belong to the independent 
 possession of such warlike instruments and defences, that his 
 Commander there, does not hesitate to fire into a Dutch ves- 
 sel which presumes to pass without lowering her colors as an 
 act of homage to Rensselaerstein. We find him receiving, at 
 various times, large quantities of powder and ball : his own 
 dwelling is palhsaded, fortified, and manned ; and, finally, he 
 is able to lend three of his own cannon to the Company's 
 Commander at Fort Orange, and three more he causes to be 
 mounted on the walls of the Church, and he constructs and 
 garrisons an independent Fortress as an outpost in the woods. 
 Happily, this Colony, by a prudent and humane policy from 
 the beginning, escaped the calamities which befel so many 
 others in the country, by the hostile incursions of the Indians. 
 They had no known and public enemy among the Savages 
 near them, except those residing at Esopus ; and no occasion 
 arose for actual hostilities. These Esopus Indians, however, 
 were warlike and implacable ; and threw the Colony often 
 times into great alarm. They contrived, at one time, by stra- 
 tagem, to carry oflf several prisoners, and among them the 
 fair daughter of the Company's Chief Officer at Fort Orange; 
 and it was not until a few months before the surrender of the 
 Province to the English, that they succeeded in concluding a 
 firm peace with those troublesome neighbors. But the right 
 which the Patroons claimed to engage, for the sake of defence, 
 in warlike operations, if need should be, and the state of war- 
 like preparation which they found it convenient to provide 
 and display, all together created, at times — certainly without 
 any sufficient foundation — a feeling of distrust and uneasiness 
 on the part of the Central Government of the Province, and 
 of the Authorities at home, lest the Colony of Rensselaerwyck 
 should some day yield to temptation, and, setting up for itself, 
 should be wholly lost to the parent country. The Chamber of 
 Directors at Amsterdam made formal complaints against the 
 Patroon, and the Directors of his Colony for the time being, 
 amongst other things, that their territorial limits had been quite 
 too much extended ; that they had manifested a design to mo- 
 nopolize the whole trade of the North River — a design, in- 
 deed, openly avowed, as they alleged, by the Gov. Wouter 
 Van T wilier; who, since he had been recalled from the Gov- 
 
55 
 
 ernment of the Province, had become the Guardian of the 
 Patroon of the time, in his non-age, and, though in Holland, 
 was the principal agent and director of the affairs of the Co- 
 lony — that they had actually set up a claim to "staple-right," 
 and were prepared to enforce it by a fortification at Renssel- 
 aerstein* — and, finally, that the oath of fealty and allegiance, 
 exacted of the Colonists, to the Patroons, savored of inde- 
 pendence, and even sedition, inasmuch as no notice whatever 
 was taken in the oath, of their High Mightinesses, the Stales 
 General, as the ultimate Superiors of the Colony and its Pa- 
 troons. They deprecated the occurrence of a war between 
 the Dutch and the English Colonists in America — a serious 
 difference having already set in — lest, by some means, in the 
 progress of the war, Kensselaerwyck should be separated from 
 their dominions. 
 
 In all this, it is evident, I think, from a cursory view of the 
 records of the controversy almost constantly going on between 
 the Directors of the Colony and those of New Netherland, 
 that the Corporation took council chiefly of its fears. There 
 was undoubtedly, a disposition at times, if not to enlarge the 
 jurisdiction and powers of the Colony, at least to use all that 
 belonged to it ; but the truth really is, that the Company, hav- 
 ing early discovered that the legitimate advantages and im- 
 poitance of the Colony, uader the efficient direction and ener- 
 gy of Killian Van Rensselaer, were greater than was quite 
 consistent with all the monopoly and profits, all the while in- 
 tended to have been secured to the Corporation, sought every 
 favorable occasion afterwards to interpose, and interfere inju- 
 riously with its unquestionable rights and interests. We shall 
 see abundant proofs of this as our narrative proceeds. 
 
 But the power of the Patroons for the defence of their Col- 
 ony by military array, was not more remarkable than that 
 which they possessed in regard to its police and government. 
 The Charter, so often referred to, expressly clothed them with 
 the High and Low Jurisdiction of the Feudal Law. This 
 gave to the Patroons the original and absolute right to admin- 
 ister, in person, or by functionaries of their own appointment, 
 the whole justice of the Colony, in both branches of Juris- 
 prudence. The decision of all causes, civil and criminal, be- 
 longed in the first instance to them, in the Courts of the Co- 
 lony. They had the right of trying crimes of every kind, 
 
 * •' Staple-Right" is defined to be a privilege granted by the Sovereign to the inhabi- 
 tants of a certain place to compel Masters of Vessels, trailing along their Coasts, to dis- 
 charge their cargo thore for sule, or on failure tliereof, to pay certain duties. 
 
 Van der Linden's Institutes of the Laws of Holland— p. 558. 
 
56 
 
 even the highest, and those punishable by the loss of life or 
 limb, as well as those inferior and petty offences which, on 
 conviction, were followed by fine and imprisonment. Origi- 
 nally, where feudal Jurisprudence prevailed, the sentences of 
 the Baronial Courts were final, and no appeal lay to any Su- 
 perior Court. But, before the time we speak of, the efforts of 
 Sovereigns every where had been directed to the correction 
 of this dangerous concession to the Barons, and appeals, at 
 least in cases affecting limb or life, were generally allowed. 
 It is supposed, that to that extent, and strictly to that extent 
 only, could appeals be taken to the decisions and judgments 
 pronounced in the criminal courts of the Patroons. Indeed, 
 in these cases, if any such occurred, a review ol the proceed- 
 ings was probably a matter of course, before execution of the 
 sentence could be had, and whether the party implicated 
 chose to enter an appeal or not. In regard to the lesser of- 
 fences and misdemeanors, the Jurisdiction of the Patroons 
 seems to have been complete and final. And so it would have 
 been in all civil suits, according to the feudal law ; but the 
 Charter provided expressly for an appeal to the Company's 
 Commander and Council in New Netherland, from all judg- 
 ments, by the Courts of the Patroons, for upwards of fifty 
 guilders — a little less than twenty-one Dollars.* 
 
 Such was the jurisdiction of the Patroons of this Colony. 
 Justice, in both branches, was administered in their name, and 
 by their authority. They appointed all the officers of Justice 
 in the Colony — as well as their Commercial officials, and their 
 Military Commanders. The SheriiF and the Secretary of the 
 Colony — Officers having more to do with the prosecution of 
 suits and complaints and the trial of causes, than those titles 
 in our system would indicate — were put in Commission by 
 themf. They did not, so far as I have discovered, delegate 
 the Judicial power which belonged to them, or to the Chief 
 Director of the Colony for the time, any farther than that 
 power was committed to the Sheriff and Secretary. In imi- 
 tation of the policy and practice of ihe old Barons, of Princes 
 of inferior rank, and even of the highest Sovereigns in the 
 early part of the Middle Ages, they presided in their own tri- 
 bunals, in cases of importance or delicacy, and dispensed the 
 justice of the Colony in person. Regularly, the due adminis- 
 
 '■■ Just $20 83 1-2. 
 
 t Shortly before the Surrender to the English, the Directors at Amsterdam set up a 
 vlaim to create a Sherifll for Hensselaerwick ; and they instructed Gov. Sluyvesant— not 
 to appoint a new Sherifll— but to re-appoint Sheriff Swart, already in Commission uuder 
 the Patroon, and induce him to consent to receive a Commission from the Company!— 
 Letter of 25. Ap. 1659—4 Alb. Records p. 301. 
 
67 
 
 tration of justice would have required the Patroons to have 
 t.'ieir Coluiiial prison, for the incarceration of such offenders 
 as should be condemned to that punishment. But a separate 
 prison of their own was not indispensable. A Jail was con- 
 structed in Fort Orange — probably by arrangement between 
 the Colony and the Company; certain it is, it was used for 
 their mutual accommodation. To it the Sheriff" of Rcnssel- 
 aerwyck committed his pi-isoners. In the Courts of the Colo- 
 ny, all causes and disputes between the freeholders and inha- 
 bitants of the Territory were triable — all questions about 
 titles to lands, about possessions or boundaries, about con- 
 tracts, and about injuries to property, persons or character. 
 And here also, the Patroons brought suits, or might have done 
 so, against the tenants and freeholders of the Colony, for the 
 quit-rents and oiher demands due to them — a jurisdiction and 
 right certainly calling for great moderation and forbearance 
 on the part of the Patroons and their Officials, to prevent the 
 abuses and oppressions to which so partial a tribunal would 
 be likely to tend. 
 
 The brief view now taken of the Constitution and polity of 
 the Colony, may be enough to give us a general impres- 
 sion, and not perhaps an unjust one, of the political condition 
 of the Colonists under the power and government of the 
 Patroons. The relations between the two did not certain- 
 ly leave to the Colonists that freedom, and give them that se- 
 curity, which men enjoy under poj)i;l:'r institutions. But it 
 must not be inferred that their condition was one in which 
 they suffered oppression or injustice. It is true, that they 
 were vassals — not, however, in the sense in which that 
 word is olten understood. They were bound, by a solemn 
 oath, to bear true faith and fealty to the Lord and Governor 
 of the Colony. They were his immediate subjects, and bound 
 to a lawful obedience. But their Superior was himself a 
 vassal — to those high Authorities from whom he derived his 
 right and liis power; he was himself a subject, and his peo- 
 ple were not only his subjects, but they were the subjects 
 also of the same Sovereign to whom his own allegiance was 
 due. There appears to have been, from the papers I have 
 examined, and 1 have no doubt there was, as a general 
 thing, a relation of kindness and mutual attachment subsist- 
 ing between them and him. He was what his title indica- 
 ted he would be, their Patron — their protector and friend. 
 He promulgated to them just laws enough, and exercised 
 just authoiily enough, to compel them, wherever they might 
 be otherwise disposed, to be orderly and peaceable, and ob- 
 
 8 
 
58 
 
 serve the obligations of honesty and right, towards him,, 
 and towards one another. For the rest,' his government was 
 paternal. It was exercised in composing disputes and differ- 
 ences, in bestowing friendly counsel, and, through the natu- 
 ral influence of his position and character, reconcihng enmi- 
 ties and healing feuds. The care of their defence and pro- 
 tection, in their exposed situation, rested with him. He 
 had the means of such defence, which they had not ; and, 
 having both their gratitude and their confidence, ihey were 
 proud to be his soldiers, as well as his subjects, and were 
 ready, at any time, to fight with him, or to fight for him, as 
 he should direct and command. They enjoyed, it must be re- 
 membered, feudal liberty — a liberty by no means to be des- 
 pised, at that time of day. It was one of the best forms of 
 liberty, which, at that day, the world had to offer. The feu- 
 dal system came originally, as a relief to men from the 
 burthens and oppressions of worse systems which it displaced ; 
 and though it was itself made subsequently the instrument of 
 grinding exactions, and of every species of petty tyranny, so 
 that the people were glad to fly to their Sovereigns, and to 
 absolute governments, f )r protection, yet before the period 
 we speak of, the system, what remained of it, and in its mod- 
 ifie 1 forms, had become one which favored freedom, and 
 was not without its guaranties fur security and personal inde- 
 pendence. There was a single feature in it of no incon- 
 si Jerable importance and value, and which belonged to it 
 as applied to this Colony as well as elsewhere — whether there 
 was ever occasion to use it or not. The freeholders of the 
 Colony — as many of those holding lands from the Patroons 
 Were — were as much, and as essentially, members of the 
 Criminal Courts of the Colony, as was the Patroon him- 
 self, whenever trials were to be held fur any of the higher 
 class of offences. They were themselves the triers of the 
 offenders, and no man could be convicted for a capital, or 
 high crime, without the verdict of a competent number of 
 his peers. 
 
 I have not found, in my researches, nor do I believe, that 
 there was any thing seriously to complain of in the conduct 
 of the administration of the Colony — especially while it was 
 in the hands of the Patroons themselves, or any of the fami- 
 ly. During the non-age of a Patroon, which, by the law of 
 Holland, extended, I think, to twenty-five years, I find the 
 Colony in possession and under the Command and Director- 
 ship of one Brandt Van Slecktenhoorst, who certainly did seem 
 disposed, in some things, to carry matters with a high hand. 
 
59 
 
 He is accused by the Director General and Council at Man- 
 hattan, of making his judicial decisions absolute and final in 
 all cases, and compeHing the inhabitants to forego the use of 
 their undoubted right of appeal. 1 have not found, however, 
 any evidence that any such complaint ever emanated from 
 the inhabitants themselves^ and it is only sheer justice to the 
 memory of the worthy Commander, to say that in my judg- 
 ment, his accusers in this case, ought not to be his judges. 
 His zeal, no doubt at times intemperate, for the honor and in- 
 terests of his Orphan Patroon — as he repeatedly styles him — 
 and for the Colony, and his resolute determination that no 
 rights should be lost for non-user during his administration, 
 led him into a sharp collision with the Authorities of the In- 
 dia Company, and finally, into very serious troubles. But I 
 have seen no evidence to show that he practised, or attempt- 
 ed — as he was accused — any imitation of those Barons of 
 France, of whom history records tnat they put to death, or 
 mutilated, such persons as presumed to appeal from the sen- 
 tences of their courts ; nor indeed, that he ventured on any 
 other, and less atrocious, means of securing such an object. 
 
 The truth, I think, is that the India Company, on mature 
 deliberation, were not quite satisfied with the work of then- 
 own hands, and they manifested too much disposition to re- 
 clai.m, or at least to limit and restrain, by unfair proceedings, 
 some of those large powers and privileges which they had at 
 first so freely bestowed.* The Director Van Rensselaer, 
 shrewd, sagacious, and far-seeing, had undoubtedly possess- 
 ed himself of eminent advantages at Rensselaerwyck. The 
 point where he took his station was, at the beginning, the 
 chief Mart of the Fur trade in the Province, and so it must 
 long continue to be; and until the purchase and settlement 
 made by the Patroon, this Mart, and the trade there, were in 
 the hands of the Company, and protected by the Armament 
 at Fort Orange. The Company, moreover, in their Charter 
 to Patroons, while they granted to them the free liberty of 
 traffic, with their Coasters, "from Florida to Terra Neut," 
 and even a share in the Cod Fishery, had been careful to re- 
 serve to themselves an exclusive right, every where, to the 
 trade in peltries — but with this exception, that the Patroons 
 might enjoy that trade also, on certain specified terms, at 
 those points and places where the Company might not main- 
 
 " In a letter from the Directors in Holland to the Governor of the Province, dated March, 
 1657, manifesting throughout great jealousy of the power of the Patroon, they say, speak- 
 ing of the Authority exercised in this Colony— "' this example makes us averse to permit 
 any one Ux future such an unliiuited Colouizatiou and Jurisdiction." 
 
 4 Alb. R«cor08, p. SO. 
 
60 
 
 tain a trading establishment. Under this stipulation in the 
 Charter, the Fur trade at this important point fell eventually 
 into the hands of the Proprietor of the Colony — for, after a 
 few years, the Company, engrossed I suppose with other 
 matters, ceased to supply their Trading House in Foit Orange 
 with the necessary articles of Merchandize with which to 
 carry on tlie traffic with the Indians. Not only was the de- 
 relict trade promptly seized and engrossed by the Patroon — 
 being then, 1644, the original Killian Van Rensselaer — but 
 measures were immediately taken to secure it, if need be, by 
 force of arms, against all impertinent intermeddling with it. 
 This was the purpose with which Bearen Island was Ibrlified, 
 and a garrison placed there. The Company's own vessels 
 might still have free access to Fort Orange ; to them the 
 navigation of the River was open as ever — but not so the 
 vessels of independent traders. These could, of course, find 
 no port to enter or traffic in above Bearen Island, except 
 within the limits of Rensselaerwyck, and every independent 
 trader would learn the terms on which the port of the Colo- 
 ny might be entered, on making a respectful inquiry at the 
 Fortress of Rensselaerstein. 
 
 This proceeding was viewed with exceeding jealousy and 
 distrust, by the Director General of New Amsterdam ; but it 
 was persisted in, in spite of the strongest i-emonstrances ; 
 and when, by the death of the Proprietor, the administration 
 and care of the Colony, in behalf of his Heir, devolved on 
 the Commander Van Slecktenhoorst and Gov. Van Twiller, 
 nothing certainly, within the limits of a legitimate authority, 
 was omitted, to secure to the Colony all its rights, and all its 
 advantages. From this time forward, a systematic encroach- 
 ment on the rights of the Colony was made by the Company. 
 The Company had never purchased, and did not «iwn, a foot 
 of land within the Colony. The soil on which Fort Orange 
 stood was included in the purchase made by the Patroon. 
 Yet not only was the Fort itself maintained, without ne- 
 cessit)', if not against right, but a claim was set up to 
 as much land around it as would be swept bv the range of 
 its guns. The Trading Factory of the Patroon had been rear- 
 ed, originally, on the very borders of the dry Moat which 
 surrounded the Fortress, and near it the cottages of a vil- 
 lage settlement had already begun to cluster. This was the 
 village of Beverwyck — a neat and promising little Hamlet, 
 the germinating principle of the future City of Albany — and 
 for.nuig beyond all question, a part of the Colony of Rens- 
 selaerwyck. It was the Patroon's village, planted on his 
 
61 
 
 own land, under his leave and auspices, by his own colonists, 
 brought into the country at his own cost. This was a case 
 which had been prospectively provided for in the Charter 
 from the Company, by expressly conceding to the P.itroon 
 the right to govern, by officers and magistrates of his own 
 appointment, any town, or city, of which he should be the 
 founder. But the Company early determined not to permit 
 this Colony to become too prosperous, or the Patroons to ac- 
 quire too much consideration and power. By claiming the 
 territory around the Fort within the sweep of iheir guns, they 
 brought the entire' village of Beverwyck within the grasp of 
 their unwarrantable demands. They first insisted that the 
 Commander Van Slecktenhoorst should erect no more dwel- 
 lings for his Colonists in that quarter. The worthy Com- 
 mander protested, and went on as usual. Gov. Stuyve- 
 sant sent a military expedition — that is to say, an officer with 
 a handful of soldiers and sailors, who took a fortnight's time 
 for their campaign up the river, and entered the peaceful 
 village of Beverwyck in warlike and hostile array. They 
 even dared to enter the dwelling and castle of the Patroon, 
 with arms in their hands. But great as was this outrage and 
 violence offered to the dignity and rights of an independent 
 Patroon, by an armed invasion of his territory and jurisdic- 
 tion — so, at least, was it esteemed by Commander Van Sleck- 
 tenhoorst, who assaulted the proceeding with Proclamations 
 and Protests in unsparing quantity — the expedition was a 
 fruitless one, and Gov. Stuyvesant took nothing by his irregular 
 motion. The act was even disavowed by the authorities in 
 Holland; they affected utterly to disbelieve that the "hon- 
 orable, valiant, wise and prudent Petrus Stuyvesandt" could 
 ever have offered such an indignity to the the honorable and 
 valiant Van Rensselaer of Rensselawyck. In the mean time, 
 the constructing of houses in the Hamlet proceeded, and the 
 prudent Governor changed his mode of attack. He under- 
 took to give to the inha itants in the village permanent leases 
 for the S(jil, and to absolve them from their oath of allegiance 
 to the Patroon. He even appointed magistrates for Beverwyck, 
 and caused Courts to be opened, and justice to be administered 
 there, in the name of the Provincial authorities. All this while 
 the full-blooded Netherlander Van Slecktenhoorst, was neither 
 dismayed nor idle. He went on with the construction of his 
 houses in Beverwyck ; and he gave personal notice to the 
 Company's officer at Fort Orange, who had been directed 
 to put that Fortress in repair, that he must not touch a stone 
 or a stick of timber for that use, within the Colony of Rens- 
 
62 
 
 selaerwyck. This was awkward for Mr. Commissioner Van 
 Brugge. He held back for instructions, and, as necessity 
 knows no law, he was ordered to take the materials for re- 
 pairs wherever he could find them, on grounds uncultivated 
 or unenclosed. We may suppose that, with the sturdy Com- 
 mander of Rensselaerwyck to deal with, he found the execu- 
 tion of his orders neither easy nor pleasant. For several 
 years the controversy went on, and at last, the purposes of 
 the Director General and the Company were only consum- 
 mated by an act of treachery. Van Slecktenhoorst was ar- 
 rested at Manhattan, thrown into the Keep of Fort Amster- 
 dam, and detained a close prisoner until a new Director for 
 his Master's Colony was appointed. He was then released, 
 but only for the purpose of performing the ceremonial of 
 installing his Successor in his place, which he affirmed could 
 be lawfully done by no one but himself 
 
 With a Director more to the taste of the Governor and the 
 Lords Directors of the Company at Amsterdam, the Colony 
 was treated with more apparent respect, but in reality with 
 no less injustice than before. Gov. Stuyvesant was formally 
 instructed by them to take care that lie gave no cause of of- 
 fence to the inhabitants of the Colony. They offered their 
 congratulations on the peaceable state of affairs between them 
 and the people of Fort Orange ; but they did not forget to 
 inform the Governor, at the same time, how important it 
 was, and how much it concerned both "equity and liberty," 
 that the limits between Fort Orange and Rensselaerwyck 
 should be definitively settled. Keeping this object steadily 
 in view, the footing which the Company had obtained in 
 Beverwyck was carefully preserved, and their authority there 
 gradually extended. Finally, the Governor ventured to mark 
 out the boundaries of the possession claimed for the Company 
 as the proprietors of Fort Orange. These boundaries mo- 
 destly embraced a mile in extent on the River, taking in 
 the entire village of Ijeverwyck, and forming that base line 
 which was afterwards used in ihe original Charter of the city 
 of Albany, and upon which a territory of sixteen square miles 
 was carved out of the Manor of Rensselaerwyck lor the uses 
 of the city. It is worth while to add, in this connection, that 
 it was not at last, deemed safe by the English Gov Dongan, 
 to issue his Patent for this territory to the city, until he had 
 first obtained from the Patroon of that day a formal Release 
 of the land to the King. That Release was executed two 
 days before the Charter of the city was granted. 
 
 I have dwelt on the affairs of this Colony during the rule 
 
63 
 
 of the Dutch Authorities in the Province of New York, at 
 such considerable length, though still with small justice to a 
 subject of deep interest, that I must now hasten forward, in a 
 very unsatisfactory manner, to the conclusion of the history 
 on which 1 have entered. The English Conquest of this Pro- 
 vince took place in 1664. Jeremias Van Rensselaer, the sec- 
 ond son of the original Proprietor, was then in possession of 
 the Colony of Rensselaerwyck. He lost no time in applying 
 to Gov. Nichols to be confirmed in his possession and rights. 
 This was readily granted by the Governor, in accordance 
 with the general stipulation he had given at the surrender ; to 
 operate, however, only to give Mr. Van Rensselaer time to 
 obtain a regular Patent of Confirmation from the Duke of 
 York, lor whom the Conquest of the Province had been 
 made ; and in the mean time, it was made his duty to see that 
 his Colonists — heretofore his subjects — should become the 
 proper subjects of King Charles II, by personally swearing 
 allegiance to him. In the confusion of the time, and it is pro- 
 bable also for a particular reason which will be referred to 
 directly, no Patent for this Estate was given for several years. 
 Meanwhile, the possession and right were continued to Van 
 Rensselaer, by the orders of successive Governors, and the 
 warrants of the Duke. In this state of things, the Province 
 again changed masters. Nine years after the surrender, the 
 Authority of the States General was again established over 
 New Netherland — only, however, to be returned into the 
 hands of the English the next year. But there was work for 
 Van Rensselaer to do in this brief period. He was called be- 
 fore the Lords Commanders and the Honorable Tribune of 
 War at Fort William Henry, to tender, for himself and his 
 people, his oath of Allegiance to the nev.^ powers ; and he 
 was then sent back to the government of his Colony, but with 
 greatly restricted authority. The right of the inhabitants to 
 a voice in the selection of their own magistrates, was distmct- 
 ly recognized. They were to nominate twice the number re- 
 quired, and he was to appoint from their nominations. 
 
 In 1674, the English rule over the Province was restored, 
 and Jeremias Van Rensselaer died the same year. This 
 event — the death of Jeremias, in possession of the Estate, 
 with a claim of right more or less extensive — produced, it 
 Would seem, some embarrassment in regard to the succes- 
 sion ; and this was apparently increased by doubts about the 
 true law of descent applicable to the case. Jeremias was 
 a second son ; the eldest son of the original Proprietor was 
 Johannes Baptista, and was undoubtedly, according to one 
 
64 
 
 rule of the Feudal law — this being a feudal estate — sole heir 
 to the Colony and title of his father. But Johannes, who 
 was the person spoken of by the bold and faithful Van 
 Siccktenhoorst as his Orphan Patroon, and who had been 
 early in the Colony, had returned to Holland, while his youn- 
 ger brother, Jeremias, had been placed in possession with all 
 the powers of governtnent and control, and, it is not improba- 
 ble, with some equitable understandmg between the brothers 
 in regard to the succession. At any rate, a claim was set up 
 by the son of Jeremias, as his father had occupied with some 
 claim of right, and died in possession. Wiien, however, Jo- 
 haimes died he left an only son, who was, of course, by the 
 rule of primogeniture, the sole hi ir to the inheritance. But, 
 then, there were other descendants of the same common an- 
 cestor, and ihey put in a claim — or one was preferred for 
 them — on the ground of the civil law, which had been adopt- 
 ed by the Dutch, and which cast inheritances, in equal por- 
 tions, on all descendants, male and female, in the same de- 
 gree of affinity to the ancestor. The civil law of the Dutch 
 could not, however, 1 think, have been applicable to Estates, 
 like the Colony of Rensselaerwyck, held by a strictly feudal 
 tenure, and where, according to the notion of the times, the 
 personal dignity of the proprietor was to be cared lor and pre- 
 served.* In this state of things, it was propose.!, and an or- 
 der to that effect was given to Gov. Andros, that a Charter 
 should be issued which should, for the present, without deier- 
 mining the rule of succession in the case, recognize the pro- 
 prietorship of the right heirs of the Hrst owner. I think it 
 not uncharitable to say, from the circumstances, that the 
 Duke of Vork was reluctant to acknowledge a proprietorship 
 in any body, to so considerable a portion of that "princely 
 estate — the Province of New- York — to which he had just 
 secured a title, and would have been glad if he could have 
 found some plausible grounds, at least lor cutting down this 
 Dutch prmcipality to some more moderate dimensions. 
 
 It IS supposed, not without good reason, that the gratitude 
 of Charles II, on the recollection of hospitalities and favors 
 received at the hands ot the representative head of this fami- 
 ly, when that accomplished but dissolute Monarch was an ex* 
 
 * The rule of succession, or inheritance, under the feudal law, was different in the dif- 
 feieiit tountries of Kurope, and seems lo have been modified at pleasure lo suit tlie notions 
 and the circumsiunces of the limes in each. The Seigniories in Canada, under tlie French, 
 Were not suiijecl to the law of primo;^Hiiiture ; nor, on the other hand, did lliey desc-nd, 
 like the peasants' lands, to the cliildreii in equal portions The eldest son repri.seiited the 
 father, and was lo take »uch a share as iiiiKht enable him to maintain his lather's rank and 
 station iu life, while the younger children were not left without some legal provision. 
 
 " View of Canada while subject to France." — MS. p. 21. 
 
65 
 
 iled and necessitous refugee in Holland, led him to interpose 
 in behalf of the heirs of the old Director Van Rensselaer, by 
 means of which that order was obtained from the King's 
 Brother, the Duke of York, to which I have alluded.* As it 
 was, however, no execution of this order took place until 
 1685, when Gov. Dongan caused a Charter to be issued for 
 that purpose. This Charter was granted to two persons. 
 One of these was Killian Van Rensselaer, only son and heir of 
 Johannes, and the other was Killian Van Rensselaer, the eldest 
 son of Jeremias ; and the Charter was, in terms and effect, 
 a grant in trust for the right heirs of the Original Proprie- 
 tor of the Colony. It embraced the ancient possessions of the 
 Patroons, nearly entire, and defined tiieir boundaries ; and 
 it converted, in express terms, the old Dutch Colony, into an 
 English Lordship, or Manor, with a broad tract, twenty-four 
 English miles by forty-eight in extent — some comparatively 
 small parcels of land excepted — and with the noble Hudson 
 pouring its flood of navigable waters from North to South, 
 through the centre of the territory. Two years after, one 
 of the Killians, the son of John Baptiste Van Rensselaer, died, 
 and left no issue to succeed to his interest. The other Kil- 
 lian, his cousin german, the son of Jeremias, became now 
 the representative and sole heir, if the rule of primogeniture 
 was to prevail, to the inheritance of his Grand-father, the 
 first Proprietor of Rensselaerwyck. In 1704, by the order 
 of Queen Anne, this rule was definitively settled and adopted 
 in the case, and Killian, the son of Jeremias, received a Char- 
 ter, granting to him the Manor and Lordship of Rensselaer- 
 wyck, in absolute propriety. So far as appears, this was done 
 with the acquiescence of all ; and whether all did acquiesce, 
 or not, there can be no doubt it was done in strict accordance 
 with legal right. The feudal law, however modified by the 
 Dutch, would have cast the main part of the inheritance, if 
 not the whole, on the eldest son living, in the direct line of 
 descent. But it was, after all, the English law of descents, 
 and not the Dutch, which was applicable, and applied to the 
 case. The English claimed — with how much truth and pro- 
 priety it is useless now to enquire, since the whole matter 
 was m their own hands — that they held the Province of New 
 York, not by right of Conquest, but by right of Discovery ; 
 that the country was theirs all the while ; and that the 
 Dutch, and all others, who had made settlements and acquir- 
 
 * There is now in possession of the Van Rensselaer family, at the Manor House, a 
 snuff-box, with the Miniature of King Charles H upon it, which was presented by that 
 Prince, to their Ancestor, on the occasion referred to. 
 
 9 
 
66 
 
 ed property in it, while the estates of owners for the time 
 should not be disturbed or brought into question, must submit 
 to the sway of the English law in the Province, from the 
 moment the English Authorities were in condition to enforce 
 it.* I may here add, that from this first Lord of the Manor, 
 through his second son — the eldest having died without is- 
 sue — the late Stephen Van Rensselaer, was the third only, 
 in the direct line of descent. The Manor had never been 
 disposed of by will ; and it had never been subject to en- 
 tail ; it took the course of the canons of descent established 
 by the law of England, and came to the late Proprietor by 
 right of primogeniture. 
 
 Between a Dutch feudal Colony, with its Patroon and Com- 
 manders, its forts and soldiers, its high and low jurisdiction — 
 and an English Manor, with its Lord and Stewards, its Courts- 
 leet and Courts-baron, there was some resemblance, and 
 some difference. There was a strong family likeness, with a 
 marked diversity of features. They were both of feudal ori- 
 gin and character. They were both Estates of dignity and 
 power. But a marked distinction is found between them, 
 when we come to look at the different estimate which was 
 evidently put upon the people belonging to the Estate, in 
 the two cases. We have s^een already what was their con- 
 dition in the Colony — not one certainly of oppression, but not 
 one of freedom. They were regarded as men — with rights 
 and privileges — but as men to be protected, and not men who 
 could, or ought to have, much right or authority to protect 
 themselves. In the Manor — I speak now of the Manor of 
 Rensselaerwyck, as created by express Charter — the case 
 was somewhat changed. In the first place, it was only in 
 the King's Courts that the tenants could be called to answer 
 for high crimes, and there they must have a Jury of the 
 vicinage to try them. Then, although for misdemeanors, 
 minor offences and nuisances, they were liable to be prose- 
 cuted in the Lord's Courts, and also to be impleaded there 
 by each other in their disputes about property, where the 
 amounts involved were not large ; and although all contro- 
 versies about the right to lands in the Manor were to be de- 
 termined, in the first instance, in the same Courts; yet they 
 were themselves — the tenants who were freeholders — the 
 judges, and, in strictness, the sole judges, of these very Courts ; 
 
 * On this ground, therefore, the English rule of primogeniture was to prevail in regard 
 to all inhabitants in the Province of New York ; whereas, i( the right of England to the 
 Province had been the right of Conquest only, the law of descent, with all other laws, as 
 established among, and by, the Dutch, would have prevailed, until altered and changed by 
 the conquerer. 
 
67 
 
 the Stewards were properly the Registers, and not the 
 judges of these tribunals And, finally, the consideration in 
 which the people of the Manor were held, was manifested in 
 the voice they had in legislation, through their right to elect, 
 with the Lord of the Manor, a Deputy to represent diem in 
 the General Assembly. In all this, the condition of the ten- 
 antry was improved, and it was so in some other things. 
 Tliey had passed under a new Government — one which 
 had impressed upon it some Saxon notions about liberty 
 and human rights, and of which they were enjoying, in some 
 dgree, the benefit. 
 
 Still, however, the authority and privileges of the Manorial 
 Chief were not inconsiderable. The writs for the tiolding 
 of the Baronial Courts were to be issued by him, and it was 
 his right to preside in those Courts, in person, or by his de- 
 puted Steward. To him belonged all fines and amercements, 
 imposed on offenders wiihin the Manor, whether by his own 
 Courts, or by the Assizes, the Sessions of the Peace, or the 
 Oyer and Terminer. To him appertained also, all waifs, es- 
 trays, wrecks, deodends, and the like, with the goods forfeited 
 by felons within his Lordship. He had the important right 
 of advowson — the sole right to name and present the min- 
 isters to all churches, built, and endowed with glebe, on his 
 demesnes ; and authority was given him to elect a Represen- 
 tative to the Legislative Assembly — uniting the freeholders 
 and inhabitants with him m the election ; the benefit of 
 course resulted almost always to himself. The choice was 
 quite sure to fall on himself, or on his friend and nominee. 
 
 On looking into the Records of our Colonial Legislature, 
 I find the fact of representation from the Manor — which was 
 distinct in this respect from the City and County of Al- 
 bany — just as I had ex[)ected. From the first Provincial 
 Assembly held after the accession of William IIL in 1691, 
 down to the last in 1775, when the Revolution broke out — a 
 period of eighty-four years — the place of Representative from 
 the Manor was always filled ; frequently by the Proprietor 
 himself, and if not by him, by reason of his minority or other 
 disability, then always by some member, or some friend, of 
 the family. The first Deputy from the Manor was Killian, 
 the son of Jeremias Van Rensselaer ; after twelve years in 
 the Assembly, he was called to the Provincial Council. The 
 last Deputy was Gen. Abraham Ten Broeck. He was the 
 uncle of the late Patroon, by marriage, and his Guar- 
 dian during his minority, and had the care of his Estate. 
 He represented the Manor for fifteen years, and as long as 
 
68 
 
 there was a Colonial Legislature in which it could be re- 
 presented. 
 
 While, however, the Proprietor, or some family or per- 
 sonal friend of his, uniformly secured the advantage — if ad- 
 vantage it was — of an election to the Assembly, it is only 
 an act of justice to say, that the interests of the Tenants ap- 
 pear to have been, without exception, faithfully represent- 
 ed — however it might be supposed that cases would arise, 
 in which the interests of the Tenants and those of the Pro- 
 prietor might not be identical. But tliis is not all, nor the 
 highest praise due to the Representatives of Rensselaerwyck. 
 During almost the entire period of eighty-four years just re- 
 ferred to, the political condition of the Province was unquiet. 
 The tendencies towards popular liberty were constantly man- 
 ifesting themselves, and bringing the Colonial Assemblies 
 into sliarp collision with the Royal Governors. The Gov- 
 ernors, as a general thing, went for prerogative and power ; 
 while the Assemblies had enough of the blood of the Sax- 
 ons infused into them, to stand out for popular rights, and 
 some of the guaranties of freedom. I do not think that the 
 Dutch, though brought up in a different school, were, on the 
 whole, a whit behind their fellows in acquiring those liberal 
 lessons which were studied, recited and enacted in these po- 
 litical Colleges. But how was it with those among the 
 Hollanders, who had themselves, or whose ancestors had, 
 but lately come into the country, expressly with a view to 
 the ibunding and maintaining in it, in their own persons, 
 and in their children, a high feudal aristocracy ; and whose 
 pretensions, in this regard, had been expressly recognized 
 by the new Powers, with only such modifications as resulted, 
 when an English Monarchy succeeded to the dominion of a 
 Dutch Republic? What was their course and conduct in the 
 political conflicts of the times? Did they struggle to retain 
 their hold on these personal advantages ? Did they seek, by a 
 natural sympathy, to strengthen the arm of irresponsible pow- 
 er, and encourage the foot of tyranny to press more strongly 
 on the neck of prostrate humanity, as symptoms of hie, 
 and the awakening consciousness of strength, began to ex- 
 hibit themselves ? Quite the contrary, as the records of the 
 period shew. When the Assembly, at its Session in IGOl, 
 framed and published its Declaration of Rights — a remarka- 
 ble act for the period, and the first example of the sort, I 
 think, among the American Colonies — the Proprietor and 
 Representative of Rensselaerwyck assisted in that bold and 
 manly measure. This was the very earliest occasion on 
 
69 
 
 which the political bias of his mind could have displayed it- 
 self. Ten years afterwards, I find this same individual — 
 a proud feudal dignitary of the land — putting his name, with 
 only four others of the Assembly, to a paper, which insisted so 
 strongly on the rights of the Assembly, in opposition to the 
 encroachments of Authority, that that Body itself felt oblig- 
 ed, in order to charm down the angry elements that had been 
 roused, to pronounce the instrument disloyal, and even to 
 expel its author from the House. In 1747, the Royal Gov- 
 ernor, Clinton, committed against the House a gross breach 
 of privilege, and was about to follow an act of injustice with 
 an act of tyranny, and dissolve the Assembly. But the As- 
 sembly did not choose to receive this last Message from his 
 Excellency, till they had transacted a little business on their 
 own account. They locked the doors of their Chamber, and 
 laid the key on the table, and proceeded to charge and prime 
 some strong Resolutions, to be let off with heavy denuncia- 
 tions against the Governor, when the doors should be open- 
 ed ; they made provision, at the same time, for a Manifesto, 
 to be drawn up and fulminated, after the dispersion of the 
 Members, and which is one of the most elaborate and re- 
 markable papers of our ante-republican history.* In all this 
 proceeding, the Representative of Rensselaerwyck — a bro- 
 ther of the Proprietor — did not hesitate to take his part, on 
 the side of right and liberty. I have already stated, that Abra- 
 ham Ten Broeck was the last Representative of Rensselaer- 
 wyck in the Legislature of the Colony. He was the brother- 
 in-law of the late Mr. Van Rensselaer's father — who died at 
 the early age of twenty-seven — and, as I have stated, the 
 uncle and Guardian of the son ; and he did not misrepresent 
 either in acitng the part of a good patriot. It is well known, 
 that in the last brief Session of the Assembly, held early in 
 1775, a considerable part, sometimes a majority of the 
 House, were found to shrink from any very bold and decided 
 measures. Several Resolutions were rejected, which it was 
 feared might seem to commit the Assembly to the cause of 
 the approaching Revolution, Gen. Ten Broeck had no fears, 
 and voted on these occasions with the country and for the 
 country. And, finally, when the Revolution came, he fear- 
 lessly plunged in, with others, to swim with and save his coun- 
 try, or to sink with her. He was a Member, and the Presi- 
 dent, of the Convention which formed the first Constitution 
 
 * This extraordinary Paper, making sixteen closely printed folio pages, in double col- 
 umns, may be found in Lot's Journal of the Colonial Assembly of New York, vol. ii. p. 
 206. 
 
70 
 
 of this State — that Convention which sat, at various times, 
 and in seven different places, as the exigencies of the war 
 permitted or compelled, before the completion of its la- 
 bors. 
 
 With this brief relation, I conclude this slight sketch of the 
 affairs of Rensselaerwyck. It is not a little gratifying to 
 find, that even here, where provision had been origina'Iy 
 made, and which had been carefully continued and preserv- 
 ed, to plant a strong Baronial and Aristocratical interest in 
 the virgin soil of the New World, in imitation of the estab- 
 lished institutions of Europe — to bear sway by combining to 
 form a reigning oligarchy, or else to stand as supporters and 
 buttresses around a superior regal power — even here, not 
 only was nothing ever found on which the enemies of freedom 
 could rely for support ; but, during, all the preparatory period, 
 and when the occasion came at last to call out the brave and 
 patriotic — those who would be free and make their country 
 so — in defence of human rights and popular liberty, a spirit 
 was manilested in lull accordance with ttie popular movement 
 and temper of the limes. The Manor of Rensselaerwyck — 
 with whatever influence belonged to it — by no means in- 
 considerable — was found invariably on the side of freedom 
 and the people. 
 
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