New York during the last Half Century.
Historical Discourse.








New York during the last Half Century:
A DISCOURSE
IN COMMEMORATION
OF
The Fifty-third Anniversary
OF THE
NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY,
AND OF
THE DEDICATION OF THEIR NEW EDIFICE)
(November I7, 1857.)
BY
JOHN W. FRANCIS, M.D., LL.D.
Fastigia Rerum.
NEW YORK:
JOHW F. TROw, PRINTER AND STEREOTYPER, 377 & 379 BROADWAY,
CORNER OF WHITE STREET.
1857.




Euntered, according to Act of Congress, in the year lS57,
By SAMUEL W. FRANCIS,
in the Clerk's Offide of the District Court of the United States for the Southern
District of New York.




PREFACE.
It was considered desirable, on the occasion of
inaugurating the new and beautiful edifice erected by
the liberal contributions of the merchants and professional gentlemen of this city, for the permanent deposit of the manuscripts, books, and other property of the
New York Historical Society, that the chief elements
of civil and social development which have marked the
annals of this metropolis, should be sketched in their
origin and progress. As this could be most effectually
done through personal reminiscences, the author of this
brief historical record was chosen to perform the duty;
partly because he is one of the few surviving early
members of the Institution, and partly on account of the
intimate relations he has sustained to many prominent
citizens in all departments of life and vocation. Alive
to the earnestly expressed wishes of his fellow-members, and cherishing a deep interest in the annals and




6
prosperity of his native city, while he found the task
accordant with his sympathies, he yet felt that the absorbing cares of an arduous profession were essentially
opposed to the research and finish appropriate to such
an enterprise; and he therefore craves the indulgence
of his readers, as he did that of his audience. As delivered, this survey of New York in the past, was unavoidably curtailed; it is now presented as originally
written.
The author cherishes the hope that it lnay be in
his power, at a future time, to enlarge the record of local facts and individualities associated with the unprecedented growth of New York, since and immediately
preceding the formation of her Historical Society.  It
will be seen that his aim has been to review the condition of the site, institutions, and character of our city
during the last sixty years, and, in a measure, to trace
their influence on its future prospects: as the commercial emporium  of the Union and the seat of its
most prosperous Historical Society, we have every
reason to hope that our new and extensive arrangements will secure a large accession of valuable materials.  Yet those members who bear in recollection the vast changes which have occurred within the
period of our existence as an association, need not be
told that the original landmarks and features of the




7
metropolis have been either greatly modified or entirely
destroyed; while carelessness, or the neglect of family
memorials, renders it extremely difficult to reproduce,
with vital interest, even the illustrious persons who
have contributed most effectually to our prosperity and
renown.
If the author succeeds, by means of the present
brief sketch or a future more elaborate memoir, in
awakening attention to the men and events which
have secured the rapid development of resources on
this island, both economical and social, he will rejoice.
Such a task, rightly performed, should kindle~ anew our
sense of personal responsibility as citizens, of gratitude.
as patriots, and of wise sympathy as scholars. Even
this inadequate tribute he has regarded as an historical
duty, and felt it to be a labor of love.
J. W. F.
NEW YORK, Norember 17, 1857.




At a meeting of the NEW  YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY, held at
the Library, on Tuesday evening, November 17, 1857, to celebrate the
Fifty-Third Anniversary of the founding of the Society.
Dr. JOIN W. FRANCIS delivered its Anniversary Address, entitled, "New
York During the Last Half Century."
On its conclusion the Rev. Francis L. HAWKS, D. D., after some remarks,
submitted the following resolution:
Resolved, That the thanks of the Society be presented to Dr. FRANCIS for
his highly interesting address, and that a copy be requested for publication.
The resolution was seconded by CHARLES KING, LL.D., and was then unanimously adopted.
Extract from the minutes.
ANDREW WARNER,
Recording Secretary.
ERRATA.
Page 107, line 29th, for 1787, read 1789.
Page 212, line 10th, for Rogers, read Moore.
Page 232, line 18th, for Oldest, read One of the oldest living members.




DISCOURSE.
HONORED PRESIDENT AND ASSOCIATES OF THE NEW
YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY:
WHAT a contrast! This meeting of the New York
Historical Society and that which was held now some
fifty years ago.  Ponder a while upon the circumstances which mark this difference. At the period at
which our first organization took place, this city contained about sixty thousand inhabitants; at present
it embraces some seven hundred and fifty thousand
inhabitants.   A  large majority of  the residents
dwelt below Courtland street and Maiden Lane. A
sparse population then occupied that portion of the
island which lies above the site of the New York Hospital on Broadway; and the grounds now covered with
the magnificent edifices which ornament Upper Broadway, the Fifth Avenue, Fourteenth Street, Union
Place, and Madison Square, were graced with the sycamore, the elm, the oak, the chestnut, the wild cherry,
the peach, the pear, and the plum tree, and further
ornamented with gardens appropriated to horticultural
products, with here and there the artichoke, the tulip,
and the sun-flower.  Where now stands our Astor
Library, the New York Medical College, the Academy
of Music, Cooper's Institute, and the Bible Society




10
House, the old gardens of our Dutch ancestors were
most abundant, cultivated with something of the artistic regularity of the Hollanders, luxuriating in the
sweet marjoram, the mint, the thyme, the currant, and
the gooseberry. The banks of our majestic rivers on
either side presented deep and abrupt declivities, and
the waters adjacent were devoted to the safety of
floating timber, brought down from the Mohawk, on
the Hudson River, or elsewhere obtained, on the Connecticut, in mighty rafts, destined for naval architecture and house-building.  Our avenues, and squares,
and leading roads were not yet laid out by Morris, and
Clinton, and Rutherford, and our street regulations in
paving and sidewalks, even in those passes or highways
now most populous, had reached but little above the
Park, and in the Bowery only within the precincts of
Bayard street. The present City Hall was in a state
of erection, and so circumscribed, at that time, was the
idea of the City's progress, that the Common Council,
by a slender majority, after serious discussion, for
economy's sake, decided that the postern part of the
Hall should be composed of red-stone, inasmuch as it
was not likely to attract much notice from the scattered
inhabitants who might reside above Chambers street.
Some fifty years ago the most conspicuous of the
residences of our prominent citizens were the Government House at the Bowling Green, the Kennedy
House, now converted into the Washington Hotel,
No. 1 Broadway, an object of singular interest. During
the Revolution it was occupied by Howe and Clinton.
Here Andre commenced his correspondence with Arnold; and here John Pintard held an interesting conversation with Andre on their respective claims to




11
Huguenot blood.  Captain Peter Warren, who erected
this famous building, was afterwards knighted, and
became a Member of Parliament.  The house was long
occupied by Kennedy, afterwards Earl of Cassilis, and
again by Sir Henry Clinton; afterwards it was long
held by Nathaniel Prime, of the banking house of
Prime &  Ward.  We next, in those earlier days,
observe the stone dwelling, situated at the lower part
of Broadway, once occupied by Governor Jay; the
mansion of Governor George Clinton, of revolutionary
renown, situated near the North iRiver, at the termination of Thirteenth street, Colonel Rutgers' somewhat
sequestered retreat, near the head of Cherry street,
where Franklin sometimes took a patriotic meal; the
Hero of Fort Stanwix, Colonel Willett's humble cottage
in the vicinity; General Gates' ample establishment
higher up near Twenty-fourth street, overlooking the
banks of the East River, where Baron Steuben, Colonel
Burr, and many other actors of the War, participated
in the festivities so amply provided by the guest, with
song and sentiment.  The famous Club of the Belvidere, on the banks of the East River, is also entitled
to commemoration: at its head was Atchisen: here
royalty and democracy had their alternate revelries,
with blessings on the king or laudations of the rights
of man. Still standing, in pride of early state, we
notice the Beekman House, near Fiftieth street, also
near the East River banks, where British Officers
rendezvoused, in revolutionary times; where Sir William  Howe kept those vigils commemorated in the
Battle of the Kegs, and where Andre passed his last
night previous to entering on his disastrous mission.
Adjacent the Beekman House recently stood the ample




12
Green House, where Nathan Hale, called tne spy, was
examined by Lord Howe.
Eminently conspicuous in former days was the
Mansion, located on Richmond Hill, near Lispenard's
Meadows, at the junction of Varick and Van Dam
streets, then an elevated and commanding sight.  So
many now before me must retain a strong recollection
of this spot, which afterwards became the Theatre of
the Montressor Opera Company, that I am compelled
to dwell a moment longer concerning it. This imposing
edifice was built about 1770, by Mortier, a paymaster
of the British government. It was surrounded by
many and beautiful forest trees; it was often subjected
to the annoyances of the sportsmen, and Mr. Van
Wagenen, a direct descendant of Garret Van Wagenen,
almost the first and earliest of our city schoolmasters,
a true son of St. Nicholas, still honoring us in his life and
in his devotion to New York, could give you a curious
account of the enjoyments of the field on these premises
in those early days. While Congress sat in this city,
this celebrated mansion was occupied by the elder
Adams, and some of the most charming letters of the
Vice President's wife are dated at this place. It subsequently became the residence of Aaron Burr, into
whose possession it fell, by purchase from the executors
of Abraham Mortier; in 1804 it became by purchase
the property of John Jacob Astor.  While Burr resided there, its halls occasionally resounded with the
merriment which  generous cheer inspires; yet at
other times, and more frequently, philosophy here sat
enthroned amidst her worshippers. Here Talleyrand,
who in the morning had discoursed on the tariff with
Hamilton, passed perhaps the afternoon of the same




13
day with Burr, on the subject of the fur trade and
commerce with Great Britain, associated with Volney,
whose portly form gave outward tokens of his tremendous gastric powers, while the Syrian traveller, in his
turn, descanted on theogony, the races of the red men,
and Niagara. I cannot well conceive of a greater
intellectual trio. Perhaps it was at one of those convivial entertainments that the dietetic sentiment originated, in relation to some of the social peculiarities
among us, that our Republic, while she could boast of
some two hundred varieties of religious creeds, possessed
only one variety of gravy.
Here it may be recorded lived Burr, at the time of
the fatal duel with Hamilton: informed by his sagacious second, Van Ness, that the General was wounded,
Burr remarked, " 0, the little fellow only feigns hurt,"
but catching an idea of the nature of the wound, from
Hamilton's action, he hastily left the field, and fled for
shelter from the wrath of an indignant people, while
rumor spread that the constituted authorities were in
search of him. It was believed by the populace that
he had passed through New Jersey towards the South,
yet on the very afternoon of that fatal day, while the
whole city was in consternation, and on the look-out,
he had already reached his domicile on Richmond Hill,
and was luxuriating in his wonted bath, with Rousseau's Confessions in his hands, for his mental sustenance.
But I proceed with these hasty notices of our city
in these earlier times, about the period when the
organization and establishment of the Historial Society
were contemplated, and about to be incorporated by
legislative wisdom.




14
Our City Library was now in possession of its new
structure in Nassau street, and justly boasted of its rare
and valuable treasures, its local documents of importance, and its learned librarian, John Forbes.  Kent's
Hotel, on Broad street, was the great rendezvous for
heroic discussions on law and government, and for political and other meetings; and here the great Hamilton
was at times the oracle of the evening.  The City
Hotel, near old Trinity, was the chosen place for the
Graces; here Terpsichore presided, with her smiling
countenance, and Euterpe first patronized Italian music
in this country, under the accomplished discipline of
Trazzata.  This long known and ample hall is not to
be forgotten as the first building in this city, if not in
this country, in which slate was used as a roof-covering,
thus supplanting the old Dutch tile of the Hollanders,
in use from the beginning of their dynasty among us.
Our museums were limited to the one kept by old
Gardener Baker, himself and his collection, a sort of
curiosity shop, composed of heterogeneous fragments
of the several kingdoms of nature.  Hither childish
ignorance was sometimes lost in wonder, and here too
was the philosopher occasionally enlightened. Scudder
did not lay the foundation of his patriotic enterprise
until five years after our incorporation, and although
his beginning was but an humble demonstration, he
astounded the natives with his vast tortoise, and Alexander Wilson, the ornithologist, gave him  cheering
counsel, and enkindled his zeal. Our famous Vauxhall
Garden of these earlier days, occupied the wide domain of the Bayards, situated on the left of our then
Bunker Hill, near Bullock, now Broome street, and
here the Osage Indians, amidst fireworks of dazzling




15
efficacy (for we had not the use of calium nor strontium
in these artistic displays in those days), yelled the warwhoop and danced the war-dance, while our learned Dr.
Mitchill, often present on these occasions, translated
their songs for the advancement of Indian literature,
and enriched the journals with ethnological science concerning our primitive inhabitants.
The Indian Queen and Tyler's were gardens of much
resort, situated towards the Greenwich side of our city:
at the former military evolutions were often displayed
to the satisfaction of the famous French  general,
Moreau, with General Stevens and Morton among the
staff as official inspectors, while Tyler's is still held in
remembrance, by some few  surviving graduates of
Columbia College, as the resort for commencement
suppers. I shall advert to only one other site, which,
though in days gone by not a public garden, was
a place much frequented.  On the old road towards
Kingsbridge, on the eastern side of the island, was the
well-known Kip's Farm, pre-eminently distinguished
for its grateful fruits, the plum, the peach, the pear, and
the apple, and for its choice culture of the qrosccece
Here the elite often repaired as did good old Dr. Johnson and Boswell for recreation at Ranelagh; and here
our Washington, now invested with presidential honors,
made an excursion, and was presented with the Rosa
Gallica, an exotic first introduced into this country in
this garden; fit emblem of that memorable union of
France and the American colonies in the cause of
republican freedom. These three gardens were famous for their exquisite fruit, the plum, and the peach:
equally as are Newtown and Blackwell Island for the
apple, known to all horticulturists, abroad and at home,




16
as the Newtown pippin. Such things were. No traces
are now to be found of the scenes of those once gratifying sights; the havoc of progressive improvement has
left nought of these once fertile gardens of Dutch regularity, save the old pear tree of the farm of the redoubtable Peter Stuveysant, well known as still flourishing in
foliage and in fruit, in its 220th year, at the corner of
Thirteenth street and Third Avenue. If tradition be
true, the biographer of this venerable tree, in his account,
in the London Horticultural Transactions, ought not to
have omitted the curious fact, that of its importation
from Southern Europe, and of its having once occupied
the old fort held by Stuyvesant and delineated by Vander Donck. If all this be authentic, the old pear tree
enhances our admiration as the last living thing in existence since the time of the Dutch Dynasty.
Order demands that our first notice of the most
striking of our ornamental grounds should be an account
of the Battery, and its historical associate, White Hall.
Few, perhaps, are well informed of the origin of that
well recorded name, and long-lived historical location.
John Moore, the last on the list of the members of the
"Social Club," died in New York in 1828, in his 84th
year.  He was a grandson of Colonel John Moore,
who was an eminent merchant of this city, and one of
the Aldermen, when it was a great distinction to possess that honor: he was also a member of his Majesty's Provincial Council at the time of his death, in 1749.
The Colonel resided at the corner of Moore (so called
after his demise by the corporation) and Front streets,
in the largest and most costly house in this city at that
time, and called "White hall" from its color, and
which gave the name afterwards to the neighboring




17
street. It is scarcely necessary to add, that this great
edifice was destroyed by the fire which laid waste
the city in September, 1776, three days after the
British obtained possession of it.  Of the Bay and
harbor, and of the Battery itself, I need say nothing
after the successful description of Mrs. Trollope, and
many other writers. The first time I entered that
charming place, was on the occasion of the funeral of
General Washington. The procession gathered there,
and about the Bowling Green: the Battery was profusely set out with the Lombardy poplar trees: indeed
in 1800-'4 and'5 they infested the whole island, if
not most of the middle, northern, and many southern
States.  Their introduction was curious. The elder
Michaux, under the direction of Louis XVI., had been
sent to America, from the Garden of Plants of Paris:
he brought out with him the gardener, Paul Saunier,
who possessed, shortly after, horticultural grounds of
some extent in New Jersey. The Lombardy tree promised everything good, and Paul spread it. It was pronounced an exotic of priceless value; but like many
things of an exotic nature, it polluted the soil, vitiated
our own more stately and valuable indigenous products:
and at length we find that American sagacity has proscribed its growth, and is daily eradicating it as uncongenial and detrimental to the native riches of American husbandry.
In glancing at other beautiful plots, if I am controlled by the definition of the dictionary, I must omit
special mention of that once famous spot of ground
called the Park, situated in front of our City Hall, inasmuch as artistic taste and corporation sacrilege caused
the cutting down of the more conspicuous and beautiful




18
trees, the sycamores, the maple, the walnut, and the
Babylonian willows of the growth of ages, which constituted its woodland, in order to favor the populace with
an improved view of the architectural front of our then
recently erected marble edifice.  In its actual condition
(lucus non lucendo) it were too latitudinarian to speak
of the Old Commons as a park, at the present day. Yet
the Liberty Boys have perpetuated it in our early history, and Clinton's Canal has given it a modern glorification, by the far-famed meeting of the tens of thousands
at which the venerable Colonel Few presided, to enter
their protest against legislative proscription in 1824.
At the period to which our associations are mainly
confined, Washington square, which a wise forethought
of our city fathers some time since converted into an
eligible park, was not then contemplated.  It is known
to you all to have been our Golgotha during the
dreadful visitations of the Yellow Fever in 1797, 1798,
1801, and 1803, and many a victim of the pestilence of
prominent celebrity, was consigned to that final restingplace on earth, regardless of his massive gains, or his
public services.  I shall only specify one individual
whose humble tombstone was the last of the sepulchral ornaments removed thence: I allude to Doctor
Benjamin Perkins, the inventor of the metallic tractors,
a charlatan, whose mesmeric delusions, like clairvoyance
in these our own days, had something of a popular recognition, and whose confidence and temerity in the
treatment of his case, yellow fever, by his own specific,
terminated in his death, after three days' illness.  St.
John's Park, now richly entitled to that designation
from the philosophy of the vegetable economy which
was evinced at its laying-out, in the selection, associa



19
tion, and distribution of its trees, by the late Louis
Simond, the distinguished traveller, (for the vegetable
as well as the animal kingdom has its adjuvants, its loves,
and its hatreds,) had no existence at the time to which
we more directly refer, the period of our incorporation.
If a botanical inquirer should investigate the variety
of trees which flourish in the St. John's Park, he would
most likely find a greater number than on any other
ground, of equal size, in the known world.  If what
everybody says be true, then is Samuel B. Ruggles entitled to the meed of approbation from  every inhabitant of this metropolis, for the advantageous disposition
of the Union Place Park, and its adjacent neighborhood.
It was the lot of this enterprising citizen to manifest
an enlarged forecast during his public career in municipal, equally effective as he had evinced in State affairs.
The equestrian statue of Washington, executed with
artistic ability by Brown, and erected in this square
through the patriotic efforts of Col. Lee, aided by our
liberal merchants, adds grace to the beauty of that
open thoroughfare of the city. There is a story on this
subject, which, I hope, will find embodiment in some
future edition of Joe Miller.  Col. Lee had assiduously
collected a subscription for this successful statue; among
others, towards the close of his labors, he honored an
affluent citizen of the neighborhood, by an application
for aid in the goodly design. " There is no need of the
statue," exclaimed the votary of wealth: " Washington
needs no statue; he lives in the hearts of his countrymen; that is his statue."    Ah! indeed," replied the
colonel, " does he live in yours?  "Truly, he does," was
the reply.  "Then," added the colonel, " I am  sorry,
very sorry, that he occupies so mean a tenement."




20
I trust I am not vulnerable to the charge of diverging too far from an even path, into every field that may
skirt the road, if while on the subject of Gardens and
Parks, I commemorate one other of superior claims to
consideration, and which at the time we have so often
alluded to, had arrived to a degree of importance which
might almost be called national; I mean the Elgin
Botanic Garden, founded by the late Dr. David Hosack,
in 1801, and at the period of our incorporation, justly
pronounced an object of deep interest to the cultivators of natural knowledge, and to the curious in vegetable science. Those twenty acres of culture, more or
less, were a triumph of individual zeal, ambition, and
liberality, of which our citizens had reason to be proud,
whether they deemed the garden as conservative of our
indigenous botany, or as a repository  of the most
precious exotics. The eminent projector of this distinguished garden, with a princely munificence, had made
these grounds a resort for the admirers of nature's vegetable wonders, and for the students of her mysteries.
Here were associated, in appropriate soil, exposed to the
native elements, or protected by the conservatory and
the hot-house, examples of vegetable life, and of variety
of development-a collection that might have captivated
a Linnaeus, or a Jussieu; and here, indeed, a Michaux,
and a Barton, a Mitchill, a Doughty, a Pursh, a Wilson, or a Leconte, often repaired to solve the doubts of
the cryptogamist, or to confirm  the nuptial theory of
Vaillant. *
* Several of these distinguished disciples of the school of wisdom
have already found judicious biographers,who have recorded their services
in the fields of natural knowledge. We still want the pen to describe the
labors of Pursh, the author of the Flora America Septentrionalis, His




21
Here the learned Hosack, then Professor of Botany
in Columbia College, gave  illustrations to  his medical
class, and  to  many  not exactly within  the  circle of
professional life, of the natural and artificial systems of
nature.  I shall never forget those earlier days of my
juvenile studies, when the loves and habits of plants
and  of trees were first expounded  by  that lucid  instructor, and with what increased delight the treasures
of the Jardin des Plantes of Paris, just arrived, through
the kindness of Monsieur Thouin, were  added  to  the
adventurous spirit, his hazardous daring, and his indomitable energy, present an example of what a devotee in an attached calling will encounter.
He was for several years the curator of the Elgin Botanic Garden, and
widely travelled through the United States. Lambert, the author of the
"American Pines," afforded him great aid in the production of his volumes,
and cherished, as I personally know, great regard for the benefits Pursh
had conferred on American botany. Michaux has been more fortunate.
The biographical memoir of this most eminent man, recently given to the
public in the " Transactions of the American Philosophical Society," by
ELIAS DURAND, of Philadelphia, himself a lover of botanical science, is
a most grateful tribute to the character and merits of this intrepid explorer
of the American soil. Michaux was the only child of Andre Michaux,
rendered no less famous by his " Oaks of North America," and by his
"Flora," than the son by his " Forest Trees."  Young Michaux, under
parental guidance, was early initiated into the cultivation of botanical
pursuits; the story of his life, as given us by Mr. Durand, enhances our
esteem of his heroic labors, and posterity must ever thank this enlightened
biographer for the exposition he has made of the contributions to physical
knowledge, and especially to arboriculture, which the instrumentality of
Michaux has effected. He lived a long life, notwithstanding his innumerable perils, dying so late as in October, 1855, at the age of 85 years.
Every American who visits the Garden of Plants of Paris, must be
struck with the number and the richness of the American Forest Trees
which flourish therein; they furnish but one of many examples of the
practical zeal and services of the Michauxs, father and son. It is to be
hoped that, ere long, some competent botanist will favor us with an
account of the amiable Douglass, whose tragical end is still involved in
obscurity. We know little of him save that our botanical catalogue is
enriched with the " Pinus Douglasii."  Greater merits, and more modesty,
were never blended in one individual.




22
great collection of exotics in this New York Garden.
It was a general rule with that able instructor to terminate his spring course by a strawberry festival.
6 I must let the class see," said the teacher, " that we are
practical as well as theoretical: the fragaria is a most
appropriate aliment: Linnueus cured his gout and protracted his life by strawberries."'  They are a cear article," I observed, " to gratify the appetite of so many."
Yes, indeed," he rejoined,' but in due time, from our
present method of culture, they will become abundant
and cheap.  The disciples of the illustrious Swede must
have a foretaste of them, if they cost me a dollar a
piece."
Had Dr. Hosack done no more by his efforts at
the Elgin Garden, than awaken increased desires in
the breast of his pupil Torrey for natural knowledge,
he might be acknowledged a public benefactor, from
the subsequent brilliant career which that eminent
naturalist, with Professor Gray, has pursued in the vast
domain of botanical inquiry.  But I am happy to add,
with that social impulse which seems to be implanted
in the breast of every student of nature, which the
frosts of eighty-eight winters had not chilled in Antoine Jusseau, and which glowed with equal benignity
in the bosom of the intrepid Ledyard, on Afric's sandy
plains, and in the very heart of the adventurous
Kane amidst the icy poles, Hosack is not forgotten.
Willdenow  tells us, that the crowning glory  of the
botanist is to be designated by some plant bearing his
name.  Since the death of Dr. Hosack, the botanical
nomenclature enrols no less than sixteen species of
plants of different regions under the genus Hos8ackic6.
Time and circumstances have wrought great changes
in this once celebrated place, the Elgin Garden.




23
Columbia College, that venerable and venerated
seat of classical learning, was justly proud of her healthy
and beautiful locality, laved almost up to the borders
of her foundation by the flowing streams of the Hudson, and ornamented by those  majestic sycamores
planted by the Crugers, the Murrays, and the Jays,
fifty years before our incorporation, but which city
progress has recently so agonizingly rooted out.  Well
might Cowen, in his Tractate on Education, have extolled this once delectable spot as an appropriate seat
for intellectual culture in the New World.
As a graduate for nearly half a century, an overweening diffidence must not withhold from  me the
trespass of a moment concerning my Alma Mater. The
faculty, when I entered within its walls, was the same
as occupied them when our Historical Society was
organized, and on a former occasion, at one of your
anniversaries, I bore testimony to the cordial support
which that body gave to our institution at its inception.
The benignant Bishop Moore was its president; Dr.
Kemp, a strong mathematician, ably filled several departments of science; impulsive and domineering in
his nature, there were moments with him when a latent
benevolence towards the student quickened itself, and
he may be pronounced to have been an effective teacher. It has been promulgated that he gave early hints
of the practicability of the formation of the Erie Canal.
I have never seen satisfactory proofs of such forethought in any of his disquisitions. He died shortly
after that great measure was agitated: he might have
conversed on the subject with Clinton, Morris, Eddy,
Colles and Fulton. Yet I think I might, with perhaps
equal propriety, because I had an interview with old




24
William  Herschel, fancy myself a discoverer of the
nature of the milky way. Kemp was clever in his
assigned duties, but had little ambition to tract beyond
it. He was devoid of genius and lacked enterprise.
Dr. Bowden, as the Professor of Moral Philosophy,
was a courteous gentleman, a refined scholar and a
belles-lettres writer.  Like many others of a similar
type, his controversial pen carried pungency with its
ink, while in personal contact with his opponents, his
cautious and modulated utterance neither ruffled the
temper nor invoked vehemence in reply. Professor
M'Vickar, so long his successor, has given the life and
character of this excellent man with graphic accuracy,
and our late departed and much lamented associate,
Ogden Hoffman, has furnished a portrait of his virtues
in an occasional address with the fidelity and attractiveness of the lirmner's art.
Our Professor of the Greek and Latin tongues, was
the late Dr. Wilson: he enjoyed through a long life the
reputation of a scholar; he was a devoted man to his
calling, and a reader of wide extent.  His earnestness
in imparting knowledge was unabated through a long
career, and had his intellectual texture been more
plastic, he had proved himself to his scholars a triumphant expositor. He seemed to want the discipline
of a more refined and general scholarship; at times
harassed in his classical exegesis, he became the veriest
pedagogue, and his derivative theory and verbal criticism, were often provocatives of the loudest laughter.
The sublimity of Longinus was beyond his grasp, and
he only betrayed his hardihood when he attempted to
unfold the beauties of the Sapphic Ode. He was enamored of Josephus, and recreated in the history of that




25
ancient people of Israel; so much so as to enter with
warmth into measures the better to secure their spiritual salvation; and if the newspapers, often our best
authority, are to be relied on, associated himself with a
Society for the Conversion of the Jews; and it is
affirmed, he secured, after years of effort, one at least
within the sheepfold of Calvinistic divinity.  Dr. Wilson, though cramped with dactyls and spondees, was
generous in his nature, of kindly feelings, and of great
forbearance towards his pupils.  Few of our American
colleges have enjoyed the blessings of so earnest a
teacher for so long a term of years; and the occurrence
is still rarer, that so conscientious a professor has been
followed by a successor of at least equal zeal in his
classical department, and who is still further enriched
with the products of advanced philology and critical
taste.*
Columbia College has seen her centurial course.
While I feel that that noticeable asterisk prefixed to the
names of her departed sons will ere long mark my own,
I cannot but recognize the renown she has acquired
from  the men of thought and action whom  she has
sent forth to enrich the nation.  Let us award her the
highest praises for the past, while we indulge the fondest hopes for the future, and a great future lies before
her.  The eminent men who have successively presided
over her government, from  her first Johnson to her
present distinguished head, Dr. King, have uniformly
enforced with a fixed determination, classical and mathematical acquisitions, without which a retrograde
movement in intellectual discipline and in practical
* Charles Anthon, LL.D.
3




26
pursuits must take place.  While I accede to this indubitable truth, I may prove sceptical of the often repeated assertion of my old master, Wilson, that without the classics you can neither roast a potato nor fly a
kite.  It is currently reported that the fiscal powers of
Columbia College are more commanding than ever;
hence the duty becomes imperative, to enlarge her portals of wisdom  in obedience to the spirit of the age.
Let her proclaim and confirm the riches of classic lore;
let its culture, by her example, become more and more
prevalent.  Her statutes assure us she spreads a noble
banquet for her guests; but, disclaiming the monitorial,
let her bear in mind the sanitory precept of the dietetist, that variety of aliment is imperative for the full
development of the normal condition.  The apician
dishes of the ancients did not always prove condimental,
and the rising glory of an independent people, not yet
of her own age, has needs and seeks relief in the acquisition of new  pursuits, and in the exercise of new
thoughts corresponding with the novelty of their condition and the wants of the republic.
I had written thus much concerning my venerable
Alma Mater, and was content to leave her in the enjoyment of that repose, if so she desired, which revolving years had not disturbed, when lo! popular report
and the public journals announce that new life has
entered into her constitution.  The lethargy which so
long oppressed her, she has thrown of; she has found
relief in the quickened spirit of the times, and in the
doings of those intellectual bodies which surround her,
and which modern science has called into being.  Let
me, an humble individual, venture to give her the
assurances of a mighty population, in whose midst she




27
stands, that the learned and the enlightened, the
honest and the true, of every quarter, hail her advent
in unmeasured accents of praise.  In the moral, in the
scholastic, in the scientific world, her fiiends rise up to
greet her with warmest approbation; there are already
manifested throughout the land outward and visible
signs of joy at her late movements, and her alumni
everywhere cherish an inward and genuine rejoicing
at anticipated benefits.  She has found out by the best
of teachers, experience, that apathy yields not nutrition; that there is a conservatism which is more liable
to destroy than to protect.  From Aristotle down to
the present time, the schoolmen have affirmed that
laughter is the property of reason, while the excess of
it has been considered as the mark of folly.  It needs
no cart team to draw the parallel.  Liberated by the
increased wisdom  of the age, she now comes forth in
new proportions, and puts on the habiliments of one
conscious that her armor is fitted for the strongest contest, and ready to enter the field of competition with
the most heroic of her compeers.  The desire on all
sides to extend the empire of knowledge, opens the
widest area for her operations, and that great educational test, sound, practical, and available instruction,
we feel assured her richly endowed board of professors fully comprehend, the better to rear up the moral
and intellectual greatness of the American nation.
More than two centuries ago, Milton, in strong accents, told the world, in his tractate on education, when
referring to the physical sciences, that " the linguist, who
should pride himself to have all the tongues that Babel
cleft the world into, yet if he have not studied the
solid things in them as well as the words and lexicons,




28
he were nothing so much to be esteemed a learned man,
as any yeoman or tradesman completely wise in his
mother's dialect."  Yet ages have rolled on since this
oracular declaration, while the monition of this great
scholar has passed by unheeded.  But Oxford now
knows that languages alone will not save her, though
aided by Aristotle, and Cambridge has found that more
than the calculus is demanded at her hands.
I have repeatedly listened to the verbal remarks of
those two illustrious graduates of old Columbia, Gouverneur Morris and De Witt Clinton, on the subjects
most important in a course of collegiate instruction
for the youth of this country.  Morris urged, with his
full, flowing periods, the statesman's science, government and the American constitution; Clinton was tenacious of the physical and mechanical sciences: both
concurred in opinion that a professorship of cookery
was indispensable to secure health and longevity to the
people. But these philosophers had only recently returned from their exploratory tour to the west, as canal
commissioners, to decide upon the route for the Erie
Canal, and, as I conjecture, must have fared indifferently at that time in their journey through that almost
untrodden wilderness.
From  the period when the Abbe Haiiy unfolded
the theory of chrystallography, we may date the introduction, in a liberal way, of the physical branches
of science in academies and universities; and with the
chart of Bacon's outlines ever before us, the mighty fact
of Milton is best understood, that acquaintance with
things around us will best enable us to comprehend
things above us; thus studying the visible, the better
to learn and admire the invisible.  What, then, is to




29
be the nature of the intellectual repast a collegiate system  is to set before its scholars, seeing great diversity
of sentiment prevails.  The spirit of the times declares
it, and a vast and rising republic demands it.  Let the
classics be not shorn of their proper dimensions, and
in the discipline of her Anthon and her Drisler, they
will neither lose symmetry, nor become amorphous.
Let geometry and her kindred branches prefer her
claims to consideration by her erudite Hackley, and
her adjunct, the renowned Davies, of West Point celebrity: let natural philosophy and that science which
seems to inosculate with almost every other, chemistry,
be developed in all their relations by those ardent disciples, McCulloh and Joy: let that adept in teaching,
her recently elected Leiber, expound constitutional law
and public and private rights; and while God and
nature have established an eternal difference between
things profane and things holy, let the fountain be ever
open from which flows that wisdom imparted by your
venerable instructor, McVickar, for the benefit of ingenuous youth in all after life.
In the range of human pursuits, there is no avocation so grateful to the feelings as that of unfolding wisdom to generous and susceptible youth: philosophy to
the mind is as assuredly nutriment to the soul, as
poison must prove baneful to the animal functions.
Whatever may be the toil of the instructor, who can
calculate his returns? In the exercise of his great prerogative, he is decorating the temple of the immortal
mind; he is refining the affections of the human heart.
Old Columbia, with her fiscal powers, adequate to
every emergency, with the rich experience of a century, with the proud roll of eminent sons whom  she




30
has reared, and who have exerted an influence on the
literature and destinies of the commonwealth; these,
without the enumeration of other concurring circumstances, are enough to encourage comprehensive views
of blessings in store: and that heart and head will cooperate effectively in the reformation of abuses which
time had almost made venerable, and delight in the
glorious undertaking, fortified in the councils of a benignant Providence, of rearing to full stature a University commensurate with the enlarged policy that
characterizes New York, is the prayer of this generation, and cannot fail to be of the future, to whom its
perpetuity is bequeathed.
There are few of my auditory who have not been
struck with the increase, both in  numbers and  in
architectural display, of  our ecclesiastical  edifices.
When this Society was an applicant for incorporation,
the Roman Catholic denomination had one place of
worship, situated in Barclay street, and organized in
1786: they now have thirty-nine. The Jews of the
Portuguese order, the victims of early intolerance by
the inquisition of Portugal, and who first came among
us prior to the time of old Gov. Stuyvesant, had but
one synagogue for upwards of a century, situated in
Mill street: they now have eighteen. The Episcopal
denomination had seven churches, they now have fortynine. The Baptists had three, they now boast thirty.
But I can proceed no further in these details. When
I published an account of New York and its institutions in 1832,  we had one hundred and twenty-three
places of public worship: our aggregate at this time
* Brewster's Edinburgh Encyclopsedia.




31
approaches three hundred, of which we may state that
sixty are of the Dutch Reformed and Presbyterian
denominations, and forty of the Methodists.  As I dismiss the churches, I am also compelled to omit almost
all notice of the departed worthies of the various
denominations with whom  I have been  personally
acquainted, or heard as pastors of their several flocks.
Our worthy founder, John Pintard, was extremely
solicitous that we should give minute attention to the
American church, and preserve faithful records of her
progress.  Had we labored severely in this species of
inquiry we might have had much to do, and I fear
have proved derelict in many things, which, as a
Historical Society, called louder on our time and for
our devotion.
Early instruction and reading while a boy, gave
me something of a bias towards matters pertaining to
churches and their pastors: my repeated visits to my
father's grave, in Ann street, when I was not yet seven
years old, led me to church yards and to epitaphs,
and I had collected, when scarcely able to pen an
intelligible hand, quite a volume of those expressive
memorials of saddest bereavement.  I state these facts,
lest in what I have to say, in a brief notice of a few
of the earlier clerical worthies of this city, you might
apprehend, from my personal reminiscences, that I was
half a century older than I actually am.
Christopher C. Kunze was the first clergyman I
ever cast eyes upon.  He was of the Evangelical German Lutheran Church.  He officiated in the old stone
edifice corner of Frankfort and William streets; he was
the successor of Muhlenburg, who afterwards was the
president of the convention that ratified the Constitu



32
tion, and speaker of the House of Representatives,
His political career is rendered memorable by his casting vote in behalf of Jay's treaty.  As little is said of
Kunze in the books, I may state, that lie was a native
of Saxony, was born in 1744, educated at the Halle
Orphan House, and studied theology at the University
of that city. Thence he was called in 1771 to the service of the Lutheran churches St. Michael and Zion's in
Philadelphia.  In 1784 he accepted a call from  the
Evangelical Lutheran church in William, corner of
Frankfort street, as stated. Here he officiated until his
death in 1807.  He held the professorship of Oriental
languages in Columbia College, from  1784 to 1787,
and from  1792 to 1795.  While Kunze occupied his
ecclesiastical trust, a struggle arose to do away the
German and substitute the English language in preaching.  With assistance, Dr. Kunze prepared a collection of Hymns, translated into English: they were
the most singular specimens of couplets and triplets I
ever perused, yet they possessed much of the intensity
and spiritualism  of German poetry.  This was in the
fall of 1795."   Dr. Kunze was a scholar somewhat after
the order of old Dr. Styles, and deeply versed in the
fathers, in theology.  He was so  abstracted fiom
worldly concerns and the living manners of the times,
that like Jackey Barrett, of Trinity College, Dublin,
he practically scarcely knew  a sheep from  a goat,
though he might have quoted to your satisfaction
Virgil and Tibullus. He reared the moral and intellectual structure of Henry Stuber, who wrote the Continuance of the life of Franklin, and who then sunk into
* Published by Hurtin & Commardinger. New York: John Tiebout:
12mo, 1795.




33
the grave by an insidious consumption.  Kunze was
versed in astronomy, and was something of an astrologer.  He was quite skilled in numismatics, and you can
appreciate the value of the rich collection of medals
and coins which his family placed at the disposal of
our Society.  Kunze died fifty years ago, and in his
death we lost one of our great scholars, and a worthy
man.  He held a newspaper controversy on the Gregorian period of the century 1800, and published a
Sermon entitled  "King  Solomon's great sacrifice,"
delivered at the dedication of the English Lutheran
Zion Church, October 4, 1801.  It demonstrates his
command of the English language.
There is associated with this movement of the English Hymn Book for the Lutheran church, a transaction which can hardly be overlooked.  It is connected
with our literary history.  The increase of our native
population, after the war, produced an increased demand for tuition as well as for preaching in the English
tongue, and while the Lutheran Cathecism found a translator in the Rev. George Strebeck and Luther's blackletter Bible yielded to James's, (the English,) the German Theatre, with Kotzebue at its head, was now beginning to find among us readers, and actors in an English
dress, and William Dunlap and Charles Smith, a bookseller in Pearl street, (afterwards better known for his
valuable Military Repository, on the American Revolution,) and the Rev. H. P. Will, furnished materials for
the acting drama from  this German source, for the
John street theatre; so that in New York we had a
foretaste of Kotzebue and Schiller ere they were subjected to the criticism of a London audience, or were
embodied in Thompson's translations of the German
Theatre.




34
It was just about this period that Dominie Johannes Daniel Gros, a preacher of the Reformed  Dutch
Church of Nassau street, (where Gen. North erected a
beautiful mural tablet to Baron Steuben,) having discoursed both in  the German  and English  tongues,
retired from the field of his labors, left the city, and
settled at Canandaigua, where he died in 1812.  His
praises were on every lip, and here and there is still
a living graduate of Columbia College who will tell
you how, under those once ornamental buttonwoods,
he drilled his collegiate class on  Moral Philosophy,
while  the  refined and  classical Cochran  (like  our
Anthon  of these days) unfolded the riches of the
Georgics, and Kemp labored to excite into action his
electrical apparatus.  The  last of our  theological
worthies who used the language of Holland in the
ministry, was the Rev. Dr. Gerardus Kuypers, of the
Dutch  Reformed Church.   tie died in 1833.  But
I forbear to trespass upon the interesting Memorial of
the Dutch Church recently published by our learned
Vice-President, Dr. De Witt.*
I was well acquainted with Joseph Pilmore and
Francis Asbury: the former, with Boardman, the first
regular itinerant preachers of this country, sent out by
John Wesley: Pilmore was a stentorian orator.  The
latter, Asbury, was delegated as general superintendent
of the Society's interest, and was afterwards denominated Bishop: they were most laborious and devoted
men, mighty travellers through the American wilds in
* See that valuable record, "A Discourse delivered in the North Reformed Dutch Church, (Collegiate,) in the city of New York, on the last
Sabbath in Angust, 1856. By Thomas De Witt, D. D., one of the Ministers of the Collegiate Reformed Dutch Church. New York, 1857.




35
the cays of Oglethorpe.  Pilmore finally took shelter
in the doctrines of episcopacy.  Asbury was by no
means an uproarious preacher. A second Whitfield in
his activity, in his locomotive faculty a sort of Sinbad on
land: wrapt up in ample corduroy dress, he bid defiance
to the elements, like the adventurous pioneer, journeying whithersoever he might.  He had noble qualities,
disinterested principles, and enlarged views.  He has
the credit, at an early date, of projecting the Methodist
Book Concern, that efficient engine for the diffusion of
knowledge throughout the land, and second to no other
establishment of a like nature among us save the Brothers Harper.  No denomination has stronger reasons
to be grateful to individual effort for its more enlightened condition, its increased strength, its literature, its
more refined ministry, and the trophies which already
adorn the brows of its scholars, than has the Methodist
Church to Francis Asbury.  Pilmore and Asbury were
both advanced in life when I knew them.  Pilmore sustained a wholesome rubicundity; Asbury exhibited
traces of great care and a fixed pallor, in the service of
his Master.
I will close this order of the ministry with the
briefest notice I can take of Thomas Coke, the first
Methodist Bishop for America consecrated by Wesley
himself, in 1784, and identified with the progress of
that society, both in England and in this country. He
was just fifty years old when I listened to him in the
summer of 1797. He was a diminutive creature, little
higher than is reported to have been the pious Isaac
Watts, but somewhat more portly. He had a keen visage, which his acquiline nose made the more decided, yet
with his ample wig and triangular hat he bore an impres



36
sive personnel.  His indomitable zeal and devotion
were manifest to all. An Oxford scholar, a clever author, and glowing with devotional fervor, his shrill
voice penetrated the remotest part of the assembly.
He discoursed on God's providence, and terminated the
exercises with reading the beautifil hymn of Addison,
"The Lord my pasture shall prepare."  So distinctly
enunciatory was his manner, that he almost electrified
the audience.  He dealt in the pathetic, and adepts in
preaching might profit by Coke.  Though sixty years
have elapsed since that period, I have him before me as
of yesterday. Thus much of Asbury and Coke, legible
characters, whole-hearted men, the primitive pioneers
of methodism in this broadcast land.
I should like to have dwelt upon the character of
another great apostle of the Arminian faith, Thomas
F. Sargeant.  He was cast much after the same physical mould as our John M. Mason.  He had little
gesticulation, save the occasional raising of the palms
of his hands.  He- stood with an imposing firmness in
the sacred desk.  A master of intonation, his modulated
yet strong and clear utterance, poured forth a flood of
thought characterized by originality and profundity on
christian ethics and christian faith, winning admiration and securing conviction. He was free from dogmatism, and aimed to secure his main object, to rencler
religion the guiding rule of life.  His blows were well
directed to break the stubborn heart.  He was a great
workman in strengthening the foundation of methodism
among us: but I desist from further details.
I introduce Bishop Provoost in this place, because I
think our Episcopal brethren have too much overlooked the man, his learning, his liberality, and his




37
patriotism.  He had the bearing of a well-stalled
Bishop, was of pleasing address, and of refined manners.
He imbibed his first classical taste at King's College,
and was graduated at Peter's House, Cambridge. He
became skilled in the Hebrew, Greek, Latin, French,
German, and Italian languages, and we have been assured he made an English poetical version of Tasso. I
never listened to his sacred ministrations but once, in
Old Trinity; he was then advanced in years. He was
quite a proficient in Botanical knowledge, and was
among the earliest in England who studied the Linnmean classification.  I long ago examined his copy of
" Caspar Bauhin's Historia Plantarum," whom, on a
written leaf affixed to the first volume, he calls the
prince of botanists, and which MS. bears date 1766.
He was to the back-bone a friend to the cause of revolutionary America; and I believe it is now granted,
that there was scarcely another of that religious order
among us who was not a loyalist.  I ought to add, that
a portion of his library was given to our Society by
C..D Colden, his son-in-law, who furnished me with the
MS. of his life, a few days before his death, and to
which I ventured, with the approbation of Mr. Colden,
to make additional facts concerning the Bishop's attainments in natural science.
Our enlightened founder, John Pintard, was personally known, during a long life, to a large majority
of the citizens of this metropolis, and was universally
consulted by individuals, of almost every order, for information touching this state's transactions, and the multifarious occurrences of this city, which have marked
its progress since our revolutionary struggle. Persons
and things, individualities and corporations, literary,




38
biographical, ecclesiastical, and historical circumstances,
municipal and legislative enactments, internal and external commerce, all these were prominent among the
number; and his general accuracy as to persons and
dates made him  a living chronology.  During a long
period of his memorable life, our learned associate, Dr.
Mitchill, held the same distinction in the walks of
science.  Pintard's life was not, however, solely retrospective: he had the capabilities of one whose vision
extended far ahead.  Witness his remarkable estimate
of the growth of this city, in inhabitants and in extent,
dating from about 1805, and comprehending a period
long after his death.  The fulfilment is so striking with
the facts as he prognosticated, that the statistical writer
cannot but marvel at the precision of his data and the
fulfilment of his calculations.  See, further, his earnest
co-operation with De Witt Clinton and Cadwallader D.
Colden, Thomas Eddy, and others, in bringing together
that first mass meeting in behalf of the Erie Policy,
held in the Park, when the requisites for such assumption jeoparded almost life, and cut off all political advancement.  Look at his enlarged views to promote
the interests of that church to which he so early and
so long had claims as an exalted member, in effectually
securing the noble Sherrard bequest for the Theological Seminary, and his successful application to George
Lorrillard for the twenty-five thousand dollar fund for
a professorship: canvass his merits for the organization
of many of the libraries which now enrich this city,
and the cheerful aid with which he united with the
late benevolent William Wood, in furtherance of a
hundred other public objects.  Examine for yourselves
the records of the office of the city inspector, and learn




39
the obstacles he encountered to establish that department of the city institutions, for the registry of births
and deaths.  But I will no longer tire you.
Pintard's astonishing love and reverence for the
past was no less remarkable.  The men of the Revolution were his idols, and perhaps his longest attached
and most important of this class were Willett, Jay,
Fish, and Col. Trumbull.  He often conversed with me
of his acquaintance with Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Geo. Clinton, Rufus King, and Hamilton, but I am
left to infer that with some of these his personal associations were limited.  As a deputy agent under Elias
Boudinot, as commissary-general for prisoners, he was
fully conversant, from observation, with the horrors of
the jail and the Jersey prison ship, and he never touched
that subject that he did not revive reminiscences of
Philip Freneau, the scenes of the old Sugar House, the
hospital practice conducted by Michaelis and others
on the American prisoners in the old Dutch Church,
(now Post Office,) then appropriated to medical accommodation, as well as for other purposes, by the British
army.  It is familiarly known to my audience that our
state legislature during the session of 1817 —'18 passed
a law, prepared by Henry Meigs, for the disinterment
of the body of Montgomery in Canada for re-burial
under the monument in St. Paul's Church, N. Y.  Soon
after the passage of the act, I waited upon Mr. Pintard
on some subject connected with the Historical Society,
and found his mind worried.    You seem, sir," said I,
" to be embarrassed."   Somewhat so," replied he; " I
have just received an Albany letter requiring specific
information: they are at a loss to know  where MNontgomery's bones lie.  I shall be able soon to give them




40
an answer."  It is almost needless to add that Pintard's
directions led to the very spot where, within a few feet
designated by him, the remains of the patriot were discovered.
It had long been understood that the old Chamber
of Commerce had a full-length portrait, painted by
Pine, of Lieut. Governor Colden. Pintard was for years
in search of it: at length he had prospects of success;
and ransacking the loft of the old Tontine, (recently
demolished,) he discovered the prize among a parcel of
old lumber. " I shall now," said he, " take measures to revive that excellent old corporation, much to be regarded
for what it has done for our metropolis, and for what
it is capable of doing." My friend Dr. King can scarcely
forget John Pintard in his History of the Chamnber of
Commerce. This precious painting of Colden is now
among your historical treasures.
If a careful examination be made of the earlier
records of our Historical Society, it will be seen that
our founder, John Pintard, filled with the idea of establishing this institution, most judiciously sought the
countenance of the reverend the clergy of this metropolis.  He was alive to the beneficial zeal employed by
Jeremy Belknap and other divines in behalf of the
Massachusetts Historical Society: he considered the
clergy as among the safest guardians of literature and
history, and that their recommendation of the measure
would prove of signal utility.  The Rev. Dr. Samuel
Miller, of whom I have on several occasions spoken in
laudatory terms, was at this period a prominent individual throughout the land, by the recent publication
of his " Brief Retrospect,' which obtained for its author
the applause of both hemispheres. This able divine




41
and courteous and exemplary character, had also announced to his friends his intention of preparing for the
press a " History of the State of New York," and it was
further understood that he had given much study to
historical research.  Dr. John M. Mason, who stood
without a parallel among us as a preacher, and as a
student of ecclesiastical affairs, with strong feelings for
New York, was also one on whom  Pintard relied for
counsel. There was, moreover, so adventurous a daring
in the very elements of Mason's constitution, and his
personal influence was so wide among the literati, that
it was inferred his countenance could not but increase
the number of advocates for the plan.  Innovation
presented no alarm  to Dr. Mason; progress was' his
motto.  He had heard much of revolutionary times
from the lips of his friend Hamilton.  His father's patriotism circulated in his veins: he knew the uncertainties of historical data, and that the nation's history, as
well as that of the State's, was yet to be written. This
heroic scholar and divine, whom I never think of without admiration of the vastness of intellectual power
which God in his wisdom vouchsafes to certain mortals,
was prominently acknowledged as the chieftain of the
ecclesiastical brotherhood of those days.  He contemplated, moreover, a life of his friend Hamilton, and
doubtless was often absorbed in the consideration of
American history.  The paramount obligations of his
pastoral and scholastic duties, and their imperative
urgency, must unquestionably be assigned as reasons for
his non-performance.  As a reader he was unrivalled; as
an orator in the sacred desk, his disciplined intellect
shed its radiance over all he uttered. Rich in a knowledge of mankind, and of the ethics of nations, the
4




42
ample treasures of ancient and modern learning were
summoned at command, with a practical influence at
which doubt fled, and sophistry and indifference stood
abashed.  He was bold in his animadversions on public
events, and lashed the vices of the times with unsparing severity. There was no equivocation in his nature,
either in sentiment or in manner.  His address to his
people, on resigning his pastoral charge of the Cedar
Street Church, is, perhaps, his greatest oratorical effort.
His Plea for Sacramental Communion evinced a toleration worthy of apostolic Christianity: his address on
the formation of the American Bible Society, prepared
within a few hours for the great occasion, by its masculine vigor crushed opposition even in high quarters,
and led captive the convention.  "We have not a man
among us," said Olinthus Gregory, of the British Society, "who can cope with your Mason.  All have
wondered at the sublimity and earnestness of his address." In his conversation Dr. Mason was an intellectual gladiator, while his commanding person and
massive front added force to his argument. He knew
the ductility of words, and generally chose the strongest
for strongest thoughts.  lie had a nomenclature which
he often strikingly used. In reference to an individual
whose support to a certain measure was about to be
solicited, "Put no confidence in him," said the doctor,
" he's a lump of negation." In speaking of the calamitous
state of the wicked and the needy in times of pestilence,
he broke forth in this language: —" To  be poor
in this world, and to be damned in the next, is to
be miserable indeed."  He had a deep hatred of the
old-fashioned pulpit, which he called an ecclesiastical
tub, and said it cramped both mind and body. With




43
Whitfield, he wished the mountain for a pulpit, and
the heavens for a sounding-board.  His example in
introducing the platform  in its stead has proved so
effective, that he may claim the merit of having led to
an innovation which has already become almost universal among us. As Dr. Mason is historical, and a portion
of our Society's treasure, I could not be more brief concerning him.  If ever mortal possessed decision of character, that mortal was John M. Mason.
Pintard, thus aided by the cooperation of so many
and worthy individuals in professional life, determined
to prosecute his design with vigor.  He had doubtless submitted his plan to his most reliable friend
De Witt Clinton, at an early day of its inception, and it
is most probable that by their concurrence Judge Egbert Benson was selected as the most judicious choice
for first President.  This venerable man had long
been an actor in some of the most trying scenes of his
country's legislative history, and was himself the subject
of history. His antecedents were all favorable to his
being selected: of Dutch parentage, a native of the
city of New York, and a distinguished classical scholar
of King's College, from  which he was graduated in
1765. He was one of the Committee of Safety: deeply
read in legal matters, and as a proficient in the science
of pleading, he had long been known as holding a high
rank in jurisprudence.  By an ordinance of the Convention  of 1777, he was appointed first AttorneyGeneral of the State-he was also a member of the
first legislature of 1777. Perhaps it may be new to
some of my hearers to learn, that he was also one of
the three Commissioners appointed by the United
States to assist with other Commissioners that might




44
be chosen by Sir Guy Carleton, to superintend the embarkation of the tories for Nova Scotia. The letter to
Carleton of their appointment signed by Judge Egbert
Benson, William Smith, and Daniel Parker, bears date
New York, June 17, 1783. I am  indebted to our
faithful historian, Mr. Lossing, for this curious fact.
In 1789 Mr. Benson was elected one of the six Representatives of New  York to the first Congress, in
which body he continued four years.  In his Congressional career, he was often associated in measures with
Rufus King, Fisher Ames, Oliver Ellsworth, and
others of the same illustrious order of men.  Nor did
his official public services end here. In 1794 he was
appointed a Judge of the Supreme Court of New York,
where he remained several years.  He was a Regent of
the University from 1789 to 1802.  He was a most
intimate and reliable friend of that stern and inflexible patriot, Gov. John Jay.  He lived the admiration
of all good men to the very advanced age of 87 years,
blessed with strength of body and soundness of mind,
and died at Jamaica, on Long Island, in 1833, confident
in the triumphs of a Christian life.
The patriotism  of Judge Benson, his devotion to
his country in its most trying vicissitudes, his political
and  moral integrity, were never questioned.  His
kindliness of feeling, and his social and unassuming demeanor, struck every beholder.  Such  was Egbert
Benson, the individual earliest and wisely pointed out
as our first President.
My acquaintance with Judge Benson did not commence until near the close of his official tenure in this
Society. He presided at the first great festival we
held in 1809, at the delivery of Dr. Miller's Discourse,




45
on the 4th of September, 1809, designed to commemorate the discovery of New York, being the completion
of the second century since that event. I have, on a
former occasion, given an account of that celebration.
Judge Benson was anecdotical in an eminent degree:
his iron memory often gave proofs of its tenacity.
His reminiscences of his native city are often evinced
in his curious Record of New York in the olden times.
From him  I learned that our noble faculty of physic
had, in those earlier days, their disputations, theoretical and practical, as we have witnessed them  in our
own times.  Strong opposition was met in those days
to the adoption of inoculation for the small-pox, as pursued by Dr. Beekman Van Beuren, in the old Alms
House, prior to 17T0.  Old McGrath, a violent Scotchman, who came among us about 1743, and who is immortalized by Smollett, had the honor of introducing
the free use of cold bathing and cold lavations in fever.
He doubtless had drawn his notions from Sir John
Floyer, but probably had never conceived a single
principle enforced by Currie. McGrath's whole life
was a perpetual turmoil. Dr. Henry Mott, who died
in 1840, aged 83 years, and the father of the illustrious surgeon  Dr. Valentine Mott, was among the
prominent practitioners who adopted the mercurial practice, with Ogden and Muirson, of Long Island, not
without much opposition.  But the most serious rencontre in our medical annals, according to the Judge,
was that which took place with Dr. Pierre Michaux,
a French refugee, who settled in New  York about
1791, who published an English tract on a surgical
subject, with a Latin title-page. The pamphlet was
too insignificant to prove an advantageous advertise



46
ment to the penniless author, but Dr. Wright Post, of
most distinguished renown in our records of surgery,
feeling annoyed by its appearance, solicited his intimate friend, the acrimonious Dunlap, the dramatic
writer, to write a caricature of the work and the
author.  The request was promptly complied with, and
at the old John Street Theatre a ludicrous after-piece
was got up, illustrative of a surgical case, Flracturc
Jlinirzi Digiti, with a meeting of doctors in solemn
consultation upon the catastrophy. Michaux repaired
to the theatre, took his seat among the spectators, and
found the representation of his person, his dress, his
manner, and his speech, so fairly a veri-resemblance,
that he was almost ready to admit an alibi, and alternately thought himself now among the audience-now
among  the  performers.  The  humiliated  Michaux
sought redress by an assault upon Dunlap, as, on the
ensuing Sabbath, he was coming out from worship in
the Brick Church. The violent castigation Dunlap
received at the church portal, suspended his public devotional duties for at least a month.  Michaux, now
the object of popular ridicule, retired to Staten Island,
where after a while his life was closed, oppressed with
penury, and mortification of mind. I have thus (by
way of parenthesis) introduced some things touching
the doctors of years past. I crave your clemency for
the interruption.  I am  so constituted, that I cannot
avoid a notice of our departed medical men whenever I
address New Yorkers on the subject of their city.  I
must plead, moreover, that these medical anecdotes are
connected with the materials I derived  fiom Judge
Benson himself.  They in part illustrate his minute recognition of events and his tenacious recollection.




47
So intimately connected with history is the record of
juridical proceedings, and the actors thereof, the actual
founders of statutory measures, especially in our popular
form of government, that state events necessarily receive their distinctive features from the members of the
bar.  In short, is not the statute book the most faithful
history of a people?   Mr. Pintard, with the largest
views to success, earnestly sought the cooperation of
that enlightened and important profession.  The laws
of a nation, said he, are pre-eminently historical in their
nature, and fall within our scope.  I am justified in the
assertion, from personal knowledge, that no class of our
citizens embarked with greater zeal in strengthening
the interests of this Association than did the members
of that faculty.  If you search the minutes of our
proceedings, you will find they constitute  a large
portion of our early friends, and that, too, at a period
when the idea of rearing this establishment was pronounced preposterous, by many even of the well informed.
I shall glance at a few of these worthies among our
earliest, our strongest, and most devoted supporters.
Anthony Bleecker, who deserves an ample memoir, was
a native of the city of New York; he was born in
October, 1770, and died in March, 1827.  He was a
graduate of Columbia College, reared to the profession
of the law, and was a gentleman of classical acquisitions, and refined belles-lettres taste.  As a member of
the Drone Club, a social and  literary circle, which
had at that time an existence of some years among us,
and which included among its members Kent, Johnson,
Dunlap, Edward and Samuel Miller, and Charles Brockden Brown, he proved an efficient associate in our




48
rankls.  He was for many years a prolific contributor
to the periodical press, in elegant literature, and wrote
for the Drone in prose and verse. Well stored in historical and topographical matters, not a small portion
of our library, which contains our early literature, was
due to his inquisitive spirit.  His sympathies were ever
alive to acts of disinterested benevolence, and as proof
we may state that from  the crude notes, journals, and
log-books which Capt. James Riley furnished, Bleecker
drew  up  gratuitously that popular " Narrative of
the Brig Commerce," which obtained so wide a circulation both in  this country and abroad.   He was
almost unceasingly engaged in American records of a
literary nature, and was just such a scholar for a contributor as the English "Notes and Queries" would
have solicited for their work.  He wrote to Bisset, the
English writer of the reign of George III., to correct
the  error which he had promulgated, that Henry
Cruger, the colleague of Burke, had circumscribed his
speech to the  enunciation  of three words, " I say
ditto;" and which Bisset finally cancelled in subsequent
reprints.  The productions of Mr. Bleecker's pen were
such as to make his friends regret that he did not elaborate a work on some weighty subject.  He died a
Christian death, in 1827, aged 59 years.  His habits,
his morals, his weight of character, may be inferred
from  the mention of his associates, Irving, Paulding,
Verplanck, and Brevoort. The bar passed sympathizing
resolutions on his demise, and John Pintard lost a wise
counsellor.  The portrait of Mr. Bleecker in the N. Y.
Society Library, is a lifelike work of art.
William Johnson is of too recent death not to be
held in fresh remembrance by many now present.  He




49
was a native of Connecticut; he settled early in New
York, and entered upon the profession of the law, and
was engaged from 1806 to 1823 as Reporter of the
Supreme Court of New York, and from 1814 to 1823,
of the Court of Chancery.  He died in 1848, when he
had passed his 80th year.  He is recorded in the original act of your incorporation.  He for many years
had a watchful eye over the interests of the Society.
It is beyond my province to speak of the value of his
labors.  lHe was of a calm and dignified bearing, and
of the strictest integrity.  As he was the authorized
reporter of the legal decisions of the State at a period
when her juridical science was expounded  by her
greatest masters, Kent, Spencer, Van Nest, Thompson,
&c., and was at its highest renown and of corresponding
authority throughout the Union, his numerous volumes
are pronounced the most valuable we possess in the
department of the law.  He was liberal in his donations of that part of our library devoted to jurisprudence. His most interesting historical contributions
to the library were those of the newspaper press:-the
New York Daily Advertiser from  its commencement,
an uninterrupted series, until near its close, and the
New  York Evening Post from its beginning in 1801,
and for many consecutive years, may be cited as proofs
i11 point.
With an earnestness surpassed by none of our earlier
fraternity, the late Peter A. Jay espoused the cause of
this institution, and contributed largely to its library.
His benefactions embraced much of that curious and
most valuable material you find classed with your rare
list of newspapers, printed long before our Revolutionary
contest. I apprehend he must have been thus enabled




50
through the liberality of his illustrious father, Governor
Jay. Peter A. Jay was most solicitous in all his doings
touching the Society, that the association should restrict
itself to its specified designation.  Every thing relative
to its historical transactions he would cherish, for he
deemed New York the theatre on which the great
events of the period of our colonization and of the war
of independence transpired.  It is in no wise remarkable that the library is so rich in newspaper and other
periodical journals. " A file of American newspapers,"
said Mr. Jay, "is of far more value to our design, than
all the Byzantine historians."  You may well boast of
the vast accumulation of that species of recorded
knowledge within your walls.
So far as I can recollect, our most efficient members,
as Johnson, Jay, Pintard, M'Kesson, Clinton, Morris,
and a host of others, have borne testimony to the high
importance of preserving those too generally evanescent
documents. They are the great source from which we
are to derive our knowledge of the form and pressure
of the times.  INo one was more emphatic in the declaration of this opinion than Gouverneur Morris.
John M'Kesson, a nephew of the M'Kesson who was
Secretary of the N. Y. Convention, an original member,
was a large contributor to our Legislative documents;
not the least in value of which were the Journals of
the Provincial Congress and Convention, together with
the proceedings of the Committee of Safety from May,
1775, to the adoption of the State Constitution at the
close of the Northern campaign in 1777.  " They include," says our distinguished associate, Mr. Folsom,
"the period of the invasion of the territory of the State
by the British army under General Burgoyne."




51
The minutes of our first meeting notice the attendance of Samuel Bayard, jun. He was connected by
marriage with the family of our founder, Pintard, and
they were most intimate friends.  He was a gentleman
of the old school, a scholar, a jurist, a trustee of Prince.
ton College, a public-spirited man, and a hearty cooperator in establishing this association. Widely acquainted with historical occurrences, and, if I err not,
on terms of personal communication with many of the
active men of the Revolution, including Governor Livingston, of New Jersey, through Mr. Bayard's agency,
and John Pintard, we obtained the Independent Reflector, the Watch Tower of 1754, the American Whig,
&c., records indispensable to a right understanding of
the controversy of the American Episcopate, and the
contentions which sprung out of the charter of King's
College. Livingston's life is full of occurrences: he was
a voluminous writer on the side of liberty, when his
country most needed such advocates: his patriotism
was of the most intrepid order, and he commanded the
approbation of Washington.  Theodore Sedgwick, not
long since, has given us his valuable biography, and
the Duyckincks in the " Cyclopsedia of American Literature," a legacy of precious value, for the consultation
of writers on the progress of knowledge in the New
World, have treated his character and his labors with
ability and impartiality.  Some forty years ago, I saw
the prospectus for the publication of Governor Livingston's works, in several volumes, at the office of the
Messrs. Collins. Had the plan been executed, the arm
of the patriot would have been nerved with increased
strength in behalf of religious toleration and  the
rights of man, by the noble defence of this bold ex



52
plorer into the domain of popular freedom. But,
alas! the materials for the contemplated work, in
print and in manuscript, were suffered to lie in neglect
in a printing loft, until time and the rats had destroyed
them  too far for typographical purposes. I was told
that his son, Brockholst Livingston, the renowned
United States judge, had the matter in charge, and I
have presumed that the remembrance of his father's
literary labors was  obliterated from  his memory,
through the weightier responsibilities of juridical business. I believe we are obligated to Samuel Bayard
principally for that remarkable series of MSS., the
Journals of the House of Commons during the Protectorate of Cromwell, which fill so conspicuous a niche
in your library.  Mr. Bayard, I apprehend, obtained
them  through  Governor Livingston, or, perhaps, I
would be more accurate, were I to say, that they were
once in the possession of the Governor. I remember
bringing over from Paulus Hook, now Jersey City, some
of the volumes.
We possessed liberal benefactors in our earlier
movements for a library, in Samuel M. Hopkins, Cadwallader D. Colden, and Gulian C. Verplanck.  This
last named gentleman, who is recorded as an early member, and whom, thanks to a beneficent Providence, we
still hail among the living celebrities of the Republic,
both in letters and in humanity, stored with varied
knowledge, and actuated by true Knickerbocker feelings, deemed the library department of enduring importance, and with a comprehensive view affirmed, that
it was the bounden duty of the Society to collect every
book, pamphlet, chart, map, or newspaper that threw
light on the progress of the State, its cities, towns, or




53
on the history of its literature; thus carrying out the
plan unfolded in the Society's address to the public at
their first organization. That we profit by more than
his advice, may be seen in his historical discourse on the
early European friends of America, and the tribute he
pays to the character of our forefathers, the Dutch and
the Huguenots.
From the studies and accomplishments of the wellinstructed physician, from  the wide range of knowledge, physical and mental, that falls within his observation; from the fact that every department of Nature
must be explored, the better to discipline him properly
to exercise his art; the inference may be readily drawn
that the faculty of medicine would scarcely prove indifferent to the creation of an institution fraught with
such incentives to intellectual culture, as are necessarily
embraced within the range and intentions of our Historical Society.  Moreover, I incline to the belief, that
veneration for our predecessors is somewhat a characteristic of the cultivators of medical philosophy: the
past is not to be overlooked, and the means for its preservation is in itself an intellectual advancement.  The
concurrence of the leading medical men of that early
day was proved by the fellowship of Hosack, Bruce,
Mitchill, Miller, Williamson, and, shortly after, by N.
Romayne, and others of renown.  These distinguished
characters need no commendation of ours at this time.
Your secretary has made records of their services, and
it has so chanced, that, from personal intimacy, I have
long ago been enabled to present humble memorials in
different places, of their professional influence and
deeds. They were men of expansive views, nor were
the elements of practical utility idle in their hands. Of




54
my preceptor and friend, David Hosack, let it be sufficient to remark that, distinguished beyond all his competitors in the healing art, for a long series of years,
he was acknowledged, by every hearer, to have been
the most eloquent and impressive teacher of scientific
medicine and clinical practice this country has produced. He was, indeed, a great instructor; his descriptive powers and his diagnosis were the admiration of all;
his efficiency in rearing, to a state of high consideration,
the College of Physicians and Surgeons, while he held
the responsible office of professor, is known throughout
the Republic; his early movements to establish a medical library in the New York Hospital; his cooperation
with the numerous charities which glorify the metropolis; his adventurous outlay for the establishment of
a State Botanical Garden; his hygienic suggestions the
better to improve the medical police of New York; his
primary formation of a mineralogical cabinet; his copious writings on fever, quarantines, and foreign pestilence, in which he was the strenuous and almost the
sole advocate for years, of doctrines now verified by
popular demonstration; these, and a thousand other
circumstances, secured to him a weight of character
that was almost universally felt throughout the metropolis.  It was not unfrequently remarked by our citizens, that Clinton, Hosack, and Hobart were the tripod
on which our city stood.  The lofty aspirations of
Hosack were further evinced by his whole career as a
citizen.  Surrounded by his large and costly library,
his house was the resort of the learned and enlightened
from  every part of the world.  No traveller from
abroad rested satisfied without a personal interview
with him; and, at his evening soirees, the literati, the




55
philosopher, and the statesman, the skilful in natural
science, and the explorer of new regions; the archaeologist and the theologue met together, participators in
the recreation of familiar intercourse. Your printed
volumes contain all, I believe, he ever prepared for you
as your President. His life was a triumph in services
rendered and in honors received; his death was a loss
to New York, the city of his birth; his remains were
followed to the grave by the eminent of every profession, and by the humble in life whom his art had relieved. I-losack was a man of profuse expenditure; he
regarded money only for what it might command.
Had he possessed the wealth of John Jacob Astor, he
might have died poor.
Early at the commencement of your patriotic undertaking was recorded Archibald Bruce as a member.
We had, at that time, more than one Bruce in the
faculty among us.  He of the Historical Society was
the physician and mineralogist.  He was born in New
York in 1771, was graduated at Columbia College,
studied medicine with Hosack, and, in 1800, received
the doctorate at the Edinburgh University. While in
Scotland, he acquired a knowledge of the Wernerian
theory under Jameson, and subsequently became a
correspondent of the Abbe Haily, the founder of
Crystallography.  He collected a large cabinet of
minerals while travelling about in Europe, projected
the "American Journal of Mineralogy" in 1810, the
first periodical of that science in the United States,
and was created Mineralogical Professor by the regents
of the University, at the organization of the College of
Physicians and Surgeons.  He had a cultivated taste
for the Fine Arts, and contributed to our Library.




56
He died in 1818.  His reputation rests with his discovery, at Hoboken, of the Hydrate of Magnesia. In
" Silliman's Journal " there is a biography of him.
The universal praise which Dr. Mitchill enjoyed in
almost every part of the globe where science is cultivated, during a long life, is demonstrative that his
merits were of a high order.  A  discourse might be
delivered on the variety and extent of his services in
the cause of learning and humanity; and as his biography is already before the public in the "National
Portrait Gallery," and we are promised that by Dr.
Akerly, I have little to say at this time but what may be
strictly associated with our Institution.  His character
had many peculiarities: his knowledge was diversified
and most extensive, if not always profound. Like most
of our sex, he was married; but, as Old Fuller would
say, the only issues of his body were the products of his
brain.  He advanced the scientific reputation of New
York by his early promulgation of the Lavoisierian
system of chemistry, when first appointed professor in
Columbia College: his first scientific paper was an
essay on Evaporation: his mineralogical survey of New
York, in 1797, gave Volney many hints: his analysis
of the Saratoga waters enhanced the importance of
those mineral springs. His ingenious theory of septic
acid gave impulse to Sir Iumphry Davy's vast discoveries: his doctrines on pestilence awakened inquiry
from every class of observers throughout the Union:
his expositions of a theory of the earth and solar system, captivated minds of the highest qualities.  His
correspondence with Priestley is an example of the
delicious manner in which argument can be conducted
in philosophical discussion: his elaborate account of




57
the fishes of our waters invoked the plaudits of Cuvier. His reflections on Somnium evince psychological
views of original combination. His numerous, papers
on natural history enriched the annals of the Lyceum,
of which he was long president. His researches on
the ethnological characteristics of the red man of
America, betrayed the benevolence of his nature and
his generous spirit: his fanciful article for a new and
more appropriate geographical designation for the
United States, was at one period a topic which enlisted
a voluminous correspondence, now  printed in your
Proceedings.  He increased our knowledge of the
vegetable materia medica of the United States. He
wrote largely to Percival on noxious agents.  He
cheered Fulton when dejected; encouraged Livingston
in appropriation; awakened new zeal in Wilson the
ornithologist, when the Governor, Tompkins, had nigh
paralyzed him  by his frigid and unfeeling reception;
and, with Pintard and Golden, was a zealous promoter
of that system  of internal improvement which has
stamped immortality on the name of Clinton.  He
cooperated with Jonathan Williams in furtherance of
the Military Academy at West Point, and for a long
series of years was an important professor of useful
knowledge in Columbia College and in the College
of Physicians and Surgeons. His letter to Tilloch, of
London, on the progress of his mind in the investigation of septic acid, is curious as a physiological document. The leading papers from his pen are to be
found in the New York Medical Repository; yet
he wrote in the American Medical and Philosophical
Register, the New York Medical and Physical Journal, the American Mineralogical Journal, and sup5




58
plied several other periodicals, both abroad and at
home, with the results of his cogitations. He was one
of the commissioners appointed by the general government for the construction of a new naval force to be
propelled  by steam, the steamer Fulton the First.
While he was a member of the United States Senate,
he was unwearied in effecting the adoption of improved
quarantine laws; and, among his other acts, strenuous
to lessen the duties on the importation of rags, in order
to render the manufacture of paper cheaper, to aid the
diffusion of knowledge by printing.
There was a rare union in Dr. Mitchill of a mind
of vast and multifarious knowledge and of poetic
imagery. Even in his "Epistles to his Lady Love,"
the excellent lady who became his endeared wife, he
gave utterance of his emotions in tuneful numbers, and
likened his condition unto that of the dove, with trepidation seeking safety in the ark.  Ancient and modern
languages were unlocked to him, and a wide range in
physical science, the pabulum of his intellectual repast.
An essay on composts, a tractate on the deaf and dumb,
verses to Septon or to the Indian tribes, might be
eliminated from his mental alembic within the compass
of a few hours. He was now engaged with the anatomy of the egg, and now  deciphering a Babylonian
brick; now involved in the nature of meteoric stones,
now on the different species of brassica; now on the
evaporization of fresh water, now on that of salt; now
offering suggestions to Garnet, of New Jersey, the correspondent of Mark Akenside, on the angle of the windmill, and now concurring with Micheaux on the beauty
of the black walnut as ornamental for parlor furniture.
In the morning he might be found composing songs for




59
the nursery, at noon dietetically experimenting and writing on fishes, or unfolding a new theory on terrene formations, and at evening addressing his fair readers on
the healthy influences of the alkalis, and the depurative virtues of whitewashing.  At his country retreat
at Plandome he might find full employment in translating, for his mental diversion, Lancisi on the fens
and marshes of Rome, or in rendering into English
poetry the piscatory eclogues of Sannazarius.  Yesterday, in workmanlike dress, he might have been
engaged, with his friend Elihu H. Smith, on the natural
history of the American elk, or perplexed as to the
alimentary nature of tadpoles, on which, according to
Noah Webster, the people of Vermont almost fattened
during a season of scarcity; to-day, attired in the costume of a native of the Feejee Islands, (for presents
were sent him from all quarters of the globe,) he was
better accoutred for illustration, and for the reception, at his house, of a meeting of his philosophical
acquaintance; while to morrow, in the scholastic robes
of an LL. D., he would grace the exercises of a college
commencement.
I never encountered one of more wonderful memory: when quite a young man he would return from
church service, and write out the sermon nearly verbatim.  There was little display in his habits or manners.  His means of enjoyment corresponded with his
desires, and his Franklinean principles enabled him to
rise superior to want.  With all his official honors and
scientific testimonials, foreign or native, he was ever
accessible to everybody; the counsellor of the young,
the dictionary of the learned.  To the interrogatory,
why he did not, after so many years of labor, revisit




abroad the scenes of his earlier days for recreation,
his reply was brief:-" I know Great Britain from the
Grampian Hills to the chalky Cliffs of Dover: there
is no need of my going to Euirope, Europe now comes
to me."  But I must desist. The Historical Society
of New York will long cherish his memory for the
distinction he shed over our institution, his unassuming
manners, his kind nature, and the aid he was ever
ready to give to all who needed his counsel. He furnished an eulogium on our deceased member the great
jurist, Thomas Addis Emmet, also on Samuel Bard;
his discourse on the Botany of North and South
America, is printed by the society in their Collections.
Mitchill has not unjustly been pronounced the Nestor
of American science.
The claims of Edward Miller to your remembrance
are associated with those of his brother Samuel. Edward Miller, learned and accomplished as a scholar,
generous and humane as a physician, urbane and refined
as a gentleman, was of that order of intellect that could
at once see the relationship which such a society as this
holds with philosophy, and the record of those occurrences on which philosophy is founded. That he aided
his reverend brother in that portion of the " Brief
Retrospect " which treats of science in general, and of
medicine in particular, was often admitted by the gifted
divine. I have in strong recollection the enthusiastic
terms in which Dr. Edward Miller spoke of our organization at the memorable anniversary in 1809; and all
versed in our medical annals can give none other than
approbation of his professional writings, though they
may maintain widely different opinions from some inculcated by other observers. He survived the com



61
mencement of the society but a few years, dying in
March, 1812. I accompanied him, in consultation, in
the last professional visit he made, in a case of pneumonia, a few weeks before his death. In the sick room
he was a cordial for affliction.  His biography was
written by his brother, and a memoir of his life may
be found in the American Medical and Philosophical
Register, vol. third.
I will close the record of our friends belonging to
the medical faculty, with a brief notice of two other
members, Hugh Williamson and Nicholas Romayne;
the former by birth a Pennsylvanian, born in 1735, the
latter a native, born in the city of New York 1756.
After the acquisition of sound preliminary knowledge,
Williamson was graduated M.D. at the University of
Utrecht, Holland.  He practised physic but a short
time in Philadelphia, on account of delicate health.
In 1769 he was appointed chairman of a committee
consisting of Rittenhouse, Ewing, Smith, the provost,
and Charles Thompson, afterwards secretary to Congress, all mathematicians and astronomers, to observe
the transit of Venus in 1769. He published an Essay
on Comets, afterwards enlarged, and printed in the
Transactions of the Literary and Philosophical Society
of New  York.  By appointment with  Dr. Ewing,
he made a tour in Great Britain in 1773, for the
benefit of a literary institution.  He wrote on the
Gmynotius electricus, and upon his return to North Carolina was an active agent in the promotion of inoculation, and finally received a commission as head of the
medical staff of the American army of that State. In
1782 he took his seat as a representative of Edenton in
the House of Commons of North Carolina. In 1786 he




62
was one of the few members who were sent to Annapolis on the amendment of the constitution, and in 1 89
we find him in New York, and in the first Congress,
when the constitution was carried into effect. HIe wrote
an octavo volume on the climate of America.  In 1812
appeared his History of North Carolina.  He was the
author of several papers on medical and philosophical
subjects, and on the canal policy of the state, printed
in the American Medical and Philosophical Register.
He was among the first of our citizens who entertained
correct views on the practicability of the union of the
waters of the Hudson and Lake Erie.  He penned the
first summons for the formation of the Literary and
Philosophical Society of New York.  He died in 1819,
at the advanced age of 83 years.
The career of Williamson is well known from the
ample Biography of his friend  and  physician, Dr.
Hosack.  He was justly esteemed for his talents, his
virtues, and his public services. HIosack affirmed on the
testimony of Bishop White, John Adams, President of
the United States, Gen. Reed, and John Williamson,
that Hugh Williamson was the individual who, by
an ingenious device, obtained the famous Hutchinson
and Oliver letters from the British foreign office for
Franklin, and I can add that John Williamson, the
brother of the doctor, communicated to me his concurrence in the same testimony. This curious relation is
however rejected as not well founded, by our eminent
historians, Sparks and Bancroft.
Williamson was a peculiarity in appearance, in manners, and in address. Tall and slender in person, with
an erect gait, he perambulated the streets with the air
of a man of consideration; his long arms and his long



63
er cane preceding him  at commanding distance, and
seemingly guided by his conspicuous nose, while his
ample white locks gave tokens of years and wisdom.
Activity of mind and body blessed him to the last of
his long life. His speech was brief, sententious, and
emphatic.  He was often aphoristic, always pertinacious in opinion. There was rarely an appeal from his
decision —he was generally so well fortified. He had
great reverence for the past, was anecdotical in our
revolutionary  matters, and  cherished with almost
reverential regard the series of cocked hats which he
had worn at different times, during the eight years'
crisis of his country. His History of North Carolina
has encountered the disapprobation of many, and is
deemed defective and erroneous, yet be was a devoted
disciple of truth. No flattery, no compliment would
ever reach his ear.  Witness his curt correspondence
with the Italian artist, Carrachi: look at his testimony
in the case of Alexander Whisteloe.  To a solicitation
for pecuniary aid in behalf of an individual whose moral
character he somewhat doubted, when told that a reform had taken place: "Not so," replied the doctor,
"he has not left the stage,-the stage has left him." His
punctuality in engagements was marvellous; no hour,
no wind or weather, ever occasioned a disappointment on
the part of the old man, now over eighty years of age;
and in his own business transactions, of which from various incomes he derived his ample support, one might
apprehend the requirement of much time, he let not the
setting sun close upon him without their entire adjustment.  He died, if I remember rightly, about the hour
of 4 o'clock of the afternoon, while in a carriage excursion to the country, from excessive solar heat, in June;




64
yet it was found that his multifarious accounts and
correspondence had all been adjusted, up to the hour
of two on that same day.
Some of my most gratifying hours in early life were
passed with this venerable man: it was instructive to
enjoy the conversation of one who had enriched the
pages of the Royal Society; who had experimented
with John Hunter, and Franklin, and Ingenhouze in
London, and  had enjoyed the soirees of Sir John
Pringle; who narrated occurrences in which he bore a
part when Franklin was Postmaster, and in those of
subsequent critical times; one, who, if you asked him
the size of the button on Washington's coat, might tell
you who had been his tailor. A more strictly correct
man, in all fiscal matters, could not be pointed out,
whether in bonds and mortgages, or in the payment of
the postage of a letter. I will give an illustration.
He had been appointed in Colonial times to obtain
funds for the Seminary at Baskenridge, N. J.: he set
out on his eastern tour, provided with an extra pair of
gloves, for which he paid 7s. and Gd.: on his return
he revisited the store in Newark, where he had made
the purchase, had the soiled gloves vamped anew, and
parted with them for 6.s. In his items of expenditure,
he reports Is. and Gd. for the use of gloves, investing
the 6e. with the collection fund. Such  was Hugh
Williamson, whose  breastplate  was  honesty, the
brightest in the Christian armory. If I mistake not,
I think I once saw him smile at the trick of a jockey.
Dr. Thacher, the author of the " Military Journal,"
told me he had listened to him when he was in the
ministry, in a sermon preached at Plymouth; but his
oratory was grotesque, and Rufus King the Senator,




65
who noticed him in our first Congress, said his elocution provoked laughter.  Yet he spoke to the point.
Take him altogether, he was admirably fitted for the
times, and conscientiously performed many deeds of
excellence for the period in which he lived. Deference
was paid to him by every class of citizens. He holds
a higher regard in my estimation, than a score of
dukes and duchesses, for he signed the Constitution of
the United  States. His Anniversary Discourse for
1810, you have secured in your publications.  The
portrait of Dr. Williamson by Col. Trumbull, is true
to the life and eminently suggestive.
A monograph on Romayne would not be too much.
He entered the Historical Society some years after its
formation.  He is associated with innumerable occurrences in New York, his native city, and was born in
1756. Of his antecedents little is satisfactorily known.
His early instruction was received from Peter Wilson,
the linguist, at his school at Hackensack. At the commencement of the war of the Revolution he repaired
to Edinburgh, where he pre-eminently distinguished
himself by his wide range of studies, his latinity and
his medical knowledge.  His inaugural for the doctorate, prepared unassisted, was a dissertation De Generatione Puris, in which he seems to have first promulgated the leading doctrines received on that vexed
subject.  He now visited London, Paris, and Leyden,
for further knowledge, and returning to his native
land, settled first in Philadelphia, and shortly after in
New York.  He had a fair chance of becoming a practitioner of extensive employment.  His erudition justified him in assuming the office of teacher, and he lectured with success on several branches of physic. He




66
was pronounced an  extraordinary  man. Anatomy,
chemistry, botany, and the practice of medicine, were
assumed by him. His most eminent associates, Bayley,
Kissam, Moore, Treat, and Tillary, echoed his praises.
He spoke with fluency the French and Latin tongues,
and the low Dutch.
When the provincial government of King's College
was changed after 1783, he was nominated one of the
Trustees. The Board of the College, now Columbia,
determined upon reviving a new faculty of medicine,
but from causes too numerous to relate, Dr. Romayne
was not chosen to an appointment.  In 1791, an act
was passed, authorizing the Regents of the University
to organize a medical faculty, which, however, did not
go into operation until January,1807,when Dr. Romayne
was appointed President of the College of Physicians
and Surgeons under their authority.  HIe gave lectures
on Anatomy and on the Institutes. I was present at his
opening address to the students at the ensuing November. It was an elegant and elaborate performance in science and on the ethnology of the red man of America.
He was a pleasing speaker; his discourse justified all
that had been  previously expressed concerning his
varied knowledge and his classical taste. He would
rise in his place and deliver a lecture on the aphorisms
of Hippocrates, unfold the structure of the brain, expound the philosophy of paludal diseases, or discourse
on the plant which Clusius cherished. He was indeed
clever in every acceptation of the word. I find since
that period, by an examination of his copy of the Conspectus Medicinae of Gregory, and his MS. notes, that his
Lectures on the Institutions were drawn chiefly from
Gregory's work. Yet was he an original observer and




67
an intrepid thinker.  He died suddenly, after great exposure to heat, in June, 1817.
It rarely occurs to any individual to enjoy a larger
renown among his fellows, than did Dr. Romayne during the time he filled the station of President of the
College. Yet he was not content with this condition of
affairs, and was constantly studying new things, until
ejected from his high office by the Regents of the University, the venerable Samuel Bard being chosen as his
successor.
His penury in early life had taught lRomayne the
strictest economy.  At Edinburgh his wardrobe was so
slender, that it often reminded me of the verses of an
old ballad:
"The man who has only one shirt,
Whenever it's washed for his side,
The offence is surely not his
If he lies in his bed till it's dried."
Such, literally, was the case with the student Romayne,
and still he bore himself with becoming respectability,
and left the University one of the most accomplished
of her sons in general knowledge and professional
science.  Hle did well enough during his two years in
Philadelphia as a practitioner; an equally favorable
turn in business followed him  in New York, in which
place he settled as the British troops left the city. The
spirit of adventure, however, seized him: he embarked
in the scheme of Blount's conspiracy, was seized by the
constituted authorities, and Pintard saw him conveyed
to prison.  In what manner his troubles were removed
I am unable to state.  I have heard of no special disclosures that he made.  He was too long-headed for
self-accusation, and however bellicose by nature, pre



68
ferred his customary cautious habit.  Romayne had
learned the proverb of the old Hebrews: —  One word
is worth a shekel-silence is worth two."  But awhile
after he revisited Europe, became a licentiate of the
Royal College of Edinburgh, returned to his native
city, and was chosen President of the College, an institution of only two years later date than your own, and
which, amidst great vicissitudes and an anomalous government, has enriched with meritorious disciples the
noble art of healing, and diffused untold blessings
throughout the land.
Romayne was of huge bulk, of regular proportion,
and of an agreeable and intelligent expression of countenance, with a gray eye of deep penetration. It was
almost a phenomenon to witness the light, gracious, and
facile step of a man surpassing some three hundred
pounds in weight. and at all times assiduous in civic
pursuits and closet studies.  He was unwearied in toil,
and of mighty energy. He was goaded by a strong
ambition to excel in whatever he undertook, and he
generally secured the object of his desire, at least professionally. He was temperate in all his drinks, but
his gastric powers were of inordinate capabilities. I
should incur your displeasure were I to record the material of a single meal: he sat down with right good
earnest and exclusive devotion at his repast. His auricular power seemed now suspended. Dr. Mitchill long
ago had said that the stomach had no ears. In charity
I have conjectured that he must have labored under a
species of bulimia, which pathologists affirm will often
pervert the moral faculties. His kind friend, the late
Reverend Dr. M'Leod, tells us, that though many of
his acts were crooked, yet that Romayne died in the




69
consolations of the Christian religion.  He was generous to the young, and ready with many resources to
advance the student.  He made a great study of man;
he was dexterous with legislative bodies, and at one
period of his career was vested with almost all the
honors the medical profession among us can bestow.
Some of the older medical writers, whose works were
found in the residue of the library of the late Dr. Peter
Middleton, as well as others of the late Dr. Romayne,
were deposited in your library; but of late years, I aim
sorry to say, I have not recognized them.
I shall now take leave of the departed doctors,
while memory cannot forget their living excellence,
and cast a glance at some few circumstances, which,
more or less immediate or remote, had an influence
in fostering those associations which finally accelerated public opinion, and led to the establishment of the
Historical Society at the fortunate epoch at which it
was organized.
The extraordinary occurrences of the American
Revolution, which had left their impress on the minds
of most of the patriots who had survived that mighty
event, the peace of 1783, which closed the great
drama, and now presented the country impoverished
and in debt, its resources exhausted, its people rich in a
knowledge of their rights, yet poor indeed in fiscal
power, were circumstances calculated to awaken a personal interest, more or less deep, in every bosom, and
to excite inquiry, with a curious scrutiny, what history
would unfold of the marvellous trials through which
the people had passed, and what historian would write
the faithful record of their sufferings and their deeds.
This city, which had been the occupancy of their




70
enemies during that long struggle, though now freed
of the British army, still retained a vast number of the
Tory party, who, while they were ready to be the participators of the benefits of that freedom which sprung
out of the Revolution, were known to be disaffected by
the mortifications of defeat, under which they still
writhed, and whose principal relief was found in yielding the listening ear to any narrative that might asperse
the purity of American devotion in the patriotic cause
of freedom.  Thus surrounded, the natives, the true
Whigs, the rebel phalanx, so to speak, were often circumscribed in thought and in utterance.  To recount
the specifications of the wrongs which they had endured,
as cited in the immortal Declaration of Independence,
was deemed, by the defeated and disaffected, cruel
and unwise, so hard was it to root out the doctrines of
colonial devotion.  Here and there measures were in
agitation, and suggestions hinted, the object of which
was to prevent the public reading of the Declaration
on the 4th of July; and even so late as July, 1804, a
turmoil arose, upon the occasion of the expressed sentiments of the orator of the day, JohnaW. Mulligan, Esq.,
now, I believe, the oldest living graduate of Columbia
College.
It was in vain that appeals were made to the instructive facts of the issues of usurpation and oppression, that
millions of property had been wantonly destroyed by
British hirelings and mercenary troops, that individual
rights and possessions had been disregarded, that the
records of churches, of institutions of learning, and the
libraries of schools and colleges, had been consumed.
A further glance at affairs presented the fact, that conflicting and erroneous statements of the war itself, and




of the primary motives of action of its American
leaders, were also perverted and tauntingly promulgated
as true history by foreign writers. The champions of
freedom were daily harassed. To be subjected to such
a state of things, was no more nor less than to yield to
renewed degradation, and to leave the contest an im
perfect work. In fine, the tares which had been rooted
out were, it was apprehended, again to infest the soil,
and liberty itself again to be endangered.
Topics involving matters of this nature were not unfrequently the subjects of warm  controversy. The
people were cognizant of the ordeal through which
they  had  passed.  They  knew  there were still
among us men of the same calibre for the hour of peril,
as those who had proved themselves valiant indeed.
They also recognized among us men who saw how difficult in the future would be the procurement of authentic documents for that volume, which, in after times,
was destined to prove a second Revelation to man, unless a proper and timely spirit was awaked by cooperation with living witnesses, with those who best
knew the price of freedom by the cost of purchase, and
who were duly apprised of the value of correct knowledge diffused among a new-born nation. The blood
that had been spilt, the lives that had been lost, the
treasures that had been expended, were familiar truths
of impressive force. But the memorials of a tyrannic
government were still more palpable, in the destruction which laid waste so many places, and which encompassed the city round about. And what spectator,
however indifferent, could fail to learn by such demonstrations, and cherish in his bosom  profitable meditations. I am  speaking now, more especially, of the




72
scenes presented in this city. But more than this.
New York, which throughout her whole progress has
been faithful to constitutional law, and may examine
with a bold front her conduct both in peace and in war,
had furnished noble intellect and strong muscle in the
vast work of colonial disfranchizement. She could
boast of patriots who now found their homes as citizens
among us, in the residence of their choice.  The Clintons, the Livingstons, the Morrises, Jays-Hamilton,
Fish, Gates, Steuben, M'Dougal, Rufus King, Duer,
Ward, Williamson, Clarkson, Varick, Pendleton, and
hundreds of others, who had done service in the times
that tried men's souls, were now domiciliated here.
How often have I cast a lingering look at many of
these worthies in their movements through the public
ways, during the earlier period of this city, with here
and there a Continental tricornered hat over their venerable fronts, a sight no less gratifying to the beholder
than the fragrant wild rose scattered through the
American forest. I am not now to tell you what species
of knowledge these men diffused among the people, and
what doctrines on liberty they espoused; versed as
they were in the school of experience, they could utter
nothing but wisdom. Suffice it to remark, that they
led to that accumulation of manuscripts of revolutionary
documents, with which your library is especially enriched.
Other circumstances urged the propriety of organizing some institution which might enhance the patriotic object of a broad foundation, available for the promotion of historical knowledge.  It has been demonstrated in numerous instances, as I have in part intimated, that the story of our Revolution, if ever hon



73
estly related, must be derived from  domestic sources,
and from  the informed mind of the country.  The
prejudice abroad which had nullified facts, as in the
proceedings instituted to suppress the work of Dr.
Ramsey, and cut off its circulation in Europe; the
war of crimination which originated  from  General
Burgoyne's publications; the difficulties which arose
from Sir Henry Clinton's statements; the Gallaway letters and documents, all could be cited in proof of the
expediency.  And when still further it was ascertained
that Gordon's work, on which such strong hopes were
fixed, arising not only from the general reputation of the
writer, but strengthened by a knowledge of the opportunities he enjoyed for information, and the labor
and devotion he had paid to his subject; when, I remark, it was ascertained that that work was subjected to purification by British authority, because it contained aspersions (so called) on the British character,
that it recorded too many atrocious truths to assimilate well with the digestive functions of John Bull;
further, that audacious threats were held out that, if
published as written by the honest author, from its
faithful representations of the acts of many of the
renowned characters of the British army and navy, it
would lead to libel upon libel, damages upon damages,.
and thus impoverish the writer, as truth ever so well
grounded, even if permitted to be adduced, could not,.
according to statute, plead in mitigation, thus defeating
that integrity at which Gordon had arrived; facts of
this notorious nature, comprehended  even  by  the
masses, could be productive of no other result than
strengthen the general opinion that the American mind
must be up and doing, if ever the seal of truth was to'
6




74
stamp her imprimatur on the history of the American
Ievolution.*
Our friend Pintard repeatedly gave wings to  these
abuses of foreign writers, as preparatory to his movements for an  historical society.  He  was too full of
knowledge, both by observation and by reading, not to
feel himself doubly armed on the subject, and your intelligent Librarian, Mr. Moore, can  point out to you
how ample is your collection of volumes on the Indian,
the French, and the Revolutionary wars, chiefly brought
together by the zeal and research of your enlightened
founder.
Will you allow  me now   to  come  more  closely  at
home, and offer a few  remarks  on  the occurrences in
our midst, which in the end swelled the tide of popu* Dr. Waterhouse, in his work on Junius and his Letters, has very explicitly given us a brief statement of these nefarious transactions. I quote
from his preliminary view the following extract:  " A very valuable and
impartial history of the Americarn Revolution was written by the Rev.
William Gordon, ). D., an Englishman; who resided about twelve years
in Massachusetts, and had access to the best authorities, including that of
Washington, Greene, Knox, and Gates, and the journals of Congress and
of the Legislatures of the several States. He injudiciously returned to
England, there to print his interesting history. He deemed it prudent to
submit his manuscript to a gentleman learned in the law, to mark such
chapters and passages as might endanger prosecution, when the lawyer
returned it with such a large portion expurgated as to reduce about four
volumes to three. The author being too aged and too infirm to venture
upon a voyage back to America, and too poor withal, he submitted to its
publication in a mutilated state; and thus the most just and impartial history of the American war, and of the steps that led to it, on both sides of
the Atlantic, was sadly marred, and shamefully mutilated. My authority
is from my late venerable friend John Adcams, the President of these
United States, who perused Gordon's manuscript when lie was our Minister at the Court of London, and from my own knowledge, having been
shown a considerable portion of the History before the author left this
country to die in his own, and having corresponded with him till near the
close of his long life.o




75
lar feeling in behalf of your institution.  "No people in
the world," says a late lamented citizen, Herman E.
Ludwig, can have so great an interest in the history of
their country, as those of the United States of North
America; "for there are none." adds this learned German, " who enjoy an equally great share in their country's historical acts."  Glorious New York has, from
the beginning of her career down to the present hour,
ever been the theatre of thought, of action, and of results, and so I presume she is to continue. Her adventurous character has rendered her the acknowledged pioneer of the Republic, and her thousand examples of improved policy in municipal affairs, in building, in domestic economy, in the several departments
of arts and of commerce, have yielded by their adoption blessings untold to other cities of the Union.
From the time of that great improvement, as it was
called, the construction of side walks for foot passengers in the streets, only one hundred and thirty-four
years after the streets themselves were first paved, (a
long Rip Van Winkle torpor,) at which service we find
Pintard struggled with the  corporate authorities in
1791-2, down to that mighty achievement, the introduction of the Croton water, by the genius of Douglass,
she has been the exemplar for other cities of the Republic, and approved by the enlightened foreigner who
has visited our shores, from every nation.
Common observation has repeatedly confirmed the
fact, that the greatest and the smallest events are often
synchronous.  With the birth  of the Revolution of
France in 1789, I made my first appearance on this
planet, and the arrival of the Ambuscade four years
after, from the notoriety of the event and its conse



76
quences, enables me to bring to feeble recollection
many of the scenes which transpired in this city at that
time: the popular excitement and bustle, the liberty
cap, the entree of citizen Genet, the Red Cockade, the
song of the carmagnole, in which with childish ambition I united, the rencontre with the Boston frigate,
and the commotion arising from Jay's treaty.  Though
I cannot speak earnestly from actual knowledge, we
must all concede that these were the times when political strife assumed a formidable aspect, when the press
most flagrantly outraged individual rights and domestic peace-that the impugners of the Washington administration received new weapons with which to inflict
their assaults upon tried patriotism, by every arrival
from abroad, announcing France in her progress. The
federalists and the anti-federalists now  became the
federal and the republican party: the carmagnole sung
every hour of every day in the streets, and on stated
days at the Belvidere Club House, fanned the embers
and enkindled that zeal which caused the overthrow of
many of the soundest principles of American freedom.
Even the yellow fever, which from' its novelty and its
malignancy struck terror in every bosom, and was
rendered more lurid by the absurd preventive means
of burning tar and tar barrels in almost every street,
afforded no mitigation of party animosity, and Greenleaf with his Argus, Freneau with his Time Piece, and
Cobbett with his Porcupine Gazette, increased the
consternation which only added to the inquietude of
the peaceable citizen who had often reasoned within
himself, that a seven years' carnage, through which he
had passed, had been enough for one life. The arrogance of party-leaders was alike acrimonious toward




77
their opponents, and reasoning on every side seemed
equally nugatory. Nor could Tammany, ostensibly
the patron saint of aboriginal antiquities, calm  the
multitudinous  waves of faction, though her public
processions were decorated with the insignia of the
calumet, and the song of peace was chanted in untold
strains accompanied by the Goddess of Liberty, with
discolored  countenance  and  Indian  trappings, and
patriotic citizens, such as Josiah Ogden Hoffnan,
Cadwallader D. Colden and  William  Mooney, as
sachems, with many others, followed in her train.
I have not the rashness to invade the chair on which
is seated with so much national benefit and renown the
historian Bancroft, nor approach the sphere of the historical orator of the nation, Edward Everett; still, as
your association is historical in all its aims, I shall present a few additional circumstances which signalized
the spirit of those memorable times in New York.
Much I saw-much has been told me by the old inhabitants, now  departed.  When the  entire American
nation, nay, when the civilized world at large seemed
electrified by the outbreak of the revolution of France,
it necessarily followed, as the shadow  does the substance, that the American soul, never derelict, could
not but enkindle with patriotic warmth at the cause
of that people whose loftiest desire was freedom;
of that people who themselves had, with profuse appropriation, enabled that very bosom, in the moment of
hardest trial, to inhale the air of liberty. Successive
events had now dethroned the monarchy of France, and
the democratic spirit was now evolved in its fullest element.  It was not surprising that the experienced and
the sober champions who had effected the great revo



78
lution of the Colonies should now make the cause of
struggling France their own; and as victors already in
one desperate crisis, they seemed ready to enter into a
new contest for the rights of man. The masses coalesced and co-operated.  Cheering prospects of sympathy and of support were held out in the prospective
to their former friends and benefactors abroad. Jealousy of Britain, affection for France, was now the prevailing impulse, and the business of the day was often
interrupted by tumultuous noises in the streets. Groups
of sailors might be collected on the docks and at the
shipping ready to embark on a voyage of plunder;
merchants and traders in detached bodies might be
seen discussing the hazards of commerce; the schools
liberated from their prescribed hours of study, because
of some fresh report of the Ambuscade or of Genet, the
schoolmaster uttering in his dismissal a new reason for
the study of the classics, by expounding with oracular
dignity to his scholars, Vivat Re2spuzlica, now broadly
printed as the caption of the play-bill or the pamphlet
just issued.  The crew of the French frigate moored
off Peck Slip, were now disgorged on shore, and organizing to march in file, increased by many natives,
bearing the liberty cap with reverence to the residence
of the French Consul, in Water street, and thence proceeding to the Bowling Green, patriotically to root out,
by paving stones thrown in showers, the debris of the
old statue of George III. The tri-color was in every
hand or affixed to every watch-chain, while from every
lip was vociferated the carmagnole.  Meanwhile the
two old notorious arch-tories, who had fattened on lies
and libels, and before whose doors the procession passed,
were snugly ensconced behind their shop counter;




79
Rivington in rich purple velvet coat, full wig and cane,
and ample frills, dealing out good stationery to his
customers; and Gaine, in less ostentatious costume,
ready with religious zeal to dispose of his recent edition
of the Book of Common Prayer to all true worshippers.
Political clubs abounded everywhere. The fraternity of the two nations was the great theme. They
deliberated on the doctrine of Lafayette in the National
Assembly-" When oppression renders a revolution
necessary, insurrection is the most sacred of duties."
The democratic principle assumed a more vigorous
form, and the Democratic Society, the first in this city,
and perhaps the first in the Union, was organized, with
Henry Rutgers, an affluent and distinguished citizen,
as its president.
But the time was near at hand when this flood in
revolutionary affairs was about to find its ebb, so far
as concerned the universal sympathy which America
had cherished for struggling France.  She had contemplated the overthrow of the monarchy, the destruction of the privileged orders, the execution of the
king, with more or less approval; and, from the freedom of the press, and the diffusion of knowledge, our
citizens were perhaps as copiously enlightened in the
transactions of Paris as most of the inhabitants of that
capital in the midst of all its doings. But fresher and
still more portentous intelligence now poured in among
us.  All knew that the tree of liberty had been
planted in human blood; yet the delights at its
growth were sometimes checked by the means of its
nutrition.  Nor was this virtiginous state of public
opinion long to last.  Some of the hitherto most factious and sturdy jacobinical advocates took alarm  at




80
the rapid  march of foreign events.   In the  public assemblies graver deliberations filled the speaker's mind,
and the fulminations of anarchy gave way to the persuasive  logic  of rule  and  right.    History  was now,
indeed, teaching  philosophy.    So  far  as  concerned
the   war itself, nothing  abroad  so  effectively  chilled
the  ardor of the  American people  as the sanguinary
measures  of Robespierre, while  at home  the extraordinary career of Genet increased  the dissatisfaction  to
the  cause  of  Republican  France, and  added  to  the
anxiety which the predominance of jacobinical principles might occasion.
Amidst these  momentous  events,  others scarcely
less alarming  were  seen  approaching, aggravated  by
the rebellious tendencies of foreign interference and the
malign career of Genet,* the lawless spirit of the times,
and the increase of popular disaffection towards Eng* I have spoken of Genet with severity: he labors under reproach by
every historian who has recorded his deeds, and by none is he more chastised than by Judge Marshall; yet withal, Genet possessed a kindly nature, was exuberant in speech, of lively parts, and surcharged with anecdotes. His intellectual culture was considerable; he was master of several living languages, a proficient in music as well as a skilful performer.
To a remark I made to him touching his execution on the piano, he subjoined: "I have given many hours daily for twelve years to this instrument,
and now reach some effective sounds." He had a genius for mechanics, and
after he had become an agriculturalist in this country, wrote on machinery
and on husbandry.  He assured me (in 1812) the time would arrive when
his official conduct as minister would be cleared of its dark shades. To
other shoulders, said he, will be transferred the odium I now bear. In a
conversation with him on the vicissitudes and events of the French Revolution, he said, "Their leaders were novices: had they been versed in Albany politics but for three months, we would have escaped many trials,
-and our patriotism been crowned with better results."  It is to be regretted
that the papers of Genet have not yet seen the light: they embrace letters from Voltaire and Rousseau, and years' correspondence of eminent
American statesmen down to the close of his eventful life. He died at
Jamaica, Long Island, in 1834, aged 71 years.




81
land.  The appointment of Jay as minister extraordinary to Great Britain, the debates in Congress on the
Treaty which he had negotiated, and the local turmoil
which found encouragement elsewhere as well as in
this city, are facts strongly within the memory of the
venerable men still alive among us.  As might be inferred, the provisions of the treaty were assaulted with
the greatest vehemence by jacobinical or democratic
clubs, and the disciples of the most spotless of patriots
decried in language which can scarcely find a parallel
in the vocabulary of abuse. The disorganizing multitude, segregated in divers parts of the town, soon
found a rallying point at the Bowling Green, opposite
to the Government House, and signalized themselves by
burning a copy of the Treaty amidst the wildest shrieks
of demoniac fury,-while some of the Livingstons,
(among whom the most grateful associations clustered
for revolutionary services in behalf of dear America,)
with more than thoughtless effrontery fanned the embers of discontent, and William  S. Smith (a son-in-law
of old President Adams) presided with magisterial importance at a formidable meeting of the malcontents,
who passed resolutions deprecatory of the stipulations of
the negotiation and of the principles and acts espoused
by the advocates of the great measure.  To give a still
more alarming aspect to affairs, Hamilton and Rufus
King, occupying the balcony of the City Hall, in Wall
street, and addressing the people in accents of friendship and peace and reconciliation, were treated in
return by showers of stones levelled at their persons
by the exasperated mob gathered in front of that
building.  These are hard arguments to encounter,
exclaimed the noble-hearted Hamilton.  Edward Liv



82
ingston, (afterwards so celebrated for his Louisianian
Code,) was, I am informed, one of this violent number.
What Washington called a counter-current, however,
actually took place at a meeting of the old Chamber
of Commerce, at the head of which was Comfort
Sands, an experienced man who had been long before
a member of the Committee of Safety in the days of
the Liberty Boys. This important body on trade and
commerce voted resolutions declaring their approbation
of the treaty. But let me refer you to the history
of that time-honored association written by Charles
King, LL. D., for further particulars.
I believe old Tammany was then too intent in
effecting their original design, with their charter before
them, of gathering together the relics of nature, art,
beads, wampum, tomahawks, belts, earthen jugs and
pots, and other Indian antiquities, with all that could
be found of Indian literature in war songs, and in
hieroglyphical barks, to take any special movement in
this crisis of public solicitude for the safety of the
Union. Tammany, to her honor, adhered together by
a strong conservative Americanism, and stood aloof
from  the influence of foreign contamination.  That
these assertions are founded on more than conjecture,
is deducible from contemporaneous events.  One of
the beloved idols among their members, was the
erudite Dr. Samuel Latham Mitchill.  Early after the
organization of the society, he discoursed before the
Society of Black Friars, on the character of St. Tammany, the Incas of Peru, and the benignant aspect of
our Republic. Nothing had reference to our domestic
trials. Still later, at a season of much agitation among
us, as Sachem, in another address on the Red Man of




83
the New World, he congratulated the members on their
patron saint, with the hope that their squaws and
pap<ooses were all well.
Public opinion, as I have already intimated, had
become somewhat doubtful as to the wisdom which
marked the French revolution. Many, once seemingly
secure in the light of nature alone, now felt themselves
led into a delusion, the results of which threatened
more than temporal inconvenience. The middle and
the best classes of society, the responsible citizen, who
had at one time fraternized with these apostles of liberty, now foresaw that certain doctrines engrafted on and
interwoven with the political dogmas of the day, were
more serious in their intent than avowed, and penetrated deeper into the inward parts than the stripes of
partisan leaders and the acts of military chieftains.
Equivocation only rendered more noxious the skepticism which was too prominently rearing its head. Few
were so blind as not to see that infidelity, wrapt in the
mantle of the sovereign rights of the people, indulged
the hope of her triumphant establishment, and the
downfall of the strongest pillars of the  Christian
faith.
As the darkness which had shrouded the actual
state of things broke away, new light shone upon the
conduct of the revolutionists.  A devouter feeling was
in progress, and circumstances were better comprehended. The Gospel of charity, of peace, and of good
will to all men, it was safely inferred, was not to
be advanced by existing transactions, nor its dignity
elucidated with advantage by the foulest blasphemies.
It was further seen that the pestilential exhalations of
Paris had not merely polluted all France, but that




84
they had widely diffused themselves throughout the
Continent; that Germany had her Illuminati; that
England breathed the noxious vapor with spasmodic
vehemence; that Scotland was tainted; that Ireland
was ready for a change of elemental life.
Enough had  now  transpired  abroad  to awaken
alarm at home.  New York, which, to her everlasting
honor be it said, had been founded and reared under
her original settlers, the Dutch, and with the exception
of some slight misrule on the part of her English
masters (see our faithful and distinguished historian
Brodhead *), had uniformly sustained religious toleration down to the present moment; New York, which
had with the nobleness of freemen looked with sympathizing eyes on revolutionary France in her incipient
warfare on behalf of a persecuted and trodden-down
nation, could no longer continue incredulous as to the
mischief and abuse which afflicted others, nor skeptical
as to the disorder and moral degradation which threatened even her own domestic fireside.
" A change came o'er the spirit of her dream."
I have said already that her revolutionary heroes
wavered in their hopes that our people were swayed
by anticipated benefits; that the political clubs took
alarm; that, in short, among men of all orders and
professions, Doubting  Castle  stood  before  them.
Liberty, the attractive goddess, once decorated in her
robes of resplendent purity, was now transformed into
an hideous monstrosity.  The professing  Christians
* History of the State of New York: by John Rimeyn Brodhead.
First period 1609-1664. New York: Harper & Brothers, 8vo., 1853.




85
stood aghast when they learned that abroad every
tenth day was appointed for the Sabbath; that death
was pronounced an eternal sleep: that it was resolved
by the Corresponding Society of Paris that the belief
of a God was so pernicious an opinion, as to be an
exception to the general principle of toleration. The
clergy, with us, could no longer withstand these atrocious sentiments.  "Better," said they, "abandon the
cause of liberty, once so dear to our humanity, than
adhere to it at such a sacrilegious cost.  Better abandon France than abandon our God."  The balance was
struck, and many of that exalted order of men who
had been the advocates of the revolution, were now
turned and became its most implacable enemies.
William  Linn, of the Collegiate Dutch Church, an
eminent divine and accomplished preacher, was of the
number of the converts. He had published the Signs
of the Times in behalf of Liberty and France; his
troubled bosom  now gave relief to itself by his Discourse on National Sins. The Voice of Warning, a
powerful Discourse' by a popular man, John  M
Mason, was also widely circulated.  The party feuds
which had annoyed real believers of different denomi.
nations on such points as adult and poedo-baptism, on
certain rituals, on ordination and the like, and which
had hitherto been the only obstacle to the more earnest and greater extension of religious conformity by
the clergy of different sects, were apprehended now as
merely nothing, in comparison to the evils which
seemed impending.  The tranquillity of the whole
clerical body stood on the borders of destruction.
The prelacy was alarmed, and the so-called dissenters
of every faith were ill at ease. They had felt the




86
whirlwind, they now dreaded the storm.  The wolf
threatened to destroy both the shepherd and his flock.
The pulpit, so often and so effectively the means of
relief of private sorrow, now waged uncompromising
war with her thunderbolts from heaven, to rescue that
only precious book, as Mason called the Bible, from
the consuming influence of atheism.
I am not to measure the extent of the benefits conferred by the ministry at that dark time when ominous
formalities in the streets awakened the public gaze,
when the ears were distracted by terrible blasphemy,
and folly and infidelity had reached their climax; but
when I know that that majestic father of theology, Dr.
Livingston, of the Dutch Reformed Church, Dr. Rodgers
and Dr. John M. Mason, of the Presbyterian community, that learned dignitary of the Episcopate, Bishop
Provoost; John Foster, of the Baptists; Francis Asbury,
of the Methodists, and Kunze of the German Lutheran
Church, were of the number, and were enumerated
among the best of men who encountered the times and
openly declared their faith, in order to rescue the
people from themselves; I feel bound to infer that
some of the lepers must have been cleansed. That
eyesight was not received by all, and the scoffers not
altogether silenced, the history of that period gives us
painful proofs. That you may understand me the
better, I will weary your patience a moment longer
with a few circumstances which fell under the observation of every attentive person at that period.  Nor
will you accuse me of invective while I recite the
story.
I believe it is set down as a political axiom  that
war is not conducive to the progress of religious belief




87
Be this as it may, our revolutionary contest in its
wide-spread desolation  had left the institutions of
learning and of theology encompassed with perils and
in the lowest temporal condition.  Time was requisite
to restore their ability and their influence; and ecclesiastical affairs necessarily halted in their march, from
the penury which pervaded the country and the overburdened cares of a people, full of gratitude at their
liberation from the yoke of tyranny, yet hardly ready
to summon the requisite means for such important
and grave ends.  In the meanwhile, the conclusion
must be made that a sprinkling of philosophical belief,
in contradistinction to that of religious, had here and
there penetrated the public mincl and entered the soil
of liberty, derived from  the already scattered circulation of the writings of Voltaire, Helvetius, Rousseau,
and the Encyclopaedists.  But the land was doomed
to be still deeper impregnated and the dwellers thercon
to partake in larger bounty of the products of a new
husbandry, the fruits of a new revelation, in the enjoyment of which nature, rejecting absurdities and
rejoicing in a higher knowledge, would understand her
own powers and assert her inherent dignity.  The
work was therefore not entirely abortive, when, upon
the arrival of the Ambuscade within our waters, was
also brought that material which constructed  the
Teumple of Reason and led numerous worshippers to
her shrine.   The Theophilanthropists reared  their
heads, and Deistical Clubs were in formative operation.
However repellent to the doctrines of a religion which,
with uprightness of intention and the deepest conviction, the people at large maintained in conscious purity;
however antagonistic to that faith which they had in




88
infancy been taught and in riper years cherished as
their greatest blessing, their allegiance to the God of
their fathers was nevertheless in many instances neutralized by the poison they imbibed, and in many
cases broken asunder by pretexts of superior enlightenment-a more tenable rationality, the pride of intellect.  That these philosophical teachers well comprehended the avenues of triumph over the human
heart, is now understood better than in the days of
their active labors.  At that period of our city's
growth, scholastic knowledge was but sparingly diffused among us, and the manageable multitude were
easily led captive by the dexterity of Jacobinical instructors, who knew how to accommodate their lessons
to the affections of the unenlightened and untaught.
Besides which, liberty and the rights of man were so
insidiously interwoven with the fallacies of skepticism,
that while the former vouchsafed the dearest privileges, the latter was so masked that numbers unawares
were indoctrinated and became the disciples of the
theistical school. These clandestine movements were
not without their consequences in other sections of the
State, more especially at and about Newburgh, in the
county of Orange.  That county had been known as
the residence of a fierce democracy for some time. It
was patriotic in revolutionary times, and its political
sentiments generally ran high. It was destined afterwards to become the scene of the Druidical Society,
for so the free-thinkers nominated their fiaternity.
They feigned the principles of the Illuminati and of
the Jacobin Clubs. They alternately conducted their
public worship in New York and at Newburgh; and
at this latter place I have assurances that the typical




89
symbols of Christianity were sometimes outrageously
profaned.
I might mention the names of several of the leading officials of this confederacy, were this the occasion,
-with a number of them I afterwards became well
acquainted in my professional life. There were talents
and knowledge among them, and an ardent thirst for
liberty: they had warm hearts, strong affections, but
lacked the conservative and wholesome principles on
which a republic must depend for its prosperity and
duration. I would draw a veil over the closing scenes
of some of their lives.  How often we behold a mystery! The county which had given to Noah Webster
the school-house in which he first imparted juvenile
knowledge, and where he first concocted the famous
Spelling-book which has since given instruction and
morality to millions of the youth of both sexes of this
nation, became in the progress of events the patron of
a society whose every act seemed destined to demolish those very principles on which both liberty and
life depend.
In the midst of these commotions, certain presses
were not tardy in the diffusion of works favoring the
great designs of infidelity: Condorcet and Volney,
Tindall and Boulanger, became accessible in libraries
and circulated widely by purchase. But no work had
a demand for readers at all comparable to that of
Paine, and it is a fact almost incredible that the Age
of Reason, on its first appearance in this city, was
printed as an orthodox book, by orthodox publishers,
of a house of orthodox faith, doubtless deceived by the
vast renown which the author of Common Sense had
obtained, and the prospects of sale; acting on the prin7




90
ciple given in the Cyclopoedia, in its definition of a
good book, in booksellers' language,' one that sells
well."  The same publishers, however, made early
atonement for their bibliographical error, in their
immense circulation of Watson's Apology.
We had in those days other commotions touching
articles of belief of another order of delusion. I mean
the promulgation of the rhapsodies of Richard Brothers,
who affirmed he had received a special gift, and who
in England had aroused attention by his revelations
and prophetic visions not altogether unlike those of
the Millerites of the other day in this metropolis.
David Austin, of New Jersey, came hither to our relief,
and occupying a prominent pulpit denounced Brothers
as a deceiver, imparting his own learned disquisitions
on the millennium; while Townley, a worthy man and
laborious expositor, the last in the city of that denomination of preachers of the old Oliver Cromwell belief,
in a neighboring edifice was expounding the " unsearchable riches," and demonstrating the decrees of infinite
wisdom by enlightening his audience with a burning
candle on his desk, in which I observed he protruded
his medial finger in order to elucidate that passage of
holy writ, " when thou walkest in the fire, thou shalt
not be consumed, and the flame shall not burn thee."
The great instrument in the promotion of deistical
doctrines during that singular period in New York,
was Elihu Palmer, a speaker of much earnestness,
whose pulmonary apparatus gave force to a deep,
sonorous and emphatic utterance.  He was a native of
Connecticut, born in 1763, was graduated at Dartmouth
College, brought up a Congregationalist-assumed the
ministry, but after a short period was suddenly trans



91
formed into a Deist. In his study he was reading the
psalm, translated by Watts, " Lord, I am  vile, conceived in sin." He doubted, he denied the declaration;
he abandoned  preaching.  Riker, in his valuable
Annals of Newtown, gives an interesting detail of the
circumstances.  Palmer proceeded to Philadelphia for
the purpose of the study and practice of the law, took
the yellow fever of 1793, became totally blind, and
gave up his law pursuits.  He now in right earnestness
assumed the function of a deistical preacher in this city,
in 1796.  He died in Philadelphia of pleurisy, in the
winter of 1805 or 1806.  In what manner he added to
the stores of his wisdom after his loss of sight, I know
not; but must infer that his associate followers became
in turns readers to him.  His information, from early
inquiry and a strong love of knowledge, with the
means referred to, secured to him the title of a man of
parts; such was the general reputation he bore.  I
have more than once listened to Palmer; none could
be weary within the sound of his voice; his diction
was classical, and much of his natural theology attractive by variety of illustration.  But admiration often
sunk into despondency at his assumption, and his sarcastic assaults on things most holy. His boldest philippic
was his discourse on the title page of the Bible, in
which, with the double shield of jacobinism and infidelity, he warned rising America against confidence in
a book authorized by the monarchy of England, and
inveighed against royalty and the treacherous James,
with at least equal zeal as did that sensualist issue his
Counterblast against the most innocent recreation that
falls within the scope of weary mortals. Palmer delivered his sermons in the Union Hotel, in William street.




92
His audience was composed of a large body of the
free-tlinkers of that day   His Principles of Nature,
a 12rno, was reprinted in London about the time of the
Thistlewood riots.  Palmer's strongest personal friends
were John Fellowes, an author of some volumes;
Rose, an unfortunate lawyer; Taylor, a philanthropist,
and Charles Christian.
During the later years of his pastoral functions,
as he called them, he was aided by a co-laborer in
another part of the city, of physical proportions even
more stately, of still more daring speech, whose voice
was as the surge of mighty billows, whose jacobinism
was, if possible, still fiercer; I allude to John Foster:
I have heard many speakers, but none whose voice
ever equalled the volume of Foster's. It flowed with
delicious ease, and yet penetrated every where.  He
besides was favored with a noble presence. Points of
difference existed in their theological dogmas, yet they
had the same ends in view; radicalism and the spread
of the jacobinical element.  Foster's exordium  consisted generally in an invocation to the goddess of
liberty, now unshackled, who inhaled nutrition from
heaven, seated on her throne of more than Alpine
heights. Palmer and Foster called each other brother,
and the fraternity was most cordial.  I have sometimes thought, could we find more frequently the
same strenuous efforts as these men employed, called
into action by that exalted order of persons whose aim
is the diffusion of evangelical truth, we should also find
a wider extension of the gospel dispensation. Methinks
there is a deficiency somewhere:
" Tis of ourselves that we are thus or thus:
Our bodies are our gardens, to the which
Our minds are gardeners."




93
But the programme of our theological warfare in
those remarkable times is not yet complete.  While
these scenes were enacting, there were other establishments not idle. The society of friends, peaceable as
from  the beginning, held their service in the Pearl
street and Liberty street meeting-houses; not as yet
disturbed by the innovations on primitive Barclay,
introduced by Elias Hicks, an able preacher of strong
reasoning powers, and which subsequently agitated
that religious community from the city of their American origin through various states of the Union; yet, in
the end, unavailable to suppress that inward comfort
(as Penn calls it) "which leads the soul to silent converse with heaven, and prompts to acts of beneficence
for suffering mortals."
The Universalists, with  Edward  Mitchell and
William Palmer, though circumscribed in fiscal means,
nevertheless drew together a most respectable body of
believers to their house of worship in Magazine street.
They were both men of eloquence and good pleaders
in behalf of their tenets, and had large auditories.
Occasionally they were sustained in the work of their
conviction by the preaching of John Murray, an
Englishman by birth, whose casual absence from his
people in Massachusetts enabled him  to gratify the
disciples of their creed in New York.  Murray had a
rival of a like name to his own, of the Calvinistic
faith, a man of sound erudition and rhetorical powers,
and in contradistinction they were designated by the
sobriquet Salvation and Damnation Murray.  These
men moved together so harmoniously, that they often
alternately occupied the same pulpit, on the same day,
in New England. The Universalist, little John Murray,




94
had much of the primitive about him; his rich humility, his grave accent, and his commentaries on the
divine love, won him distinction from every discourse.
None could  withhold  a kindly  approbation.  He
seemed to me always to be charged with tracts on
benevolence, and distributing a periodical called the
Berean, or Scripture Searcher.  He called himself a
Berean.
The doctrines of the Universalists had been entertained and promulgated in New York and elsewhere
among Americans, long prior to the time of the public
discourses of Mitchell and Palmer.  Chauncey's book
had been read by thousands; William Pitt Smith, a
doctor of physic, and a professor of materia medica in
Columbia College, in this city, had published his Letters
of Amyntor; Winchester's Lectures on Universal Restoration and on the Prophecies, had been circulated with
a strong recommendatory letter in their belief from
the pen of Dr. Rush; and Huntington's Calvinism
Improved, or the Gospel Illustrated as a System  of
Real Grace issuing in the Salvation of all Men, had
gained much notoriety from the peculiar circumstances
which accompanied its publication as a posthumous
work, and the able reply to it by the celebrated Dr.
Strong, of Hartford.  We moreover had a slender
volume on the same topic from a medical prescriber in
this city, by the name of Young.  Seed therefore had
been sown broadcast, ere Mitchell had mounted the
pulpit. Nevertheless, the Universalists may look back
with equal emotions of gratitude at the labors of
Mitchell and Palmer for a series of years in their
service, begun some fifty years ago, while their society
was in its infancy, as at the present day they hail their




95
accomplished orator, Dr. Chapin, as their ecclesiastical
leader.
What  a beautiful and  instructive  example  of
toleration is set forth in this brief history of forms of
belief!
I had the opportunity, in the Magazine street church,
of listening to a discourse full of personal observation
and reminiscences, from the lips of Stewart, the Walking
Philosopher, as the books call him; a, man of altitude,
whose inferior limbs provided him with peculiar facilities to visit almost every part of the earth as a pedestrian, before we had railways, and who enlightened his
audience with descriptive touches of Egypt and her
pyramids, of Nova Zembla, "and the Lord knows
where." I shall never forget his unostentatious, though
impressive appearance; his lank figure, his long neck,
his long nose, his wide mouth, and his broad white hat.
There is one other subject I must place within the
background of this picture of past times, and that is
street preaching.  The older inhabitants tell us we had
much of it in the earlier condition of this city, shortly
after the inauguration of the first President of the
United States.  I remember well repeated examples of
this sort of edification in the public ways.  I shall
specify but one, and that was to be found in the person
of Lorenzo Dow.   Dow  was a Wesleyan, of rare
courage and determined zeal.  He scarcely ever presented himself without drawing together large multitudes of hearers, in part owing to his grotesque appearance, but not a little arising from  his dexterous elocution and his prompt vocabulary.  He was faithful to
hlis mission, and a benefactor to Methodism  in that
day. His weapons against Beelzebub were providential
— ~'~ " "'r'~" ZD




96
interpositions, wondrous disasters, touching sentiments,
miraculous escapes, something after the method of John
Bunyan.  His religious zeal armed him with Christian
forbearance, while his convictions allowed him a justifiable use of the strongest flagellations for besetting
sins. Sometimes you were angered by his colloquial
vulgarity; but he never descended so low as Huntington, the sinner saved, the blasphemous coal-heaver of
England.  He was rather a coarse edition on brown
paper, with battered type, of Rowland Hill.  Like
the disciplined histrionic performer, he often adjusted
himself to adventitious circumstances; in his field exercises, at camp meetings, and the like, a raging storm
might be the forerunner of God's immediate wrath; a
change of element might betoken Paradise restored, or
a new Jerusalem.  He had genius at all times to construct a catastrophe. His apparent sincerity and his
indubitable earnestness sustained and carried him onward, while many ran to and fro. Repartee, humor,
wit, irony, were a portion of his stock in trade, the
materials he adroitly managed.  Sometimes he was
redundant in love and the affections, at other times
acrimonious and condemnatory.  Altogether Lorenzo
was an original, and a self-sustained man, and would
handle more than the rhetorician's tools. His appearance must have occasionally proved a drawback to his
argument, but he was resolute and heroic.  His garments, like his person, seemed to have little to do with
the detersive influence of cleanliness. With dishevelled locks of black flowing hair over his shoulders, like
Edward Irving of many tongues, and a face which,
like the fashion of our own day, rarely ever knew a
razor, his piercing gray eyes of rapid mobility, infil



97
trated with a glabrous moisture, rolled with a keen
perception, and was the frequent index of his mental
armory.  I have implied that he was always ready at
a rejoinder; an instance or two may be given:  A
dissenter from  Dow's Arminianr doctrines, after listening to his harangue, asked him  if he knew  what
Calvinism was?  "Yes," he promptly replied:You can and you can't,
You will and you won't;
You'll be damned if you do,
And you'll be damned if you don't.'
That, sir, is Calvinism, something more than rhyme."
I, who have rarely left New York for a day during the
past fifty years, was in the summer of 1824 at Utica
with an invalid patient. It so happened that Dow, at
that very time, held forth in an adjacent wood, having
for his audience some of the Oneida and leservation
Indians, together with a vast assemblage of the people
of Utica and the neighboring villages. Mounted on an
advantageous scaffolding, he discoursed on the rewards
of a good life and pictured the blessings of heaven.
Upon his return to the hotel there was found among
the occupants a Mr. Branch and old General -Root, so
familiarly known for the opprobrious name of "the
Big Ditch," which he gave to Clinton's Canal.  These
two gentlemen addressed Dow, told him  they had
heard him say much of heaven, and now begged to ask
him if he would describe the place.  " Yes," says Dow,
with entire ease.  " Heaven is a wide and expansive
region, a beautiful plain, something like our prairie
country-without any thing to obstruct the visionthere is neither Root nor Branch there." Dow had one




98
great requisite for a preacher; he feared no man. There
were but two houses of public worship of the Methodist
Society when I first heard him, the first erected in
John Street, with old Peter Williams, the tobacconist,
as sexton. The old negro was then striving to sustain
a rival opposition in the tobacco line, with the famous
house of the Lorillards.  The other meeting-house
was in Second, now Forsyth street.  In this latter I
have listened to )ow from  the pulpit, with his wife
Peggy near him, a functionary of equally attractive
personal charms.  A  reciprocal union of heads and
hearts seemed to bind them together.  We are not to
forget that Moorsfield. was mad when Lorenzo Dow
was an itinerant spiritual instructor with us; and who
shall now estimate the advance of that vast denomination of Christians from that period, with the solitary
and starveling magazine of William Phcebus as the
exponent of its doctrines, up to its present commanding
condition, with the venerable names of Hedding, Fisk,
Durbin, Olin, Simpson and Stevens, among its recorded
apostles, with its rich and affluent periodical literature,
its well-endowed schools and colleges, its myriad of
churches, its soul-sustaining melodious hymns, its astounding Book Concern, with its historian Bangs, and
its erudite M'Clintock among its great theological professors and authors.
If my memory fails me not, in the month of May,
1819, arrived in this city William Ellery Channing,
with a coadjutor, both distinguished preachers of the
Unitarian persuasion, of Boston.  They were solicitous
to procure a suitable place of worship.  They made
application at churches of different denominations of
religious belief, to be accommodated at the interme



99
diate hours between the  morning and afternoon service,
but in vain.  They next urged their request at several
of the public  charities where convenient apartments
might be found, but with  the  same result.  Like the
two saints in Baucis and Philemon"Tried every tone might pity win,
But not a soul would let them in."
Still not  wholly  disheartened, a  communication
was  received from   them, through  a committee, addressed  to the trustees  of the  College of Physicians
and Surgeons, then in Barclay street.  The Board was
forthwith  summoned, and  the special business of the
meeting  fully  discussed, but with  some  warmth  of
feeling.  This communication read as follows:"4May 11, 1819.' To DAVID HOSACK, M. D.
"SIR:-It may be known to you that there are individuals in this
city who have been accustomed to receive religious instruction from
pastors who are not associated with the regular clergy of this place.
Some of those gentlemen would be gratified to have it in their power
to improve the opportunities for a continuance of this instruction, which
are occasionally afforded by the temporary visits of the clergy of their
acquaintance to this city.
" The subscribers would, on this occasion, particularly mention that
the Rev. Wm. E. Channing, of Boston, is expected to pass the next
Sunday with his friends in New Yolk.
"Emboldened by a consciousness of the liberality which distinguishes
your enlightened profession, they take the liberty to desire you to lay
before the Board of the Medical College their request, that the lectureroom of that institution may be used for the purposes above alluded to.
They would confine their request for the present, to the use of the room
on the next Sunday, but would venture to suggest that there may probably be future occasions when a repetition of the favor now asked,
would be gratefully received, and in such case they would be happy to




100
comply with any terms as to compensation which the College may deem
proper.
We are, Sir, with great respect,
Your obedient servants,
I. G. PEARSON.
H. D. SEDGWICK.
H. D. SEWALL.
NEW YORK, May 10, 1819."
"PROCEEDINGS OF THE COLLEGE.
"Letter from I. G. Pearson, H. D. Sedgwick, and Henry D. Sewall,
was read:
"Resolved, That this College grant permission to the Rev. WT. E.
Channing, of Boston, to perform divine service in the Hall of this University on the ensuing Sunday, as requested in the above communication.
"The Registrar of the college, John W. Francis, was authorized to
furnish a copy of said resolution to said committee, duly signed by the
President of the Board and the Registrar."
On the following Sabbath, Dr. Channing entered
the professorial desk  of the larger lecture-room, and
delivered, in  his mellowed  accents, a  discourse to a
crowded  audience, among  whom  were  his associate
brother preacher, and several professors of the college.
But two or three days had transpired, from  the occurrence of this first preaching of Unitarianism, before it
was loudly spoken of, and in terms of disapprobation
not the mildest.  The censure on such  a pernicious
toleration came strongest from the Presbyterian order
of clergy.  I heard  but one prominent Episcopalian
condemn the whole affair, but that condemnation was
in emphatic phraseology. There doubtless were others.
Inquiries were made what individuals had constituted
the meeting; and  as a majority happened to be the
professors of the college, they were particularly destined to receive the hardest blows.  Some three days




101
after that memorable Sunday, I accidentally met the
great theological thunderbolt of the times, Dr. John
M. Mason, in the bookstore of that intelligent publisher and learned bibliopole, James Eastburn. Mason
soon approached me, and in earnestness exclaimed,'You doctors have been engaged in a wrongful work;
you have permitted heresy to come in among us, and
have countenanced its approach. You have furnished
accommodations for the devil's disciples."  Not wholly
unhinged, I replied, " We saw no such great evil in an
act of religious toleration; nor do I think," I added,
"'that one individual member is responsible for the
acts of an entire corporation."  "You are all equally
guilty," cried the doctor, with enkindled warmth.' Do you know what you have done?  You have advanced infidelity by complying with the request of
these skeptics."  "Sir," said I, "we hardly felt disposed to sift their articles of belief as a religious
society." "There, sir, there is the difficulty," exclaimed
the doctor.  "Belief: they have no belief-they believe in nothing. having nothing to believe.  They are
a paradox; you cannot fathom  them: how can you
fathom a thing that has no bottom? " I left the doctor
dreadfully indignant, uttering something of the old
slur on the skeptical tendencies of the faculty of physic.
Such was the beginning of Unitarian public worship
in this city.
If there be present any of that religious association
within the sound of my voice, I throw myself upon
their clemency, that they be not offended by my ecclesiastical facts.  I aim at a veracious historical narrative
of times long elapsed, and I feel that my personal
knowledge of many members of that religious per



102
suasion will secure me from inimical animadversion by
so enlightened and charitable a denomination.  LUnitarianisnm  had indeed its advocates among us long
before the pilgrimage of Channing in 1819. Every
body at all versed in the progress of religious creeds
in this country, will, I believe, assign to Dr. James
Freeman the distinction of having been the first Unitarian minister of the first Unitarian church in New
England.  He promulgated his faith from the pulpit
of King's Chapel in Boston, which church, however,
had been vacant for some time, owing to political circumstances growing out of the American revolution.
He thus became the means of converting the first
Episcopal church of the New England States into the
first Unitarian church.  Having been refused ordination by Bishop Provoost of New York, Freeman received a lay ordination by his society alone, as their
rector and minister, in 1787. I know nothing of him
personally; but the old and the young tell us he was
of spotless integrity, of a sweet demeanor, and heavenly
minded.  He was an active promoter of the Massachusetts Historical Society; he was a correspondent of
Lindley and of Belsham. The distinguished Channing,
who had been a rigid Calvinist, was converted by
Freeman into a Unitarian. John Kirkland, so long the
admired President of Harvard University, impressed
with like theological doctrines, was sedulous in his
calling, and earnest in making known the "Light of
Nature," a work of curious metaphysical research from
the acute mind of Abraham  Tucker, published under
the assumed name of Edward Search.
That our Boston friends had favored us with disciples of that faith in this city before that time is most




103
certain, else a society of that order of believers could
not have been  so rapidly formed  as appears by their
organization  in  Chambers street in  18 I, when  the
Rev. Edward Everett delivered the dedication sermon,
with suitable exercises by the Rev. Henry Ware, jun.;
again, at the installation of their new  building, corner
of Prince and Mercer streets, in 1826, when Dr. Channing preached the dedication sermon, and the Rev. Dr.
Walker offered the final prayer.  Still further, we find
the Church of the Messiah, in Broadway, consecrated
and the installation sermon delivered by Dr. Walker,
and the pastoral duties assigned to Dr. Dewey; but, for
some years past, these have been  discharged by Dr.
Osgood.  And again, we find the organization of the
Church  of the Divine Unity completed in  1845, the
pastoral duties devolving on Dr. Bellows; and again,
the last-named church being disposed of to the Universalist Society, we witness the magnificent edifice for
Unitarian worship, called All Souls' Church, situated
on the Fourth Avenue, consecrated December 25, 1855,
the Rev. Dr. Bellows, pastor.*:
The writings of Linsley, of Priestley, of Belsham,
of Wakefield, were  not wholly  unfamiliar works in
this city; nor could those early fathers, so often ransacked in the polemical disquisitions on the church of
the first three centuries, have been altogether over* The Rev. Dr. Osgood, in his Historical Discourse, entitled " Twentyfive Years of a Congregation," thus expresses himself, when speaking of
the origin and progress of the Unitarian worship in this city:-" Dr.
Channing preached to a large audience in the Hall of the Medical College,
Barclay street, which was granted by the Trustees, notwithstanding violent opposition from some of the professors of the institution. Thus, to
the medical profession belongs the honor of giving our form ot Liberal
Christianity the first public hearing in New York."




104
looked by our scholars and divines.  This inference
I deduce from  the indignation which so generally
sprung up among the patrons of the work when the
American edition of Rees' Cyclopaedia was commenced
by Samuel F. Bradford.  This enterprising publisher
had in his prospectus announced that that great undertaking would  be revised, corrected, enlarged, and
adapted to this country.  It was soon seen that, among
other articles, that of accommodation in theology,
which the learned Rees affirmed was a method that
served as a way for solving some of the greatest difficulties relating to the prophecies, had been maltreated
by an American reviser, reputed to be Dr. Ashbel
Green, in Bradford's  reprint.   This unwarrantable
act created uneasiness here, as well as among our
eastern brethren, and  had nearly jeopardized  the
patriotic intentions of the noble-hearted Philadelphian,
Bradford, whose purpose was to enrich the literature
and philosophy of our Republic with that monumental
work. The dissatisfaction at this literary fraud pervaded so many patrons here and elsewhere that I, even
at that early date, came to the conclusion that Unitarianism could scarcely be classed among the novelties
of the day, and was not limited to any one section of
the country. The perverted article doubtless partook
originally of the religious faith of the London editor.
Never did the old Anthology Club present a nobler
independence on the rights of opinion and of literary
property than in their criticism on the affected emendation of the American copy of Rees. It is but justice
to state of this great work, which still so justly holds
a place in our libraries, that these disgraceful mutilations of Rees ceased after the reprint of the first




105
volume of the Cyclopaedia, and the honest Bradford
had weighty reasons to congratulate himself on the
seasonable reproofs administered against the unjust
editors by the Tudors, and Kirklands, and Buckminsters of "The Literary Emporium."
While in London I was a frequent visitor of Dr.
Rees.  A  more captivating example of the Christian
charities enshrined in one mortal, the eye could not
light on.  He possessed a tall and athletic frame, and
a countenance of great benignity.  He had all the
requisites of a powerful preacher, in person, in manner,
in tone, and in diction.  His urbanity and his placidity
of disposition secured the esteem of all who approached
him.  He told me that his labors were then nearly
brought to a close; that for more than thirty years he
had been confined to his study, an ordinary room; that
his diurnal labor was of many hours; that, save his
Sabbath preaching at the Old Jewry, his only exercise
had been his limited walk daily to his publishers, the
Longmans.  His fair and lively skin, his bright eye
and his wholesome appearance, with such a life of
mental devotion and such confinement, put at nought
all my theoretical doctrines on the laws of health.  He
must have been more than a teetotaller.  I was informed he was the last of the Doddridge wig order, an
imposing  article, but which yielded in dimensions
and artistic elaboration to the more formidable one
which invested the brain-case of the great hellenist,
Dr. Samuel Parr, with its distensive and seemingly
patulous gyrations.  To the curious in habiliments, I
may add, that the wig of that right worthy, lately
with us, Dr. Livingston, was of the Doddridge order,
that of old Dr. Rodgers, Samuel Parr's. Nor is it trifling
8




106
to state the fact, for there was a time, according to
Southey, when the wig was considered as necessary for
a learned head, as an ivy bush for an owl. You will
pardon this digression on Rees' Cyclopaedia, inasmuch
as it elucidates the point I would sustain, were this a
fit occasion, that in the origin and spread of the Unitarian creed in this country, we are hardly justified to
limit our attention to the movements of our Boston or
Eastern friends.  The well-known letter of Franklin
to Stiles supports this view, and we have seen that
when occasion has prompted, its advocates rise up
limited to no special locality.  The community that
can enumerate among its supporters such writers and
scholars as Channing, Dewey, Osgood, and Bellows,
need cherish no apprehension that their cause will fall
through from a stultified indifference.  But I find myself launching in deep waters, and will near the shore.
Enough and more than enough has been said of the
workings of the principles of religious toleration among
us; they furnish instructive proofs of the freedom
secured to the people by our admirable constitutional
form of government; the intellect knows it, the searcher
after truth is sustained by it.
With a very brief notice of the Episcopalian denomination, I shall terminate these hasty sketches of
religious matters. The Episcopalians of this metropolis
have exercised a great influence on the interests of
learning among New Yorkers, and on their institutions
of public instruction and humanity.  They have also
proved warm  friends to the New  York Historical
Society.
The disruption of the colonies from  the Mother
Country proved more disastrous in  its immediate




107
effects to the Protestant Episcopal Church than to
that perhaps of any other religious association. The ties
which bound her to the forms and ceremonials of the
Church of England, were strong and numerous; her
ministers, with few exceptions, favored the cause of the
loyalists, and  consequently in a large majority of
instances were, upon the restoration of peace, compelled to abandon their pastoral charges, and seek a livelihood elsewhere.  This consequence, with the disasters
of the times, resulted in a deserted ministry and in a
disabled and poverty-stricken religious community.
The conscientious Churchman, bewailing the state of
affairs and anxious of the future, looked forward with
fluctuating hopes to the period when a happy issue
might be found in the various deliberations which now
occupied the minds of the friends of the Episcopate, not
unlike those which agitated the patriots of the Revolution amidst their discussions on the adoption of the
Articles of Confederation by the old Congress.  At
length a Convention was held in Philadelphia, which
continued from  the 27th of September to the 7th of
October, 1785, and delegates appeared from  New
York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland,
Virginia, and South Carolina.  Its labors brought
forth the Protestant Episcopal Book  of Common
Prayer, proposed for the Protestant Episcopal Church,
printed by Hall and Sellers, in 1786. This book, now
rarely to be found, received the name of the Proposed
Book.  It was reprinted at London in 1787; it contained no Nicene Creed, nor Athanasian Creed; it had
the Apostolic Creed, but omitted " he descended into
hell."  It had a special prayer for the then existing
government. It had a special supplication in the liturgy




108
for the then Congress, and a form of service or prayer
for the 4th of July.
The Convention was again held in Philadelphia, in
September, 1789, William  White, President, for the
purpose of settling Articles of Union, discipline, uniformity of worship, and general government among all
the churches in the United States. The Prayer Book
was now so adjusted as to meet with great acceptance
and with full approval. At the instance of the English
bishops, the passage " he descended into hell," was
restored, with a proviso, that the words " he went into
the place of departed spirits," might or might not be
substituted.  The Nicene Creed was restored; the
prayers were made to conform to the now established
government, for the President and all in civil authority.
This Convention agreed to abolish the service for the
4th of July, but allowed each bishop the power of
providing a suitable service for that and all other
political occasions. In 1792, Bishop Provoost, who had
been absent from indisposition at the former Convention, presided. The Church ordinal, for the ordination
of deacons and priests, and the consecration of bishops,
was agreed upon. It was printed by Hugh Gaine, in
1793.  The articles of religion were agreed to in
Convention in 1801, and have since that time been
published with the Book of Common Prayer.
This brief notice of the history of the Book of Common Prayer, according to the use of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, seemed
necessary, inasmuch as that highly prized volume is the
recognized standard of the Episcopal Church of this
country. It has proved of inestimable importance to
the progress of the Church, as the bond of union of that




109
important religious community; it has preserved intact her forms and ceremonials, and her devotions; it
has saved her from division and disunion; it has suppressed intestine broils; it has promoted uniformity of
worship, a most important object; and by it she has
avoided the distractions and the local strifes which
have too often disturbed the harmony and fellowship
of other Christian associations.  If from the cold lips
and still colder hearts of the mere formalist, its reading
has sometimes wanted the spirit of prayer, how much
oftener has it saved from  vulgar importunities in
prayer, and rescued the finer emotions of the soul from
irreverent demands of Heaven, and noxious crudities.
It turns with conscious rectitude from the incoherent
ravings of enthusiasm, and disdains to look on the
elongated visage of a scaramouch.  The north and the
south, the east and the west, hold it in equal reverence, and do homage to its unparalleled beauty of
diction and its devotional sentiment.  Living or dying,
it yields the bread of life.
New York had her share in that goodly work;
her learned Provoost was a member of both Conventions that framed it, and the first consecration in the
Church of an additional bishop, was the act of Episcopacy by Provoost, in this city, in the laying on of hands
on Thomas John Claggett, I).D., of Maryland, in September, 1792, at which ceremonial White, of Pennsylvania, Madison, of Virginia, and Seabury, of Connecticut, assisted. Provoost, White, and Madison, were
the regularly consecrated bishops of the English Episcopate, of the American Episcopal Church, the two former
having been elevated to the Episcopate by Moore,
Archbishop of Canterbury, in the chapel of Lambeth




110
Palace, in 1787, and Madison in 1790, in the same
place, by the same authority.  Bishop Seabury had
received consecration in 1784, at Aberdeen: Scotland,
by three nonjuring bishops, and by this convenient
action of the bishops of the English consecration, and
of Bishop Seabury, the American Episcopal Church
(as it is believed intentionally) united both Episcopates in theirs, thereby closing the door against the
future occurrence of questions which might prove
delicate and embarrassing.  Seabury was a man of
strong native powers, of cultivated intellect, of extensive influence, ardent in the cause of Episcopacy.
The Church may with sincerity ever hold him in grateful remembrance.  When her sorrows were gravest, he
imparted consolation; when her weakness was greatest,
he yielded her strength.  Her tribulations only added
to his zealous efforts in her behalf.  He adhered to the
royal side in the great contest with  the  Mother
Country, and dwelt among the refugees in New York.
He united in the protest declaring abhorrence of all
unlawful congresses and committees, and doubtless with
conscientious views, under the patronage of the obnoxious Tryon, delivered a discourse to fear God and honor
the king.  He died a pensioner of the British government, and I incline to the opinion, was looked upon
somewhat with a jaundiced vision by those devoted
patriots, Provoost and White.
It has been more than once affirmed, and the
declaration is in print, that Bishop Provoost, as senior
presbyter, and  senior in the ministry, was consecrated first, and Bishop White next, though in the
same day and hour, February 4, 1787.  The son-in-law
of Provoost, C. D. Colden, a man of veracity, assured




111
me such was the case. If so, Provoost is to be recorded
as the Father of the American Episcopate.  It is painful to pluck a hair from the venerable head of the
apostolic White, but we are dealing with history.
White, who died at the advanced age of eighty-nine
years, lived to see the American Church with some
twenty-three bishops, he having officiated at nearly
every consecration.  What vast obligations are due to
his hallowed memory by the American Episcopate for
the wise counsels, the many and inestimable services of
that divine character!
Dissent, however lowly, Episcopacy, however high,
will coalesce in opinion of the varied knowledge and
classical attainments of Provoost, the piety and beneficence of Moore, and the talents, zeal, and ceaseless
activity of Hobart.  These eminent dignitaries of the
church may, for their several qualities, be  ranked
among the most conspicuous of their order, who have
flourished in New York; and were it practicable, we
would fain dwell in particular upon the earnestness and
achievements of the last-named.  His death is too
recent to require much at our hands; sorrow at his
early departure was universal; it was felt as an irreparable' loss to the interests of a great community, who
had almost by his individual efforts been extricated
from  many difficulties and risen to a commanding
importance in numbers and influence.  The aptitude of
Hobart, in the work of the ministry, and his astonishing executive talent, have scarcely a parallel: his vigi
lance noticed every thing that tended either to retard
the advancement or quicken the progress of the Episcopal Church.  He was desirous of a learned priesthood, and much of his time and his intellect were




112
given to the maintenance of the General Theological
Seminary; he was ardent for the practical, and sought
befitting laborers, as the harvest was truly great.
Many of the Episcopate had a richer fund of classical
erudition; but not one could be pointed out who possessed an industry and devotion superior to his. It
may be questioned whether he lost an idle hour during
his whole career as bishop for nearly twenty years.
He exercised a weighty influence on public sentiment,
and the purity of his life stamped his opinions with a
corresponding value. The Church to him was all in
all. His adhesion to what he deemed its orthodoxy,
allowed of no deviation from  its prescriptions, nor
could he cherish reconciliation with the doubting and
the latitudinarian.  His frankness enabled his opponents always to know where to find him; from his decision of character, he could hardly be expected to live
in perfect charity with all men. He was more than
once absorbed in controversies on ecclesiastical polity,
and his sentiments rendered him obnoxious to a portion
of his diocese. The harshest opinion I ever heard him
utter was, that Heber was only a ballad writer. The
sentiment must have taken possession of his bosom
from the circumstance that the Bishop of Calcutta gave
countenance to the British Bible Society; and not a
few of Bishop Hobart's friends regretted the pertinacity with which he opposed the organization of a
like institution here. Like Herbert Marsh, he dreaded
the consequences of distributing the Scriptures without
the Book of Common Prayer. The lamented Milner,
whom the Church still mourns, did not wholly escape
the penalty of resistance to the views of the American
prelate, and that eminent statesman and patriot, Rufus




113
King, after having been chosen a Vice President of that
National Society, resigned his office and withdrew from
his high station at the special solicitation of his personal friend, Bishop Hobart. In his conversation, the
Bishop was animated, abounding in anecdotes and
general knowledge, and was particularly attractive.
His temper was sprightly; he avowed his opinions
with great freedom.  He had strong feelings in behalf
of American institutions, and was averse to the union
of church and state affairs. The sincerity of his Christian belief was edifyingly demonstrated in the manner
of his death.  He sickened of bilious disease while on
his diocesan visitation, at Auburn; on the morning of
his final departure, the early sun shone in upon his chamber; " it is the last time," said he, " that I shall witness
the rising sun; I shall soon behold the Sun of righteousness."  Thus died a great and good man.  He who
would know more of this eminent pillar of the Church,
will consult the Life, written by the venerable rector
of Trinity, Dr. Berrian, the Records published by Professor M'Vickar, and the Memorial by the Rev. Dr.
Schroeder.
Before I conclude this portion of my subject, I must
be permitted to say a few words on the literature of the
Church; and I am happy to add, that New York has not
been behindhand with her sister States in her contributions towards that great object. I have already adverted
to the low and precarious condition of Episcopacy at and
about the time when the Constitution of the American
government was brought into practical action, and the
many difficulties which encompassed the Church in the
scattered and limited number of her ministry.  The
noble and venerable Society for propagating the Gospel




114
in foreign parts, had indeed sown precious seeds in
divers places over the land.  But the Church was
prostrate, involved in fiscal troubles, and wanting in
those effective measures of enlightenment indispensably requisite to rear up her intellectual greatness.
Every intelligent individual is ready to acknowledge,
with cheerful feelings, that we owe to our brethren of
other denominations a large debt for the many able
and instructive works with which they have enriched
the theological literature of the nation.  We are aware
of the scholarship of Andover, the biblical expositions of
Princeton, and the graces of classical composition which
have proceeded from old Harvard and Yale.  In days
past we remember Edwards, and Emerson, and Stiles,
and Dwight.  We forget not Hodge, Robinson, Park,
Norton, Stewart, Mason, and a host of others; and we,
believe there is substantial reason for the high estimation in which the works of many American divines are
held, arising from the intrinsic excellence of their
respective authorship; and if report deceive us not,
we have the assurance that among the most successful
reprints abroad, are what we shall please to call American theology.
As respects the literature of the Episcopal Church,
it seems to be most noteworthy for its conservative
element.  It is preceded by the Prayer Book, or is
in close fraternity with it, and this book of sacred
wisdom gives a complexion to the thoughts and workings of the ministry of the Church that stamps a peculiarity more or less ls egible on its intellectual progeny.
Like the pendulum in clockwork, it controls its movements, guards against irregularity, and secures harmony
in all its parts. We thence see that its elaborations are




115
characterized less by diversity  of speculation  and
startling novelties, and is to be noticed more for
exegetical exposition and the elucidation of scriptural
truth.  Both by the pulpit and by the pen it is disposed more to persuade than to threaten, more to
lead than to drive; and finds it more consonant to
its own emotions to announce the glad tidings from
lips of praise, than in wrathful accents proclaim  a
Redeemer's love.  Such it may be affirmed is the
policy of the Church, and such is the attribute of her
literature.  Principles such as are now indicated, pervade all her writings, and if so be an anathema is
sometimes found, it is to be considered as an exception
to her whole policy.  The divinity which holds possession in her breast, is the redeeming power of gospel
truth.  What triumphs she has secured by such procedure will be best learned by comparing her vast
increase and united strength at this present time with
her feeble condition and disjointed state at her first
organization.  Let her in conscious purity and in the
plenitude of divine grace cherish the most confident
hopes.  Let her go on her way rejoicing.  Let her
be ever jealous of her high title, the Protestant Episcopal Church. Ever let the noble army of reformers
command her admiration and her loudest plaudits.  If
the ignorant comprehend not her simplicity, and the
cynical complain that her covenant has been invaded
in these latter days by effete devices, let them  be told
all is as a passing cloud, pregnant with untold riches,
and that her brightness, thanks to a good Providence,
is hourly becoming more clear and beautiful, and her
foundation stronger and stronger on the Rock of Ages.
Let schismatics know  that exploded theories find no




116
aliment within her bosom, that obsolete formuianres
are at war with her doctrines and her discipline.  She
repudiates a pantomimic worship.  Her formulary is
the conformity of the heart to the plain and simple
and comprehensible doctrines of apostolic communication. Let her feel that she has arrived to that vigor
by inherent strength, that in confidence she may trust
in her manhood and go forth triumphant.  What has
served her so well for more than half a century, will
suffice much longer. Her hardest trials have passed,
and she is neither debilitated nor impure. The sound
need no crutch.  All that she now asks is, to live in
harmony with the professing Christians of every sect
and denomination.  She is ready, she is willing, she
trusts she is able, to do the work of her Master, and
whether under the humble roof of the village chapel,
or within the dome of the mighty cathedral, she has
learned by experience that her coin will pass current
without amalgamation.
A word or two on the literature of the Church. If
the army of New England divines has almost overwhelmed the land with their achievements in the field
of literature and theology, there is still room enough
left for us to point out a few landmarks secured by
the professors of the Episcopal Church.  She has scattered abroad in profusion single discourses of elevated
thought, strong devotional sentiments, and sound practical edification.  True she lacks earnestness in historical detail, and seems too listless of the character and
services of her predecessors.  She ought, in an especial
manner, no longer to overlook the vast importance of
her history, faithfully written, for the honor of her
devoted sons, and for the study and improvement of




11q'
her future disciples; at this present time, too, when
the materials are still accessible, it behooves her to
gather together the incidents of her career amid untold
trials, and offer them, in a becoming form, as a demonstration of her devotion and wisdom in her high commission. It is gratifying to see that within a few years
past the subject has, among all her calls of duty,
awakened desires in some of the most efficient of her
people to remove the obloquy which has too long
rested on her, and several able writers have recently
come to the rescue.  The "Memoirs of the Protestant
Episcopal Church," published years ago by the venerable White, have been followed by those of the
Church of South Carolina, by Dr. Dalcho; by the
Contributions of Dr. Hawks, in illustration of the
Churches of Virginia and of Maryland; by the History of Trinity Church, New York, by Dr. Berrian;
by the Continuity of the Church of England, by Dr.
Seabury; by the History of Dr. Dorr; by two volumes of a newly formed association, the Protestant
Episcopal Historical Society, having its origin, I believe, in this city; and, very lately, by a work of
curious incidents, the History of St. John's Church,
Elizabethtown, New  Jersey.  Some years since we
had also historical materials of ecclesiastical value, in
the Centennial Discourse concerning the Church at
Quincy, by Dr. Cutler.  All this argues well.  Bishop
Mead's Reminiscences are materials of instructive import; and the Reminiscences of Bishop Chase will
long hold in esteem  the character and the arduous
labors of the Pioneer Bishop of the West. That hardy
and indomitable man has left the workings of a strong
spirit in behalf of a mighty cause.  He was the archi



118
tect of his own renown; he had little book learning,
but much knowledge of men. Having early laid plans
for his professional life, no obstacles intimidated him;
and his determination, the result of his own cogitations, never forsook him. His settled purpose was for
others, not for himself; he could therefore present a
bolder front in his pressing demands for the accomplishment of his great designs.  His track through
almost unknown wilds will be studied hereafter with
a more appreciating judgment, and the blessings he
has bestowed on the Church find a record from the
pen that records national benefits, deduced from  his
fruitful doings. Many of his journeyings were through
a portion of that country, then so little understood,
which the brave Carver had travelled; and one may
also place in juxtaposition these two intrepid men,
Jonathan and Philander; the sie vos non vobis being
equally the temporal reward of both.
As associated with the Churchls History, is the
Memoirs of her eminent men; and we are not to complain either of lack of numbers or of value in those
already published. The biography of Samuel Johnson,
the first President of Columbia College, by Chandler,
is the most engaging of this department of literary
labor; and we cannot regret too much that so few of
the great mass of papers from which this volume was
made up have found a place in this admirable work.
The Memoirs of White are next in order of time, and
are indispensable to the ecclesiastical historian; while
those of H-obart, Griswold, Moore, Ravenscroft, Bedell
and Wharton, unfold characteristics valuable in elucidation of Church matters.  It is not, however, to be
concealed, that, like many religious biographies, whe



119
ther by authors abroad or at home, they often lack
interest from  the absence of personal detail, and of
that enlivening spirit which gives to biography its
most engaging attraction.
Honorable mention deserves to be made of the
learned labor of Dr. Samuel Farmer Jarvis. This ripe
scholar had been professor of biblical history in the
recently organized General Theological Seminary of
the Protestant Episcopal Church, and was subsequently
made Historiographer of the Church at large by the
General Convention.  In his Ecclesiastical Chronology
and History he evinced the greatest research and devotion. Like notice is due to the various writings of
Bishop Hopkins of Vermont; and it is gratifying to
see the reception his last work has met with by the
reading public,-I mean his American Citizen. The
devoted Episcopalian might often look with satisfaction into the writings of Bishops Hobart, Brownell,
Potter, Whittingham, Eastburn, Burgess, M'Ilvaine,
Onderdonk, and Doane, and find proofs of scholastic
lore in the pages of Verplanck, Winslow, Coit, Griffin
and Spencer.
The canons of the Church have been elucidated by
Judge Murray Hoffman of the New York bar, and by
the Rev. Dr. Hawks. The Constitution and Canons,
by the latter, was a peculiarly appropriate subject for
her ecclesiastical historian, and the competent have
given their testimony in behalf of the excellence of
the undertaking.  I shall conclude these very brief
and imperfect sketches of the literary labors of the
Church with a name widely known and appreciated
by the erudite of both hemispheres, Samuel H. Turner.
Dr. Turner's reputation for varied and profound schol



120
arship, for rabbinical knowledge, and the activity of
his pen in critical expositions of sacred writ, have
secured him  permanent renown.  I am forbidden an
enumeration of his many works.  The Theological
Seminary, in which he has labored so long, may congratulate herself on the honors with which such a
professor enriches her, and freely add his name to the
select list of her ablest associates.  Proofs sufficient,
I think, have already been advanced to show that the
literature of the Church is not locked up in sealed
libraries, but is an active power; and from her present
advanced and improved state, we may draw an equally
safe inference that her religion lies not dormant in
the heart, but is an absolute principle, industrious in
the work of faith.
I leave ecclesiastical affairs, and propose saying a
few words on a subject which the philosopher may
pronounce of equal importance in a national point of
view,-I allude to our system of public education.  It
has become a vast subject in this our day, and commands the admiration of remote nations.  The faithful
historian of our first settlers, Mr. Brodhead, in his
minute research, has dwelt upon the theme with the
genuine spirit of the philanthropist, and clearly pointed
out with what earnestness the sagacity of the Dutch
penetrated into the wisdom of establishments for that
purpose; and so early as 1633, only twenty-four years
after the arrival of Hudson, organized the first school
in New  Amsterdam.  " Neither the perils of war,"
says Brodhead, " nor the busy pursuits of gain, nor
the excitement of political strife, ever caused them to
neglect the duty of educating their offspring."  And
with a love of the past, he has recorded the name of




121
this first schoolmaster, Adam Rcelandsen; and it well
merits to be further stated, that Roelandsen's original
establishment continues in a prosperous condition to
this day, and is the parochial school of the Protestant
Reformed Dutch Church, supported by voluntary contributions. I have some recollection of the first formation of that system  in this city, which finally eventuated in the system of public schools. Only one year
after your first measures were adopted to establish the
HIistorical Society did the duty of enlarging the domain
of knowledge by public instruction take possession of
our city rulers.  The Trinity Church charity school,
and other free schools under the governance of different religious associations, had indeed for years an
existence, and were more or less prosperous; but the
great mass of children belonging to parents of no
religious order were sadly neglected, save those who
could accomplish the means of enlightenment at private institutions.  The names of that noble band of
citizens who were the applicants for an act to establish
a free school in the city of New York for the education
of such poor children as do not belong to, or are not
provided for by any religious society, are duly recorded
in the reports of the Board of Education; and he who
looks over the list will recognize that many of the
names of our prominent residents, of exalted excellence, are found in the number.  Under its restricted
powers, the society organized its first school in May,
1806, with  forty scholars. With  enlarged charter
powers, aided by the liberality of the city government,
in 1808 they were provided a spacious building, which
admitted five hundred pupils.
I remember well the discourse delivered at the
9




122
opening of this improved edifice, at the corner of
Tryon Row and Chatham street, by De Witt Clinton,
the moving spirit of the whole affair. He was the
president of the society, and the Board of Education,
in their Report of 1854, say well when they announce
that the address was worthy of the occasion, " as sowing
the seed wheat of all harvests of education which subsequent years have gathered into our garners." I have
accompanied Mr. Clinton in those earlier days, in his
tour of inspection, with Thomas Eddy, Jacob Morton,
Samuel Wood, Joseph Curtis, Robert Bowne, Charles
Wilkes, Cadwallader D. Colden, and others, and I can
testify to the scrutinizing devotion which Mr. Clinton
gave to every thing that seemed calculated for the
promotion of the great and novel design. By the
death of Mr. Curtis very recently, all, I believe, of that
philanthropic corps are departed. I see none left of
the original body of incorporators.
It is impossible at this time to be more minute or
dwell longer on this grateful subject. In every condition of public trust to which Clinton was chosen
through life, he never forgot education and the public
schools. Every message of his, while governor, descants
on the vast theme, and his suggestions, years ago, as
head of the State, may, I think, be honestly stated to
have led to that special department, the Normal
Schools. He is the first individual I ever heard
descant on their immense importance to the proper
rearing of competent tutors, and on the provision
which ought to be made for such an undertaking. I
can scarcely conceive of a greater subject for a public
discourse than the origin, the progress, and present
state of our system of Public Education; in every con



123
dition, from  its humble  beginning up to its com
manding importance at the present day, from  th(
Free School Society of 1805 through the change to th(
Public School Society of 1826, providing for all classes
of children; next the Ward school organization of the
then called District schools; then to its present con
solidation under the Board of Education of the City ol
New York, a period of nearly half a century. Well may
that enlightened citizen and public-spirited character,
E. C. Benedict, in his Report of 1854, as president, say,
" The services of those philanthropic laborers in the
noblest of causes has imposed upon the city a debt oi
gratitude that can never be fitly estimated, much less
repaid."  During that period it has conferred the
blessings of instruction on 600,000 children, and on
more than 12,000 teachers. So long as the influence
of those children and their teachers shall be felt, (and
when will it cease?) so long, justly adds Mr. Benedict,
" shall the usefulness of the Public School Society
continue."  I will add, that according to the last
Report of the Board of Education from  the present
enlightened President, Wm. H. Neilson, the whole
number of schools within its jurisdiction during the
year 1855, was 271.  The glory and imperishable
excellence of our public system of education, enhanced
by the influence of our self-government, by universal
freedom and a free press, were demonstrated to be in
accordance with enlightened public intelligence, when
at the election of 1850 the free school question was
submitted to the popular suffrage.  Free schools were
sustained in this city by a vote of 39,075 to 1,011, a
majority of nearly 40 to 1. If more were wanting in
confirmation, how easily could we swell the testimony




124
by the recorded opinions in behalf of the vast and
enduring benefits of knowledge among the masses by
the testimony of our wisest statesmen and patriots.
And let us ever keep before us the vital principle that
the colossal proportions of the republic are endowed
by education alone with a  proportionate  cohesive
power.  Where education moreover is popular, the
creative faculty abounds; and it is characteristic of such
a state, that the people thus blessed daily achieve some
new step in advance, whether it be in the modification
of a rail or in new powers for the steam-engine.
The Free Academy, which, it has been very properly remarked, gives completeness to the system of
public instruction, and is an integrant branch of the
whole system for the enlightenment of the people, possesses the great advantage of a liberal system of education similar to that which is embraced in our colleges
for the highest departments of study.  Indeed, few, if
any, of our collegiate establishments hold out so ample
a course of instruction in classical literature, in modern
languages, in mathematical and physical science.  The
existence of the Academy is brief, yet already have
precious fruits been scattered broad-cast over the
land, to the wonder and admiration of the most appreciating minds.  I, unfortunately for myself, am but in
a limited degree acquainted with the professors of that
great school; but if Dr. Gibbs is to be taken as a
specimen of its teachers, unbounded confidence may
be reposed in the acquisitions of its scholars.  I only
repeat what is uttered daily, that the distinguished
principal, Dr. Webster, has solved the problem, how
manifold are the benefits which may flow from a wise
administration of able collegiate authority.




125
Let me in all sincerity  ask, in  what other place
may the poorest and the humblest child of indigence
find  instruction  from   the  A, B, C, to  the highest
branches of classical and scientific knowledge, through
every stage of his study, without one dollar's expense
to  the recipient; and  all this, every device and measure, planned and  accomplished since our organization
in 1804.  Let all praise be given  to our  constituted
authorities  for  this  exemplar of their  wisdom   and
patriotic forethought: let above all others that capacious  mind which  is alike  seen  in the union  of the
Erie  and  the Hudson  and  in  our noble  system   of
education, become the theme  of collegiate  eloquence
and  historical record.   Let  our  children  and  their
children's children  keep  within  memory  the  names
of Hawley, Bernard, Randall, and  Benedict.   But
this request is perhaps superfluous; the bounty is ever
before us, the givers cannot be forgotten. To those
alive to  local history and the origin of great practical
ideas, says the accomplished essayist Tuckerman, in his
biographical volume, daily observation  keeps fresh the
memory of Clinton.'
* Most astounding disclosures were made at the London Educational
Conference in June last, 1856, on the great question, the enlightenment of
the people. I extract from the report, which appeared in the Illustrated
London News: "Notwithstanding all the voluntary efforts, all the benevolence, all the liberality of Churchmen and of Dissenters, of corporations and of individuals, there are in England and Wales, out of nearly
five millions of children between the ages of three and fifteen years, little
more than two millions who attend any school whatever, leaving 2,861,848
-nearly three millions-who are not in the receipt of school instruction."
" Nor is even this state of things, bad as it is, the worst part of the case.
Of the two millions of children who attend existing schools, we are informed by the Prince that only six hundred thousand —less than one-third
-are above the age of nine. In other words, more than one-half of the
poor children of England receive no school instruction at all, and two



126
The transition is not altogether violent, in leaving
one species of instruction for another-in dismissing
the system  of school education  and  taking up the
Stage, so long reckoned a source of useful knowledge,
and by many still deemed capable of becoming  an
enlightened  monitor.  But with the drama, as with
many other subjects that properly belong to a discourse accommodated to this occasion, I am subjected
to a painful brevity; for what adequate notions can be
imparted within the few moments at command, of the
dramatic occurrences of New York during the past fifty
years? It has so happened that for forty years of my
life I have been, with slight intermissions, the medical
adviser and physician of many of the leading heroes of
the sock and buskin, from the arrival of the great
George Frederick Cooke in 1810, to the departure of
the classical Macready in 1849; and I am apprehensive
that of all the individuals commemorated in  Dunlap's Biography of Cooke, I am perhaps the sole survivor.
I cannot say that I have ever been stage-struck or
dramatically mad in my admiration of the histrionic
profession; yet as one ever gratified with the displays
of intellectual power, I have experienced the raptures
inspired by genius, in a vocation which, while it holds
the mirror up to nature, is the acknowledged school of
oratory, and has received in all ages among the refined,
the countenance and support of many of the loftiest
thirds of the remainder are taken away from school at an age so early that
it is quite impossible for them to have received any enduring benefit from
school teaching. The result is, if these figures are correct, that only one
child out of every eight in this rich, civilized, and Christian country, remains at school after its ninth year."




127
minds and most sympathizing hearts.  Moreover, I
think it not too much to say, that my professional
intercourse with actors has enabled me to obtain a
view  of dramatic character and of dramatic  life,
which could scarcely be expected to fall within the
scope of the mere beholder of scenic representation,
who never perhaps had passed behind the foot-lights,
or been familiar with that condition of physical and
mental toil which the ceremonies and performances
due to "'personation," impose on the feelings of the
successful artist.
I take it for granted that no intelligent man will
hold in doubt the fact, that the life of the player is
one of severe trial, of great demands on the physical
powers, of incessant mental anxiety, and of precarious
rewards.  Yet have I known many members of that
calling filled with the largest benevolence and enriched
with the graces which dignify human nature.  The
actor's life is especially subjected to the caprices of
fortune; the platform on which he stands is ever uncertain; as a general truth he encounters adversity with
more than ordinary fortitude.  I have known many
instances of this nature; the mimic world has its stern
realities not less than the actual, and the wardrobe no
more protects its denizen than do the common habiliments of the ordinary citizen.  " The life of an actor,"
says a modern essayist of the school of English undefiled, " is a severe trial of humanity. His temptations
are many; his fortitude, too, often ineffectual; his
success precarious.  If he be resolute, uncontaminated
by the society of his associates, and a genuine artist
besides, he is worthy not only the praise of the moralist,
but also deserving the admiration of the critic. The




128
prejudice against the profession, like most prevailing
prejudices, is founded on general truth; but it is frequently absurd and baseless."'   If the stage has fallen
from its high estate, and failed to raise the genius and to
mend the heart, to elevate the moral sentiment by heroic action and sublime example, let not its sad decline
rest solel ywith the representatives of Shakspeare and
Jonson; let something be ascribed to the revolutions of
taste and to the mutability of popular opinion; but
more than all, let us suffer within ourselves the chagrin
of self-condemnation, like the dyspeptic patient, who in
searching for the causes of his own horrors, finds them
to  have  originated  from  the pernicious aliment in
which his disturbed propensities had led him  most unwittingly to indulge.  " The love of the drama," says
the poet Campbell, " is a public instinct, that requires
to be regulated, but is too deep for eradication.  1 am
no such bigot for the stage," continues he, " as to say
that it is necessarily a school of morals; for, by bad
manaoeement, it may  be made  the reverse; and I
think, on the whole, that the drama rather follows than
leads public morals."  The drama is legitimately the
school of human life; it has vast accommodations, but
its origin is in the human heart; in its nature it is the
concentration and the exposition of the passions and
the doings of man.  Let it cherish fidelity to its great
trust; let it so conduct itself as not to fall below the
intelligence of its arbitrators; never forgetting that the
schoolmaster is abroad.  The remedy is within grasp;
and its restoration is not altogether a thing of fancy.
Characters and Criticisms, by W. Alfred Jones, A. M., New York,
Vol. 2, p. 182. 12mo. 1857.




129
The scholar, however fastidious, cannot wholly disregard a theme which found favor among the lucubrations of the mighty Warburton: he who would penetrate into the ethics of human life need not suffer
apprehension of evil from  studies which absorbed
many of the precious hours of the great moralist,
Johnson; nor can the Christian philosopher be afraid
to reason on the subject with the example before him
of Young, the successful author of the Revenge, and
the poet of the Night Thoughts, a work whose devotional excellence has made it a manual of closest
study to millions of human souls, wherever revealed
truth has been recognized.
I am not so confident as to presume that what I
may utter can have any influence on a New York
community, either on the fortunes or destiny of the
stage.  It has been decried by the best of men, and it
has been countenanced by the wisest. It was formerly
supported by religious partialities, and every body is
aware that it owes its origin to religion, and that the
first actors were priests or missionaries. An illiterate
multitude were thus enlightened, and the clergy with
an inherent sagacity represented the wonders of belief
and the actions of the gods in appropriate temples.
For a long while it was a school of instruction, and for
manners and behavior, and on this account the stage
is still higher to be appreciated.  Shakspeare has
taught more history to the masses than all the schoolmasters, from the time when the first pedagogue was
installed, and Lord Chesterfield's dicta have proved a
mere cipher compared to the operations which scenic
influence has wrought in mollifying the intercourse of
society. Yet there is a progress in refinement which




130
eclipses the exhibition of the stage, and he whose mind
is stored with much knowledge, will abandon theatricals as having lost their former interest with him.
It certainly is a foe to hypocrisy, and that alone, with
the real philanthropist, is no small recommendation.
It proves a wondrous relief to the laborious man and
the worn intellect, and is a happy succedaneum for
diversions less beneficial to good morals and good
health.  Grant that the sphere of the stage is indeed
local and its displays fugacious, yet it leaves a lasting
impression on the human heart.  Its rich literature
bears the impress of genius and cannot be overlooked
by the accomplished scholar. But I must break off
here. Let those who would raise an indiscriminate
outcry against the stage, read the calm and dispassionate Address of Dr. Bellows, lately delivered in the
Academy of Music, before the Dramatic Fund Association.
The history of the first introduction of the stage in
the American colonies is full of perplexity.  Dunlap,
our leading dramatic historian, in his work on the
American Theatre, a performance of acknowledged
merit, has blended his facts with so many errors, that
we strive in vain to derive from his pages a true knowledge of the subject.  He was doubtless led into most
of his difficulties by too great reliance on the story
given by Burk, in his History of Virginia.  I have
endeavored to make the case clearer, and have sought
out curious facts in Parker's News Boy. The introduction of the drama in the American colonies was in
this city, on rMonday evening, the 26th of February
1'50, in a convenient room for the purpose, in one of the
buildings which had belonged to the estate of Rip Van




131
Dam  (a renowned Knickerbocker) in Nassau street.
The play was the historical tragedy of Richard the
Third, written originally by Shakspeare, and altered
by Colley Cibber, under the management of Lewis
Hallam, whose family consisted of his wife, a son
Lewis, and a younger son, Adam, with a niece, Miss
Hallam. His elder son, Lewis, was but twelve years
of age. Dunlap says, that he made his first appear.
ance in September, 1752, at Williamsburg, in Virginia.  The younger, Adam, appeared in October,
1753, in this city, in the character of "Tom Thumb."
He had a daughter, who became Mrs. Mattocks in
England. It may be that this company, under manager
Hallam, appeared next in Williamsburg; but on the
15th of April, 1754, they opened in Philadelphia with
the "Fair Penitent."
We have not before us the cast of the play (Richard
the Third) enacted in this city. It possesses so many
dracnzatis personce, that we have little doubt that
several of the company had to take double parts.
Rigby, we may safely infer, enacted Richard Third.
There was no accommodation of boxes, only pit and
gallery.  There was no farce after Richard Third.
The permission for the performance was given by the
British governor, Clinton. Lewis Hallam, at the age
of twenty-nine, appeared in Lord Ogleby, the year
after the comedy was written, in 1767. This part he
played for forty years; the last time in the Park
theatre, in 1807, and witnesses of this fact still survive.
Manager Hallam died in Philadelphia in 1808. This
company was generally designated by the name of the
Old American Company, and Hallam the father of the
American stage.




132
Thus it appears that this city has enjoyed the
drama for upwards of one hundred years.  Of that
fifty which bad passed away before the establishment
of our Historical Society, I intend not now  to enlarge.  Suffice it to say, as to the character and abilities of the performers of the American company our
oldest playgoers were often heard to speak in terms of
highest approbation; and when we enumerate Hallam,
Henry, Harwood, Jefferson, Cooper, Fennell, Johnstone, Hodgkinson and his wife, Mrs. Oldinixon, and
Mrs. Merry, we need not apprehend that their plaudits
were unmerited.  The names of several of these efficient actors of the olden times may be seen recorded
on the bills which announced the arrival of Cooke.
To one who contemplates the progress of art and
education in our land, it will at once occur that with
theatricals, as with instruction generally, we depended
almost altogether upon supplies from  abroad.  Our
preachers, our professors in colleges, our artists, our
books were rarely indigenous, and the stage illustrates
our early reliance on the mother country in an equal,
if not in a greater degree, than in any of the other
vocations of busy life. If our condition was once so
restricted that farmer Giles imported from beyond the
seas wooden axe-handles when the country was overrun with forests, surely it may be pronounced to have
been admissible that a truthful Cordelia might be
included among importable articles, for the praiseworthy design of disciplining the humanities of the
man of refinement.  At the time of the first representation of Richard the Third, animadversions appeared
on the corruptions of the stage; but, in its defence,
Whitfield is cited in its behalf, inasmuch as he had




133
ascribed his inimitable gesture and bewitching address to his having acted in his youth; and the writer
moreover adds, with great earnestness, that the abuse
of a thing against its use is no argument, as there is
nothing in this world but must fall before such demolishing kind of logic. There was little dramatic criticism, however, among us in the early days of the
theatre.
The chronicler who would be faithful to the history of the stage in New York would be compelled to
say something concerning that period which elapsed
between the commencement of the great American
war of 1776 and its end in 1783. During that interval
the English plays of Garrick, Foote,. Cumberland, Coleman, O'Keefe, Sheridan, and others, reached from time
to time this country, and were enacted by the officers
of the army and navy, and by select aids in private or
social circles; and a remarkable peculiarity of the
times seems to have been, that it was quite a common circumstance to appropriate or designate some
leading or prominent individual among the inhabitants
of the city as the character drawn by the dramatist
abroad.  Qui capit, ille facit. Thus, when the Busy
Body appeared, it was thought that Dr. Atwood
would be the best exemplar of it.  Atwood, as all
who hear me probably know, was the first practitioner
of medicine in this city who regularly assumed, by
advertisement, the functions of a male accoucheur.
He obtained confidence, notwithstanding the novelty
of the attempt. Atwood knew every thing of every
family; he abounded in anecdote, but his company
was more courted than admired.  He at one time pos



134
sessed, by inheritance, great wealth, but died poor,
through the conduct of his son Charles.
When Laugh and Grow Fat appeared, the public
said it well fitted the case of Mortier. He was a cheerful old gentleman and paymaster to the British army;
but the leanest of all human beings, according to the
MS. I lately inspected of Mr. John Moore. He was
almost diaphanous. Mortier built the great mansion on
the Trinity Church grounds, to which I have already
alluded in my account of Col. Burr's residence.
It would seem that during these times an Ode to
Love was recited; the sympathetic public ascribed it
to old Judge Horsmanden, so famous in the Negro
Plot, who had married at seventy years of age. The
Wheel of Fortune was made applicable to Governor
Gage, who had arrived in this country as a captain in
1756, in the old French war, and in 1775 was commander-in-chief of the British army. The Male Coquette was by a sort of unanimous concurrence applied
to James Smith, the brother of the historian of New
York, the man whom I described in my sketch of Christopher Colles as writing madrigals for the young ladies.
He must have pursued the game nearly half a century.
When Anacreon Moore visited this city in 1802-3,
Smith had the temerity to offer with renewed vigor
his oblations on the altar of love. I knew him well.
He was an M.D. of Leyden. When professor of chemistry in Columbia College, then called King's, his flowery diction with the students greatly disturbed both
analysis and synthesis. Hempstead Plains was brought
forward in those times, most probably an indigenous
work. It is affirmed that it alluded to one of the
prominent members of the Beekman family, Gerardus,




135
a great sportsman, who secured the reputation of having killed more birds than any other man that ever
lived. He shot deer in the city Common (now Park),
and antlers, the trophies of his skill, are yet preserved
among his descendants as curiosities to mark the city's
progress. He kept a diary of his gunnery.
But we must hasten to times nearer our own. About
the beginning of the second part of the designated one
hundred years, the Morning Chronicle, a journal of
much taste in literature and the arts, edited by Dr.
Peter Irving, and the New York Evening Post, edited
by William  Coleman, were the prominent papers in
which any thing like regular theatrical criticisms were
published. In the former a series of articles on plays
and actors was printed in 1802-3, over the signature
of Jonathan Oldstyle. At the time of their appearance they were generally ascribed to the accomplished
editor, Dr. Irving, who enjoyed great distinction for
classical acquisition and belles-lettres knowledge. I
knew him only in his advanced life, when illness had
nearly exhausted his frame: yet he was most courteous,
refined, and engaging. Years elapsed before the real
author became known. They are, I believe, among
the earliest literary efforts of our countryman, Washington Irving, then about the nineteenth year of his
age. These criticisms were not wanting in free animadversion; yet betrayed something of that genial
humor which so amply abounds in several of the subsequent writings of that eminent author. Coleman, a
man of culture and of impulse, often supplied the city
with his lucubrations, and aimed to settle all other
criticisms by his individual verdict. He was often
furnished with articles of peculiar merit on acting and




136
actors, by John Wells, the renowned lawyer, by William  Johnson, the well-remembered reporter, and by
our lamented Anthony Bleecker.  Will Wizzard, in
the Salmagundi of 1807, also favored the town with
two or three theatricals on the histrionic talents of the
Old Park Theatre.
The arrival of Cooke in this country constitutes the
great epoch in the progress of the drama, and is the
period at which the historian of the American stage
turns to contemplate the wonders of scenic power. On
the  night of the 21st of November, 1810, Cooke
appeared at the Park Theatre in Richard Third,
before an unprecedentedly crowded house.  His vast
renown had preceded him; but every anticipation was
more than realized. He had reached his fifty-fourth
year, yet possessed all the physical energies of thirty.
The old playgoers discovered a mine of wealth in
Shakspeare, now first opened. His commanding person,
his expressive countenance, his elevated front, his eye,
his every feature and movement, his intonations, showed the great master who eclipsed all predecessors. His
capacious intellect, his boldness and originality, at once
convinced his hearers of the superiority of his study
and his matchless comprehension of his great author.
The critics pronounced him the first of living actors. It
must suffice at this time to observe, that this remarkable man and performer, during his whole career in the
several cities of the Union, sustained his dramatic
reputation unimpaired.  The sad infirmity which too
often laid hold of him, to the casual detriment of his
great abilities, was dealt with by the public more in
pity than in anger; and indeed he seemed to be at
times beloved the more for the dangers he had passed.




137
Dunlap appears throughout his whole biography to
have delighted more to record his inebriation than to
unfold his great professional powers. Perhaps it was
easier to describe a debauch than to analzye the qualities of a sublime genius.
At this late date, after a lapse of nearly half a
century, it might be pronounced foolishness to offer
even a passing remark on Cooke's peculiar merits in
portraying individual character. Cibber has said, the
momentary beauties flowing from an harmonious elocution, cannot, like those of poetry, be their own record,
and everybody has felt the force of the observation.
I had seen little of the stage before I saw Cooke, and
must therefore hold in comparison in the little that I
utter, the impressions experienced from actors of a
later date.  Cooke's Shylock, a new reading to the
western world, was a most impassioned exhibition.
His aquiline nose was of itself a legacy here.  The
revengeful Jew made his great and successful impress
sion with Tubal, and in the trial scene his triumph was
complete.  Iago, with Cooke, was a more palpable and
consummate villain than with any other actor I have
subsequently seen. I think I have seen a better Macbeth; the transitions of Cooke were scarcely immediate
enough for the timid, hesitating, wavering monarch.
His Sir Giles Overreach was not so terrifically impressive as that of Kean.  His Kitely was an intellectual
repast.  His Lear verified the opinion of Johnson concerning that tragedy.  " There is no play," says he,
" which so much agitates our passions and interests our
curiosity."  Cooke's Sir Pertinax, for comic force, versatility of features, blandishments, inimitable pliability
10




138
of address, and perfect personation of character, is
acknowledged to have surpassed Macklin's. A like tribute is due to his Sir Archy M'Sarcasm. I believe
that no actor in any one part within the compass of
the entire drama, ever excelled therein to an equal
degree as did Mr. Cooke in the Scotch character. The
impression created by its representation is too deep to
be obliterated while one surviving witness remains. It
was his greatest performance, and was rendered the
more acceptable by his wonderful enunciation of the
Scotch dialect. In one of my medical visits to him at
the Old Tontine, his first residence in New York, I incidentally spoke to him concerning his personation of
Sir Pertinax, and stated all the town had concluded he
was a Scotchman. " They have the same opinion of
me in Scotland," said he; " I am an Englishman." And
how, sir, did you acquire so profound a knowledge of
the Scotch accentuation? I rejoined. " I studied more
than two and a half years in my own room, with
repeated intercourse with Scotch society, in order to
master the Scottish dialect, before I ventured to appear
on the boards in Edinburgh, as Sir Pertinax, and
when I did, Sawney took me for a native. It was the
hardest task I ever undertook."
Cooke justly demands a greater space than this
occasion warrants; but the able critical pens of the
time have commemorated his achievements, and the
veteran Wood, in his personal reminiscences of the
stage, has dealt with him impartially and delineated
his character with great fidelity. He was of a kindly
disposition, of great benevolence, and filled with charitable impulses. His strong mental powers were im



139
proved by reading, yet more by observation and a
study of mankind.  Self-reliance was his distinguishing
quality; few ever were at any time able to overcome
his determination.  His resolves scarcely ever yielded.
When not influenced by the goblet, his conversation
was instructive and his manners urbane; he had a tear
for distress, and a hand of liberality for want. He was
a great original, and had the logic within himself to
justify innovation.  His master was nature, and he
would submit to no artificial rhetoric.  He thought
much of Kemble, and every thing of Garrick, both of
whom he had seen perform. He cherished an exalted
idea of his art, and demanded deference from  the
menial and the noble.  He was thoroughly imbued
with the value of Franklin's aphorism, " If you make a
sheep of yourself, the wolves will devour you."  He
tolerated no invasion of his rights.  And yet that one
stain on his character, his mania for drink (a periodical
disease, often of some duration), dethroned his high
purpose, and at times degraded him below the dignity
of man.  In  that condition no violence was like
his; abuse of kindest friends, extravagance beyond
limits, obstinacy invincible. On the return of right
reason, he would cast a withering glance at those
around him, and ask, "What part is George Frederick
Cooke placarded for to-night? "
After one of those catastrophes to which I have
alluded, I paid him a visit at early afternoon, the better
to secure his attendance at the theatre. He was seated
at his table, with many decanters, all exhausted, save
two or three appropriated for candlesticks, the lights
in full blaze. He had not rested for some thirty hours




140
or more. With much ado, aided by Price the manager,
he was persuaded to enter the carriage waiting at the
door to take him to the play-house. It was a stormy
night. He repaired to the green-room, and was soon
ready. Price saw he was the worse from excess, but
the public were not to be disappointed. " Let him,"
says the manager, " only get before the lights and the
receipts are secure."  Within the wonted time Cooke
entered on his part, the Duke of Gloster. The public
were unanimous in their decision, that he never performed with greater satisfaction. As he left the house,
he whispered, " Have  I not pleased  the Yankee
Doodles? "  Hardly twenty-fours after this memorable
night, he scattered some $400 among the needy and
the solicitous, and took refreshment in a sound sleep.
Throbbing invades the heart when narrating the
career of this extraordinary man, of herculean constitution, so abundant in recuperative energies; of faculties so rare, and so sublime, cut off so early. I was
with him at his closing hours; serous effusion of the
chest and abdomen were the immediate cause of his
death. He was conscious to the last. Cooke attracted
a mighty notice when with his dignified mien and stately
person, attired as the old English gentleman, he walked
Broadway.  His funeral was an imposing spectacle.
The reverend the clergy, the physicians, the members
of the bar, officers of the army and navy, the literati
and men of science, the members of the dramatic corps,
and alarge concourse of citizens moved in the procession. My worthy friend, George B. Rapelye, is the
only survivor of the long train, whom I can now call to
mind. The quiet Sabbath added to the solemnity. He




141
had no kindred to follow in the procession, but there
were many real mourners.  The sketches of Mr. Cooke
in the Dramatic Mirror of Philadelphia, executed by
Leslie, then a boy, are of most remarkable fidelity.
The professional triumphs of Cooke led Holman
soon after to visit America.  He arrived in 1812, and
saw his old friend on his dying bed.  Holman had a
checkered career. He was an Oxford scholar.  On
assuming the civilian's gown, he delivered with great
success a Latin oration; the eclct which followed his
oratorical displays at the Soho Academy, led him to
abandon theology and adopt the stage. He made a
great hit in Orestes, and his appearance in Romeo was
a decided triumph. His Lord Townley won him most
applause in New York, and was deemed a finished performance. The elegant scholarship of Holman, his
rigid temperance, surpassing all I had seen in any
other person, and his fidelity to all obligations, secured
him a consideration which enhanced the moral estimation of the dramatic corps. Impaired health led him
to seek relief at the watering-place, Rockaway, where
he was seized with a fatal apoplexy, in August, 1817.
The journals abroad stated that he lost his life by one
of those remarkable phenomena which sometimes signalize our climate, a sort of epidemical lightning, by
which himself and several of his family were stricken
down. We gave him a village funeral, most respectable in numbers, at the head of which, with due solemnity, walked the long-remembered old Joseph Tyler,
the comedian, who has often trod the stage with Garrick, and Charles Gilfert, the musical composer.
There are about this period of the drama, associ



142
ated with Cooke, many theatrical celebrities, whose
names might justly find a record here: many whom
the critics lauded, and the spectators admired. Among
the foremost is John Howard Payne, the American
Roscius, who was signalized for his Norval, and his playing Edgar to Cooke's Lear. As an author, Payne's
Brutus, and his Home Sweet Home, have secured him
a world-wide renown.  I became acquainted with him
as the editor of the Thespian Mirror, when he was
about thirteen years of age.  A more engaging youth
could not be imagined; he won all hearts by the
beauty of his person, and his captivating address, the
premature richness of his mind, and his chaste and
flowing utterance. But I will abstain from further
notice of him on this occasion; every reader enamored
of the story of his eventful life, with the vicissitudes of
authorship, of playwrights, and of actors, will satisfy
his desires by turning to the instructive pages of Duyckincks' Cyclopedia of American Literature.
A list of the most popular actors, male and female,
of that period, and of some subsequent years, would
necessarily include Jefferson, Simpson, Wood, Hogg,
Hilson,  Barnes, Bernard,  the  Placides, Conway,
James Wallack, Mrs. Oldmixon, Mrs. Johnson, Miss
Johnson, Mrs. Wheatley, Mrs. Darley, Mrs. Gilfert,
and Mrs. Holman. As prominent in this long catalogue, James Wallack might be permitted to stand
first, as a tragedian of powers, and as a comic performer
of remarkable capabilities. His Shaksperian range and
his Dick Dashall are enough for present citation. Wallack is still with us, and continues as the connecting
line between the old and new order of theatrical af



143
fairs. The acting drama of these times, fairly set forth,
would also introduce that distinguished American,
James Hackett, whose Falstaff has been the theme of
applause from  even the lips of fastidious critics, and
whose Yankee characters have stamped his powers
with the bold impress of originality.  Moreover, Hackett, in his correspondence on Hamlet with that able
scholar, John Quincy Adams, has given us proofs that
he had trained himself in a deep study of the philosophy of Shakspeare.  It would not be unprofitable to
dwell upon the capabilities of Edmund Simpson, whose
range of characters was most extensive, and whose talents manifested deep penetration in a broad expanse
of dramatic individualities.  But all this, and a thousand other circumstances, we must forego.  I may be
justified in remarking that, professionally, I became
acquainted with a majority of these players, and can
testify to the repeated evidences they afforded, from
time to time, of their charitable feelings for the relief
of suffering humanity, and their excellent principles in
the conduct of life. At a little later date we find the
boards enriched by George Bartley and his wife, formerly a Miss Smith, to whom Moore dedicated a series
of his Irish melodies. His Autolychus, his Sir Anthony
Absolute, and his Falstaff, will long hold possession of
the memory, and Mrs. Bartley, enacting the Ode on
the Passions, was a consummation of artistic skill equally
rare and entrancing.
Still a little later, and a flood of histrionic talents
seems almost to have overwhelmed us, in the persons
of Kean, Matthews, and Macready.  He who would
draw the veritable portraiture and histrionic powers




144
of these remarkable men, might justly claim psychological and descriptive instincts of the highest order.
They were not all of equal or of like merits.  They
were all, however, elevated students, under difficulties,
and long struggled against the assaults of a vituperative press and an incredulous public; they all in the
end secured the glories of a great success. With Kean
I may say I was most intimate. He won my feelings
and admiration from the moment of my first interview
with him. Association and observation convinced me
that he added to a mind of various culture the resources of original intellect; that he was frank and
open-hearted, often too much so, to tally with worldly
wisdom.  I was taught by his expositions in private,
as well as by his histrionic displays, that the great
secret of the actor's art depended upon a scrutinizing
analysis of the mutual play of mind and matter, the
reflex power of mental transactions on organic structure.  His little, but well-wrought, strong  frame,
seemed made up of a tissue of nerves.  Every sense
appeared capable of immediate impression, and each
impression having within itself a flexibility truly wondrous. The drudgery of his early life had given a
pliability to his muscular powers that rendered him
the most dexterous harlequin, the most graceful fencer,
the most finished gentleman, the most insidious lover,
the most terrific tragedian. The Five Courts could not
boast a more skilful artist of the ring, and Garrick, if
half that is said be true, might have won a grace from
him.  He had read history, and all concerning Shakspeare was familiar to him: times, costumes, habits, and
the manners of the age. He had dipped into phre



145
nology, and was a physiognomist of rare discernment.
His analysis of characters who visited him, to do
homage to his renown, often struck me with astonishment. His eye was the brightest and most penetrating
any mortal could boast, an intellectual telegraph.  Dr.
Young, borrowing, I suppose, from Aristotle, says that
terror and pity are the two pulses of tragedy; that
Kean had these at command, every spectator of his
Richard and Sir Giles, of his Lear and his Othello, is
ready to grant.  His transitions from  gay to grave,
yielded proofs of his capacity over the passions. He
knew almost instinctively the feelings of the house,
whether an appreciating audience was assembled or
not, and soon decided the case, often by the earliest
efforts he wrought.  He was proud as the representative of Shakspeare, but told me a hundred times that
he detested the profession of the actor.  He loved
Shakspeare, though the hardest study to grapple with,
because, among other reasons, when once in memory
he was a fixture, his language, he added, was so
stickable. Though I was with him almost daily during
his visits among us, I never knew him to look at the
writings of the great poet, save once with King John,
for any preparation for the stage, excepting on some
two or three occasions; he never attended rehearsals,
and yet, during all his performances here, he never
once disappointed the public, even when I knew him
suffering from bodily ills that might have kept a hero
on his couch. There is something marvellous in that
function, memory.  Dugald Stewart was astounded
when Henderson, after reading a newspaper once,
repeated such a portion as seemed to him wonderful.




146
A like occurrence took place with our Hodgkinson.
He made a trifling wager that within an hour he could
commit to memory a page of a newspaper, cross reading, and he won. Kean told me that the parts of
modern dramas, such, for example, as De Montfort,
Bertram, and the like, could not thus be retained.
Henderson told Dugald Stewart that habit produced
that power of retention.  Has the memory, like that
peculiar faculty of calculation which Zera Colburn possessed, some anomalous function not yet unravelled?
It is well known that Kean, at one period of his
histrionic career, enjoyed the unbounded admiration of
the Scotch metropolis; and it is recorded that the
Highland Society honored  him  with  a magnificent
sword for his highly wrought performance of Macbeth.
He on several occasions adverted to the circumstance
of old Sir John Sinclair's flattering correspondence on
the subject. Kean, if report be true, was invited to a
choice meeting at Edinburgh, where were summoned
many of the philosophers, professors, and critics usually
congregated in that enlightened city. Scott and Wilson, I take it, were of the number, headed by the
octogenarian, Henry Mackenzie, the " Man of Feeling,"
president of the Highland Society. It was easy to
foresee, that such an opportunity would not be permitted to escape such a scholastic board without some
interrogatories being put to the great dramatic hero,
on the genius of Shakspeare, and on the eloquence
which elucidated him. The old professors of rhetoric
had too long handled the square and compass in their
Chiromania not to feel desirous of hearing if some new
postulates might not be assumed, whose excellence




141
might advance their science.  My old friend, John
Pillans, of the High School, broached  the subject.
Kean had little to disclose; yet that little had to
suffice. He had no harangue on eloquence to deliver.
He maintained that Shakspeare was his own interpreter,
by his intensity and the wonderful genius of his language.  Shakspeare, he continued, was a study; his
deep and scrutinizing research into human nature, and
his sublime and pathetic muse, were to be comprehended only by a capacity alive to his mighty purposes.
He had no rhetorician's laws to expound.  If a higher
estimate was at any time placed upon his performances
than upon those of some others who fulfilled the severe
calling of the actor, he thought it might be due in part
to the devotion which he bestowed on the authors,
and the conceptions engendered by reflection.  I have
overlooked, said he, the schoolmen, and while I assume
no lofty claims, I have thought more of intonation
than of gesticulation. It is the utterance of human
feelings which rises superior to the rules which the
professor of rhetoric enjoins. It is the sympathy of
mental impression that acts.  I forgot the affections of
art, and relied upon the emotions of the soul. It is
human nature that gives her promptings.
I interrogated Kean, at one of those intellectual
recreations which now  and  then occurred  in New
York, if no other writer could be pointed out whose
language might awaken similar emotions by elucidation.  The funeral service of the Church, he replied,
will demonstrate the capabilities of the speaker. When
a new candidate for histrionic patronage waits at Old
Drury, he is perhaps tested by the committee to de



148
claim the speech over the dead body of Caesar, or the
opening address of Richard the Third, or perhaps
something from that mawkish lover, Romeo; or he
may be requested to read a portion of the funeral
service of the Church; this last answers as well as any
thing fiom Shakspeare.  We have nothing higher in
eloquence; nothing more effective, and the qualifications of the speaker are often by such a criterion
determined upon.  I myself shall only add that Kean
was controlled by an inherent sagacity, and, as events
proved, that sagacity was convincing.  The turmoils
of the mind which led to such results, he could not
expound. Aided by a masterly judgment, he knew
where the golden treasures of the poet were buried,
and his genius knew how and when to bring them to
light, and to give them their peculiar force.
Kean's success was not equal in all characters, and
he frankly declared it.  But how often has this proved
to be the case with others! Kemble could not excel
in Richard the Third nor in Sir Edward Mortimer,
and Kean could not approach the excellence of Kemble's Coriolanus.  Miss O'Neil, when she played Mrs.
Haller, proved that the pathetic had never entered
the bosom  of Mrs. Siddons.  Kean's scope was too
wide for any mortal to cherish a design so presumptuous as universal success; but the impartial and wellinformed historiographer of the stage will allow, that
no predecessor in Kean's vocation ever excelled in so
great a degree in such numerous and diversified delineations of the products of the dramatic art.  And to
what cause for such success are we to look, but to that
vast capacity which original genius had planted within




149
him; to that boldness that dreaded not a new path,
to that self-reliance which trained him, by untiring
industry, to his assigned duty; to that confidence
which he cherished, that the artificial school of form
and mannerism, with its monotonous tone, was rebellious to flexible nature, and must in time yield to those
diviner agents residing in the human breast?  In the
mechanics of ordinary life there might be such laws,
and admiration excited at the regularity of the pendulum, but the intellectual was a subtle ether not to be
thus controlled. The service in which he had enlisted,
as interpreter and expositor of the Bard of Avon,
demanded that the passions have fair play, and that it
were an absurdity to restrain the emotions of the soul
by the laws of the pedagogue. His head was his
prompter-his mental sagacity his guide. Never has
an actor appeared who owed less to the acting of
others; he disdained imitation; he was himself alone.
Need we have doubted the ultimate success of such
heroism.
How vastly is his merit enhanced when we consider
the renowned individuals who had had possession of
the stage for some one or two ages prior to his entree in London, whose memories still lingered there,
and further recollect the abilities of those, too, who, at
the very time when he made his debut at Old Drury,
were still the actual properties of the dramatic world,
and had secured the homage of the British nation: the
Kembles, Young, Mrs. Siddons, and we may add, Miss
O'Neil.  The verdict had gone forth that these artists
could do no wrong; yet the little man, who had feasted
sumptuously on herring at a shilling a week, who had




150
studied Shakspeare at the Cock and  Bottle, who had
enacted him  amidst the clanking chains of a prison, ap.
pears as Shylock.  The actors and the audience, one
and all, dismiss every doubt; a new revelation is unfolded, and the intellect of the most intellectual critics
is exhausted in ink and paper in laudation; the polyglott is ransacked for new phrases of approbation.
The little man, but mighty actor, assumes a succession
of Shaksperian characters, and  London is taken, as ii
by storm. Hazlett declares that Mr. Kean's appearance
is the first gleam  of genius breaking athwart the gloom
of the  stage; the  dry bones  shake, and  the mighty
Kembie  exclaims, " He  acts  terribly  in  earnest!"
Coleridge says, "To see Kean act is reading Shakspeare
by lightning; " and Byron, the immortal bard, bursts
forth:
"Thou art the sun's bright child!
The genius that irradiates thy mind
Caught all its purity and light from heaven.
Thine is the task, with mastery most perfect,
To bind the passions captive in thy train!
Each crystal tear, that slumbers in the depth
Of feeling's fountain, doth obey thy call!
There's not a joy or sorrow mortals prove,
Or passion to humanity allied,
But tribute of allegiance owes to thee.
The shrine thou worshippestis Nature's self —
The only altar genius deigns to seek.
Thine offering-a bold and burning mind,
Whose impulse guides thee to the realms of fame,
Where, crowned with well-earned laurels, all thine own,
I herald thee to immortality."
To  demonstrate  that his  empire was not alone
Shakspeare  and  the  lofty tragic writers, he  assumed




151
comedy; he gave us the Duke Aranza, Octavian, Sylvester Daggerwood, Luke, etc., and played Paul, Mungo, and Tom Tug, exhibiting the variety and extent of
his dramatic capabilities without loss of his mighty
fame as the greatest living tragedian.  I attribute
Kean's unrivalled success in so wide a range of characters somewhat to his extraordinary capacity for observation.  Hie individualized every character he assumed
-we saw not Mr. Kean. Wherever he was, he was
all eye, all ear.  Every thing around him, or wherever
he moved, fell within his cognizance.
He might have been called the peripatetic philosopher.  He was curious in inquiring into causes.  He
echoed the warbling of birds, the sounds of beasts, imitated the manner and the voices of numerous actors;
studied the seven ages, and said none but a young man
could perform old King Lear; was a ventriloquist, sang
Tom Moore's Melodies with incredible sweetness, and
was himself the composer of several popular airs. Thus
qualified, he drew his materials fresh from observations
amid the busy scenes of life, where he was ever a spectator.  Garrick declared that he would give a hundred pounds to utter the exclamation "Oh!" as did
Whitfield.  What might he not have given to pronounce the curse on Regan as did Mr. Kean, or to be
able to rival the pathos of his Othello?
The Lake Poets, as they were called, took a new
road in their strides towards Parnassus, but that road
is now mainly forsaken, and remains almost unvisited.
Kean, with loftier aspirations and still more daring,
essayed a new reading of Shakspeare; there was large
by-play, but no still life in him; he rejected the mo



152
notonous and soporific tone; he left the artificial cadence and the cold antique to Kemble. The passions
with which the Almighty has gifted mortals were his
reliance, and as these will last while life's blood courses
through the heart, so long will endure the histrionic
school which Kean founded.
That Kean's first visit to the United States was a
complete triumph none will deny; that his second, after his disasters in London, by which his own folly and
crime had made him  notorious, now  rendered the
American people less charitable to his errors, and less
cordial in their support of his theatrical glory, is also
an admitted fact; yet his return among us gave demonstrations enough to prove that his professional merits
were still recognized as of the highest order: he might
have repined at the departure of those halcyon days of
1820-21, yet there were testimonials enough nightly
accompanying his career in 1825-26, to support him in
his casual sinking of the spirits, and perhaps at times
to nullify that contrition that weighed so heavily at
the heart. His devotion as an actor was not less earnest than when I first knew him.  His Sir Giles in
New York abated not of the vehemence and terror that
characterized it as I had witnessed it at Old Drury
in London, in 1816. There were s6metimes with him
moments of renewed study, and he threw himself into
several new characters which he had not previously
represented here; his Zanga, his De Montfort, and
Paul were of the number.  His Othello was received
with louder plaudits than ever, and his Lear, as an inspiration beyond mortals, was crowned with universal
praises. Kean often told me that he considered his




153
third act in Othello his most satisfactory performance
within the range of his histrionic career.  " Such," I
said, "seems to be the public verdict; yet I have been
more held in wonder and admiration at your King
Lear." "' The real insanity and decrepitude of that old
monarch, of fourscore and upwards," said Kean, "is a
most severe and laborious part.  I often visited St.
Luke's and Bethlehem hospitals in order to comprehend the manifestations of real insanity ere I appeared
in Lear.  I understand you have an asylum for lunatics; I should like to pay it a visit, and learn if there
be any difference in the insanity of John Bull and of
you Americans."  He was promised an opportunity.
A  few  days after, we malei the desired visit at
Bloomingdale.  Kean, with an additional friend and
myself, occupied the carriage for a sort of philosophical exploration of the city on our way thither.  On
the excursion he remarked he should like to see our
Vauxhall.  We stopped; he entered the gate, asked
the doorkeeper if he might survey the place, gave a
double somerset through the air, and in the twinkling
of an eye stood at the remote part of the garden.  The
wonder of the superintendent can be better imagined
than described.  Arriving at the Asylum, with suitable gravity he was introduced to the officials, invited
to an inspection of the afflicted inmates, and then told,
if he would ascend to the roof of the building, a delightful prospect would be presented to his contemplation: many counties, and an area of sea, rivers, and
lands, mountains and valleys, embracing a circuit of
forty miles in circumference.  His admiration was expressed in delicious accents.  "I ll walk the ridge of
the roof of the Asylum!" he exclaimed, "and take a
11




154
leap!1 and forthwith started for the gable end of the
building; "it's the best end I can make of my life."
Forthwith he started towards the western gable end.
My associate and myself, as he hurried onward, seized
him  by the arms, and he submissively returned.  I
have ever been at a loss to account for this sudden
freak in his feelings; he was buoyant at the onset of
the journey; he astonished the Vauxhall doorkeeper
by his harlequin trick, and took an interest in the
various forms of insanity which came before him.  He
might have become too sublimated in his feelings, or
had his senses unsettled (for he was an electrical apparatus), in contemplating the mysterious influences acting on the minds of the deranged, for there is an
attractive principle as well as an adhesive principle in
madness; or a crowd of thoughts might have oppressed
him, arising from  the disaster which had occurred to
him a few days before with the Boston audience, and
the irreparable loss he had sustained in the plunder of
his trunks and valuable papers, while journeying hither
and thither on his return to New York.  We rejoiced
together, however, when we found him again safely at
home, at lis old lodgings, at the City Hotel.  I asked
him in the evening how he studied the phases of disordered intellect; he replied, by the eye, as I control
my lion.  I cannot do better with this part of my
subject than quote from  an able article on Kean's
Lear, as it appeared  in  Blackwood.  Of this most
genuine of his performances of Shakspeare, the writer
says:'"The genius of Shakspeare is the eternal rock
on which the temple of this great actor's reputation
must now  rest; and the'obscene birds' of criticism
may try in vain to reach its summit and defile it, and




155
the restless waves of envy  and  ignorance may beat
against its foundation unheeded, for their noise cannot
be heard so high."
There  are a thousand  stories  afloat  concerning
Kean.*   I shall swell the number with one or two
derived from  personal knowledge.  The criticisms of
the American papers on his acting were little heeded
by him; he said after an actor has made a severe study
of his character he feels himself beyond  the animadversions of the press.  While here, however, a periodical was published  by  the  poet Dana, called the' Idle Man."  A  number, in which his dramatic talents
were analyzed, was placed  in  Kean's hand;  having
read  it deliberately, he exclaimed, with much gratification, " This writer understands me; he is a philosophical man; I shall take his work across the water."
On several alternate nights he played the same round
of characters with the distinguished Cooper; and two
parties were  naturally  created  by it.  He soon saw
that Cooper had his friends, and noticing the caption
of the respective papers, after one or two successive
days, he ordered his man Miller regularly to handle
the opposition  gazette with  a pair of tongs, and  con* The professional receipts of Kean during his engagement in New
York, were, I believe, at least equal to those for a like number of nights
which he received at the acme of his renown in London. His average income for some twelve or fifteen years was not less than ten thousand
pounds per annum. He rescued Old Drury from bankruptcy, yet he is
said to have been often in need, and died almost penniless. There was
no one special extravagance chargeable to him; but he was reckless in
money matters, and figures entered not into his calculations. He had a
helping hand for all applications. As in the case of Quin, the needy
found in him a friend. The noble conduct of his son Charles is familiarly
known; but no language can plead in extenuation of the deplorable prodigality of the elder Kean.




156
vey it away from his presence.  He said he never
read attacks.
Kean had early determined to erect a monument
to the memory of the actor he most esteemed, George
Frederick Cooke. We waited upon Bishop Hobart
for permission to carry out the design. Kean struck
the attention of the bishop by his penetrating eyes
and his refined address.  "You do not, gentlemen;
wish the tablet inside St. Paul's?" asked the bishop.
"No, sir," I replied, "we desire to remove the remains
of Mr. Cooke from  the strangers' vault and erect a
monument over them  on some suitable spot in the
burial-ground of the church. It will be a work of
taste and durability."  "You have my concurrence
then," added he.  But I hardly knew how we could
find a place inside the church for Mr. Cooke."  The
monument was finished on the 4th of June, 1821, the
day Mr. Kean terminated his first visit to America.
He repaired in the afternoon to pay his last devotion
to it.  He was singularly pleased with the eulogistic
lines on Cooke; tears fell from his eyes in abundance,
and as the evening closed he walked Broadway, listened to the chimes of Trinity, returned again to the
churchyard, and sang, sweeter than ever, "Those Evening Bells," and " Come o'er the Sea."  I gazed upon
him  with more interest than had ever before been
awaked by his stage representations.  I fancied (and
it was not altogether fancy) that I saw  a child of
genius on whom  the world  at large bestowed its
loftiest praises, while he himself was deprived of that
solace which the world cannot give, the sympathies of
the heart.
Towards the close of his second visit to America,




157
Kean made a tour through the northern part of the
State, and visited Canada; he fell in with the Indians,
with whom  he became delighted, and was chosen a
chief of a tribe.  Some time after, not aware of his
return to the city, I received, at a late hour of the
evening, a  call to wait upon an  Indian chief, by
the name of Alantenaida, as the highly-finished card
left at my house had it.  Kean's ordinary card was
Edmund Kean, engraved; he generally wrote underneath, "Integer vitas scelerisque purus." I repaired to
the hotel, and was conducted up stairs to the foldingdoors of the hall, when the servant left me. I entered,
aided by the feeble light of the room; but at the remote end I soon perceived something like a forest of
evergreens, lighted up by many rays fiom floor-lamps,
and surrounding a stage or throne; and seated in great
state was the chief.  I advanced, and a more terrific
warrior I never surveyed.  Red Jacket or Black Hawk
was an unadorned, simple personage in comparison.
Full dressed, with skins tagged loosely about his person, a broad collar of bear-skin over his shoulders, his
leggings, with many stripes, garnished with porcupine quills; his moccasons decorated with beads; his
head decked with the war-eagle's plumes, behind which
flowed massive black locks of dishevelled horse-hair;
golden-colored rings pendant from the nose and ears;
streaks of yellow  paint over the face, massive red
daubings about the eyes, with various hues in streaks
across the forehead, not very artistically drawn. A
broad belt surrounded his waist, with tomahawk; his
arms, with shining bracelets, stretched out with bow
and arrow, as if ready for a mark. He descended his
throne and  rapidly approached me.  His eye was




158
meteoric and fearful, like the furnace of the cyclops.
He vociferously exclaimed, Alantenaida! the vowels
strong enough. I was relieved; he betrayed something of his raucous voice in imprecation.  It was
Kean. An explanation  took place.  HEe wished to
know the merits of the representation.  The Hurons
had honored him by admission into their tribe, and he
could not now  determine whether to seek his final
earthly abode with them for real happiness, or return
to London, and add renown to his name by performing
the Son of the Forest.  I never heard that he ever
afterwards attempted, in his own country, the character.  He was wrought up to the highest pitch of enthusiasm  at the Indian honor he had received, and
declared that even Old Drury had never conferred so
proud a distinction on him as he had received from the
Hurons.  My visit was of some time.  After pacing
the room, with Indian step, for an- hour or more, and
contemplating himself before a large mirror, he was
prevailed upon to change his dress and retire to rest.
A  day or two after, he sailed for Europe, with his
Indian paraphernalia.
I have said nothing of the intemperate habits, or of
the extravagance and profuse liberality of Kean. That
word intemperate is to be viewed in various lights, and
with much qualification.  The old proverb, that what
is one man's food is another's poison, has much of fact
in it.  Viewing, moreover, intemperance as among the
greatest calamities that afflict mortals, I should sadden
in my soul if a word proceeded fiom  my lips that
might give it any quarters.  But Mr. Kean's susceptibilities to impression were such that high excitement
might follow two or three glasses of port.  Mr. Grat



159
tan has well described the progress of that condition
in  Kean, and  I have observed, at several times,
that those Latin citations of his were ominous.  Yet I
never saw Mr. Kean indulge in any drink whatever,
until the labors of the drama were over.  That he
often  at other times erred, I am  ready to admit.
Knox, an English actor, who played Glenalvon, demanded two quarts of brandy to go through with that
character in his stentorian way, and when I administered reproof to him, because of his inordinate indulgence, he only replied it was just the right measure.
John Reeve, according to manager Simpson, partook
still more bountifully to carry through his broad farce;
but he was very bulky, and required almost a kilderkin to saturate him. The benevolence of Kean, and
his charities, were almost proverbs.  Another noble
attribute characterized him: he was free of professional envy, and lauded rising merit.  All he asked
was to be announced to the public in large letters.
He prognosticated the career of Forest, after seeing
his Othello once.  I could not dismiss Kean with more
brevity.  He was a meteor in the dramatic firmament.
I might have added much more. The classical Tuckerman, in his Biographical Essays, has given us an
admirable exposition of the philosophy of the man and
his acting, and Proctor has done well with him, but
might have done better.  I shall say less of Mathews
and Mviacready.
Hemmed in as I am by time and circumstances, I
am  compelled to restrict my observations on Charles
Mathews, a man of extraordinary faculties, who had
secured a prodigious renown in his vocation ere his
arrival in the American States, and which reputation




160
was increased by his public displays in this country.
He was a remarkable specimen of what early training
and study may accomplish.  His very physical defects
yielded to him special advantages.  His close observation, his susceptible nervous system, his half hypochondriacal temperament, sharpened a natural acuteness,
which, with uninterrupted devotion, led to results of
the most commanding regard. If ever triumph was
secured by speciality, it was eminently so in the case
of Mathews. He studied occurrences with the severity
of philosophical analysis.  Attitudes, the lear of the
eye, the motion of the lip, the crook of the fingers, the
turn of the toe, the ringlet of a lock, intonation of
voice, every demonstration of emotion or passion, came
within the scope of his capabilities.  The characteristics of divers nations marking every condition of varied
life, from  the dignity of the Plenipo to the servitude
of the menial, were all caught by him, and you looked
in turn to him for the verisimilitude of every delineation he attempted.  The brooding cadence of the cooing dove, and the hideous braying of the donkey, were
equally at the command of his versatile talents.  He
was, in short, the master of mimic power, and used it
with unparalleled effect. In comedy he was the acknowledged head in numerous parts.  His Goldfinch is represented to me, by experienced theatrical goers, to
have surpassed that of Hodgkinson; his Lord Ogilby,
his Morbleau, his Coddle, and many other portraitures,
still remain in vivid recollection.  His "At Home'
proved him, indeed, the actor of all work, and with
the American community, yielding to the persuasions
of friends, he evinced the extraordinary capacity that
Othello could be enacted by him with signal success.




161
If it be asked how came Mathews the possessor of
such rare gifts, I answer they were derived from  a
nervous susceptibility of the most impressible order,
from  intense study, and  the cultivation of elegant
literature.  He read largely; he was quickened into
observation by every phase of varied life, and his
morbid constitution never forsook him, or tolerated
indifference to surrounding objects. Like an homeopathic patient he was never well-always complaining,
and ever on the look-out, with this difference, however, that while the narcotized victim seems incessantly
in search of physical improvement, Matthews seemed
ever to be busy in intellectual progress.  With the
dexterity of an  archer he aimed at characteristics
wherever they might be found, and made the peculiarities of individuals the pledge of his skill.  Abroad
he sought out John Philpot Curran, and embodied
both the manner and thoughts of the orator most
faithfully.  In this country he looked out for the great
Irish orator, Thomas Addis Emmet, and unconsciously, to the great pleader, took him to the life, in manner and in tone, with transcendent effect.  Had that
jurist lived in these latter days, with spiritualism and
clairvoyance running mad, he might have concluded
himself to have been translated into some other individuality.
His arrival in New York occurred in September,
1822; the yellow fever was prevailing.  I received a
kind note from  that benevolent man, Simpson, the
manager of the Park Theatre, to hasten on board a
ship off the harbor, in which was Mr. Mathews, in mental distress at the prospect of landing. The phenomena
exhibited  by his nervous temperament were most




162
striking: he had been informed that one hundred and
forty deaths had occurred on that day.  Though some
three miles off the battery, he felt, he affirmed, the
pestilential air of the city; every cloud came to him
surcharged with mortality; every wave imparted from
the deep exhalations of destruction.  He walked the
deck, tottering, and in the extremrest agitation.  He
refused to land at the city, and insisted upon finding
shelter in some remote place.  Hoboken was decided
upon, and thither Mr. Simpson and myself accompanied
him.  Some two miles from  the Jersey shore, on the
road towards Hackensack, Mr. Simpson found lodgings
for him  in a rural retreat occupied by a gardener.
Here Mathews passed the night walking to and fro
in his limited apartment, ruminating on his probable
departure within a few hours to the world of spirits.
Hoboken, as it afforded him  safety, as time proved, in
his extreme distress, afterwards became his favorite
spot for repose during his professional toil, and very
often, after his theatrical duties were discharged, he
was conveyed at midnight hour to that then beautiful
locality.  Not a few of the suggestions which crossed
his mind in contemplating the American or Yankee
character, were here elaborated for his future graphic
sketches in dramatic delineation.
This great comedian was well stored with knowledge, and cherished a heartfelt love for literary characters; his visit to Edinburgh, and his acquaintance
with  Sir Walter Scott, Terry, and  other eminent
men of the stage, authors, and actors, and the social
circle in domestic society, in which he held a part, led
him  to a high appreciation of intellectual pursuits.
Our Cooper, our lrving, Halleck and Dunlap, were




163
among his favorite friends.  With Dr. Hosack and the
generous Philip Hone, he enjoyed many festive hours.
lMathews was the first individual, I heard, who gave
a pretty decisive opinion that Scott was the author of
the Waverley novels; this was five years before the
disclosure of the fact, by Sir Walter himself, at the
Ballantyne dinner, and while we in New York were
digesting the argument of Coleman, of the Evening
Post, and his correspondents, who attempted to prove
that such could not be the truth, and that a Major
or Col. Scott, of Canada, was the actual author.  The
adhesion to this belief was, I believe, never broken up
in the mind of Coleman. But this pertinacity was very
characteristic, for what could you do with a man who
contended through life that Bonaparte was no soldier;
that Priestley had done the world infinitely more harm
than good; that skullcap was a certain specific for
the cure of hydrophobia, and that yellow fever was as
contagious as the plague of Aleppo?  And he held
many for a while in his belief, for Coleman was pronounced by his advocates a field marshal in literature,
as well as in politics.  There was much of worldly
prudence in the habits and demeanor of this renowned
actor, and he who would comprehend the labors, selfdenials, and toils of the successful competitor for histrionic distinction, might profitably study the life of
Mathews.   He was the apostle of temperance and
circumspection.
Macready, having secured a provincial reputation,
appeared on the London boards at that particular
juncture in histrionic affairs when Kemble, Mrs. Siddons, and Young had left the stage, or were about to
withdraw from the sphere of their labors, and when




164
Miss O'Neil was on the eve of closing her brilliant and
most successful career. His reception was all that
could be desired, and Kean, with his wonted liberality,
applauded his talents.  He soon assumed the Shakspearian characters, and his Coriolanus, Richard the
Third, lMacbeth, and his Iago, added vastly to his
renown.  The world, however, cannot always be devoted to Shakspeare; novelty is sought, and Macready
presented a captivating example of it in his Rob Roy.
He became the original representative of several of
Sheridan Knowles' heroes, and his Caius Gracchus and
William Tell gave still greater scope to his commanding powers.  In 1826 he visited New York, and won
the homage of the severest critics, by his personation
of the master characters of Shakspeare, which he had
enacted in London.  Upon his return to the United
States in 1849, he still further swelled the tide of
public approbation by his King Lear and his Richelieu.
The disasters which disgraced our metropolis, by the
occurrence of the Astor Opera House riot, are still
fresh in memory, and need not be dwelt upon. On
that memorable occasion Macready gave proofs abundant of his personal prowess and undaunted spirit.
Mr. Macready has made three visits to the United
States-in 1826, 1844, and 1849-and has been received at each visitation with an increased  public
approbation.
To analyze the wide range of the drama which the
professional life of Macready embraced, would be presumptuous, and  is not within our power; we are,
moreover, merely touching some of the leading incidents in the histrionic movements of this city, and are
exempt from the obligations which an address to the




165
Dramatic Association might impose.  Mr. Macready is
less of a comedlian than tragedian, but in this latter,
the materials are ample to demonstrate that, in the
maturity of his faculties, his efficiency justly placed
him  at the head of the English stage.  He cannot be
entirely classed with the exclusive followers of nature,
though he borrowed largely from her resources; and
it would be unjust to his original powers to attribute
his excellences to his adoption of the cold and formal
school of actors.  Hazlitt, a discriminating dramatic
critic, pronounced him  by far the best tragic actor
that had come out, with the exception of Kean.  But
Mr. Macready has other and higher claims to our regard and esteem.  He studied and enacted Shakspeare
less for objects of pecuniary result than to bring out
for increased admiration the matchless beauties and
the deep philosophy of the great author in the purity
of his own incomparable diction; and he made corresponding efforts to eradicate the corruptions which annotators and playwrights have introduced. He loathed
the clap-traps of sentiment with which the stage was so
often burthened.  He was restless with the commentators. The bloated reputation of Cibber's interpolations he decried, and felt anguish at the innovations of
even Dryden and Massinger.  They were obstacles to
the true worship of Shakspeare, and he deemed it imperative that they be overcome.  We should hold no
parley, he said, with critics who could pilfer an absurdity, and then profanely saddle it on Shakspeare.  Assuredly he deserves all praise for his unceasing toil
and his noble ambition.
Mr. Macready has been ever scrupulously careful
about assuming a part in plays which tended to the




166
exaltation of the baser passions, and the increase of
licentiousness.  The regularity of his own life added
to the self-gratification he enjoyed from  so scrupulous
a line of conduct in his professional duty.  Believing
that a great ethical principle for the improvement of
morals and the diffusion of knowledge resided in the
stage, he, above all things, wished Shakspeare to be
exhibited as he is, unencumbered with the trappings
of other minds, and I have little doubt that in his
happy retirement he finds solace in the conduct he
adopted.  Elegant letters occupy a portion of the
leisure hours which Mr. Macready has at command
since his withdrawal from theatrical toil, and the journals have recently noticed with  commendation the
efforts he is engaged  in  to enlarge the empire of
thought and morals by promoting the establishment
of public schools. He virtually, if recent reports be
true, is at this present period a voluntary teacher of
morals and science.  His philanthropy has created a
school for the rising generation, and even for maturer
years, at his bea.utiful retreat, at Sherborne, in Dorsetshire. Whatever may have been the vicissitudes and
trials which have oppressed at times the course of his
honorable  life, he will assuredly find  an adequate
recompense in the benevolent and grateful pursuits
which now absorb so largely his experienced intellects
His late lecture on poetry, and its influence on popular education, delivered before the British Athenaeum,
has been read by thousands with the strongest approval.
I shall close these fragmentary observations on the
drama and the players, with a quotation from a judicious criticism on the edition of Shakspeare lately pub



167
lished, with numerous annotations, by the Ilev. H. N.
Hudson. Few will dissent from  the closing remarks
of the able writer.  Mr. Gould observes: "  We cannot
forbear a passinog remark on the disappearance of the
theatrical representatives of Shakspeare, just at the
point of time when his text, in its highest attainable
purity9 is restored  to the world.  Garrick, Kemble,
Siddons, Cooke, Kean, and Macready, for the greater
part of a century, practically expounded the language
of the poet; and the genius of the actor, co-operating
with the genius of the author, unfolded to five successive generations the living realities of Shakspeare's
power.  These six luminaries  have now  all passed
away; Macready alone surviving to enjoy in retirement the homage due to his public talents and private
virtues. The loss of these great actors is the more to
be deplored, because their art dies with them, and
hence it is not strange that, with their professional
exit, the drama itself should  have declined.  Shakspeare is immortal in the library; but on the stage
probably few  men now living will see him  resuscitated."
Were my individual feelings to be consulted, I
would fain dwell at some length on the introduction of
the Garcia Italian opera troupe in this city as an historical occurrence in intellectual progress of permanent
interest. It was destined to create new  feelings, to
awaken new  sentiments in the circle of refined  and
social life, aud its mission I believe is accomplished.
The opera, whatever may be the disputes touching its
origin, was known to be the offspring of genius. It had
universal approval as an exalted mental recreation to
recommend it; its novelty here secured prompt attena




168
tion to its claims, and its trotpe of artists who honored
ns with their entree were considered the recognized
professors of the highest order in the art.  It captivated the eye, it charmed the ear, it awakened the profoundest emotions of the heart.  It paralyzed  all
further eulogiums on the casual song-singing  heretofore interspersed in the English comedy, and rendered
the popular airs of the drama which had possession of
the feelings, the lifeless materials of childish ignorance.
Something, perhaps, was to be ascribed to fashionable
emotion, for this immediate popular ascendency.  For
this advantageous accession to the resources of mental
gratification, we were indebted to the taste and refinement of Dominick Lynch, the liberality of the manager
of the Park Theatre, Stephen Price, and the distinguished reputation of the Venetian, Lorenzo Da Ponte.
Lynch, a native of New York, was the acknowledged
head of the fashionable and festive board, a gentleman
of the ton, and a melodist of great powers and of exquisite taste; he had long striven to enhance the character of our music; he was the master of English
song, but he felt from his close cultivation of music and
his knowledge of the genius of his countrymen, that
much was wanting, and that more could be accomplished, and he sought out, while in Europe, an Italian
trotpe, which his persuasive eloquence and the liberal
spirit of Price led to embark for our shores, where they
arrived in November, 1825. The old Italian poet and
composer of the libretto of Don Giovanni and Le Nozze
di Figaro, the associate of Mozart, was here in this city
to greet them, and on the night of 29th of October,
1825, at the Park Theatre, we listened to I1 Barbiere
de Seviglie of the matchless Rossini.




169
More was realized by the immense multitude who
filled the house than had been anticipated, and the
opera ended with an universal shout of bravo, bravissimo.  The city reverberated the acclamations. The
indomitable energy of Garcia, aided by his melodious
strains and his exhaustless powers, the bewitching
talents of his daughter, the Signorina Garcia, with her
artistic faculties as an actress, and her flights of inspirations, the novelty of her conception, and her captivating person, proved that a galaxy of genius in a novel
vocation unknown to the New World, demanded now its
patronage. To these primary personages, as making
up the roll, were added Angrisani, whose bass seemed
as the peal of the noted organ at Haerlem; Rosich, a
buffo of great resources; Crevelli, a promising de6utante; the younger Garcia, with Signora Garcia, and
Madame Barbiere with her capacious tenor, constituting a musical phalanx which neither London nor Paris
could surpass, nay, at that time could not equal. From
the moment that first night's entertainment closed, I
looked upon the songs of Phillips (which had made
Coleman, the editor, music-mad), the  melodies of
Moore, and even the ballads of Scotland, as shorn of
their popularity, and even now I think myself not
much in error in holding to the same opinion.  The
Italian opera is an elaboration of many thoughts, of
intelligence extensive and various; while it assimilates
itself by its harmonious construction and entirety, it
becomes effective by external impression and rational
combination.  It blends instruction with delight; if
it does not make heroes, it at least leads captive the
noblest attributes of humanity; and had a larger forethought and wiser government watched over its des12




170
tinies, it might still exist in its attractive displays as a
permanent institution in this enlightened and liberal
metropolis
I must add a few  words on that great Maestro,
Garcia. It is true that his vast reputation is secured
for the future by his biographer; he was a successful
teacher, a composer of many operas, and his merits as
a performer are fresh in the recollections of the operatic world; but it is sometimes profitable to cast a
backward glance over what we have lost.  He was a
native of Seville, reared in Spanish music, and in fulfilling his part in that role with enthusiam, was summoned in 1809 to Paris, where he was the first Spanish
musician that appeared in that capital. Garat, on hearing him, exclaime, " The Andalusian purity of the
man makes me all alive."  Prince Murat chose him as
first tenor of his own chapel in 1812, at Naples.  Catalini obtained him  for her first tenor, 1816, in Paris.
Here Rossini saw him and arranged affairs so that he
appeared in the Barber of Seville, of which he was
the original representative.  He visited England in
1817, where his wonderful powers were still higher extolled, from his Othello and his Don Juan.  In Paris
our New York friend Lynch found him, and proffered
inducements for him to visit America.  Here his combined qualities as singer and actor, have never been
equalled; his Othello, for force, just discrimination,
and expression, astounding the beholder, and filling the
house with raptures.  His career in Mexico followed;
and' sad to relate, while on his return to Vera Cruz, he
was beset by banditti, stripped of his clothing, and
plundered of his 1000 oz. of gold (about 17,000 dollars
of our money), the results of his severe earnings: pen



171
niless he finally reached Paris, to resume his professional labors.  His spirits failed him  not, but his
musical powers were on the wane, and being the first
to detect the decline of his great talents, and too honest
to pass a counterfeit note, he left the operatic boards
and died in 1836, aged fifty-eight.
From the sixth year of his age, and through life,
Garcia was the arbiter of his own fortunes.  He may
be pronounced the restorer of Mozart and the promulgator of Rossini's matchless works.  His daughter,
afterwards Madame Malibran, eclipsed even the talents
of her father; and her abilities are still a popular topic
of conversation.  She had the rare gift of possessing
the contralto and the soprano. Her ardor, both as
actress and as singer, exhibited alnmost a frantic enthusiasm.  Animated by the lofty consciousness of genius,
the novelty of her conceptions, her vivid pictures, her
inexhaustible spirits had in no predecessor in her calling ever been equalled.  She had no Farinelli for an
instructor, but the tremendous energy, not to say severity of her father, brought out the faculties of her voice
to the wonder of all who heard her.  She may be said
to have been consumed by the fire of her own genius.
Her "Una Voce" and other airs reached the highest
point of instrumentation, according to the opinion of
the most astute judges.  She has been followed by no
imitator, because none could approach her.  Recently
with Alboni and Jenny Lind we have had a partial
echo of her. Perhaps her ravishing person served to
swell the tide of public approbation of her ravishing
voice. She enchained eyes and ears. Her earlier (not
her earliest) efforts were first appreciated at the Park
Theatre, and the predictions there uttered of her ulti



172
mate victories, were fully verified on her return to
England.  So far American appreciation did honor to
the then  state  of musical culture with the New
Yorkers.
In my medical capacity I became well acquainted
with the Garcia troupe; they possessed good constitutions and took little physic; but what I would aim at
in the few remarks I have yet to make is, to show that
those who are not artists little know the toil demanded
for eminent success in the musical world. Some twelve
or sixteen hours' daily labor may secure a medical man
from want in this city of great expenses and moderate
fees; more than that time may earnestly be devoted
for many years to secure the fame of a great opera
singer.  It seemed to me that the troupe were never
idle.  They had not crossed the Atlantic twenty-four
hours ere they were at their notes and their instruments, and when we add their public labors at the
theatre, more than half of the twenty-four hours was
consumed in their pursuit.  A President of the United
States or a Lord Chancellor methinks might be easier
reared than a Malibran.  I dismiss all allusion to nature's gifts and peculiar aptitudes. It is assumed that
brains are demanded in all intellectual business.  The
simplicity of life, and the prescribed temperance of
these musical people, was another lesson taught me.
How many things are attended to lest the voice may
suffer.  A  taste of claret, a glass of lemonade, eau
sucree, were all the drinks tolerated, and scarcely a particle of animal food until the opera was over, when, at
midnight, a comfortable supper refreshed their exhausted spirits and gave repose to their limbs. The
youth who aims at distinction in physic, in law, or in




173
divinity, and who is at all cursed with indolence, might
profit by studying the lives of these masters in song,
as the naturalist philosophizes with the habits of the
bee.
Many of this assembly, and particularly the ladies
who now grace this audience, must well remember their
old teacher, Signor Lorenzo Da Ponte, so long a professor of Italian literature in Columbia College, the
stately nonogenarian whose white locks so richly ornamented his classical front and his graceful and elegant person.  He falls within the compass of this
imperfect address from  his " lonely conspicuity," for
the taste he cherished, and the industry he displayed
in the cultivation of Italian letters, more than two
thousand scholars having been initiated in the language
of Italy by him, and he is still more interwoven with
our theme by his enthusiastic efforts to establish the
Italian opera with us.  He was upwards of sixty years
of age upon his arrival in America, but enjoyed sturdy
manhood.  His credentials to consideration challenged
the esteem of the philosopher, the poet, and the man
of letters.  His long and eventful life deserves an
ample record.  His own Memoirs in part supply our
wants, and the sketch of his life by one of the members
of our Historical Society, Samuel Ward, is a grateful
tribute to his character, from the pen of an accomplished scholar and competent judge of his peculiar
merits.  I enjoyed the acquaintance of Da Ponte some
twenty years. Kelly, in his reminiscences, has given
us some idea of his early personal appearance and his
fanciful costume at the London opera. But his glory
and inward consolation had not been attained until the
Garcia troupe triumphed at Neew York, a* erst at Vi



174
enna, in Don Giovanni.  The language of Italy and
her music were deeply-rooted in his heart. It was a
day of lofty thought for the old patriarch, says his
American biographer, when came among us Garcia
with his lovely daughter, then in the morning of her
renown; Rosich, the inimitable buffo; Angrisani with
his tomb note, and Madame Barbiere, all led by our
lamented Almaviva.*  I must refer to the able articles
on the introduction of the opera, written by a philosophical critic in the New York Review and Atheneurn Magazine for December, 1825. They constitute
a record of the social progress of this city that cannot
be overlooked.  Da Ponte died in New York in August, 1838, at ninety years. His remains were followed
to the grave by many of our most distinguished citizens, among whom  were the venerable Clement C.
Moore, the Hon. G. C. Verplanck, Pietro Maroncelli, the
fellow-prisoner of Sylvio Pellico, &c. That his long
life created no wasting infirmity of mind was shown in
a striking manner by his publication of a portion of
the poet Hillhouse's Hadad, not long before his final
illness, and which he beautifully rendered in Italian
with scholastic fidelity. The day before his death he
honored me with a series of verses in his native tongue,
partly, I concluded, in token of gratitude, and partly to
evince to his friends, that though speech had nigh left
him  his mind was still entire.  He died firm in the
Catholic faith, and was buried in the Roman Catholic
cemetery, Second Avenue.
Vicissitudes had made Da Ponte a great observer
of life; his intimate associations with Mozart, the
countenance and  encouragement he received from
* Dominick Lynch, Esq.




175
Joseph II., his acquaintance with Metastasio, the lyric
poet and writer of operas and dramas in Italy, are
prominent among the events ofhis earlier career, at
which time he established his reputation as a melodramatist.  It was easy to perceive, after a short interview with him, that his capacious intellect was filled
with bookish wisdom.  He had recitals at command
for the diversity of society in which he chanced to be.
He loved his beautiful Italy and was prolific in praise
of her authors.  He extolled Caldani and Scarpa, and
had many charming stories concerning the great illustrator of sound and morbid anatomy, Morgagni.  Da
Ponte  attended the last course of instruction imparted by that pre-eminent philosopher, who had then
been professor some sixty years. On that memorable
occasion, when Morgagni was to meet his class for the
last time, he summoned his cacra spoca, Signora Morgagni, a lady of noble family, and his surviving children,
some ten out of fifteen whom she had blessed him with,
and forming with them a group around his person, he
pronounced a benediction on the University and on his
class, and then appealed to his venerable wife for the
fidelity of his domestic life, and to his children as the
tokens of her love and affection. He was now in his
ninetieth year.  Da Ponte said he was never more in
earnest, never more powerful, never more eloquent.
Padua then lost the brightest teacher of anatomical
knowledge the world possessed, and the University a
name in its possession high above all others, which
commanded the admiration of the cultivators of real
science wherever the dignity and utility of medicine
was appreciated.  I am  aware I have trespassed beyond my proper limits in this notice, but it was diffi



176
cult to do otherwise. Perhaps at this very day, casting
a look over the many schools of medicine established
in this land, there is not an individual oftener mentioned in the courses of practical instruction, on certain
branches, than Morgagni, though now dead more than
two generations.  I wished to draw  a moral from the
story, cheering to the devoted student in his severe
toils to qualify him for medical responsibility.  Morgagni, besides great professional acquisitions, was a
master of elegant literature, an antiquarian of research,
a proficient in historical lore. The learned associations
of every order in Europe enrolled him  as a member.
His numerous writings, full of original discoveries, are
compressed in five huge folios, and are consulted as a
treasury of established facts on a thousand subjects.
To his responsible duties, involving life and death, he
superadded for more than sixty years his university
teachings, and died at ninety with his mental faculties
entire.  How was the miracle wrought   In the pressure of herculanean labors, if ennui ever dared to approach, an Italian lyric of Metastasio was all-sufficient
for relief.  By proper frugality he secured property;
by a regular life he preserved health; by system and
devotion he secured his immortal renown.
Thus much may suffice as an historical record of
the introduction of the Italian opera in New York, and,
consequently, in the United States.  Let the undisputed honor belong to this city.  It needs no prophetic vision to foresee that time will strengthen its
power, culture render it more and more popular, and
that its destiny is fixed among the noblest of the Fine
Arts among us. It might add pleasure to this occasion, did time allow, to state particulars concerning the




17]
several opera companies which have favored us with
their presence and their skill since the Garcia period:
the Pedrotte company, that of Montressor, with Fornasari, and the memorable displays of Sontag, Caradori
Allen, Grisi and Alboni: the triumphs and career of
Ole Bull and of Jenny Lind would also enrich a narrative of such transactions with the liveliest incidents
in proof of the liberality of the patrons of this intellectual and refining recreation in our metropolis.
That cultivated gentleman and scholar, Robert Winthrop, in his Address, lately delivered at the opening
of the grand musical festival at the Music Hall, has
assigned to Boston the execution of the first oratorio
in this country, and his researches are curious and
instructive in the history of music. It would seem,
from his antiquarian details, that the most memorable
concert was given at King's Chapel on the 27th of
October, 1789, on occasion of the visit of George
Washington to Boston as the first President of the
United States. Like a philosopher of true sentiment,
Mr. Winthrop, among many felicitous observations,
remarks, "What a continued and crowded record does
the history of the world's great heart present of the
noble sympathies which have been stirred, of the
heroic impulses which have been awakened, of the
devotional fires which have been kindled, of the love
of God and love to man, and love of country, to which
animation and utterance have been given by the magic
power of music."  This seems to me the true feeling of
a man properly indoctrinated.  I have heard language
of like import proceed from the lips of John Quincy
Adams; and Carlyle has said that music is the speech
of angels, and that nothing among the utterances
allowed to man is felt to be so divine.




178
I pass on to say a few words in relation to the progress among us of another branch of what is strictly
denominated the Fine Arts and the Arts of Design.
Admonished by the critical observations of Sir Arthur
Martin Shee, that there is, perhaps, no topic so unmanageable as that of the arts in the hands of those who
bring to its discussion only the superficial acquirements
of amateur taste, I shall exercise a wise prudence in my
limited notice of the subject. Antiquarian research will
in vain find any proofs of the Fine Arts existing in this
city ere the lapse of more than a century from  its
first settlement, and then the evidences of any thing
like an approach towards their encouragement are
hardly worth the notice. Our sedate and conservative
Dutch ancestors were content with the architectural
displays of the old-fashioned gable brick residence, the
glazed tile roof, and the artificial china square plate,
enriched with grotesque illustrations of dykes and windmills, and the prodigal son, as ornaments for the ample
mantel and fire-jams.  I have not forgotten the ten
commandments thus illustrated as decorations of the
fireplace in the humble suburban dwelling near the
head of Pearl street, where I passed my earlier days,
at that period of childhood when I studied with overflowing tears the mournful story of Cock Robin.  Of
the architecture of their churches or houses of worship,
I have nothing now to say-the trespass would be too
great.
About a century ago might be found, scattered
here and there, as household decorations, portraits by
Smybert, Copley, Pine, and old Charles W. Peale, of
blessed memory, and still later, several by West, and
many by Stuart.  Our Jarvis, Inman, and Dunlap, are




179
of quite a recent date. I have seen the portraits of
the Hunters of Rhode Island, by Smybert; and the
Washinfton by Pine, in the possession of the late
Henry Brevoort.  Smybert, considering the state of
the arts at that time, possessed more than ordinary
merit; and Pine, of whom I have often heard Pintard
speak, has secured a peculiar reputation for fidelity in
portraiture and excellence in coloring. In speaking of
Smybert, our associate member, the venerable Verplanck remarks, that " he was not an artist of the first
rank, for the arts were then at a very low ebb in
England, but the best portraits which we have of the
eminent magistrates and divines of New England and
New York, who lived between 1725 and 1751, are
from his pencil. Trumbull calls Smybert the patriarch
of painting in America."  Smybert was by birth a
Scotchman.  "He was the first educated artist who
visited our shores," says Mr. Tuckerman.  To his
pencil New England is indebted for portraits of many
of her early statesmen and clergy.  Among others, he
painted for a Scotch gentleman the only authentic
likeness of Jonathan Edwards.*  It was the extreme
value at which Pintard estimated the productions of
Pine, that led him to search so earnestly for the lost
portraits of the Colden family by that artist, which
you have in your gallery, and we have lately seen the
value of his Garrick, from  a perusal of Verplanck's
interesting letter on the subject, published in the
"Crayon," a periodical under the editorship of the
great artist, Durand.  The well-preserved portrait of
Dr. Ogi]vie, of Trinity Church, and now in their col* Biographical Essays, article Berkeley.




180
lection, is, I believe, by Pine. We have, therefore,
evidences of his great merits to be seen in many places.
Pintard represented to me that Pine was a little fellow,
active, assiduous, and ambitious to excel.  He had received great countenance from the family of the Hopkinsons, of Philadelphia.
We find no statuary at this early date as ornamental to our city, if we except that of the elder Pitt,
which stood at the junction of Wall and William
streets, and the leaden figure of George III., in the
Bowling Green, both destroyed by popular violence in
the incipient troubles of the Revolution.
An approach to a loftier encouragement of the
Fine Arts was manifested by our civil authorities in
the selection of the great American historical artist,
the late Col. Trumbull, who was employed to execute,
in 1790, the two life-sized paintings of Washington and
of George Clinton, the revolutionary general. If we except the Sortie of Gibraltar, by the same artist, they
may be pronounced emphatically the great works of
this distinguished painter. I have often heard the
richest praises bestowed on these artistic productions,
for their remarkable fidelity to the originals, by our
old patriots, who frequently honored them with a visit,
and who personally were well acquainted with the
subjects.  I can easily imagine the feelings which
glowed in the breast of this long-tried patriot and associate of the men of the revolutionary crisis when
occupied with these celebrated paintings, and how the
workings of the soul prompted every effort to secure
satisfaction in the result. Our faithful Lossing's remarks
on this work of Trumbull correspond with what I have
again and again heard uttered by the men of'76. During




181
his whole life Trumbull seems to  have been  controlled by the highest motives of patriotism in order
to perpetuate the historical occurrences of his native
country; to secure for posterity faithful and characteristic likenesses of our American heroes and statesmen,
seems to have been the ultimate desire of his heart
regardless of labor or expense.  Great, indeed, would
have been our misfortune deprived of his pictorial
delineations of revolutionary times, and the graphic
exhibitions of his prolific pencil of the men of the Eight
Years' WVar.
This accomplished scholar, enlightened  and unswerving patriot, eminent artist and delineator of American history, closed his honorable career in SNew York,
in 1843, in the eighty-eighth year of his age.  He was
conspicuous among the old school gentlemen  then
among us.  A few days before his death he accepted
the presidency of the Washington Monument Association, recently organized in this city.  He readily
gave his countenance to the work.  I attended him in
his last illness, in consultation with his excellent physician, the late Dr. Washington, and it is curious to
remark  that the last word he distinctly uttered, on
his dying bed, was Washington, referring to the father
of his country, a name often on his lips.
It hardly falls within my design to enlarge in this
place on the character and services of Col. Trumbull.
The Reminiscences which he published give us the
events most prominent in his career.  A genuine love
of country, a noble devotion to her interests in times
of deep adversity, a patriotic ardor which led him, in
season and out of season, amidst almost insuperable difficulties and perils to rescue the fleeting and precious
LIVMIV~VN  OYIVL bc~ldlV   V ~V~-VMV  VJPV ~C~~blLLn




182
materials which might give additional interest to her
annals, entitle him  to the admiration of all future
time.  We already see that the lapse of each successive day gives increased value to his labors for the
student of American history. The arrival from Europe
of that consummate genius, Gilbert Stuart, and his
settlement in New York, in 1793, constitute another
era in the progress of the Fine Arts among us. This
remarkable man soon found his talents appreciated and
called in requisition, and crowds of sitters delighted
with his artistic abilities. Many of his portraits of
that period are still to be found in the residences of
our older families in this city.  Stuart remained but
a short while with us, yet that brief time was propitious to the arts. He had left the old world prompted
by a noble impulse, and his desire to paint Washington
was so great as to cause him to leave for Philadelphia
to gratify his feelings, and it is, perhaps, not saying
too much, that vast as is the inherent glory which encircles the name of the spotless patriot, the merits of
that standard and unrivalled portrait by Stuart, have
augmented even the renown of the father of his country.
The arts of design were promoted by the assiduous
labors of Rembrandt Peale, a devoted scholar and an
artist of wide renown, whose Court of Death is among
the trophies of the pencil; and by Sharpless, of New
York, whom I became well acquainted with in his after
life.  His likenesses, in crayon, won general commendation, and justice to his memory demands that he be
placed in the foremost ranks of successful portraitpainters. The same remarks will honestly apply to
Alexander Robertson.
In sculpture, at and about this time, Houdon and




183
Carrachi gave proofs of their mastery in their professional line.
Such was the platform  on which the Fine Arts
rested, when a number of the friends of liberal culture
and elegant pursuits contemplated the organization of
the first association in this city, under the name of the
New York Academy of Fine Arts, in 1801. In 1808
it received the act of incorporation under the name of
the American Academy of Fine Arts, and Chancellor
Livington was chosen President, Col. John Trumbull,
Vice-President; Dewitt Clinton, David Hosack, John
R. Murray, William  Cutting, and Charles Wilkes, directors.  If we add the names of C. D. Colden, Edward
Livingston, and Robert Fulton, we include in this enumeration the leading New Yorkers who, for years,
were liberal in their patronage to promote the undertaking.  Through the instrumentality of the American
minister at the court of France, Napoleon made a
valuable gift to the institution of many busts, antique
statues, and rare prints.  I can dwell but a moment
longer on the fortunes of this Academy. After several
years of trial and neglect it was revived in 1816. Certain paintings of West, which for a time were added
to its collections through the kindness of Robert Fulton, sustained it for a few years longer from dissolution,
while the several addresses of Clinton, Hosack, and
Trumbull gaveit for a season additional popularity. With
the downfall of the American Academy, the National
Academy of Design took its rise about 1828. S. F. B.
Morse, he who has recently become so famous by his
invention of the electric telegraph, was elected President, and the constitutional provisions of this association being far more acceptable to the feelings and




184
views of a large majority of the artists than the old
Academy favored, it has proved an eminently successful
corporation and has aided in numerous ways the promotion of its specified objects, the Arts of Design.  The
devotion given to this institution by Thomas S. Cummings, in the instruction he for a series of years has imparted to students of art in the life and antique school,
has also proved a constant source of gratification and
improvement to the pupil in this elegant pursuit.
He who is solicitous to study historically the subject of the Fine Arts in this city, and to know their
progress in other cities of the Union, will consult the
work of William Dunlap, a writer of patient research,
and abating the influence of occasional prejudice, a
reliable authority.  And could I, like Sir Walter
Raleigh, compress the history of the world in a volume,
I should record many things more amply, and be willing to take some notice of the Apollo Association,
which, shortly after its formation, merged into the
American Art Union, and which for a series of years
exerted a wholesome influence in the diffusion of an
improved taste, which was no less conducive to the
fiscal advantage of those ingenious m-en most interested
in the popularity of their important calling.  If it be
asked have the Fine Arts, during the incorporation of
our Historical Society, advanced in this city under the
countenance of these several institutions, it may be
safely responded to in the affirmative.  Great and distinctive as may have been the individual merits of
many adepts, such as Allston,Vanderlyn, Peale, Durand,
Cole, Waldo, Jarvis, Inman,Mount, Stearns, and others;
by association a still greater power was wielded and




185
successfully carried into operation in behalf of this
branch of refined knowledge.
It is not to be concealed that some of our artists
pursue their calling chiefly to secure a livelihood, yet
there are many others who cherish a higher ideal; imbued with the greatest earnestness, patience, and faith,
they have striven to comprehend the secrets of nature
and achieve more than a temporary fame, the consciousness of original research and inspiration. In the
enumeration of this class of painters, I would place
A. H. Wenzler, so familiarly known by his unrivalled
miniatures.  For years his studies have been directed
to the philosophy of colors.  I borrow in part the
language of a classical writer on art, who appears to
comprehend the subject.  " Mr. Wenzler has been convinced," (says this acute writer,) " that the illusion of
distance, so requisite to landscape-painting, is not to be
realized by perspective lines, but by the gradation of
tints so obvious to nature.  In order to demonstrate
this, he has merely depicted in rough the material objects of a landscape-trees, rocks, a stream, a church,
and a meadow, and over the whole, including a range
of hills in the background, thrown these naturally
graduated tints, from the prismatic rays in the immediate vicinity of the sun, to the cool light of the distant earth: the effect is exactly like nature; you imagine
yourself gazing through an open window upon an actual scene; the distances throughout the picture are so
natural that we feel, for the first time in art, an harmonious and complete aerial perspective. It opens a new
sphere of artistic truth, and vindicates a hitherto un
acknowledged law; it embodies in theory what Turner
aimed at." An accomplished writer on the state of art
13




186
in the United States, Dr. Bethune, in Putnam's Home
Book of the Picturesque, in adverting to the hindrances
which have operated on the progress of the Fine Arts
in the early condition of America, has beautifully and
truthfully expressed himself in these words:  "Under
the pressure of cares and struggles and urgent anxieties, there would be neither time nor desire for the
cultivation of these elegant pursuits, which are the
luxury of leisure, the decoration of wealth, and the
charms of refinement.  The Puritans and the Presbyterians together, the most influential, were not favorable to the fine arts, and the Quakers abjured them.
Men living in log cabins and busied all day in fields,
workshop, or warehouse, and liable to attacks by
savage enemies at any moment, were indisposed to seek
after or encourage what was not immediately useful.
Their hard-earned and precarious gains would not justify the indulgence. There were few, or rather no
specimens of artistic skill among them to awaken taste
or imitation. It is, therefore, little to be wondered at
if they did not show an appreciation of art proportionate to their advance in other moral respects, or
that they waited until they had secured a substantial
prosperity before they ventured to gratify themselves
with the beautiful.  The brilliant examples of West
and Copley, with some others of inferiornote, showed
the presence of genius, but those artists found abroad
the encouragement and instruction not attainable at
home, thus depriving their country of all share in their
fame, except the credit of having given them birth."
I incline strongly to the opinion that our country is
destined to great distinction in the arts of design, as
she is already acknowledged to excel in many of the




187
most prominent and important of the mechanical arts.
There is a genius throughout the land developing itself
in these elevated pursuits. In steam navigation what
has she not accomplished since the mighty innovation
of Fulton? in naval architecture where has she a rival?
Where shall I find room  for an enumeration of her
thousand discoveries and improvements (not notions)
in mechanics, in the arts of husbandry, in that art of
arts, printing, and in the lightning press of Hoe?  In
sculpture she presents a Greenough, a Powers, a Frazee,
a Clavenger, a Brown, and her wondrous Crawford, a
native of this city. In painting, how rarely have happier displays of genius been furnished in modern time,
than are given us by Durand, Weir, Elliot, Huntington, Bogle, Hicks, and Church. Had we room we might
feel ourselves ennobled in contemplating the individual
triumphs and merits of the devoted disciples of the fine
arts our country has produced; but this undertaking
is not at present at all imperative.  The classical
volume of Mr. Tuckerman, entitled " Artist Life,"
will prove an advantageous work to all who study the
achievements of American genius and philosophize on
its peculiar powers.
A  striking characteristic of New York which reflects signal honor on the benevolence and humanity of
her people, was early visible in her civic progress. The
wholesome axioms of her primitive Dutch settlers and
her cultivated Huguenots, soon led to the formation of
schools for the cultivation of knowledge and the advancement of sound morals; and shortly after the
commencement of her career, indeed as far back as the
year 1699, when her population scarcely exceeded six
thousand, Dr. McCready in his late historical address




188
assures us, on the authority of our city's Chronicler,
David Valentine, that the poor received partial relief
in their own houses or in lodgings specially provided.
Some twenty years after, an almshouse was erected
near the spot where the City Hall now stands. This
institution held its locality for some seventy years or
more; with the collateral aid of a dispensary, which
owed its origin chiefly to Dr. John Bard, the indigent
found  succor and relief.  The  almshouse  yielded
medical instruction by the clinical talents of Dr. William Moore, Dr. Richard S. Kissam, and Dr. Nicholas
Romayne. In 1769 a pest-house was established for
the reception of diseased emigrants, and the organization of a medical society in 1788, placed John Bard at
its head as president.  Through the efficient instrumentality of Drs. Peter Middleton, John Jones, and
Samuel Bard, we find the New York Hospital took its
rise and was chartered in 1771. In 1790 we find the
first of our city dispensaries in operation; five years
after commenced the rebuilding of the great city almshouse on the site of the old edifice in the Park, and
which in 1812 was converted to other purposes, literary
and historical, and destroyed by fire some two or three
years ago.  From historical data, I am  authorized to
state, that these several institutions yielded curative
and saving benefits to multitudes of the indigent and
the afflicted, under the direction of a wise supervision
and the talents of able clinical direction, medical and
surgical.  The original faculty of physic organized by
King's (subsequently Columbia) College, were among
the prominent teachers and prescribers, and Bard,Clossy,
Bayley, Hosack, Mitchill, Post, Crosby, and Nicholls,
are to be enumerated in the number.




189
In 1811 was projected the ample Bellevue Hospital
and Almshouse, which was rendered fit for the reception
of its inmates in 1816, Dr. McCready tells us, from official records, at a cost of nearly half a million of dollars.
The medical government of this great establishment
was placed under a visiting or consulting physician,
while the immediate attendance was confided to one
or two physicians who resided in the institution. A
malignant typhus or hospital fever breaking out, which
made great havoc both with the patients and the doctors themselves, led to the appointment of a special
committee of inquiry into errors and abuses, when Dr.
Joseph M. Smith and Dr. Isaac Wood assumed the
medical management. The occasion gave origin to
the Fever Hospital at the recommendation of Dr.
David Hosack, to which charity the febrile cases were
transferred, when within a month the pestilence was
happily at an end. Dr. Isaac Wood now received the
appointment of resident physician of the Bellevue
Hospital, and held the office seven years, with signal
benefit to the public interests and to humanity, when
his resignation led to the acceptance of the trust by
Dr. B. Ogden. The tortuous policy of politics, however, now led to party appointments, and the evils
incident to such policy flowed in with increased force;
inexperience betrayed  her incompetency, and  the
soundest whiggism  and most radical democracy often
proved equally ignorant of the principles of hygiene
and curative measures.  Typhus again resumed her
work, and change became imperative. In the midst of
revolutionary struggles, in order to rectify this deplorable condition the government of this great institution
was at length placed under the medical discipline of




190
Dr. David M. IReese, as physician in chief. Justice
demands that it be recorded, that this appointment led
to a great reformation. Dr. Reese, during his term of
office, stood forward the champion of innovation and
improvement, and displayed in a noble cause a perseverance and ability which have proved of lasting
benefit.
In 1849 the office of Resident Physician was abolished by the Board of Governors of the Almshouse, to
whom  the control of the establishment had passed,
and the administration of the medical department of
the Bellevue given over entirely to a Medical Board.
Enlargements of this vast charity have from time to
time been made commensurate to the wants of an increasing population, and advantageous improvements
have been adopted, characteristic of the enlarged policy
of our municipal authorities; and, were I to dwell
longer on the subject, I might adopt with benefit the
eulogistic language which  Dr. McCready employs
when speaking of the present renovated state of the
edifice, its ample dimensions, the convenient disposition of its large and airy wards, supplied with every
essential want for the afflicted, and its peculiarly sanative location on the borders of the East River.
The Bellevue Hospital may well be pronounced a
noble rival to the finest and best conducted charities
in the world. As a school of practical medicine and
surgery, its claims will be conceded by all; and from
my official connection with its affairs, for some years,
I can testify to the disinterested zeal and benevolence
and devotion which dignify its medical and surgical
Board, and clinical instructors.  It is due to individual
zeal and professional ardor to add that the great field




191
of medical and surgical practice which the Bellevue:IIospital presents, has recently led to the formation of
a museum of pathological anatomy, by Dr. J. R. Wood,
one of the clinical instructors.
But where am I to stop when I have entered upon
a consideration of the humane and benevolent institutions of this metropolis? the briefest notice of those
alone which have been created, since the incorporation
of the Historical Society, by legislative authority and
individual liberality, would fill a volume. Some other
occasions may be appropriated to so instructive an
undertaking.  Among her thousand claims to commendation, I consider the charities of this metropolitan city the noblest trophy she bears; and as I am
much in the habit of connecting with her various
institutions the names and promoters of those beneficent foundations, I cannot separate the blessings which
have been imparted to suffering mortals during the
long career of the New York Hospital, the wisdom
imparted by clinical instruction to the hosts of students who have resorted thither for some two or three
generations, and the triumphs of skill which the professional literature of the country records, achieved by
Bayley, Post, Hosack, Kissam, Seaman, Stringham,
and Mott.  Memoirs of these eminent professors of
the art of healing have long been before the public.
Yet I could have wished that some surgical friend had
delineated, with more satisfaction than has yet been
done, the great career, as an operative surgeon, of
Richard S. Kissam. For thirty years he was one of
the surgical faculty of the New York Hospital, a
station he was solicited to accept, and displayed in his
art resources of practical tact and original genius.




192
He was emulous of surgical glory, and he obtained it.
Our city had the honor of his birth; he was one of
the sons of the renowned lawyer, Benjamin Kissam,
who had been the legal instructor of John Jay. Young
Kissam received a classical education uuder Cutting,
of Long Island, and was graduated M. D. at Edinburgh in 1187. Upon receiving the doctorate he travelled over the continent, and made a visit to Zimmerman, who presented him with a copy of his work on
Solitude.  Horace and  Zimmerman were the two
authors Kissam  most delighted  in.  His long and
triumphant career leaves no possibility of doubt as to
the solidity of his pretensions.  Society had little
attractions for him; he was absorbed in his profession.
During more than  twenty years he was the most
popular operator the city could boast, and he was
often called the man of the people.  His professional
liberality to the afflicted poor was a striking characteristic of his whole life; while from  the affluent he
demanded a becoming return for his skill.  He died
in November, 1822, aged fifty-nine years.
There are due, by the inhabitants of this metropolis, many obligations to the administration of the
New York Hospital, for their early and incessant
efforts to mitigate the horrors, and alleviate the sufferings of the insane. The loudest calls of humanity are
often awakened in cases of afflicted intellect, and the
solicitude which has from  time to time invoked new
desires for their relief, has by this institution been
crowned with results cheering to the philanthropist.
In 1808 the governors of the hospital erected an edifice for the exclusive use of the insane, on grounds
adjacent to the south wing of their city hospital, and




193
Dr. Archibald Bruce was elected as physician. In
1820 the large and commodious institution at Bloomingdale, under their government, was opened for that
special class of patients.* This beautiful site, with its
ample buildings, is eminently fitted for the benevolent
design originally projected, and De Witt Clinton secured its perpetuity by legislative grants. Among the
medical prescribers to this magnificent institution have
been Hosack, Neilson, Bayley, Ogden, MacDonald,
and Pliny Earle. To this last-named physician, the
public are obligated for valuable statistics and reports
on mental alienation. When justice is done in an historical account of the Bloomingdale Asylum, the services of that prominent citizen, in acts of benevolence,
the late Thomas Eddy, will be more entirely appreciated. He seized the first opportunity to enter into a
correspondence with Samuel Tuke, of York, in England, learning of the success which, under moral management, had followed the treatment of the insane;
and in Knapp's Life of Eddy are to be found many
incidents connected with the literary and professional
intercourse of these two worthy disciples of Primitive
Barclay.  When abroad in Europe I found that the
condition of lunatic asylums, and the treatment of those
suffering the tortures of a diseased mind, were subjects
attracting great notice. The Report of the Inquiry
instituted by Parliament was then just published, and
vast abuses exposed, and I was prompted by more
than a vacant curiosity to add personal facts to my
reading, by the inspection of many institutions devoted
to insanity, and the treatment adopted by them. I
* Hosack's Life of Clinton.




194
found more barbarity and indifference in the medical
discipline of these lamentable subjects of insanity in
the establishments in Holland, than elsewhere. At
the Bicetre, in Paris, I was delighted with the fatherly
care and medical tact of Pinel, now the acknowledged
discoverer of the great benefits of moral management,
but who, a short time before, was annoyed by the
vituperations of the British press. At the retreat of
Samuel Tuke, the benevolent and philosophic Quaker,
I found all verified that his novel and impressive work
related, and I was emboldened to write to Eddy, on
the success of this important innovation on old prejudices which this institution presented. The result was
that, fortified by the most gratifying testimony, the
writings of Tuke and the publications of the day, with
verbal details by intelligent travellers whom  Eddy
consulted, the moral management found the strongest
advocates among the members of the Hospital Board,
and demonstrative proof has multiplied itself again
and again, that while the doctors' art is often indispensable to restore to right reason, yet that, in an imposing variety of cases, disturbed intellects are rendered again healthy, not so much by the prescription
of drugs, as by humane treatment, and that system of
management which the Retreat so advantageously
enforced. Thomas Eddy will ever be remembered as
the active agent in this great measure in the New
World. Pathology has not as yet yielded us any great
light on the grave causes of mental aberration, and
the knife of the dissector has often' failed to trace
altered structure in the most perverted cases of lunacy.
Hence we estimate at a still higher price the value of
discipline, the exercise of the kindlier affections, and




195
moral culture.  When the adoption of these curative
measures shall have become more general, we shall no
longer hear of the flagellation of an infirm monarch,
or of ponderous manacles and eternal night as articles of the materia medica.  Our countryman  Rush
has enlarged our storehouse of facts on the diseases of
the mind; and the treatise of Dr. Ray, of Rhode
Island, has strengthened our philosophy on the analysis
of intricate cases in juridical science.
With the bare mention of that newly-created charity, St. Luke's Hospital, now about to open its portals
for the accommodation of the afflicted-an institution
the offspring of Christian benevolence, aided by the
outpouring liberality of our opulent citizens-with the
further prospects we have before us of a Woman's
Hospital, for the special relief of infirmities over which
recent science has triumphed in the hands of Dr. Sims,
and the cherished hopes derived from  the success of
our enlightened countryman, Dr. Howe, of Boston,
that in due season even the forlorn idiot may be rescued, I reluctantly  dismiss all further notice of the
many corporations of like benevolence which flourish
in this metropolis. But it is the less necessary on this
occasion to notice the progress of humanity in this
rapidly increasing city since the commencement of the
Historical Society's labors; a partial estimate may be
formed of the work that is actually done, and is doing
among us, from the statement lately furnished by that
accurate observer, Dr. Griscom.*
* According to a tableau which I have compiled, says Dr. Griscom,
chiefly from their own published statements, there are in this city devoted
to the care of the sick poor, four general hospitals, five dispensaries, two
eye and ear infirmaries, one lying-in asylum, three special hospitals (on




196
With facts of this import before  us, who will gainsay the claims of the divine art of healing to that
public recognition which is yielded to the highest and
most solemn  of the  professional labors  of life? who
that properly contemplates the duties, the objects, and
the desires of the real physician, can prove reluctant
in awarding to his responsible calling merits not surpassed by those of any other human avocation? Let
the moralist and the philosopher give attention to the
progress medical science has made during a period not
longer than  that of an  ordinary  human  life; investigate  the  achievements  which  have  marked  the  past
Blackwell's and Randall's Islands), several orphan asylums and prison-hospitals, besides other unenumerated charitable and penal establishments,
where medical and surgical aid is rendered. In the institutions thus enumerated, there were treated in 1853, 151,449 cases of disease, of every variety.
Devoted actively to the service of these patients, we find recorded the
names of 169 medical men. Estimating the professional service rendered
these patients at what is denominated, in the last report of one of these institutions in true mercantile phrase, the " lowest market value" (which of
necessity varies in the several institutions, in consequence of the varied
character of the cases) we have an aggregate of $745,458. An analysis of
the circumstances connected with these services, shows that of these 169
medical men, 36 are merely boarded and lodged at the expense of the
institutions, or receive pay equivalent thereto, amounting in all to
$6,552; 30 of them receive salaries varying from $200 to $1,500, in the
aggregate, $20,560; while the remaining 103, receive no compensation
whatever.  In addition to this, if we estimate the amount of private gratuitous advice which every medical man renders, in the emergencies of the.
sick poor, at the moderate rate ot $100 per annum, the number of practitioners in this city being about 900, we have a total sum of $90,000 to
add to that before given, making a total of services rendered by the medical profession, in the year 1853, to the sick poor, in the City of New York,
of $835,458, of which there is returned $27,112. In whatever light it may
be viewed, the rendition of these services is simply the contribution of the
medical profession to the support of public charity, to the full amount
mentioned; it is so much saved to the taxpayers.-Anniversary Discourse
before the New York Academy of Medicine, Nov. 22d, 1854, by JOHN H.
GRIScOM, M. D.




thirty years; learn in how many ways pestilence has
been disarmed of half of her weapons; individual disorders lessened in malignity or exterminated; hygiene
fortified with new capabilities; the principles of sanitary
laws comprehended and applied; individual life made
happier and prolonged; the health of mighty populations improved, and the great numerical increase in
longevity. London is at the present day to be enumerated as first of the healthiest cities in the world; and
the statistics which have been given to the public by
our countryman, Dr. Campbell F. Stewart,' show us
the grounds upon which life annuities may be granted
to the greater advantage of the insurer, a ratio of improvement which Price, Morgan, and Finlaison, never
anticipated.
Nearly all this has been accomplished by  the
mental activity, the science, and the philanthropy of the
medical faculty.  Had now this opulent city a proper
sanitary commission duly organized, with our almost
unequalled topographical advantages, we might boast
of a population whose mortality might safely be estimated at twenty-five or thirty per cent. less than is
recorded of its present inhabitants. Sad, sad indeed, is
the reflection, that responsible trusts are not always confided to competent officials. The trammels of party
too often defeat the best designs, and incompetency
usurps the seat of knowledge.  How long we are to be
doomed to witness this monstrous incongruity and
suffer its penalties, time alone must show.
In taking a retrospective view of the progress of
medical science during the past fifty or sixty years in
* Discourse before the New York Academy of Medicine.




198
New  York, the instructors and practitioners of the
healing art have had many reasons for rejoicing. Our
medical colleges have  enhanced  in  power, and  the
means of enlightenment.*  The collateral branches of
science are unfolded by more ample apparatus, and by
experiments such as in former days were wholly beyond our reach.  Our medical annals are enriched with
recorded evidences of great chirurgical skill, of novel
and successful proofs, of wise discrimination, and of
genius happily demonstrated; in the practical displays
of clinical sciences, the writings of our authors have
furnished lessons of instruction to the masters of the
art abroad.  Our medical and scientific literature is
sought after with becoming deference by remote professors in foreign schools, and has the honor of translation for continental Europe.  All this for a long season
has been gratifying to individual pride and flattering
to our character as a rising people. Yet it is not to be
concealed that imposture still holds its influence among
us, and that as a learned body, the medical profession
is still disfigured by pretenders to its secrets; that
jarring elements still disturb its harmony, and that the
public, scarcely to be presumed to be the best judges
of the recondite qualifications of the disciples of healing, are still molested by the artifices of the designing
and the effrontery of the ignorant.
More than forty years ago I gave utterance to my
opinion on the condition of the medical art in New
* Now three in number:-The College of Physicians and Surgeons,
founded in 1807, its present head, Dr. Cock; the University of the City of
New York, founded in 1840, present head, Dr. Draper; and the New
York Medical College, founded in 1848, present head, Dr. Greene.




199
York.*   The reasons for denunciation of many occurrences then prevalent, were stronger than at the present  day.   The  condition  of affairs  is  ameliorated.
Numerous agencies have been  in  operation  since that
period, which have corrected many  abuses detrimental
to public safety. Then we could not speak of a school of
Pharmacy.  The Indian doctors and the effete remnant
of licentiates by a justice's court, thanks to a superintending providence, now  rest from  their labors.  Collegiate knowledge is more widely diffused, and he is an
adventurous individual who now presumes to approach
the bed-side without the clinical knowledge of hospitals.  It may be written as an axiom, You might as well
create a practical navigator by residence in a sylvan
retreat, as furnish a physician  without hospital experience.
* " That almost every district of our country abounds with individuals who set up to exercise the duties of practitioners of medicine need
scarcely be stated; how great is the number of them, who from want of
proper education and from habits of indolence, are totally ignorant of the
first principles of their profession, and who degrade the noblest of studies
into the meanest of arts, cannot have escaped the attention of any who at
all regard the interests of society. That characters of this description do
abound, not in this or that particular city or district, but are to be met
with in almost every part of the country, is a fact which no one, we presume, will have the hardihood to deny. Though they differ from beasts
of prey, inasmuch as these are most generally found in the uninhabited
wilds of the country, while those are most abundantly congregated in our
largest and most populous cities, yet they wage war with equal success as
it regards the destruction of their objects. So frequently, indeed, do they
present themselves to our view as almost to have become domesticated
and familiar with us, and to have lost that novelty which monsters in
general possess. The inroads and depredations which they commit, bid
defiance to all calculation; whether they come in the natural shape of
nostrum-mongers and vendors of infallible cures, or whether they assume
a peculiar grimace and affected sapience, that touch us equally pestilential."
-American Med. and Philosoph. Register, vol. iii.




200
Nevertheless, it would be criminal to ignore the
fact that the noble art still struggles with many difficulties, and it is a glaring truth that not the least of
them has arisen in the vicissitudes of legislation. The
few wholesome laws, which a century had brought
forth, for the advancement of medicine and the protection of its rights, were by state authority, some ten or
twelve years since, abrogated, and strange to add, the
bill which accomplished that nefarious measure was introduced into the chamber of the Senate by a partisan
representative from this city.  The distinguished president of our Historical Society, Lieut. Gov. Bradish,
was then a member of the Senate.  It is scarcely necessary to add that his cultivated mind recoiled at the
measure, and that his strenuous efforts were exerted to
defeat the iniquitous law. There was no monopoly
existing to absorb the rights of others that could justify
such enactment. The colleges did no more than confer their usual honors, to distinguish and reward merit;
they fostered rising talent, and held communion with
mature experience, with no other aim than to exalt excellence; their very incorporation forbade their countenance of corrupt practices, and with the principles ever
inherent in disciplined minds, they disdained to mar
the rank of professional worth. I have often had my
credulity taxed to believe that in these enlightened
days such hardihood could have been exhibited by the
makers of our laws, and that too at the very seat of'
wisdom, where our special guardians of literature and
science, the Hon. the Regents of the University, annually convene, and where, moreover, that long created
association, the State Medical Society, with its many




201
able members, are wont to exercise their chartered
privileges for medical improvement.
It is almost superfluous to remark that the memorable act to which I have alluded was received by the
profession with emotions of sorrow and indignation. It
was now seen that the noble art was again left unprotected by the representatives of the people, and consequently by the people themselves.  It had thus found
itself in the beginning of the city, but a revolving
century had presented some relief; its prospects had
brightened, and the rights and immunities of the regular physician had been recognized, and approved laws
had secured him against the tricks of the harlequin
and the wiles of the over-reaching. The disciplined
medical man is not, however, the easiest to be disheartened. His study is human nature, and he comprehends its phases.
Intus et in cute novi.
He is familiar with hindrances, and in the exercise of
his art has often prescribed for individual mental delusion, and can comprehend the sources of popular error.
What is sporadic he knows may become epidemic.
The medical faculty, accordingly, now took a new
view of the interests of their profession and the safety
of the people. Their determination was fixed that no
degeneracy in that science to which their lives were
devoted, should follow as a consequence of pernicious
legislation. Notwithstanding all restrictions of qualifications for the exercise of the art might be considered
as removed, yet the city was not to be dismayed by
absurd enactments, nor the profession alarmed because
the door was opened so wide that all who chose might
14




202
enter into practice, a broader privilege than is enjoyed,
I believe, by any of the members of the mechanical
fraternity. Other circumstances not now necessary to
be enumerated strengthened their designs, and favored
their deliberations, and there was no reason for delay.
The auspicious hour had at length arrived, and the formation of an Academy of Medicine in this city was
secured. This timely, this judicious, this important,
this necessary movement, owed its creation to the wants
and honor of the profession, and the perpetuity of its
rights.  Association, it was reasoned, would protect its
claims as the noblest of pursuits, and its divine origin
could not be abrogated by the statute book The year
1846 gave birth to the Academy; its incorporation
was granted in 1852. I cannot now write the history
of this successful institution during its first decennial.
Our Nestors in Hippocratic science, moved by weighty
reasons in behalf of public health and individual happiness, laid its foundation, and in this goodly work we
find recorded the names of Stevens, Mott, Smith, Stewart, Wood, Reese,Kissam, Detmold, and Stearns.
The Academy has been generously fostered by an
imposing number of the erudite and accomplished of
the medical and surgical profession, and order and harmony have characterized all its proceedings.  The subject-matter of discussion at its meetings, and the communications of its members, have had special interest,
and have demonstrated that the faculty of close observation and acute reasoning is still among the diagnostic
marks of the cultivated practical physician.  Its printed
transactions speak in louder accents of the excellence
of its labors than my feeble pen can here express.
With an inflexible intent to keep a watchful eye over




203
the interests of professional learning and practical
skill, to hold in reverential regard the obligations of
sound medical ethics, to guard against the delusions
and the medical heresies of the day, and at all times
to cherish the rising merits of the junior associates in
the art of healing, no apprehension need be felt that
the Academy will prove otherwise than a rich boon to
medical philosophy, and a blessing to this great, prosperous, and vastly increasing metropolis.
Like the Historical Society, the Academy of Medicine selected at its organization a venerable head as its
first President, John Stearns.  He had fulness of years,
weight of character, and corresponding experience, and
could look back with satisfaction on an extensive career
of professional service. He was a native of Massachusetts, and born in  170.  He was graduated in the arts
at Yale College in 1786. He attended the lectures of
Rush, Shippen, Kuhn, and others of Philadelphia, but
did not receive the doctorate until 1812, when the Regents of the University of New York conferred on himl
the honorary degree of M. D.  He commenced the
practical exercise of his profession at Waterford, afterwards at Albany and at Saratoga, and finally settled
in the city of New York, where he maintained the
reputation of an honorable, devoted, and benevolent
physician, until the close of his long life, in March,
1848.  His death, which was greatly lamented, was
occasioned by a dissection wound, arising from his zeal to
arrive, by a post-mortem  examination, to more certain
pathological conclusions, in a case of singular interest.
He met this unexpected disaster with exemplary forbearance, and experienced the consolation of a Christian's hope in his final departure.  The Academy paid




204
appropriate funeral honors to his memory, and the Rev.
1)r. Tyng, of St. George's Chapel, of which Dr. Stearns
had long been a member, delivered an appropriate discourse on the life and character of the " Good Physician."
Great as was the devotion paid by Dr. Stearns to
practical medicine, he was in earlier life enlisted in political affairs; and we find him  in the Senate of the
State of New York in 1812, and a member of the
Council of Appointment.  Shortly after the organization of the State Medlical Society, he delivered the annual address, as President.  He was for many years a
Trustee of the College of Physicians and Surgeons. His
name is recorded as one of the founders of the American Tract Society, and he took a deep interest in the
welfare of the Bible Society, and the Institution for tle
benefit of the Deaf and Dumb.  The annals of charity include his name in other institutions of a benevolent design.  His philanthropic spirit cannot be questioned.  His writings on the profession, and on subjects
of a kindred nature, are scattered through the periodicals of the times.  He is indissolubly associated with
an heroic article of the materia medica, the virtues of
which his clinical sagacity  first brought to notice.
His brief paper on Catalepsy attracted the attention
of the learned Dr. Good.  This short sketch must suffice to show that the Academy were judicious in their
choice of their first officer, and both his inaugural address and the manner in which he fulfilled his trust,
soon dismissed all doubt as to the wisdom of their suffrage.  This venerable man gave dignity to the meetings; his courteousness secured deference and maintained authority; his knowledge and his impartiality




205
added fairness to debate, and increased the gratification
of intellectual association.
The office of President is filled by annual elections.
The present head of the. Academy is Valentine Mott,
whose zeal and assiduity in behalf of the great interests of medical and surgical science, half a century's
labors testify.  The lustre of his great name seems to
have still further swelled the number of friends to the
Academy, and excited additional activity among them
to promote the expressed designs of its incorporation.
When I subjected to manipulation the neglected
philosopher, old Christopher Colles, the more advantageously to present him to the public view, I partially
brought forward some occurrences which marked the
literary condition of our metropolis. I design at present to enter a little more minutely into some circumstances associated with the advancement of knowledge
in this city, particularly as connected with the time
somewhat anterior to the establishment of the New
York Historical Society, and then to notice a few prominent events of more recent date, which seem calculated to give confidence to the friends of intellectual
rank, that the march of mind is a certain fact, and that
we may look on with admiration at the achievements
that have been already wrought, rather than cherish
any despondency for the future.  The trifling incidents
with which I commence these literary memorials possess
an intrinsic interest, inasmuch as they are decisive of
the humble state and embarrassments in which instruction and knowledge generally were involved, and of
the feeble powers which the Press, only two or three
generations ago, sustained in this country.  They are a
suitable prelude to the great drama now enacting.




206
Southey has said that an American's first plaything is
the rattlesnake's tail; and as he grows up he lays traps
for opossums and shoots squirrels for his breakfast.
This exaggeration may possibly have had a shadow of
truth in it at th ttime when the pilgrim fathers established their first printing press, or when Bradford first
published our laws, or even when the flying coach travelled once a week between New York and Philadelphia.  An impartial examination of facts will generally lead to the conviction that elementary education
for the most part accompanies the progress of population, and that the requirements of information are
proportionably furnished.  From  her very commencement, it has seemed to me that New York has been
characterized more by her scientific displays than by
her literary products. The distinction which has been
awarded her eminent men who have labored in the
several liberal professions of law, physic, and divinity,
would appear to justify the observation.  Be this as it
may, we have no difficulty in accounting for the absence
of learning in our earlier days, when we contemplate
the condition of the people at different epochs in their
country's history, and weigh the force of circumstances;
as for example, that in some instances where the Declaration of Independence being read at the head of military detachments, and then ordered to be printed for
wider distribution, types could not be found to execute
the work.
At the date at which I would commence these reminiscences, the old Daily Advertiser, and McLean's
New York Gazette, were the leading oracles. The former, it is curious to observe, was printed with the press
and types which had been used by Franklin in Phila



207
delphia, and which, I am told, Poor Richard disposed
of advantageously to Francis Childs, of New York.
For mercantile purposes these papers did well, and had
a corresponding circulation; they betokened in part
the state of mental culture among the masses.  If,
however, we except the discussions on the American
Constitution by the writers of the Federalist, and some
few other subjects of national importance, by Rufus
King, Noah Webster, Fisher Ames, and a few others,
we may affirm that a single issue of some of our most
popular papers of the present day, is enriched with
more intellectual material than a year's file of these
old journals.  In 1793 was projected the Minerva,
which under the control of its editor, Noah Webster, at
once elevated the character of this species of periodical
literature. Webster labored at this service some seven
years, when the title of the paper was changed to that
of the Commercial Advertiser, which has continued its
diurnal course up to the present time, under the supervision of F. H. Hall, and has attainied a longevity greater
than that of any other journal ever originated in this
city. The NewYork Magazine, projected by the Swords,
was the only monthly periodical that received a becoming patronage, which sustained it for some eight or nine
years, when it was succeeded by the American Magazine and the New York Review, whose writers were
not unfrequently called the Mohawk reviewers, from
their hostility to the rising Jacobinism of the times.
The period of the existence of these periodicals was
from 1790 to 1801. The first specified was the chosen
vehicle  for a  series of essays of a literary circle,
called the Drone Club.  The  association  included
many accomplished writers, Bleecker, Mitchill, Kent,




208
Miller, Wells, &c.  The last survivor of the Drones
was the late Chief Justice Samuel Jones, an early
member of the Historical Society and a prodigy in
black-letter learning.  In 1797 the Medical Repository
was commenced by Drs. Mitchill, Miller and Smith,
the first journal of a scientific character the country
could boast. The business of instruction in our preparatory schools was, with few exceptions, under the
control of inadequate principals; in many instances the
commonest business of life was abandoned on the demand for a teacher, and the responsible duties of an
intellectual guide, undertaken  by individuals whose
chief recommendation was their dexterity with the awl
and the hammer.  Some qualified for the great trust,
were, however, found.  Edward Riggs, long the master
of a grammar school in this city, published his Introduction to the Latin Tongue in 1784, the first indigenous work of that kind among us; and he was followed
by James Hardy, the compiler of several compends for
instruction in the classics, in 1793-'4.  The remembrance of him  is still vivid.  He was an Aberdeen
scholar; his early life was devoted to the seas; he became an inmate of the family of Dr. Beattie, who gave
him recommendations as well qualified for a professorship of classical literature. At Dr. Beattie's suggestion
he came out to this city. In his best estate he was an
approved teacher.  After a while he abandoned the
schoolmaster's office, and finally sought a livelihood as
a supernumerary of the Board of Health.  He encountered the yellow fever in its most malignant form with
consummate bravery during its several visitations after
1795, and compiled those volumes of facts and opinions
on the pestilence which bear his name.  He lived




209
through many vicissitudes, and died of cholera, in
1832.
The elementary spelling books of Webster, and the
geography of Morse, in my urchin days, were making
their way to public approbation, not however without
much opposition; they had a long contest with Dilworth
and Salmon, and almost a score of years had passed
before Pike and Root, authorities with the federal currency, overcame the schoolmaster's assistant and the
Irishman Gough, with their sterling standard value of
pounds, shillings and pence.  Enfield's Speaker was
forced to yield to Binghaln's Preceptor, and Dwight's
Columbia superseded Rule Britannia. I cannot dwell
on the speculations thrown out by the teachers of the
day on the merits and demerits of these instruments of
their art, and on the necessity then urged by them, of
a disenthralled and free nation exercising an independent
judgment, with the patriotic endeavor to create a new
literature for a regenerated people. With respect to
books of practical science the same spirit was manifested,
till at length we find at the commencement of this century, the New Practical Navigator of Nathaniel Bowditch, of Boston, securing its triumphs for every sea,
over the time-honored Practical Navigator of Hamilton
Moore, of Tower-hill, London.
This desire for fresh mental aliment under a new
constitution was by no means limited; it spread far and
wide, particularly in New England; it left, I believe,
old Euclid unmolested, but it involved  equally the
infant primer and the elaborate treatise.  In the colonial condition of affairs Sternhold and Hopkins had
sustained many assaults, but their strongholds were
now invaded by the popular zeal of Barlow  and




210
Dwight.  Nor were these innovations confined to sacred poetry alone. The psalmody which had for almost
centuries mollified the distresses of the heart, and elevated the drooping spirits of the devout, surrendered
its wonted claims to the  Columbian Harmonist of
Read.  A  tolerable library might be formed of the
various productions of these operatives in the business
of popular instruction.  Noah Webster had engendered
this zeal more perhaps than any other individual, and
by incessant devotion had kept it alive. His Dissertations on the English Language he sent to Franklin,
and Franklin in return wrote to Webster that his book
would be useful in turning the thoughts of his countrymen to correct writing, yet administered to him profitable cautions.  But literature, like the free soil of the
country in these days, was infested with many weeds,
and words ran high on many points of verbal logic.
Amidst all these commotions some things were deemed
too sacred on all sides to be molested.  Such was the
affecting history of the martyrdom of John Rodgers,
burnt at Smithfield; but the nursery rhyme,
Whales in the sea-God's voice obey,
by acclamation was transformed into another equally
undeniable truth:
By Washington-Great deeds were done.
A truth moreover which came home immediately to
the feelings of the American bosom, and cleaved perhaps nearer the heart.
While the English language therefore, in the hands
of the disciplinarians, was struggling for new powers




211
and a loftier phraseology,-for few were enumerated in
those days who believed with Gibbon and Franklin
that the French  tongue  might absorb  all  other
speech,-the patriotism of the youthful population ran
no less wild than the literary ravings of the schoolmasters and the would-be philologists; yet as time has
proved with like innocence to the detriment of the
Republic.  Wars and rumors of war kept the juveniles
alive.  Social companies of youngsters were formed,
accoutred with wooden guns and kettle drums, and
were perpetually seen, with braggart front in harmless
squads, marching with the air of Capt. Bobadil, chanting some piece of continental poetry:
Behold I the conquering Yankees come
With sound of fife and beat of drum;
Says General Lee to General Howe,
What do you think of the Yankees now?
But these trifles were looked upon as the flying cloud;
the nation had ripe men at its head; government was
successfully securing the measures for commerce and
finance; the schools were daily stronger with better
teachers, and the halls of colleges were fuller supplied
with candidates for elevated instruction.  The press
was more prolific, and something beside the Fool of
Quality and Evelina, the Shepherd of Salisbury Plain
and George Barnwell, were with the reading public.
Pope, and Ann Radcliff, and Monk Lewis, might be
found on the stalls, with Bonaparte's Campaigns in Italy.
Franklin's life and essays were in everybody's hands.
Dobson, of Philadelphia, had heroically undertaken the
republication of the Encyclopoedia Britannica, and Collins, of New Jersey, about the same time, had issued his




212
highly prized quarto Family Bible.  Nor were our
New York publishers lukewarm at the printing of elaborate works of grave import and scholastic value. If,
however, we except the Poems of Freneau and the reprint of Burns, we find little in the region of the muses
that issued from the press; Clifton, Honeywood, Low,
and Linn, were our prominent domestic poets.
The Della Cruscan muse now, however, invaded us:
Mrs. Robinson's Poems was a dog eared volume; and
the song of the melodious Bard, Rogers, " I knew by
the smoke that so gracefully curled," received a popularity surpassing that of perhaps any other verses.
It found its way in the daily journals, weekly museums
weekly visitors and ladies' magazines; it was printed on
single sheets, placarded at inns and in stage coaches;
it travelled to the races as the inner lining of hats; it
occupied the cabins of the wood boats, and was found
surrounding the trunk of the orchard tree; it was among
the earliest of our music printing, and old Dr. Anderson, now some eighty years of age, our first engraver
on wood, still alive and still busy, gave it illustrations;
it was seen among the contents of the young misses'
reticule, and was read in secret at the doors of churches,
while the youthful maiden was tarrying for a partner
to accompany her within the house of worship.  My
defective memory does not permit me to state positively
that Blanchard, in his aeronautic expeditions, wafted it
to the skies.  In short, it was everywhere. But the
prospects of a French war and Hail Columbia ere long
limited the duration of this electric poem; and as if to
facilitate this object, here and there appeared a sylvan
rhymist who entwined a chaplet of the Rosa Matilda
order. What had been considered rare, now lost its




213
freshness, andc spurious articles had  currency in the
market without detection by the multitude.  The pretensions of the Della Ci'uscan finery came at last to a
somewhat sudden and unexpected end in the humorous
effusion of Barrett:
6 If all the geese in Lincoln fens
Produced splontaneous well-inade pens;
If Red Sea, Black Sea, White Sea ran
One tide of ink to Ispahan;
Hlad I the stenograp-lic power
To write ten libraries in an hour,'T were all in vain to paint the grace
Of h!alt a freckle on thy face."
One or two additional circumstances may be stated
to strengthen what has already been said, rather than
create  doubt as to  the  accuracy  of our narrative.
Carmpbell and Bloomfield appeared as authors in London with little interval between them.  The Pleasures
of HIope and the Farmer's Boy were here reprinted
neaily simultaneously; the former had been subjected
to the revision of Dr. A nderson, the editor of the British
Poets; the latter had undergone the incubation of Capel
Lofft   Thus fortified, there was little hesitation as to
the safety of the undertaking.  Such was the importance attached to these works, that the rival publishers
blazened forth their labors, so that every corner of the
city was enlivened by large placards announcing the important fact.  It is almost superfluous to add, that with
the literary taste which had been cherished, the Farmer's Boy outran in popularity the Pleasures of Hope.
As the ease now stands, Campbell makes one of every
dozen volumes we meet with, while it might be difficult
to find a copy of Bloomfield.




214
In 1804 Scott enriched the poetic world with his
Lay of the Last Minstrel. Soon after its appearance a
presentation copy of the work in luxurious quarto was
received by a lady, then a resident of this city, a native
of Scotland, and who had been most intimate with the
author when school companions in the same institution.
It was seen that the Minstrel was a classic, and the volume circulated widely among friends. It shortly after
fell into the hands of a publishing house, and the great
question now to be decided was, whether it could bear
an American reprint, keeping in view the primary object of the bookseller, that the wheel of fortune must
turn in the right way.  A literary coterie was selected
who might determine the chances of adventure. Among
other dissuasive arguments, the Lay was pronounced too
local in its nature, and its interest obsolete; its measure
was considered too varied and irregular, and it had not
the harmony of tuneful Pope. It was rejected by the
critical tribunal.  Longworth, however, brought sufficient resolution to bear, and printed in his Belles-Lettres Repository of 1805, the universally known introduction to the first canto.  Such was the cool and calculating reception of Scott with us. One might almost
think from the opening lines of the poem, that the poet
had, with prophetic vision, foreseen himself in the New
World:
" The way was long, the night was cold,
The Minstrel was infirm and old."
These were probably the first lines of Walter Scott's
writings that ever issued from an American press. The
memorable quarto is still preserved with many associations by the venerable lady to whom  the illustrious
author presented it, Mrs. Divie Bethune, the founder of




215
our Infant schools. Who can now tell the hundreds of
thousands of volumes of this noble writer which the
press of this country has brought forth?
We are not to be abashed at the recital of these
occurrences concerning the early condition of the press.
They were associated, and naturally grew  out of the
spirit of the times and the condition of the Republic.
Scott was a new name among authors, and elegant letters are not among the first wants of a people.  Yet it
will be conceded that at that very period a broad foundation was already being laid, on which at no remote
day literature, as well as science, would command its
disciples.  The trepidation at the hazard of printing
a few leaves of poetry experienced by some, is to be
judged merely as an individual infirmity, inasmuch as
we find that even then typography was prolific of works
of voluminous extent, and many of its products at that
day constitute a sound portion of existing libraries.
Longworth himself was a man of enterprise, but he had
bought experience by his ornamental edition of Hayley's
Triumphs of Temper, and he was moreover sustaining
his Shakspeare Gallery at no small sacrifice; while we
find that Evert Duyckinck, Isaac Collins, George F.
Hopkins, Samuel Campbell, and T. and J. Swords, were
the leading men to whom we may turn for evidence
that the press was not idle, and for illustration of the
rising capabilities of the book-publishers' craft. An
author was a scarce article in those days, about the beginning of the nineteenth century; the returns for literary labor must have been small. Noah Webster was
unquestionably the most successful of the tribe, and in
his wake followed the geographer Morse. The city
library, and the circulating library of Caritat, consti



216
tuted pretty much all the establishments of that order
we possessed.   Pintard was then  at New  Orleans, and
years elapsed before he and the excellent William  Wood
began to think of the Apprentices' Library, and to surggest the Mariners' Library for ships at sea.  The Mercantile Library, now so vast a concern, was not then
dreamt of, and  Philip  Hone, with  all his ardor as a
patriotic citizen, had not as yet enlisted  in  the great
cause of knowledge, or manifested that attention to
those important interests which absorbed  the years of
his  more  advanced  life.   In  a  pedestrian  excursion
through our then  thinly populated  streets, one  might
see the ample Dr. Mitchill and his colleague Dr. Miller,
Dr. Bayley, Dr. Hosack, Dr. S. Miller, Dr. Mason, and
Dunlap, all writers;  Caines, the deep-read  reporter;
Cheetham  and Coleman, the  antagonistic editors; and
Kent, afterwards the great Chancellor. In the court
room  we might behold Hamilton and Burr, Brockholst
Livingston  and  Martin Wilkins, Colden  and  Slosson,
Hoffman and Pendleton, and young Wells.*
* To render these imperfect sketches of the times less defective, I had
designed to notice briefly the New York Bar, with which I was partially
acquainted, by my repeated visits at the courts; often as medical witness
in behalf of the people in criminal cases involving medical jurisprudence;
but my resources are not adequate to the great subject, and the undertaking is the less necessary after the precious aud interesting History of
the Court of Common Pleas, from the pen of the lion. ClHALES F. DALY,
one of the Judges, and printed in volume 1st of the Reports of Cases, by
Counsellor E. Delafield Smith. Some forty-five years ago, my lamented
friend and associate of Columbia College, Samuel Berrian, brother of the
venerable Rector of Trinity Church, commenced a series of Sketches of
the Members of the Bar, which appeared in Dennie's Portfolio. His first
subject was Josiah Ogden Hoffinan, with whom he was a pupil. The great
men of the legal profession of those days to which I allude, were indeed
by universal concurrence, enumerated among the master minds of the
land; and I have often heard it said, that the voice of the law, from their




21T
The literary struggles of those days deserve more
ample  notice, but our task may be honestly abridged
at this  time.  The curious in a knowledge of literary
toil, in  the  progress  of letters, and  in  the details of
authorship, will not fail frequent consultation of the several works of the late Dr. Griswold, a faithful pioneer
of mental acumen in this department of study, and turn
with renewed delight and increased satisfaction to the
Biographical Essays  of the  aesthetic Tuckerman, and
the pages of the Cyclopqedia of American Literature, by
the Messrs. Duyckinck. When thoroughly investigated,
the candid  inquirer may wonder that under such  difficulties so much was in reality accomplished.
So long ago as in 1802 I had  the  pleasure of witnessing the first social gathering of American publishers
at the old City Hotel, Broadway, an organization under
the auspices of the venerable Matthew  Carey.  About
thirty years after I was one of a large assembly brought
together by the Brothers Harper's great entertainment.
I remember well the literary wares displayed  on that
lips, was the harmony of the world. Legal medicine, I am  inclined to
think, received more homage in the days of Thomas Addis Emmet and
Hugh Maxwell, the District Attorney, than it had before or has since.
Emmet was profoundly learned as a physician; in all cases of death that
came before him requiring medical testimony, an examination of the brain
he made a prerequisite. It is not irrelevant to add, that Dr. James S.
Stringhamn is to be considered the founder of Medical Jurisprudence in this
country. He was the first who gave lectures on this science in America,
and was my predecessor in the chair of Forensic Medicine in the University of New York. His taste for this knowledge he originally imbibed from
his able preceptor, Dr. Duncan, of Edinburgh. His reading on the subject
was extensive, from the elaborate investigations of Paulus Zacchias, down
to the recent productions of Fodere and Mahon. A fuller account of him
may be found in my Sketch, in Beck's Medical Jurisprudence. He was a
native of New York, and died in 1817.
15




218
first memorable occasion, and I still see in " my mind's
eye " the prominent group of American authors who
participated in the festivities of the latter celebration.
Again in 1855 a complimentary festival of the New
York Book Publishers' Association to authors and
booksellers took place at the Crystal Palace.  A  comparative view of these three periods in literary progress
would furnish an instructive illustration of the workings
of the American mind and of the enterprise and capabilities of the American press.  The venerable Matthew
Carey at the primary meeting held forth, in earnest
language, persuasives to renewed meetings of a like nature as the most effective means for the promotion and
diffusion of knowledge. Isaac Collins, that jewel of a
man for solid worth and integrity, concurred in sentiment. At the Harper entertainment similar opinions
proceeded from many minds, and the liveliest responses
in confirmation were listened to from Chancellor Kent
and a large number of native writers of celebrity. At
the last celebration of 1855, which was conducted on a
scale of great variety and elegance, Washington Irving
and a most imposing association of distinguished authors,
male and female, graced the occasion: those public spirited publishers, the Appletons, with Wiley and Putnam,
rendered the banquet a genial gathering of kindred
spirits.  The intelligent and patriotic Putnam, in an
appropriate introductory address, stated the fact that
for twelve years, ending in 1842, there were published 1,115 different works, of these 623 were original;
in the year 1853 there were 733 new works published
in the United States, of which 276 were reprints of
English works, 35 were translations of foreign authors,
and 420 original American works; thus showing an in



219
crease of about 800 per cent. in less than twenty years.
Mr. Putnam  thus draws the conclusion that literature
and the book-trade advanced ten times as fast as the
population.  If with these facts we compare the numbers printed of each edition, the growth is still greater:
editions at the present time varying  from  10,000,
30)000, 75,000, and even 300,000.  The Magazine of
the Messrs. Harper reaches the astounding number at
each issue of 180,000. On this lastnmemorable occasion
of the publishers' celebration our distinguished poet,
Bryant, responded to a sentiment on American literature in his happiest manner.  I quote a few lines from
his suggestive address:'The promise of American
authorship, given by the appearance of Cotton Mather,
has never been redeemed till now.  In him the age saw
one of its ripest scholars, though formed in the New
Englandl schools and by New England libraries, in the
very infancy of the colonies; a m1an, as learned as the
author of the Anatomy of Melancholy, and sometimes
as quaintly eloquent, sending out huge quartos as the
fruit of his labors, interspersed with duodecimos, the
fruit of his recreations; but his publications exceeded
the number of the days of the year.  After his time,
in the hundred and fifty years which followed, the procession of American authors was a straggling one; at
present they are a crowd which fairly choke the way;
illustrious historians, able and acute theologians, authors
of books of travels, instructive or amusing, clever novelists, brilliant essayists, learned and patient lexicographers.  Every bush, I had almost said every buttercup of the fields has its poet;  oets start up like the
soldiers of }Roderick Dhu, from behind every rock and
out of every bank of fern."




220
I must linger a moment longer on this subject. Our
literary annals, while they abound with occurrences
most gratifying to the intellectual and moral advancement of our species, possess yet another claim to estimation.  The making of books has not been an employment of selfish and inert gratification; it has proved
a prolific source of emolument, no less remarkable than
the peculiar occasions which have awakened the talents
necessary for the healthy exercise of the art itself.
Literature, independently of its own noble nature, has
superadded to its powers a productive result of substantial issue; and while it beautifies and enriches with
precious benefits the progress of civilization, it has secured the comforts which spring up from the wholesome pursuit of other sources of wealth. This indeed
is the offspring of but a recent period among us; but
the fact is not the less solacing to the pangs of intellectual labor.  The huckstering which once marred the
transactions between publishers and authors no longer
occurs; the starveling writers whom I now  and then
saw, at about the time of the first meeting of our literary venders, the booksellers of 1802, have paid the
debt of nature, I dare not add prematurely; and we
can now enroll a list of the literary and the scientific
who have increased far and wide the nation's renown.
For a considerable while during my early medical career
my diagnosis often led me to attribute the causes of mental inquietude and physical suffering among this circumscribed order of men to inanition; but if the literary
squad, as old Dr. Tillary denominated them, preserve
intact their wonted energies and privileges, their improved condition may sometihes demand an alterative
treatment corresponding with that robust state and




221
imposing plethora, in which they so generally present
themselves to our admiration and esteem.  Personal
observation and individual experience may have helped
the great reform, for not a few must have learned the
truth of the remark of the playwright, George Colman: "Authorship, as a profession, is a very good
walking-stick, but very bad crutches."  For this salutary change in the Republic of Letters let all praise
be given to knowledge more available, to the higher
culture of the people, and to the patronage of our enlightened publishers. I allude to such authors as Irving,
Cooper, Bancroft, Taylor, Bryant, Halleck, and Paulding, and refer to such patrons as the Appletons, the Harpers, Scribner, Wiley and Putnam. I am limited to New
York in these specifications.  Let Sparks and Prescott,
Ticknor, Longfellow, Holmes, Hawthorne and Everett
speak of their Boston literary firms. What Childs and
Peterson have done for the generous enterprise of the
lamented Kane, both in the mechanical execution of
those endearing volumes, the Arctic Expedition, and
in the returns secured by liberal appropriation in artistic display, is enough of itself for the renown of
Philadelphia.  NTor can I omit to notice in this connection, that the most complete and authentic Dictionary of Authors in our vernacular tongue is in progress of publication under the auspices of this enterprising house, for which noble monument of literary
toil and industry we are indebted to the accomplished
S. A. Allibone, of Philadelphia; while in our own
city, we are promised by D. Appleton & Co., ere long,
a New Cyclopmdia of General Knowledge, especially
rich in native science and biography, prepared by the
erudite and gifted editors, George Ripley and Charles
A. Dana.




222
I believe I have secured the concurrence of my audience in the opinion that I ha-ve already said enough
of the eventful Past in its complex relations with the
New York Historical Society.  If I mistake not, the
narrative which I have given of the passing events anl
living movements of our times elucidates the incalculable
value of your Institution, and points out how indis)pensable is the duty to cherish that conservative element
which your charter demands.  The fragmentary information brought together in this discourse may not
be wholly without its use: it may serve at least to furnish some hints to subsequent writers who maay venture
to fill up, with higher aspirations, the mighty void
which exists in the annals of this vast Metropolis.
With the philosophical historian every new fact will
be duly appreciated, the transitory nature of many occurrences better understood in their relation to simultaneous events, and the men of consequence in their
day more faithfully estimated.  Skill indeed will be
demanded in selection and judgment in arrangement,
but an enlarged vision will comprehend the truth that
what seems tempoirary may sometimes become perisanent, that what is local often becomes national.
The task assigned me by your courtesy for this
day's celebration has been executed amidst many cares,
and not without apprehensions as to the result.  The
moments seized for preparation have not always been
the most auspicious; but my native feelings and my
love of the olden times, have prompted the spirit and the
tendency of this address.  " Whatever," says the great
moralist, Dr. Johnson,' makes the past, the distant,
and the future predominate over the present, exalts us
in the scale of thinking beings."  None can feel more
deeply than myself the imperfect execution of the ser



223
vice I have attempted, and none of its deficiencies
causes greater uneasiness than the circumstance that I
have omitted notice of many of the eminent dead
whose names ought to be placed on a record of gratitude, for their labors in behalf of this society in its
earlier existence. While I am conscious that the men
of to-day are not inferior to those whose rank they
now supply, I have also been compelled to overlook
a long catalogue of living worthies, who still co-operate in the great design of rearing this Historical
Institution to national consideration. Fortunately your
printed Collections and Proceedings, a long series,
have perpetuated the contributions of many of these
distinguished members, and posterity will seek instruction and delight in the discourses which you have preserved of your Clinton and Verplanck, your Morris
and Hosack, your Mitchill and Blunt, your Wheaton
and Lawrence, your KIent and Butler, your Bradford
and Bancroft.  The records of your secretary will
point out your indebtedncss to those long tried members who have adhered to your interests in seasons of
greatest depression; Chancellor Matthews, the founder,
I may add, of our City University; GeorgeB. IRapelye,
a friend with a Knickerbocker's heart, who has often
invigorated my statements by his minute knowledge;
Samuel Ward, a generous benefactor to your rich possessions, and Albert Gallatin, many years your presiding officer, who needs no voucher of mine to place him
in the front rank of intellectual mortals.
The thousand and one occurrences which have
weighed on my mind while in this attempt to sketch a
picture of the times in New York during the past
sixty years, have made the difficulty of choice per



224
plexing to recollection and embarrassing to the judgment.  It might have been more acceptable to many
had this Discourse been concentrated on some special
topics of general interest, or that the importance of
history as a philosophical study had been set forth, the
better to urge the high claims which this institution
proffers to the countenance and support of this enlight.
ened community.  I stand amenable to such criticism,
yet I fain would trust that the leaves of memory which
I have opened may not be altogether without their
use.  An indifferent observer of the events of so long
a period in a city of such progress, could not fail to
have arrived at a knowledge of many things characteristic of the age and profitable as practical wisdom; to
one who has ever cherished a deep sympathy in whatever adds to the renown of the city of his birth, or
increases the benefits of its population, the accumulation of facts would naturally become almost formidable; and while with becoming deference his aim  on
such an occasion as the present would lead him in his
selection to group together, without tedious minuteness, the more prominent incidents which have marked
its career, it miight be tolerated if he here and there,
with fond reluctance, dwelt upon what most involved
his feelings, even should the subject-matter prove inefficient in popular importance.  In the wide and fertile
field which I have entered, it required an anthologist
of ratre gifts to  select with wisdom  products  the
healthiest, the richest, and most grateful for general
acceptance, and most conducive to the general design.
The inquiry may be fairly put, has the New York
Historical Society stood an isolated institution during
its long career, and are its merits of an exclusive cha



225
racter?  It may be promptly answered, No: It was
preceded in its formation by the Massachusetts Historical Society, a bright example for imitation, some
ten or twelve years; and it has been followed by the
organization of many other historical societies formed
in different and widely-distant states of the Union.
They have grown up around her, not by the desire of
imitation, but by the force of utility, and I will be
bold enough to affirm, that consultation of their numerous volumes is indispensable to an author who aims at
writing a faithful local or general history of the country.  I speak thus earnestly  because I think these
works are too much overlooked or neglected. The
conjoint labors of these several associations, with commendable diligence, are securing for future research,
authentic materials touching events in history, in the
arts, in science, in jurisprudence, and in literature; and
if I mistake not, the intelligence of the people is
awakened to their import; individual pride and state
ambition have been invoked in furtherance of the
measure, and results productive of national good must
crown the efforts.  Truth, it is often said, is reserved
for posterity-truth promulgated may be doubly fortified by these historical societies.
In the march of similar pursuits, we may notice
the American Antiquarian Society, founded by the late
Isaiah Thomas, and the New England Historical and
Genealogical Society, a recent organization, whose
labors however already amount to many volumes, aided
by the herculean devotion of Samuel G. Drake, and
the still more recent Historical Magazine published by
Richardson, of Boston.  This last-named periodical
gives promise of excellence of the highest order.




226)
I would call attention to our New York Ethnological Society, now founded several years. Its volumes
which have met the eye, evince that the Association
has adepts among its members able to throw  light on
the most intricate subjects of human inquiry.  Its
present president is the learned Dr. Robinson, so distinguished in philology and biblical literature.
Still more recently a Geographical Society has
sprung up among us. Though of but short duration,
its transactions have commanded approbation both
abroad and at home.  Among its leading members is
Henry Grinnell, the well-known promoter of the Arctic
expeditions under the direction of Captain Kane, The
Rev. Dr. Hawks, the archaologist, is the present head
of this association.
As connected with the great design of promoting
useful knowledge, the institution of the Lyceum  of
Natural History in this city may be included in the
number.  This association has now  been in operation
forty years.  It was founded by Mitchill in union with
Dr. Torrey, the late Dr. Townsend, and a few others.
The Lyceum is most strictly devoted to natural history;
it created an early impulse to studies illustrative of
our natural products in the several kingdoms of nature,
and it is familiarly recognized for its novel and able
contributions.  Many of the rarest treasures of our
marine waters have become known by the investigations
of the Lyceum: among its scientific supporters, are
Torrey, De Kay, Cooper, Le Conte, and Jay. Like the
Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, the
Boston Natural History Society, and the Society of
Charleston, S. C., with its President Holbrook, its
opinions are authoritative.




The impulse given to intellectual labor in these,
our own times, is still further shown in the completion
of that great undertaking, the Natural History of the
State of New York.  This vast project was, I believe,
commenced during  the administration of Governor
Seward, and if we value science by the research which
it displays, this extensive work presents claims of unquestionable excellence to our recognition.  Its able
authors, with a scrutinizing observation that has never
tired, have unfolded the richness of our native productions to the delight of the naturalist and to the cultivators of our domestic resources.  The work is a lasting memorial of the public spirit of the state, and an
index to the legislative wisdom of its rulers.  The felicitous introduction  to the entire series of volumes
from  the pen of Governor Seward, will always be
perused with emotions of patriotic pride. Associated
with another measure not less public spirited, is the
Documentary History  of the State  of New  York,
under the direction of executive authority, and prepared for the press by the editorial supervision of Dr.
O'Callaghan. Its importance cannot be over-estimated;
and the judgment displayed in the disposition of its
multifarious materials, increases the desire that no impediment may arrest the completion of a miscellany of
knowledge hitherto inaccessible.  Less could not be
said of the labors of Dr. O'Callaghan, when we remember that these documents include the Brodhead Papers.
Is it speaking too earnestly, when it is said that the
Republic at large appears determined to secure her
history from doubt and uncertainty?  Associations for
the preservation of historical materials seem springing
up in every state.  We find them in the north and in




228
the south, in the east and in the west; and have learned that religious denominations are engaged in like
duties, to secure authentic records of the trials and
progress of their respective creeds.  In our owncity
the Baptists have formed an historical society, at the
head of which is the venerable David T. Valentine,
the editor of the Corporation Mlanual, which yearly
enlarges our topographical and civil history; and an
association of the Protestant Episcopal faith has recently published two volumes of Historical.Records in
illustration of the early condition of the Church.  All
this looks well, and I am  confident that our association contemplates with  pleasurable  emotions these
rival efforts in so good a cause.
The New York Historical Society has work enough
for her strongest energies to accomplish.  The state
under whose auspices she flourishes, is indeed an empire; the transactions which claim her consideration possess an inherent greatness, and are momentous in their
nature; her colonial career is pregnant with instructive
events; the advances she has made, and the condition
she has secured in her state policy, afford lessons
which the wisest may study with profit.  Long neglect
has only increased the duty of investigation, and added
value to every new  revelation offered.  The Hudson
and Nniagara are but types of her physical formation.
Her geology has dissolved the theories of the closet,
and given new principles to geognostic science.  Her
men of action have been signally neglected.  Feeble
records only are to be found of her most eminent
statesmen.   Where shall we look, throughout our
country's annals, for a more heroic spirit, one  of
more personal courage, of greater devotion to his coun




229
try, one greater in greatest trial, one of more decision
of character, one of sterner integrity, than Gov. George
Clinton, to whom  this State and the Union are under
such mighty obligations; and yet we fruitlessly search
for a worthy memorial of him.  Fellow  associates, I
repeat it, there is work enough to do.
I have spoken of history and its many relations.
History the schoolmen have divided into sacred and
profane. All history may be deemed sacred, inasmuch
as it teaches the ways of God, whose eternity knows
neither time nor space, and unfolds the anatomy of
that microcosm man, the image of his Maker. History
is a deep philosophy, yet capable of appropriation to
vulgar designs; it is a prodigious monitor, a mighty
instructor.  Be it our aim to use it for beneficent ends,
cherishing as a rule of life the revealed truth, that
there is a still higher wisdom within our reach, and that
our intelligence, however great, must recognize the inflexible sentence, uttered of old; the tree of knowledge
is not the tree of life.
kfr. President:
For a series of years you have held the elevated
office of head of the Historical Society.  The distinguished men, your predecessors, who have filled that
promilent station, have, I believe, all departed.  You
stand the sole representative of a long list of worthies
who have discharged trusts similar to those committed
to you, and which your wisdom and experience in public councils and in state affairs have enabled you to
fortify with an ability which reflects credit on your
administration, and has proved signally advantageous
to this institution.  The duties which have devolved




230
on you may at times have been onerous, but if I can
fathom your nature, must have proved grateful to your
feelings, and congenial to  your patriotism.   Your
copious reading had made you familiar with the great
events of the two wars, which this state waged, and
in which she was so great a sufferer, but in which she
proved successful: more valuable materials, growing
out of such circumstances, for the future historian could
not be gathered friom any other colony.  This society,
amidst its other treasures, has secured for the most part
these precious documents; and from the period at which
New York assumed the sovereignty of an independent
State, there are few intervals pregnant with important
events the records of which are not to be found in our
archives. Thus, Sir, if ever an association adhered with
fidelity to a literal interpretation of its charter power,
it may be affirmed to be that in whose transactions you
have taken so deep an interest.  The work demanded
intelligence, and it received it; it called for devotion
and earnestness, and they were at hand; and thus was
secured that continuity of effort so requisite to accomplish the undertaking. With what judgment the work
has been executed, must be left to the decision of our
arbiters, the public; I fear not the verdict.
Scholarship, the learned have said, -was a rare acquisition in England, until the time of Bentley.  It
may as truthfully be asserted, that until the career of
our founder commenced, there was little antiquarian
zeal among us; and hence you may have perceived,
that on several occasions I have ventured to place JOHn
PINTARD in the foremost ground in the picture.  The
head and the heart of our eastern brethren exercise a
warmer devotion for knowledge of this nature, than is




231
found elsewhere in our Union; and the rare example
on that account of my old friend proffered its claims
to my notice in strongest accents. Let me say, Sir,
that the forerunner in the course you so triumphantly
have maintained, was not a mere holiday officer, but
an untiring laborer in the great design.  The talent
he possessed was of peculiar value, and under certain
circumstances might have commanded  the highest
premium.  He had a fitness for the work, and none
can rob him of the honor.
Your able Vice-Presidents have, I believe, concurred
with you, at all times, in furtherance of those enlarged
plans and that policy, which, as occasion demanded,
have proved most salutary to the institution.  Their
enlightened cooperation must, on sonme occasions, have
lessened individual responsibility, and lightened perplexities in the path of duty.  I am inclined to think,
that there is an unity of opinion throughout the society
in commendation of the manner in which the various
services, rendered by your fiscal and other committees,
your secretaries, corresponding and recording, have
been  discharged.  In times like these, sagacity in
finance may be acknowledged wisdom  of the highest
order; and the fruits of sound forethought, when demonstrated by palpable results, yield arguments that
cannot be demolished. I have but to add, that your
intelligent and indefatigable librarian has nobly fulfilled his accountable appointment. Every thing around
me leads to the conviction that your literary treasures
have been preserved; your MS. records regarded at a
proper estimate; your library so disposed, that every
accommodation can be given to the searcher after wisdom  in this curious repository of historical material.




232
Where all deserve commendation, and there remains
nothing for censure, conscious rectitude yields unadulterated satisfaction to official capacity.
Mr. President: An abiding conviction prevails, that
the interests of the society have been in proper hands,
and controlled by wise councils. The memory of your
administration will long endure with us. The ornamental and  stately edifice, in which we are now
gathered, erected by the liberality of our citizens, and
in an especial manner by that class so often found
generous in good works, the mercantile community,
will, I trust, stand, for generations to come, a monument of the public spirit of New  York-of her love
and devotion to the refined and useful and vindicate
to the rising youth of the nation the estimate which
their fathers formed of the blessings of wisdom derived
from  pure historical truth.  If I am rightly informed,
I stand before you, at this Anniversary, the oldest
livingo member of this association.  Yet have I consoled myself with the pleasing thought, while meditating on the eventful occurrences of this day, that
although the sun of my declining years is nearly set,
its last rays, however feeble, are reflected from  the
classical walls of the New York Historical Society.
FlNIS.




PLO0 CEEDINT GS
OF THE
NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY,
AT THE
DEDICATION OF THE LIBRARY,
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1857.
NEW YORK:
PRINTED FOR THE SOCIETY.
1M DCCC LVII.








PRESIDENT,
LUTHER BRADISH.
FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT,
THOMAS DE WITT, D.D.
SECOND VICE-PRESIDENT,
FREDERIC DE PEYSTER.
FOREIGN CORRESPONDING SECRETARY,
EDWARD ROBINSON, D.D.
DOMESTIC CORRESPONDING SECRETARY,
SAMUEL OSGOOD, D.D.
RECORDING SECRETARY,
ANDREW  WARNER.
TREASURER,
WILLIAM CHAUNCEY.
LIBRARIAN,
GEORGE HENRY MOORE.
AUGUSTUS SCHELL, CHAIRMAN.
MARSHALL S. BIDWELL.
BENJAMIN H. FIELD.
FRANCIS L. HAWKS, D. D.
JOHN ROMEYN BRODHEAD.
ERASTUS C. BENEDICT.
BENJ. ROBERT WINTHROP.
ectarrt of  te  texetcuti:e  onttittee,
GEORGE HENRY MOORE.








DEDICATION OF THE LIBRARY,
NOVEMBER 3, 1857.
THE Society assembled in the Lecture Room, at the usual
hour.  As the evening was devoted to the dedication of the
building, by ceremonies directed to be observed by the Com-.
mittee of Arrangements appointed at a previous meeting, the
ordinary business was dispensed with, except the report of the
Executive Committee on nominations, and nominations of new
members.
Prayer was then offered by the Rev. THOMAS DE WITT,
D. D., First Vice President of the Society.
The Hon. LUTHER BRADISH, President, then addressed
the Society, as follows:
ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT.
We are at length assembled for the first time under our own roof.
The New York Historical Society has passed its nomadic state, and has
at last found a fixed and permanent home. From wandering for half a
century, the tenants at will of others, we come this evening to take
possession, as our own, of this beautiful temple, with all its ample accommodations, and to dedicate them to the cause of history and of art




6
-of history in its broadest sense, and of art in its illustrations of history.
Here, for the benefit of the present and future generations, will
history garner up its treasures.  Here will each succeeding age, for the
instruction of those to come after it, bring its record of the current
events of time. And here, too, in the future, will the Genius of History
from these accumulated treasures, construct its variegated but harmonious narrative-showing the relations and dependencies of apparently
isolated events, and exhibiting the great truth that the histories of seemingly detached periods, instead of forming integral subjects complete in
themselves, are but parts of the universal system of that Providence
which, in infinite intelligence and wisdom, governs the world.
Here, too, in this fitting temple, will art lend the light and the fascination of its illustrations to the great truths of history.  The genius
which inspired the imagination and guided the pencil of Raphael, of
Michael Angelo, of Rubens, and of Murillo, will hereafter cover these
walls with its beautiful creations, illustrative of the men, the manners,
and the events of the time; and prove to mankind that in art the present is not inferior to the past, or the New World to the Old.
Sculpture, too, whose magic power can call fiom  the inert and
shapeless mass the ideal semblance of animated and intellectual life,
even in its sublimest forms; which canl give to marble, in the graceful
lineaments of female'form and loveliness its chisel traces, the combined
expression of the shrinking delicacy of female modesty and the force
and dignity of conscious virtue; which, in its magical transformations,
can exhibit, in the quarried block, the first dawn of civilization, and the
first springing of celestial hope in the bosom of a graceful daughter of
the forest; or can in marble symbolize the ethereal spirit's flight from
darkness into light, and from time to eternity-this noble art will hereafter adorn these galleries with the productions of its genius, and prove
to the world that America, too, can furnish names worthy to be associated with those of Thorwaldsen and Canova, of Phidias and Praxiteles.
The burin of the engraver, too, will lend its aid to enrich our galleries, and in its representations of both painting and sculpture, exhibit
the magic of light and shade, the grace of outline and the beauty of design.  Thus will these several departments of art conspire to illustrate
and give additional interest to the truths of history, and thereby advance
the proper objects of this society.
Ten years have passed away since the project of this building first




received a definite form.  In 1847 the New York Historical Society,
then comparatively few in numbers, and feeble in pecuniary resources,
but deeply impressed with the great and increasing value of its library
and collections, and with the danger to which they were exposed? took
the incipient steps for the erection of a new fire-proof edifice, for the reception and preservation of that library and those collections, and for
the general accommodation of the Society.  This enterprise, under the
circumstances, might well, as it did, to the timid and even prudent, seem
hardy.  It was indeed bold. For the Society resolved upon an undertaking of great magnitude and importance, involving a large expenditure of money, without having in its treasury a single dollar for its
achievement.  But the Society relied upon the intelligence  and known
liberality of New York, in the confident belief that her public spirit
would not permit an object of such conceded merit, and of so great
public concernment, to fail for want of the necessary nmeans for its accomplishment.  It was, therefore, determined that an appeal, accompanied by a statement of facts, should be made to the public generally,
and to the friends of historical literature in particular, for aid in the accomplishment of this great object of general interest.  Most nobly did
the public of New York respond to this appeal, and by its liberality and
public spirit in promptly furnishing the requisite pecuniary m eans, fully
justify the confidence of the Society and the wisdom of its enterprise,
To collect and apply those means, however, has required a long time,
great effort, and continued perseverance. But the success which has at
length crowned persevering effort, should render us insensible to the
exertions which have achieved that success; and, in the important good
thus accomplished, we should forget the personal sacrifices it has cost
and regard only the new hopes it inspires, and the increased responsi.
bilities it involves.
On the 17th of October, 1855, this enterprise, thus commenced, had
progressed with such encouraging success, that the corner stone of the
present building was laid, and the work thenceforward steadily advanced.
That liberality and public spirit which were so nobly manifested at the
inception of this enterprise, still accompanied its continued prosecution,
until, in this finished and beautiful structure, you now behold the consummation of an enterprise commenced in weakness, but in hope, perseveringly prosecuted in anxiety and with great effort, and at length
crowned with ample and entire success.  The two cardinal conditions,
also, upon which this enterprise was undertaken, have been faithfully
observed, and are this evening fulfilled.  This new edifice was to be




8
fire-proof.  It is substantially so; and, when completed, no debt was to
remain upon the Society on account of it.  This, also, is true.  The.
report of the Trustees of the Building Fund, which will be presented to
you in the course of the evening, will, among other interesting details,
announce the gratifying fact that, after faithfully discharging every just
obligation incurred in procuring the site, and in the erection of this new
fire-proof edifice, there will still remain, on account of this special fund,
a balance to go towards the furnishing of the building for the uses of the
Society.  The further sum  required to complete the payments for the
necessary furniture of the building, alone now remains to be provided
for.  A voluntary contribution of a very few dollars from each member
of the Society would abundantly supply the deficiency, and fully accom -
plish the desired object of finally closing this great enterprise.  This
small sum would in each case bear but a very inconsiderable proportion to
the greatly increased accommodations and advantages procured to each
member of the Society by the very satisfactory completion of this enterprise.  Thus the two original and important conditions of this enterprise
are this evening fulfilled.  Your building is essentially fire-proof, and
there will remain upon the Society, on account of it and its site, no debt,
except, indeed, one of deep gratitude to those munificent patrons of the
enterprise who have generously furnished the means of its accomplishment.  To those generous patrons we point to this new and beautiful
structure as an enduring and fit monument to their own liberality and
public spirit.  To the Society generally who originally projected and
undertook this enterprise, and has watched with the deepest interest its
progress and its completion, we present this noble edifice, with all its
tasteful arrangements, its ample accommodations, and its admirable
adaptation to its objects, as the reward of its enterprise, its perseverance
and its ultimate and complete success.
With the successful accomplishment of this enterprise, a new and
brighter era in the history of this Society is inaugurated.  With these
enlarged accommodations, and these greatly increased facilities, for the
prosecution and accomplishment of its objects, the responsibilities of the
Society are correspondingly increased.  In proportion, as its library and
collections are rendered more safe and more available, will be the inducement and the obligations of the Society to extend the former and
enlarge the latter.
That these new and increased responsibilities will, in the future, be
fully and honorably met by the Society, we have an assurance in its




past history.  But, for the ability to meet in a fit and becoming manner these new and increased responsibilities by increased activity, enlarged operations, and more extended usefulness, we must still look to
the continued encouragement and patronage of that generous public
which smiled so benignly upon the infancy of the Society; which has so
generously fostered its youth, and which surely will not withhold from
its ripening manhood the encouragement it may hereafter need, and
shall deserve.  Let it then be our object as a society fully to merit the
patronage we seek.  Let us, in entering upon the new and more brilliant career now opened before us, go forward with new energy and
increased zeal; and, by judicious administration and greater activity in
our operations, justify the appeals made to the public in our behalf, giving back to that public the cultivated fruits of its own munificence; and
thus rendering this Society what, if wisely conducted, it cannot fail to
be-both an ornament and a blessing to New York and our country.
FREDERIC  DE  PEYSTER, Esq., Chairman of the Trustees
of the Building Fund, submitted and read a report from  that
body.
R EPORT.
To the New York fistorical Society:
The doubts and anxieties of the past have vanished, and the expectations of the Trustees, and, may they hope, of the Society, are realized
by the accomplishment of the work committed to their charge.  You
have this evening met to dedicate this spacious edifice to the important
and deeply interesting objects, for the promotion of which this Society
was organized.  Upwards of a half century has passed away since a
few public-spirited individuals met together to form an association for
"the purpose of discovering, procuring, and preserving whatever may
relate to the natural, civil, literary, and ecclesiastical history of the
United States in general, and of this State in particular."
Such was and is the design of this Institution, as expressed in the
original act of its incorporation, on the 10th of February, 1809;
amended and continued in force by subsequent acts, and its charter,
without limitation as to time, finally confirmed on the 2d of February,
1846, subject only to the usual restriction provided in all public acts.
During this semi-centennial existence, the Society has been without
a permanent abode of its own; its treasures of historical materials were
subjected to the injury of frequent removals, and liable at all times, in
their insecure places of deposit, to be destroyed by fire. It has been a




10
wanderer fiom place to place during these many years, but now, like the
wayworn traveller, it has reached its home, and looks with pleased
satisfaction on this abode for the various collections, gathered during
these journeyings.  Here it can display its various contributions, pre-.
serve its precious repository of the past, and make this library, with its
constantly increasing additions, worthy of our city, State, and country.
The trustees, to whom  the funds were confided for the construction
of this fire-proof building, present themselves before you, on this interestitig occasion, to report the disposition which has been made of these
in the execution of their duties.  From the incipient step in this enterprise, taken by the Society on the 1st of June, 1847, to its final consummation this day, a period of more than ten years has elapsed of
continuous effort and varying solicitude. The Society had resolved upon
a measure, for the attainment of which no means were provided, necessarily involving a large expenditure.
To collect and apply these means was an onerous undertaking, and
could only be accomplished by strong, persevering, and well-directed
efforts.
The trustees rejoice that it is accomplished, and that the hour has
arrived when they can throw open the doors of this library for your reception, exhibit its collections, and tender to you their cordial congratulations on its final completion.  A few small claims only remain yet to
be paid, for the liquidation of which there is a sufficient fund reserved.
The five annual and the special reports, from time to time heretofore
presented, exhibit the history of this enterprise and show the progress
made in collecting funds; the difficulties encountered in the successsive
attempts, and the successful effort finally accomplished in obtaining the
requisite addition, which the liberal hearts of the liberal men of this
great commercial city generously contributed.
It is not for those who now address you to speak of the architectural
design of the building, of its style of decoration, or of the taste displayed
in its exterior and interior appearance, and of the conveniences provided
for the suitable arrangement of its numerous collections.  They submit
to the Society and the public these results; and if they meet their approbation, it will be a sufficient compensation for personal sacrifices and
an honest endeavor to discharge faithfully their trust.
In the gallery specially set apart for the reception and preservation of
the books and newspapers, and for their ready and convenient examination,
these various collections are systematically arranged.  In the apartment
separately provided for our invaluable manuscripts, these unique treas



11
ures are similarly placed, where they can easily be referred to, and, to
the greatest extent, secured from  loss, depredation, or injury.  Risingabove these is the gallery devoted to the productions of art, which
crowns, as it were, the whole.  It contains the portraits of many men
of our own land, who have made their names and their country illustrious by their talents and virtues; and evidences also of the genius of
men like Cole, who have dignified the Arts of Design by the brilliant
creations of their pencil.
The collections which comprise the printed and manuscript materials have been catalogued under the skilful care of our Librarian, and
the Catalogue is now passing through the press.
There will also be a catalogue of the Gallery of Art; and it will
furnish to the members a satisfactory estimate of the extent and richness of the entire collection.
On these extensive shelves, are placed, let us trust, in perpetual preservation, for the benefit of historical research, the proofs of those measures which led to the declaration of our country's independence; of
the character of the men and their measures which achieved that independence; and of the causes and their effects, which are exhibited in
the growth, power, resources, and extension of our Republic; stretching
as it now does its giant limbs firom ocean to ocean-from the regions of
the hardy north to the genial climes of the sunny south.  Its citizens
have reached, in the march of empire, its western bound; and from
thence look forth  over the wide expanse of ocean to  the opposite
shores of Asia-prepared, when the hour arrives, to aid more fully in
extending to that primal land of our race, the blessings and civilization of
Christianity.
The earliest measure which occupied the attention of the trustees,
was the appointment of its standing committees of finance, and on the
building, and a treasurer of the fund.  The duties which devolved upon
that officer, and upon these several committees, the trustees are happy
to have it in their power to say, have been most faithfully and zealously
performed.
The committee to whom was committed the construction of the
building, the preparation of the various contracts, the supervision of the
work, and of the materials provided, and the expenditure of the fund,
have with unremitted exertion, continued watchfulness, and great sacrifice of time and labor accomplished the results you this day witness.
They have made their final report to the trustees, from which it
appears there have been, at various times and in different forms, ex



12
pended for the site, twelve thousand and ninety-seven dollars and fiftyone cents; on the building, sixty-nine thousand four hundred and seven
dollars and thirty cents, and for furnishing the same, three thousand
two hundred and thirty-five dollars and three cents, making together an
aggregate of eighty-four thousand seven hundred and thirty-nine dollars
and eighty-four cents.
The details of these several items are set forth in the account current, annexed to and which forms part of their Report.
Thus it appears that the Building Fund has been sufficient to defray the expense of the site and of this edifice; leaving a balance to be
applied to the furnishing of the building.
Persons not familiar with the difficulties of such an enterprise, executed under similar circumstances, cannot be aware of the unavoidable
delays incident thereto.  The procuring of a design for a fire-proof
Library edifice, adapted to the uses and to meet in all respects the wishes
of the Society, was a matter of great moment and careful consideration.
Then, the procuring of the contracts from responsible parties for the
several departments into which the work divided itself, also occupied
necessarily much care and preparation.  The Committee in these matters were efficiently aided by the Architects, Messrs. Mettam and Burke,
whose attention and vigilance were unremittec  in guarding the interests
of the Society, and advancing the work done.
The Committee state that it has been their endeavor, with the
means at their disposal, to carry out the views of the trustees, and to
accomplish the objects of the Society, in the highest degree practicable.  Their constant aim  has been to erect a building best suited to
the purposes of the Society, creditable to its taste,: and honorable to its
patrons and the public.  I-ow far they have succeeded in this their
constant and earnest endeavor, the Committee submit to the trustees,
the Society, and the public.
If the committee on the building, to adopt their own language, " are
so fortunate as to meet their approbation, they will feel amply compensated for all the effort, anxiety, and personal sacrifices, which a
discharge of the duties devolved upon them has necessarily involved."
The Report of that committee is on file with the documents, to be
preserved in grateful remembrance of its services, cheerfully given and
faithfully executed.
It only remains, in this connection, for the trustees to add, that when
the few debts yet to be paid are settled, and for the payment of which,




13
as before stated, there is a fund in hand reserved, they will avail themselves of the earliest opportunity to communicate this desired result;
and on that occasion submit their final Report, and surrender up the
building, with its appurtenances, to the Society.
Cicero aptly termed Herodotus the " Father of History"-and
Iistory itself " the light of truth."  Herodotus first gave to the world a
general history adorned with the graces of a pure eloquence, and with
that attractive simplicity, which was the prominent characteristic of
all the more prominent of the most ancient authors.
His Bust, therefore, is properly placed above the portico which
leads to these extensive galleries, repositories of facts, principles, and
discoveries.  From these may some congenial mind compose an " Historical Essay," which like that shall add to his own perpetual renown,
and prove by his work the value, though less ambitious design, of our
own.
The direct object of his work was to recount the victorious struggles of the Greeks with the Persians. But in tracing the causes of the
events related, and in describing other nations connected with these
events, he was led into the interesting and valuable digressions which
constitute the remarkable portions of his book. It has been illustrated
by the wisdom and matured experience of later ages; is confirmed in
its material details by the learning of congenial minds; and abounds
in a variety of information, touching the manners, customs, and national
traits of which he speaks; and to which in many instances this highly
distinguished author has furnished the only key of knowledge.
Thus, as an emblem of the objects which this Society has specially
in view, this Bust proclaims from without to the passing inquirer the
design of this Historical Library.
By the collections we are engaged in preserving and increasing, by
every practicable measure, we are enlarging the means of historical inquiry and investigation, relating to the several departments classified in
our Charter. In process of tihne this Library cannot fail to become better known and extensively consulted; and the just expectation may be
indulged, that, by its intrinsic worth and amplitude of materials, it will
become the great central resort for historical investigations of every
kind, and give to our city and State the enviable distinction of possessing
the best and most extensive Historical Library in this portion of the
globe.
When Cicero was Questor in Sicily, his first object, on arriving
there, was to visit the tomb of Archimedes.  The officials of Syracuse,




14
who waited upon him, being ignorant of its existence, he persevered in
the search, which resulted in the discovery of the small column, hid by
the surrounding undergrowth, on which, with great difficulty, was traced
the almost illegible name of the great geometrician.
One hundred and thirty-six years had only elapsed since the Roman
soldier slew the intellectual giant of Syracuse, whose dead body the
Roman general entombed with honors becoming his genius.  The simple inscription would have altogether perished, had not Cicero's admiration and perseverance made it immortal.
Little more than three quarters of a century have elapsed, and a
citizen of these United States, in ardent admiration of the men who fell
martyrs in the cause which made his country free and independent,
might in vain seek for the places where some of these eminent patriots
were interred!  Already are many of these forgotten —nay, irrevocably
obliterated!  Over others the monumental stone has been placed, and
the name of the illustrious dead inscribed on it; but, like the letters on
the column of the world-renowned  Syracusan-their names are almost effaced.  Some patriot hand, like Old Mortality, must deepen with
his chisel their almost obliterated inscriptions; some patriot pen, stirred
by the incidents in the lives of these martyrs, perpetuate, by their biographies, the memory of their deeds; or, from these records around you,
some gifted mind, touched with the sentiments which valor and worth
never fail to create, must give to the world the knowledge and the benefit of their example.
The scholiast tells us, that when the fiiends of Pytheas, who had
conquered in the Nemmean games, came to Pindar, with the request
that he would write an ode on his victory, the poet demanded a sum
which they refused to give.  " We can have," say they, " a brazen
statue for the money, which will be better than a poem."  Changing
their minds, however, they returned and offered him what he demanded.
Upon this hint Pindar formed the graceful exordium, which has been
thus elegantly translated:
"It is not mine, with forming hand,
To make a lifeless image stand
For ever on its base;
But fly, my verses, and proclaim
To distant lands, with deathless fame,
That Pytheas conquered in the rapid race!'
The poet's verse has proved more imperishable than a memorial ot




15
brass! and the victor's triumph pales before the fire of genius, as mind
rises triumphant over matter.
Here in this Library, the monument of the enterprise and liberality
of Metropolitan New York, are contained the materials which testify
to the growth, the power, and the extent of the country, and its natural
resources and greatness.  Here also are treasured up many celebrated
works of her living sons, and testimonials of her honored dead.  This
Society enrolls in its list of members men eminently distinguished at
the Bar, on the Bench, and in the Pulpit; also men of renown in the
councils of the nation, and in our Congressional and Legislative Halls,
and also of others well known to fame for their successful efforts in the
several departments specified in our Charter.
She also numbers among her members the accomplished Historians
of the United States and of this State, and also many whose genius,
learning, and literary productions have added wreaths to the chaplet
which adorns their native or adopted land. Among these shines, with
the brilliancy of the " Koh-i-noor " among diamonds, the gifted author
of the Sketch-Book, the varied productions of whose pen are as familiarly known as the sparkling wit, humor, and pathos with which
they abound.
From these invaluable collections around you, some member of our
Society, imbued with the spirit of the subject, may yet arise, like
Herodotus, "to rescue from oblivion the memory of former incidents,"
yet untold; and " to render a just tribute to the many great and wonderful actions" of Americans, living and dead; whose names, though
not as yet emblazoned on the records of History, are, however, enshrined in the hearts of their countrymen.
Yours is the monument, which we this evening dedicate, to the
preservation and dissemination of H1istoric Truth.  His will be the
deathless fame " of such an " Essay;" the best and an indelible inscription to commnemorate fellow-members, your own incorporated Association.
By Order of the Trustees,
(Signed)          FREDERIC DE PEYSTER,
Clhairman.
NEW YORK, Vov. 3,1857.
Dr. JOHN W. FRANCIS moved the acceptance of the report,
which motion was seconded by Mr. BANCROFT, as follows:




EREMARKS OF MR. BANCROFT.
The Committee of Arrangements have assigned me the pleasing
duty of seconding the motion for the acceptance of the Report. This
beautiful and convenient building is the endowment for history made
by the citizens and especially by the merchants of New York. It is
their affectionate tribute in commemoration of the honorable fame of
their ancestors, the varied fortunes of this great commonwealth, and
that sympathy which binds the present generation with every generation of mankind that has gone before.  Assembled here, we feel that
events do not occur without adequate causes; that for every thing there
is a reason; and that there are no gaps in the chain that connects the
past with the present; that the institutions of to-day are but the necessary development of former time; that this moment in our existence,
though often imperceptibly and in minute degrees, reflects light from
all preceding ages. In an especial manner our own city and our own
State have the most diversified affinities with ancient forms of civilization.  The son of a merchant of the Venetian republic first ran down
our coast.  A fellow-citizen of Dante and Michael Angelo, under the
banner of France, found out the channel into our harbor. When the
fulness of time came for the establishment of a colony on this shore,
Holland summoned Hudson from ranging among the jagged rocks of
Spitzbergen and the icy mists of the Straits of Veigatz to lead the way
in ascending our noble river; just as afterwards, when the great men of
the age went forth, not like Titans to destroy, but with the better energies of creative power to lay the foundations of our Union, a Iamilton, whose cradle had been rocked by the breezes of the tropics, was
called from the Antilles to plead for the adoption of the federal Constitution.  Here assembled the first Congress of 1765; here the New York
sons of liberty sent forth the first invitation for that of 1774; on our
soil was won the decisive victory of independence, and here Washington inaugurated national freedom and union.  The moment of planting
the institutions of cultivated man within our limits was marked by
whatever is most romantic in American history.  The interior of the
State was occupied by that wonderful people who had advanced furthest
among savages in civil polity and confederations; and while all that
was most daring in adventure, all that was most self-sacrificing in religion, were entering on the one side with Champlain and the Catholic
missions; on the other, the great commercial republic of Europe, the
forerunner and fostering example for America, was preparing to take
possession of Albany and Manhattan.  In the Old World, republican




1T
government has fallen on evil days-and a kingdom  has taken the
place of the glorious Dutch union of sovereign states. But if the living waters of freedom have diminished in that European land, through
which they once flowed most brightly, they are but as the fountain of
Arethusa, which disappears only to gush forth again in a happier clime.
America claims a share of the honors due to Chaucer, and Raleigh, and
Shakspeare-the English literature that preceded the first planting of
Virginia. The glory of the Dutch republic is peculiarly our inheritance.
The republican liberty of the Netherlands, which was vindicated by a
contest longer and more trying than that of Athens with Persia, is to be
found only here.  It is ours, all ours.  The banks of the Hudson are
its asylum, where it renews its perennial youth like the eagle.  The
gift of this building has another significance;  it is one of many
proofs that the busiest city is the most genial home for literature.
Where there is the most action, there there must be the most thought.
The world of the scholar and the world of the man of affairs are all
one.  The widest connections furnish the greatest opportunity of concentrating knowledge, and the readiest means for its diffusion. In such
a community there is no possibility of a dead calm, of a stagnation of
mind.  The ever-moving winds of controversy winnow  opinions, and
the fire of truth is kept alive and fed by contributions from  all climes.
And what city is bound by more associations and ties to all parts of the
world than our New York?  At one moment one of its sons discovers
the Antarctic continent; at another, a ship from our wharves is planted
by a man of heroic mould, illustrious in his youth,-the immortal Kane,
-among the icebergs of Greenland, as the imperishable monument
that of all the flags in the world the stars and stripes have approached
nearest to the pole. But if we would see the intimate connection of
our city with every part of the globe and the many nations of the earth,
we have only to look about us, not at the magazines of our merchants,
where, indeed, every thing is gathered together from  ocean and from
land for the support, the comfort, and the grace of life, but at the men
moving in our streets, representing as they do not our own country
only, not England and Holland only, but every nation of Europe
from  Cadiz to Warsaw, from  Ireland to the Isles of Greece; so
that by necessity the civilization of all those lands is intertwined with
ours.  The seers who look into futurity abound in their eulogies of the
coming commercial greatness of New York, when its proportion of the
mercantile marine shall be still greater than it is now, and it shall be
the centre of the exchanges of the world; when its population shall fill
2




18
this island, and, like a branching vine, cover all the lands around.  But
this superiority in material resources is not enough; the crowning glory
of New York must be its advancement in intelligence.  Here must
flourish unsurpassed colleges of that science of which the blessed skill
removes disease, or charms away its pains. Here we must have schools
of jurisprudence to teach it as a science, resting on immutable principles of justice, to interpret international and constitutional law on a system that shall be at once cosmopolitan and national, breathing union
among ourselves and good will to all the peoples of the earth.  Here
where the crowded streets show the most of that favored being who
alone was created in the image of his Maker, the truths that lift man
above the vicissitudes of time, and connect him with things that are
eternal, must shine out in their purest lustre.  Here divine art must
make visible to the senses the forms of beauty that repose in the capacious recesses of creative genius.  Here universities must gather together
all the fountains of truth and send the living waters through the land.
Let the comprehensive and liberal spirit of our merchants and the
vivifying intelligence of scholars join together to promote the fullest
development of every capacity for good.  This edifice is an earnest of
that co-operation.
President KING, of Columbia College, then addressed the
President as follows:
REMARKS OF PRESIDENT KING.
Mr. President: The scene presented here this evening carries me
back to other days-I may say to other generations; and looking round
upon the few scattered ancients, my contemporaries, among the large
assemblage of younger men, the active, stirring men of this active, stirring age, it mav be said, almost without a figure, that posterity is here
to welcome and to encourage the early friends of the Historical Society
who yet survive to witness, and take part in, this joyous and most
gratifying inauguration of a building not unworthy of the treasures it is
to contain, and which it is to secure against the danger irreparable for
such a library and collection as ours-of fire.
I thank you, Mr. President, and the gentlemen of the Committee of
Invitation, for giving me this opportunity of being present at such a
festival, and taking a part, however humble, in its proceedings.
Born in the city of NewYork, I have always felt the full force of the
exalting claim of the Apostle of the Gentiles, that he was " a citizen of
no mean city;" and whatever tends to promote the honor or add to




19
the illustrious annals of the city or State, enlists my earnest sympathy
and co-operation.
And in illustrious annals there is no State in our wide Union that
surpasses New York, and not one that with so much to say, has said
so little in her own behalf.
But there are laid up here, sir, and will, I would fain hope, continue
to be laid up, treasures of private letters, diaries, and memoirs, which
together with the printed materials accessible to all, will furnish authentic matter for that history of New York which is yet to be written.
We need at this day, especially, to popularize the study of our history, and especially of our own history; for, diligently and honestly
pursued, it is the essential study among a people where all are called
to take a part in public affairs, to make either the laws or those who do
make them.  In this study they will perceive that however oppression
and wrong may for a time prosper, the Nemesis of History follows
close upon the guilty career, and brands with indelible infamy the bold,
bad man, who would "owe his greatness to his country's ruin."
Men, indeed, of the school of Sir Robert Walpole, whose whole
statecraft consists in the one sordid maxim —false as it is sordid —
" every man has his price," may sneer at history as a tissue of lies, and
seek to throw doubt upon  all acts and all motives that cannot be
traced to the unscrupulous theory of their statesmanship; but the memorials which such a Society as ours gathers, preserves, and finally publishes, refute this degrading hypothesis-memorials of private letters
never designed for the light, and of conversations held in the intimacy
and privacy of home, revealing the heart of the speaker or writer, letters
and memoirs such as constitute the matchless collection which Sparks
has given us of our great Washington.  How few the men that ever
lived who, acting on so great a theatre, could stand the ordeal of such
an honest publication.  Yet who that has ever read these letters but
feels that, however exalted before may have been his admiration of
Washington, it is enhanced by these volumes.
So, too, we have already manuscript treasures inedited, and having
now a repository safe from  the destroying fire, and placed beyond the
possibility of what once was a scarcely less threatening danger-the
sheriff's hammer-we may reasonably calculate to have many more
precious family papers, records, and memorials confided to us, which
though they may not illustrate such names as Washington or Jay, rarely,
and only at long intervals vouchsafed to any nation, shall yet teach the
coming ages that GOD, and therefore Truth, is in History, and Virtue and




20
Patriotism  in public men.  It is a great trust to be the depository of
such materials; what we see before us is the sure warrant that the trust'
is well reposed, and will be faithfully fulfilled.
Rev. Dr. WILLIAM  ADAMS, being called upon, responded
as follows:
REMARKS OF REV. DOCTOR ADAMS.
I am somewhat startled, Mr. President, at the formality of your call,
at this stage of the proceedings, since I had entered the hall with the
expectation of being a listener, rather than a speaker. I had, indeed,
passed my word that I would be present, and that if the occasion should
require, I would say a word, by meeting any necessity of the case; but
I must confess that the bait which lured me into this hall was the expectation of listening to the distinguished speakers of the evening, especially the promise of hearing Mr. Irving, and Mr. Verplanck, the original founders of this Society.
The researches of the antiquary and the labors of the historian have
always, with minds of a certain order, been the theme of satire. Even
such a man as Dr. JoHNSON confessed to no patience with history.
He would not even read the elaborate works of HUME and ROBERTSON;
and on one occasion he positively forbade Mr. BOSWELL ever to mention in his presence again the Punic War.  He ridiculed BEAUCLERC,
and other members of the Kit-Cat Club, for what they reported as having seen in foreign travel. Yet the mind of Dr. JOHNSON was precisely
of that order which would have been benefited by the more copious induction of facts derived from history and travel. How different was it
with Dr. PALEY, who, with his bob-wig and round hat, was the very
impersonation of bonhommie,-who requested a friend, when going upon
foreign travel, to bring back, he cared not how common a thing, " if it
was nothing but an old shoe, or an old smock," which would illustrate
the manners and condition of a people.
After all that we say of the dignity of history, it is the small, the
common, and the humble, which give us a correct idea of existing
society. No better illustration of this can be afforded than the letters
of Dr. JOHNSON to Mrs. THRALE. In his letters from  the Hebrides,
we have a perfect picture of the manners of that isolated people. We
see the very things that they eat, their dirty habits, the comfortless
apartments in which they slept; and it seems now to have gleamed
upon the mind of that old man himself, that it might have been better
for him  if, at an earlier period of his life, he had not been so restricted




21
to the habits of Englishmen, and that he had himself given more attention to history and foreign travel.
A little incident like the advertisement in a paper, than which nothing can be more common or insignificant, may give to us a correct
illustration of the state of society. In our own archives there is a file of
the Boston News-Letter, the oldest newspaper published upon this continent. Cast your eye over its pages, and you will be convinced that
that smutty chronicle is the index of the greatest revolutions of Providence.  On the 13th of November, 1732, you find an advertisement
which reads as follows:
" This day, at 4 o'clock, will be sold at public vendue, at the Snn Tavern, a parcel of red and blue muslins, perpets, and threads, for the Guinea
Trade. Also. three or four very likely negroes, just arrived. All to be
seen at the place of sale."
The African slave trade in the city of Boston, a little more than
one century ago! A good thing would it be for us to be more familiar
with these historic facts, that we may sprinkle our fervor with a little
cool patience.  SHEM, HAM, and JAPHET, instead of pelting one another
with mutual recriminations, would do well to consult those earlier facts
of history, and, with forbearance and sympathy, cast the mantle of charity over the nakedness of our common ancestors..
Ask any intelligent traveller, returning from  the Old to the New
World, what are those objects which have awakened in his mind the
greatest interest, and he will inform you, not always those things which
are regarded great and noble in the judgment of common men, so much
as those things, often simple, humble, and insignificant in themselves,
which stand related to the great discoveries of science, the great achievements of liberty, and the general progress of the human race; not always those stupendous piles of architecture, whose grandeur and decorations have exhausted the wealth of centuries; not always the sceptres
and crowns and regalia of kings, which have been worn often by men
and women whom no gold or gems could adorn; not so much the abbeys
and cathedrals, in whose long and solemn aisles repose the ashes of the
mighty dead-the few good among the many bad.  He will tell you
of such things as the cottage near the city of Genoa, the birth-place
of CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, on the front of which is inscribed these
words:
"Unus erat mundus; duo sint, ait iste:-fuere."
"There was one world-there may be two," said he.  It is the house
of GALILEO, at Florence, containing his scientific implements, and




22
among them that little Dutch telescope, with which this great " Columbus of the Heavens," as he has been called, made his first researches in
the firmament.  It is the little lamp which still hangs in the Cathedral
at Pisa, the oscillation of which first put in motion the mind of that
great philosopher concerning the laws of the pendulum  and the measurement of time.  It is the pulpit of JOHN KNOX, in the Antiquary's
Hall at Edinburgh,-plain, stout, and oaken,-in which that noble reformer thundered out his denunciations against religious despotism; and
by the side of it, the stool which JENNIE GEDDES flung at the head of
the Dean of Edinboro', when, lending himself a tool to royal oppression, he dared to curtail the liberty of worship in God's people  a singular projectile, but the signal shot of a great revolution! It is that
little bit of plaster in one of the cells of the Towel of London, which you
cannot read but with a suffused eye, on which are scratched, as with a
nail, by some noble martyr for the truth, these verses of scripture:
" Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.
HIe that continueth unto the end, the same shall be saved."
It is the little Latin Bible belonging to Martin Luther inscribed all
over with marginal notes, in the handwriting of that great Reformer,
brought by Gustavus Vasa, and now in the Royal Museum  of Stockhohn, the lever by which in his own lifetime that stalwart hero prised up
fifty millions of people to light and liberty.
Those are the things which are truly great, though small in themselves, because they are associated in every mind with the progress of
the human race in knowledge and in fieedom.
If there be importance attached to such objects in foreign lands, how
much more important are similar objects in our own.  A collection of
newspapers, of pamphlets, orations, sermons, may be regarded in themselves as entirely valueless; but they serve to preserve to us a perfect
picture of times that are past, more faithful often than the largest folios.
We have all been under the impression that injustice has been done
to many of the events and personages of American history, through
the prejudice of foreign historians.  No better illustration can we have
than the different feelings which prevail in regard to two distinguished
parties who figured during the American Revolution upon opposite sides
of that great contest-Major Andr6 of the British army, and Captain
Hale, of our own.  What man, woman, or child that ever read the
touching fate of Andre, who has not been moved to a genial sympathy?
Gallant, educated, accomplished, he met the fate of a soldier, amid the
tears of those who executed him.  Hlow few are acquainted with the




23
history and the fate of Capt. Hale! Educated at Yale College, accomplished in person and manners, high in the confidence of his military
superiors, he volunteered to accomplish a nobler service than his
British contemporary, and met his fate with a nobler self-possession and
courage.  Requesting writing materials on the morning of his execution,
that he might address a farewell line to his mother and sisters, he was
denied that facility by the provost of the British army, who said that he
"did not intend the rebels should ever know that they had so brave a
man in their body;" and when he saw the fatal gallows erected, here in
Chambers-street of our own city, instead of flinching, he said his only
regret was that he had not more than one life to lay down for the good
of his country. Yet no Metropolitan monument is reared to his honor
on the spot where he fell, though the remains of Andre sleep beneath
sculptured marble in Westminster Abbey.
It is a pious duty devolving upon us, to render justice to the deeds
of our fathers.  Let us dig up their statues from the sand and rubbish
where they have fallen, and place them  upon their proper pedestals:
Hamilton in Wall street; the incorruptible Jay in our City Iall; all
the civil and military heroes of our annals: let us study their calm and
serious features, and copy whatever was noble or good in their example.
However it may be with other people, we are the last who can afford to forego the advantage of antiquarian and historical research. It
was a remark made by Dr. Chalmers: —" One thing I should not like
in America: I should not like your raw and recent population. I love
to feel, when I am walking here in Edinboro', that I am  treading on
the same stanes with my ancestors."
In breaking away from the old world, tearing ourselves from  the
old universities, from those ancient parks,' With their sylvan honors of feudal bark,"
with all that has been consecrated by the lapse of time-we are in
danger of losing our reverence for that which is old, and attaching
ourselves exclusively to that which is new.  Ours, indeed, is not a recent history.  Most cordially do I sympathize with the remark made by
the accomplished historian and orator (Mr. Bancroft), who ha; preceded
me, that we have an indefeasible claim  in all of British life and history. We have not lost our pedigree by being translated across the sea.
There is no bend of illegitimacy in our national escutcheon. The fame
of Milton and Spenser and Shakspeare belongs to us as much as to any




24
Englishman. They who still retain possession of the ancestral isle have no
prescriptive claim to those crown jewels of English literature. Their blood
is our own.  Nevertheless, we do well to guard ourselves against those
influences that might affect us, from familiarity with that which is recent
and novel. Let us reverently regard whatever is old, and fixed, and
stable.  Let us not swing loose from the anchorage of historic association. Rather let us cultivate that wisdom which, forming an accurate
judgment of the past, and a correct horoscope of the present, shall forecast those noble anticipations of the future which are nurtured alike by
our history and our religious faith.
Rev. GEORGE W. BETHUNE, D. D., also addressed the Society, and the Report of the Trustees was accepted.
BENJAMIN ROBERT WINTHROP, Esq., then, at the request
of the President, read the letter accompanying his donation
to the Society of the " Washington Chair," which was accepted, with the thanks of the Society.
The President announced that the Fifty-Third Anniversary of the Society would be celebrated at the Library, on
Tuesday evening, November 17th, when the Address would
be delivered by JOHN W. FRANCIS, M. D., LL. D.
The President also announced that the Library and Galleries would be open for the reception of the families of mernmbers on the following evening, Wednesday, November 4th.
The benediction was then pronounced by Rev. PETER S.
VAN PELT, D. D.
On Wednesday evening, November 4th, pursuant to.the
announcement of the President, there was a very large attendance of members accompanied by their families at the
Library. About 9 o'clock, the company having assembled
in the Lecture Room, the President took the chair, and introduced the Rev. Dr. OSGOOD, who addressed them as follows:
REMARKS OF DR. OSGOOD ON THE DOMESTIC ASPECTS OF HISTORY.
Dr. OSGOOD, on being introduced by the President, remarked, that
the assembly met now to complete the last evening's dedication, and




25
that the Society came now with their families to say Amen to the consecrating prayer, and to take possession of this new literary home. The
present occasion seemed to him to be peculiarly of a domestic character; and his words would aim to illustrate the worth of History as a
record of Humanity, in its affections as well as its politics, and in its
relations to woman as well as to man.  He was not sorry to address
an audience so richly representing the true humanity; and he did not
consider an audience of men alone to be wholly human; and perhaps
he might presume to say that an audience of women alone was no
much nearer the complete humanity which God created in his own image, when " male and female created he them."
He then invited the ladies and gentlemen present to survey with
him  the various apartments of the edifice, in a passing review, and
to interpret the building itself as the symbol of the historical creed of
the Society.
I. Begin with the Refectory, and interpret it as a symbol of sociality in its literary relations. The table surely has an historical significance; and it needed no great antiquarian learning to prove that eating
and drinking were very ancient institutions, and were likely to survive
the wreck of empires, and the changes of fashions.  With the progress
of civilization, the table rises in dignity; and the natural appetite, to
which it appeals, is refined and exalted by the intellectual and social
tastes that are concentrated and nurtured by its cheerful plenty.  The
Refectory is in the basement of our edifice; and its position teaches the
fact that agriculture, with its daily bread, is the material basis of human
welfare, and that our bread is twice blessed when partaken in generous
fellowship.  Our bread is never truly blessed unless womanly grace
smiles upon it; and here to-night, with our wives, daughters, and
friends, we accept the Refectory as the symbol of our sociality.
II. Ascend a story of the edifice, and we enter this spacious and
convenient Lecture Room, which marks the intention of the Society to
be an instrument of popular education.  Here history is to be presented, not as the interest of a few antiquarian scholars, as dry as the
dust on their folios, but as the interest of our common humanity, as a
study for all rational creatures, for youth and age, scholar and merchant, for woman and for man.  Here our monthly meetings are to
be held, and our regular historical papers are to be read.  It might,
perhaps, be expected that the more various, and especially the feminine
elements in the audience, would act favorably upon the manner and
matter of the speaking and reading; and that bright eyes, with their




26
quick intuition, would drive all dulness from  the rostrum, as sunshine
drives away the clouds.  But it must be understood that order was to
be preserved, without respect of persons; and that our President, who
could shine in parlors as well as Senates, was quite as much master of
the art of winning gentle volatility to sobriety by his bland dignity, as
of subduing unruly men to order by his manly authority.  In all soberness, it is to be hoped that this hall of audience will be one of the educational institutions of the city.
IIT. The Library is our symbol of history, as literature, and of literature, in all its compass, as the record of the affections as well as of the
understanding.  History has been too often poorly interpreted into a
register of dates, upon a tomb of relics of the dead.  It should be regarded as the record of human  life in all its compass; and our new
library, with its admirable arrangements, and large hospitality, fitly expresses this idea.  It is well that the Library is open to woman as well
as to man; and this fact will tend to give a truer expression to our historical treasures, and show, ere long, what dry antiquarians have too
often forgotten, that there is a line of white ribbon as well as of red
tape running through the looms of time.  We have, on our front wall,
the head of Herodotus, the father of history.  Where is the mother of
history, or is there none?  Who is that fair head over our vestibule, the
lovely woman with a star for her diadem?  Is it a type of our America
with her vesper star, or is it Memory with her twilight retrospections,
or is it the ideal Mother of History, of whom every true womanly soul
is the loyal daughter, even as the nine muses of old were daughters of
Mnemosyne.
IV. The Picture Gallery crowns the edifice, and presents the beautiful
arts as the flower of human civilization.  Why wonder at the arrangement?  Why speak as if the beautiful were the lying paint on the
cheek of meretricious Folly, instead of the healthful bloom on the face
of Truth, that fair daughter of the Eternal Mind? Art, too, like literature, is rooted in the affections, and has its domestic side and its feminine inspirations. If few women are comparatively artists, and no woman
has ever given a masterpiece of the first class to sculpture or painting,
or to music, or eloquence, or poetry, the balance is made up, and more
too, by the fact that the masterpieces of men have, for the most part,
been inspired by women, and that, as with DANTE, SO with most great
artists, woman is man's Beatrice, the genius of his inspirations.
Mention was here made of the worth of the beautiful arts to human
welfare; and it was said that as the French naturalist, ADANSON, asked




in his will that a wreath made of the fifty-eight classes of plants which
he had established by his own researches might be laid upon his coffin;
so we have laid upon this, not tomb, but temple of history, a garland of
flowers of art, whose enlivening and healing grace shall be the blessing
of generations to come. COLE'S Course of Empire was spoken of, and
the artist was called the EDMUND SPENSER of American art.
The address, which was nearly an hour long, and is here presented
only in outline, closed with some reference to the fitness of the season
for the opening of this edifice.  At this time of commercial depression,
it was good for us to think of the old times of trial, and strengthen our
too effeminate manners by a little of the ancient manliness under
misfortune.  Read the year'57 backwards, and it is'75, and speaks
to us of the school of Revolutionary heroes.  In this dark time, we light
up this beautiful hall of history, and in the cheering ray N\e brighten
all solemn remembrances with the radiance of cheerful and progressive hopes.
After some remarks by Gen. PROSPER AM. WETMORE, the
company retired.