Yale University Library

39002004296696

YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

OLD NEW YORK.

Historical Discourse.

OLD NEW YORK^

OR,

Reminiscences of the Past
Sixty Years.
BEING
AN ENLARGED AND REVISED EDITION
OF THE
Anniversary Discourse
DELIVERED BEFORE
The New York Historical Society,
(November 17, 1857,)
BY
John W. Fbancis, M. D., LL. D.

NEW YORK :
CHARLES ROE, 697 BROADWAY.
1858.

Entebed, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, by
SAMUEL -W. FEANCIS,
In the Clerk's OfBce of the District Court of the United States for the
Southern District of New York.

PKEF ACE,

The continued demand for this Discourse, and
the interest expressed in its general scope and
aim, have induced the author to prepare a new
edition, the original one having been exhausted
shortly after its publication. He has improved
the opportunity thus afforded, to make several
additions, some of which, he trusts, wiU be found
to add materially to the biographical data, and
others to augment the record of incidents which
have marked the annals of the city.
It win be observed that, as in the first edi
tion, these additions have a relation more or less
immediate, with the origin and progress of the
New York Historical Society : the plan of the
Discourse, therefore, at first adopted, has in no

PREFACE.

manner been changed. The numerous occur
rences which have characterized the history of
the metropolis, during the period under con
sideration, however briefly told, might fiU vol
umes, but such an undertaking is left for others
to perform. The social movements of a city which,
from time to time, engage the attention of the peo
ple, betray something, at least, of the phases which
illustrate the actual state of society at the period :
with this view farther notices are given of Eccle
siastical affairs ; the Dramatic incidents have been
enlarged ; some account has been inserted of
Clubs — friendly, social, patriotic, and literary ;
some details have been given of the advancement
of the Fine Arts among us ; and to that pro
fession to which the affections of the author have
ever been most inclined, he has added particulars
which may serve as a guide to the future Med
ical historian : a brief parallel drawn between the
New York of Sixty Years Ago, and its present
commanding attitude, closes this humble volume.
There is one practical inference which the in
terest expressed in these Eeminiscences justifies :
it is, that our local historians have a great duty to
perform, in rescuing from oblivion and recording

PEEFACB. 7
with emphasis and completeness, the history of the
men, the measures, and the events which render
our native State and City illustrious. Compare
the full annals of the smallest New England town
with the fragmentary and meagre chronicles which
describe the scenes and characters of this State
and Metropolis. Gouverneur Morris eloquently as
serted the claim of New York to original and in
stinctive aspirations for Liberty, a fact which some
of our eastern brethren, those prolific votaries of
the pen, have either ignored or traced to a Puritan
origin ; and a younger, but not less patriotic son
of our State, Charles F. Hoffman, was justly indig
nant that two of her noblest children owe their
renown to New England historians. " Children
of commerce," says Gouverneur Morris, " we were
rocked in the cradle of war, and sucked the prin
ciples of liberty with our mother's milk."
Should any hint contained in these pages, in
duce those who have more leisure and as much
attachment to New York as the author, to expand
into a full and finished narrative, the story which is
now told but in outline and episode, a fond wish
of his heart wiU be gratified. It only remains to
add, that having revised and enlarged what he had

8

PEEFACB.

the honor to submit to the Historical Society, he
trusts it will now be found more worthy of the
unexpected favor with which it was originally re
ceived by the public.
J. W. F.
March 30, 1868.

INTEODUCTION

It was considered desirable, on the occasion of in
augurating the new and beautiful edifice erected by
the liberal contributions of the merchants and profes
sional gentlemen of this city, for the permanent de
posit 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 reminis
cences, 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 accoimt of the intimate relations he sus
tained to many prominent citizens in all departments
of Ufe and vocation. Alive to the earnestly expressed
wishes of his feUow-members, and cherishing a deep
interest in the annals and prosperity of his native city,
1*

10 INTEODUCTION.
whUe he found the task accordant with his sympathies,
he yet felt that the absorbmg 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 may be in
his power, at a future time, to enlarge the record of
local facts and individuaUties associated with the un
precedented growth of New York, since and imme
diately preceding the formatipn of her Historical So
ciety. 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, there is every
reason to hope that our new and extensive arrange
ments win secure a large accession of valuable mate
rials. Yet those members who bear in recollection
the vast changes which have occurred within the pe
riod of our existence as an association, need not be
told that the original landmarks and features of the
metropohs have been either greatly modified or en
tirely destroyed ; whUe carelessness, or the neglect of

INTRODUCTION. 11
family memorials, renders it .extremely diflScult to re
produce, with vital interest, even the illustrious per
sons 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 wiU 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 re
garded as an historical duty, and felt it to be a labor
of love.
J. W. F.
New York, November 17, 1857.

At a meeting of the NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY,
held at t?ie Library, on Tiiesday evening, November 17, 1857,
to celebrate the Fifty-Third Anniversary of the founding of
tlie Society, —
Dr. John W. Francis delivered its Anniversary Address, en
titled, " New York during the Last Half Century."
On its conclusion the Rev. Francis L. Hawks, D. D., LL. 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 re-
quested for publication.
The resolution was seconded by Chablbs Kino, LL. D., and
was then unanimously adopted.
Extract from the minutes.
ANDREW WARNER,
Recording Secretary.

HISTOEICAL DISCOURSE.
Honored Peesident and Associates of the
New York Historical Society :
What a contrast 1 This meeting of the New
York Historical Society and that which was held
now some fifty years ago. Ponder awhile 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 Cortlandt
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 Broad
way, 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

14 HISTORICAL discourse.
to horticultural products, with here and there the
artichoke, the tulip, and the sun-flower. Where
now stand our Astor Library, the MercantUe Li
brary, the New York Medical College, the Acade
my of Music, the Medical University of the State,
Cooper's Institute, and the Bible Society House,
the old gardens of our Dutch ancestors were most
abundant, cultivated with something of the artis
tic regularity of t^e 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 Eiver, or else
where obtained, on the Connecticut, in mighty
rafts, destined for naval architecture and house
building. Our avenues, squares, and leading roads,
were not yet laid out by Morris, Clinton, and
Kutherfard, and our street regulations in paving
and sidewalks, even in those passes or high
ways 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 circum
scribed, 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

EARLY RESIDENCES. 15
should be composed of red stone, inasmuch as it
was not likely to attract much notice fi'om 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, and the
Kennedy House, now converted into the Wash
ington Hotel, No. 1 Broadway, an object of singu
lar interest. During the Kevolution it was occu
pied by Howe and Clinton. Here Andr^ com
menced his correspondence with Arnold ; and here
John Pintard held an interesting conversation
with Andr^ on their respective claims to Hugue
not 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, subsequently 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, observed the stone
dwelling, situated at the lower part of Broad
way, once occupied by Governor Jay ; the man
sion of Governor George Clinton, of revolutionary
renown, situated near the North Eiver, at the
termination of Thirteenth street ; Colonel Kutgers'
somewhat sequestered retreat, near the head of
Cherry street, where Franklin sometimes took a

16 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
patriotic meal ; the Hero of Fort Stanwix, Colo
nel WUlett's humble cottage in the vicinity;
General Gates' ample establishment higher up
near Twenty-fourth street, overlooking the banks
of the East Eiver, where Baron Steuben, Colonel
Burr, and many other actors of the War, partici
pated in the festivities, so amply provided by the
host, with song and sentiment. The famous
Club of the Belvidere, on the banks of the East
Eiver, is also entitled to commemoration : at its
head was Atkinson : 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 on the
East Eiver banks, where British Officers rendez
voused, in revolutionary times ; where Sir Wil
liam 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 to the Beekman House recently
stood the ample Green House, where Nathan Hale,
called the spy, was examined by Lord Howe, and,
as such, executed on the following morning, meet
ing his fate with heroism, and regretting that he
had but one life to lose for his country.
Eminently conspicuous in former days was the
Mansion, located on Eichmond Hill, near Lispe-
nard's Meadows, at the junction of Varick and

EICHMOND HILL.  BUER. 17
Van Dam streets, then an elevated and command
ing 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, the chief 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 Hfe and in his devotion to New
York, could give you a curious account of the en
joyments 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 haUs occa
sionally resounded with the merriment which gen
erous cheer inspires ; yet at other times, and more
fi-equently, philosophy here sat enthroned amidst
her worshippers. Here TaUeyrani, who in the

18 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
morning had discoursed on the tariff with Hamil
ton, passed perhaps the afternoon of the same
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 repubhc, 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 Gen
eral 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 toward
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

HAMILTON.  CITY HOTEL. 19
domicile on Eichmond HUl, and was luxuriating
in his wonted bath, with Eousseau'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 Histori
cal Society were contemplated, and about to be
incorporated by legislative wisdom.
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 docu
ments 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 meet
ings ; 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 coun
tenance, and Euterpe first patronized Italian mu
sic in this country, under the acconiplished disci
pline 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, about the year 1800,
thus supplanting the old Dutch tile of the Hol
landers, in use from the beginning of their dynas
ty among us.
Our museums were limited to the one kept by

20 HISTORICAL DISOOUESB.
old Gardener Baker, himself and his coUection a
sort of curiosity shop, composed of heterogeneous
fragments of the several kmgdoms of nature.
Hither childish ignorance was sometimes lost in
wonder, and hero too was the philosopher occa
sionally enlightened. Scudder did not lay the
foundation of his patriotic enterprise until five
years after our incorporation, and although his be
ginning 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 VauxhaU 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 efficacy, (for we had
not the use of calium or strontium in these artis
tic displays in those days,) yelled the war-whoop
and danced the war-dance, while our learned Dr.
MitchiQ, often present on these occasions, trans
lated their songs for the advancement of Indian
literature, and enriched the journals with ethno
logical science concerning our primitive inhab
itants. The Indian Queen and Tyler's were gardens of
much resort, situated toward the Greenwich side
of our city : at the former military evolutions
were often displayed to the satisfaction of the

kip's farm. 21
famous French general, Moreau, with Generals
Stevens and Morton among the staff as official
inspectors, while Tyler's is still held in remem
brance, by some few surviving graduates of Co
lumbia College, as the resort for commencement
suppers. I shall advert to only one other site,
which, though in days gone by not a public gar
den, 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 rosacece. Here the ^Ufe
often repaired, as did good old Dr. Johnson and
BosweU for recreation at Eanelagh ; and here our
Washingtqji, now invested with presidential hon
ors, made an excursion, and was presented with
the Eosa Galhca,. an ei^otic 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 were Newtown
and Blackwell's Island for the apple, known to aU
horticulturists, abroad and at home, as the New
town pippin. Such things were. No traces are
now to be found of the scenes of those once grati
fying sights ; the havoc of progressive improve
ment has left nought of these once fertile gardens

22 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
of Dutch regularity, save the old pear tree of the
farm of the redoubtable Peter Stuyvesant, well
known as still flourishing in foliage and in fruit,
in its 220th year, at the comer of Thirteenth
street and Third Avenue. If tradition be^ true,
the biographer of this venerable tree, in his ac
count, 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 exist
ence 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 mer
chant 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 comer of Moore
(so called after his demise by the corporation) and

WHITE HALL. — BOWLING GREEN. 23
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 street. It is scarcely
pecessary to add, that this great edifice was de
stroyed by the fire which laid waste the city in
September, 1776, three days after the British ob
tained 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,
nort^iem, and many southern States. Their in
troduction 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 every thing 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

24 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
we find that American sagacity has proscribed its
growth, and is daUy eradicating it as uncongemal
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 HaU, inasmuch as artistic taste and
corporation sacrilege caused the cutting down of
the more conspicuous and beautiful trees, the syca
mores, the maple, the wahiut, and the Babylo
nian willows of the growth of ages, which consti
tuted 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 (Incus 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 modem glorifica
tion, by the far-famed meeting of the tens of
thousands opposed to the madness of party strife,
at which the venerable Colonel Few presided,
aided by John Pintard as secretary,' to enter their
protest against the unhallowed legislative pro
scription in 1824.
At the period to which our associations are
mainly confined, Washington Square, which a wise

potter's field. 25
forethought of our city fathers some time since
converted into an eligible park, was not then con
templated. 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 resting-place
on earth, regardless of his massive gains, or his
public services. I shall only specify one individ
ual whose humble tombstone was the last of the
sepulchral ornaments removed thence : I allude to
Dr. Benjamin Perkins, the inventor of the metal
lic tractors, a charlatan, whose mesmeric delu
sions, 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. Not many
years had elapsed, after the formation of this ex
tensive park, ere its adjacent grounds were en
riched by the erection of that prominent marble
edifice, the New York University, through the
liberality of the friends of learning, and the instru-
mentahty of the Eev. Dr. James M. Matthews,
subsequently created its first Chancellor. St.
John's Park, now richly entitled to that designa
tion from the philosophy of the vegetable econo
my which was evinced at its laying-out, in the
selection, association, and distribution of its trees,
2

26 HISTOEICAL DISCOUKSE.
by the late Louis Simond, the distinguished trav-
eUer and artist, (for the vegetable as weU 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 incorpo
ration. 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 Sam
uel B. Euggles entitled to the meed of approba
tion 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 en
larged forecast during his public career in mu
nicipal, equally effective as he had evinced in
state affairs. How well grounded this assertion is,
can easily be comprehended by any one who reads
the public document on this great subject. The
forethought and capacity of Mr. Euggles are mani
fested throughout. All his measures on the various
movements from time to time recommended even
by most intelligent individuals, and his prophetic
declarations on the enlargement of the canal, and
the early and convenient completion of the great
work, may be cited as characteristic of a strong
and comprehensive intelligence. The State has

EUGGLES.  UNION PLAGE. 27
indeed at times been disfigured by the prejudices
and mental inaptitudes of such governors as Yates
and Bouck, but the period is at hand, under the
administration of Governor King, when the canal
boat of two hundred and twenty tons will find a
practical navigation through the whole range of
this mighty channel, in place of the eighty and
ninety ton boats, accommodated to the capacity of
the original work. The memorable vessel in
which Columbus discovered America, was only of
one hundred and ten tons burden.* '
The equestrian statue of Washington, exe
cuted 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. Colonel Lee had assiduously collected
a subscription for this successful statue ; among
others, towards the close of his labors, he honored
* See the Progress of the city of New York for the last fifty
years; a Lecture delivered before the Mechanics' Society, by
Charles King, LL.D., President of CJolumbia College. Among
other most interesting matters, it contains a noble tribute to the
large and sagacious views of Mr. Ruggles and his enlightened
patriotism. The commercial metropohs of the Union can never
forget those master minds who have so effectively promoted her
great scheme oC internal improvement : their names are ever to
be cherished as household words.

28 HISTOEICAL DISCOURSE.
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 hve in yours ? " " Truly, he does," was
the reply. "Then," added the colonel, "I am
sorry, very sorry, that he occupies so mean a tene
ment." I trust I am not vulnerable to the charge of
diverging too far from an even path, iato every
field that may skirt the road, if, while on the sub
ject 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 Bo
tanic Garden, founded by the late Dr. David
Hosack, in 1801, and at the period of our incor
poration, justly pronounced an object of deep in
terest 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 indige
nous botany, or as a repository of the most pre
cious exotics. The eminent projector of this dis-

ELGIN BOTANIC GARDEN. 29
tuiguished garden, with a princely munificence,
had made these grounds a resort for the admirers
of nature's vegetable wonders, and for the stu
dents 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 Linnasus, or a Jussieu ; and here,
indeed, a Michaux, and a Barton, a MitchiU, a
Doughty, a Pursh, a Wilson, or a Le Conte, often
repaired to solve the doubts of the cryptogamist,
or to confirm the nuptial theory of VaiUant.*
* Several of these distinguished disciples of the school of wis
dom 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
Americse Septentrionalis. His adventurous spirit, his hazardous
daringj and his indomitable energy, presept 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 " Ameri
can Pines," afforded him great aid in the production of his vol
umes, 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 emi
nent man, recently given to the public in the " Transactions of the
American Philosophical Society," by Elias Dcrand, of Philadel
phia, himself a lover of botanical science, is a most grateful tribute
to the character and merits of this intrepid explorer of the Ameri
can soil. Michaux was the only child of AndriS Michaux, rendered
no less famous by his " Oaks of North America," and by his " Flo
ra," than the son by his " Forest Trees." Young Michaux, under

30 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
Here the learned Hosack, then Professor of
Botany in Columbia College, gave iUustrations to
his medical class, and to many not exactly withm
the circle of professional life, of the natural and
artificial systems of nature. I shall never forget
those earher 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 kind
ness of Monsieur Thouin, were added to the 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 festi-
parental guidance, was early initiated" into the cultivation of bo
tanical pursuits ; the story of his hfe, as given us by Mr. Duraud;
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 ar
boriculture, which the instrumentality of Michaux has effected.
He lived a long life, notwithstanding his innumerable perils, dying
so late as ia October, 1855, at the age of 85 years. Every Ameri
can 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 ia
still involved in obscurity. We know little of him save that our
botanical catalogue is enriched with the "Pinus Douglassii."
Greater merits, and more modesty, were never blended in one
individual.

DAVID HOSACK. 31
val. " I must let the class see," said the teacher,
" that we are practical as weU as theoretical : the
fragaria is a most appropriate aliment : Linnaeus
cured his gout and protracted his life by strawber
ries." " They are a dear 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 de
sires in the breast of his pupil Torrey for natural
knowledge, he might be acknowledged a public
benefactor, from the subsequent brilKant 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 L.
Jussieu, 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 adven
turous 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.

32 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
Hosack, the botanical nomenclature enrolls no less
than sixteen species of plants of different regions
under the genus Hosachia. Time a,nd circum
stances have wrought great changes in this once
celebrated place, the Elgin Garden.
Pleasing .as might be the theme, I can only
make a brief allusion to one other spot, which has
peculiar claims to notice, derived from many cir
cumstances. I mean the Grange, once occupied
as the seat or country residence of the lamented
Hamilton, and now belonging to the property of
the late W. G. Ward, a name of revolutionary re
nown. This beautiful retreat is about eight miles
from the city, and some one or two miles from
Manhattanville, on high ground, and commanding
a view both of the East and North rivers. It is
especially to be noted as remaining little or in no
wise altered from the condition in which it was
held by the patriotic soldier and statesman : it
has been kept in wholesome preservation for half
a century, and stiU remains unmolested by the
spirit of improvement. The thirteen gum trees,
with their characteristic star leaf, forming a beau
tiful coppice, stiU stand before the door of the
mansion, as originally planted by Hamilton him
self, in token of the union and perpetuity of the
original thirteen States of the American republic
— an association deeply fixed in the heart of the
exalted patriot. On these grounds were often

COLUMBIA COLLEGE. 33
seen, in his latter days, in his morning and eve
ning wanderings, the celebrated ornithologist, Au
dubon, whose zeal in natural history and rural
affairs abated not a jot in his extremest age and
feebleness. Columbia College, that venerable and venera
ted seat of classical learning, was justly proud of
her healthy and beautiful locality, laved almost up
to the borders of her foundation by the fiowing
streams of the Hudson, and ornamented by those
majestic sycamores planted by the Crugers, the
Murrays, and the Jays, fifty years before our in
corporation, but which city progress has .recently
BO agonizingly rooted out. Well might Cowen, in
his Tractate on Education, have extoUed this once
delectable spot as an appropriate seat for intellec
tual ciilture 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 tes
timony to the cordial support which that body
gave to our institution at its inception. The be
nignant Bishop Moore was its president ; Dr.
Kemp, a strong mathematician, ably filled several
departments of science ; impulsive and domineer-

34 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
ing 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 pro
mulgated that he gave early bints of the practica
bility 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 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 Philos
ophy, was a courteous gentleman, a refined scholar,
and a belles-lettres writer. Like many others of
a similar type, his controversial pen carried pun
gency with its ink, while in personal contact with
his opponents, his cautious and modulated utter
ance neither ruffled the temper nor invoked vehe
mence in reply. Professor McVickar, 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

PETER WILSON. 35
an occasional address with the fidelity and attrac
tiveness of the limner'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 ex
positor. 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 hardi
hood when he attempted to unfold the beauties of
the Sapphic Ode. He was enamored of Josephus
and the history of the Jews, and recreated in the
narrative of that 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 Israelites ; and it is affirmed,
he secured, after years of effort, one at least, with
in the sheepfold of Calvinistic divinity. Dr. Wil
son, though cramped with dactyls and spondees.

36 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
was generous in his nature, of kindly feelmgs, 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 stiQ rarer, that so conscien
tious 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.
WhUe I feel that that noticeable asterisk prefixed
to the names of her departed sons wiU 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 na
tion. 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 uni
formly enforced with a fixed determination, clas
sical and mathematical acquisitions, without
which a retrograde movement in intellectual disci
pline and in practical pursuits must take place.
While I accede to this indubitable truth, I may
prove skeptical of the often repeated assertion of
,* Charles Anthon, LL.D.

COLUMBIA COLLEGE. 37
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 Co
lumbia 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, be
come more and more prevalent. Her statutes as
sure 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 devel
opment of the normal condition. The apician
dishes of the ancients did not always prove condi-
mental, and the rising glory of an independent
people, not yet of her own age, has need of, 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 ven
erable 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 off ; she has found relief in the quickened

38 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
spirit of the times, and in the doings of those in
tellectual bodies which surround her, and which
modern science has called into being. Let me, an
humble individual, venture to give her the assur
ances of a mighty population, in whose midst she
stands, that the learned and the enlightened, the
honest and the true, of every quarter, hail her ad
vent in unmeasured accents of praise. In the
moral, in the scholastic, in the scientific world, her
friends rise up to greet her with warmest approba
tion ; 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 bene
fits. 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 de
stroy 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
foUy. 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 habUiments 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

COLUMBIA COLLEGE. 39
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 (5n educa
tion, 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, he were nothing so
much to be esteemed a learned man, as any yeo- '
man or tradesman completely wise in his mother's
dialect." Yet ages have rolled on since this orac
ular 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 re
marks of those two illustrious graduates of old
Columbia, Gouverneur Morris and De Witt Clin
ton, on the subjects most important in a course of
coUegiate 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 physi-

40 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
cal and mechanical sciences : both concurred m
opinion that a professorship of cookery was indis
pensable to secure health and longevity to the
people. But these philosophers had only recently
returned from their exploratory tour to thq West,
as canal commissioners, to decide upon the route
for the Erie Canal, and, though at times enlivened
by the society of Jemima Wilkinson, must, as I
conjecture, have fared indifferently at that period
in their journey through that almost untrodden
wilderness. From the period when the Abb6 Haiiy unfold
ed the theory of crystallography, 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 MUton 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 ad
mire the invisible. What, then, is to be the na
ture 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

COLUMBIA COLLEGE. 41
kindred branches prefer her claims to considera
tion 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, McCuUoh 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
etemal difference between things profane and
things holy, let the fountain be ever open from
which flows that wisdom imparted by your vener
able instructor, McVickar, for the benefit of in
genuous youth in aU after life.
In the range of human pursuits, there is no
avocation so grateful to the feelings as that of un
folding 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 deco
rating the temple of the immortal mind ; he is re
fining 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 has reared, and who have exerted an

42 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
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 co-operate
effectively in the reformation of abuses which time
had ahmost made venerable, and delight in the
glorious undertaking, fortified in the councils of a
benignant Providence, of rearing to fuU stature a
University commensurate with the enlarged poh-
cy 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 Eoman 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 : they now,
with the Germans, have eighteen. The Epis
copal denomination had seven churches, they now
have forty-nine. The Baptists had three, they
now boast thirty. But I can proceed no further

JOHN PINTARD.  CHURCHES. 43
in these details. When I published an account of
New York and its institutidns in 1832,* we had
one hundred and twenty-three places of public
worship : our aggregate at this time approaches
three hundred, of which we may state that sixty
are of the Dutch Eeformed and Presbyterian de
nominations, and forty of the Methodists. As I
dismiss the churches, I am also compelled to omit
almost aU 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 dere
lict 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
* Brewster's Edinburgh Eucyclopsedia.

44 "- HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
saddest bereavement. I state these facts, lest m
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 Evangeli
cal German Lutheran Church. He officiated in
the old stone edifice corner of Frankfort and Wil
liam streets ; he was the successor of Muhlen-
burg, who afterwards was the president of the
convention that ratified the Constitution, and
speaker of the House of Eepresentatives. His
political career is rendered memorable by his cast
ing vote in behalf of Jay's treaty. As little is
said of Kunze in the books, I may state, that he
was a native of Saxony, was born in 1744, edu
cated 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 Lu
theran churches St. Michael and Zion's in Phila
delphia. In 1784 he accepted a call from the
Evangelical Lutheran church in WUliam, corner
of Frankfort street, as stated. Here he officiated
until his death in 1807. He held the professor
ship of Oriental Languages in Columbia College,
from 1784 to 1787, and from 1792 to 1795.
While Kunze occupied his ecclesiastical tmst, a
struggle arose to do away the German and substi-

C. 0. KUNZE. 45
tute 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 in
tensity 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 from 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 contin
uance of the life of Franklin, and who then sunk
into the grave by an insidious consumption,
Kunze was versed in astronomy, and was some
thing 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 Grego
rian period of the century 1800, and published a
* PubUshed by Hurtin & Commardinger. New York : John
Tiebout; 12mo, 1796.

46 HISTOEICAL DISCOUESB.
Sermon entitled "Kmg Solomon's great sacrifice,"
delivered at the dedication of the English Lu
theran Zion Church, October 4, 1801. It demon
strates 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 growth
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 Catechism found a translator in the
Eev. George Strebeck, and Luther's black-letter
Bible yielded to James's, (the English,) the Ger
man Theatre, with Kotzebue at its head, was now
beginning to find among us readers, and actors in
an English dress ; and WiUiam Dunlap, and
Charles Smith, a bookseller in Pearl street, (after
wards better known for his invaluable Military
Eepository, on the American Eevolution,) and the
Eev. H. P. Will,* fumished materials for the act
ing 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,*'
* This accomphshed man, after but a short stay in New York,
returned to Europe, where, in 1799, he published in London, in
two volumes octavo, a Translation of Knigge's Practical Philoso
phy of Social Life.

JOHANNES D. GEOS. 47
or were embodied in Thompson's translations of
the German Theatre.
It was just about this period, 1795-6, that
Dominie Johannes Daniel Gros, a preacher of the
Eeformed 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. He had
been a pupH of Kern, and he became the instruc-
-tor of the accomplished Milledoler. His praises
were on every lip, and here and there is still a liv
ing graduate of Columbia College, who wiU teU
you how, under those once ornamental button-
woods, he drflled his collegiate class on Moral Phi
losophy, while the refined and classical Cochran
(hke our Anthon of these days) unfolded the
riches of the Georgics, and Kemp labored to ex
cite into action his electrical apparatus. It may
not be misplaced here to state, that it became ob
vious to the worshippers of this denomination of
Christians, that the increase of the English lan
guage among the population induced a correspond
ing dechne of the Dutch tongucj and that in order
to secure the durability of the congregation of the
North Dutch Church, it was requisite that divine
instruction should be imparted in the now fast
increasing popular language. Accordingly, the

48 HISTOEICAL DISCOUESB.
pulpit of the North Dutch Church was, in 1764,
supplied by the Eev. Dr. Laidlie, who preached
the first sermon in English in that church in the
month of March of that year. The alternate use
of the Dutch and English languages was contin
ued for a long while.
There seems to have been a mutually active
spirit among our Hollanders and their descend
ants, to preserve their cohesion by their early
adoption of the English language, and the laying
aside, but for occasional use, their native tongue-,
as well as with our German residents, in calling
early into service the English speech, for religious
devotion ; but the year 1764 is memorable for the
movements of these different bodies of Christian
worshippers in urging the importance of a stronger
hold among the people by employing the Enghsh
tongue in their devotional exercises. The Eev.
Johannes M. Kern, who by the consistory of Hei
delberg was sent thither, arrived in New York in
1763, when he assumed the pastoral office in the
German Nassau street Church, which had been
erected on the very site where the old American
Dramatic Company a few years before held their
theatrical performances. The surviving daughter
of this earnest clergyman is still among us, in
strength of mind and body, in the ninetieth year
of her age, and preserves the records of her fath
er's ministry. The Christian charities which en-

PILMOEE.  ASBUEY. 49
riched these denominations, and the harmony
which obtained among them, is demonstrated by
the fact that Kern was installed by the ministers
of the Collegiate Church. The Lutherans seem to
have been the more tardy sect in seeking the ad
vantages of English preaching for the benefit of
their flock. The last of our theological wor
thies who used the language of Holland in
the ministry, was the Eev. Dr. Gerardus Kuy-
pers, of the Dutch Eeformed Church. He died
in 1833. But I forbear to trespass upon the
interesting Memorial of the Dutch Church, re
cently 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 coun
try, sent out by John Wesley : Pilmore was a
stentorian orator. The latter, Asbury, was dele
gated 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 the days
of Oglethorpe. Pilmore finally took shelter in the
* See that valuable record, " A Discourse dehvered in the
North Reformed Dutch Church, (Collegiate,) in the city of New
York, on the last Sabbath in August, 1856. By Thomas De Witt,
D. D., one of the Ministers of the Collegiate Eeformed Dutch
Church. New York, 1857.
3

50 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
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 prin
ciples, 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 hfe when I knew them. Pilmore
sustained a wholesome rubicundity ; Asbury ex
hibited traces of great care and a fixed pallor, in
the service of his Master.
I win 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 lis-

THOMAS COKE. 51
tened 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 some
what more portly. He had a keen visage, which
his aquiline nose made the more decided, yet
with his ample wig and triangular hat he bore an
impresssive personnel. His indomitable zeal and
devotion were manifest to all. An Oxford scholar,
a clever author, and glowing with devotional fer
vor, his shrill voice penetrated the remotest part
of the assembly. He discoursed on God's provi
dence, and terminated the exercises with reading
the beautiful hymn of Addison, " The Lord my
pasture shall prepare." So distinctly enunciatory
was his manner, that he almost electrified the au
dience. 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 broad
cast land.
I should hke 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 mas-

52 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
ter 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 admi
ration and securing conviction. He was free from
dogmatism, and aimed to secure his main object,
to render 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. He filled
with acceptance every pulpit to which he was in
vited, but what was of more importance to a needy
and a struggling congregation in those days, he
filled every pew : but I desist from further details.
I introduce Bishop Provoost in this place, be
cause I think our Episcopal brethren have too
much overlooked the man,- his learning, his liberal
ity, and his 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 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 stud-

SAMUEL PROVOOST. 53
led the Linneean classification. I long ago exam
ined his copy of " Caspar Bauhin's Historia Plan-
tarum," whom, on a written leaf affixed to the first
volume, he calls the prince of botanists, and which
MS. bears date 1766. As Lieut. Gov. Colden was
the first expositor of the system of Linnaeus in
the New World, and which he taught on the
banks of the Hudson almost immediately after it
was announced by the illustrious Swede, there can
be httle doubt that harmonious discussion on so
novel and fertile a theme must have often engaged
the mental powers of these distinguished disciples
of natural knowledge. 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 rehgious order among us
who was not a royalist. 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 approba
tion of Mr. Colden, to make additional facts con
cerning the Bishop's attainments in natural sci
ence. 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

54 HISTOEICAL DISCOURSE.
transactions, and the multifarious occurrences of
this city, which have marked its progress since our
revolutionary struggle. Persons and things, indi
vidualities and corporations, literary, biographical,
ecclesiastical, and historical circumstances, muni
cipal and legislative enactments, internal and ex
ternal commerce, all these were prominent among
the number ; and his general accuracy as to per
sons and dates made him a living chronology.
During a long period of his memorable life, our
learned associate. Dr. MitchiU, held the same dis
tinction in the walks of science. Pintard's hfe
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 cal
culations. See, further, his earnest co-operation
with De Witt Clinton, Stephen Van Eensselaer,
C. D. Golden, Thomas Eddy, E. Bowne, 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

JOHN PINTARD. 55
that church to which he so early and so long had
claims as an exalted member, in effectually secur
ing the noble Sherrard bequest for the Theological
Seminary, and his successful application to George
Lorillard 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 the obstacles he en
countered 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
Eevolution were his idols, and perhaps his longest
attached and most imptirtant of this class were
Wniett, Jay, Fish, and Col. Trumbull. He often
conversed with me of his acquaintance with Wash
ington, Jefferson, Madison, Geo. Clinton, Eufus
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 Boudi-
not, as commissary-general for prisoners, he was
fully conversant, from observation, with the hor
rors of the jail and the Jersey prison ship, and he
never touched that subject that he did not revive

56 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
reminiscences of Philip Freneau, the scenes of the
old Sugar House, the hospital practice conducted
by Michaelis and Nooth, and others, on the Amer
ican prisoners in the old Dutch Church, (now
Post Office,) then appropriated to medical accom
modation, as well as for other 'purposes, by the
British army. It is familiarly known to my audi
ence that our State legislature, during the session
of 1817-18, passed a law, prepared by the Hon.
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 His
torical Society, and found his mind worried.
" You seem, sir," said I, " to be embarrassed."
" Somewhat so," replied he ; "I have just re
ceived an Albany letter requiring specific informa
tion : they are at a loss to know where Montgom
ery's bones lie. I shall be able soon to give them
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

SAMUEL MILLEE. 57
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 regard
ed for what it has done for our metropolis, and for
what it is capable of doing." My friend Dr. King
can scarcely forget Dr. Pintard in his History of
the Chamber of Commerce. This precious paint
ing of Colden is now among your historical
treasures. If a careful examination be made of the ear
her records of our Historical Society, it wUl be
seen that our founder, John Pintard, filled with
the idea of establishing this institution, most judi
ciously sought the countenance of the reverend
the clergy of this metropolis. He was alive to the
beneficial zeal employed hy Jeremy Belknap and
other divines in behalf of the Massachusetts His
torical 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 Eev. Dr. Samuel
Miller, of whom I have on several occasions spo
ken in laudatory terms, was at this period a prom
inent individual throughout the land, by the re
cent publication of his " Brief Eetrospect," which
obtained for its author the applause of both hem
ispheres. This able divine and courteous and ex
emplary character, had also announced to his
3*

58 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
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 ele
ments of Mason's constitution, and his personal
influence was so wide among the literati, that it
was inferred his countenance could not but in
crease the number of advocates for the plan. Inno
vation presented no alarm to Dr. Mason : progress
was his motto. He had heard much of revolu
tionary times from the lips of his friend Hamil
ton. 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 obHgations of his pastoral and scholas-

JOHN M. MASON. 59
tic duties, and their imperative urgency, must un
questionably be assigned as reasons for his non
performance. As a reader he was unrivalled ; as
an orator in the sacred desk, his disciplined intel
lect shed its radiance over all he uttered. Eich
in a knowledge of mankind, and of the ethics of
nations, the ample treasures of ancient and mod
ern 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 deformities and 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. An overflowing as
sembly were wrapt in consternation at the force of
his logic, his eloquent and profound appeal, and
the deep gravity of his manner The thunders of
Mount Sinai could scarcely be more intensely felt
by his devoted flock, than the words which he ut
tered in allusion to the Christian triumphs of his
father's life and labors in their midst. " Here,"
exclaimed the preacher, filled with the sacredness
of his divine mission, " here my father prayed,
and God heard him ; here my father preached,
and God gave him seals of his ministry and
crowns of his rejoicing. The memorial of his

60 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
faithfulness is perpetually before my eyes ; and in
the spot over which I now stand, his fiesh rests in
hope. I have entered into his labors. The seed
which he sowed I have been honored to water."
He had within him the power to annihilate equivo
cation, and abrogate with keenest reasoning those
formularies which he pronounced to have oppressed
the Church of God, and acted as a barrier to her
progress. No preacher among us ever more earn
estly contended- for the all-sufficiency of the Bible ;
and with ChUHngworth he was wont to exclaim,
" The Bible is the religion of Protestants." I
have said sufficient to demonstrate the earnestness
of the faith cherished by Mason : on no subject
whatever that he attempted to expound, could he
be dull. I might say much to show that, not
withstanding the warmth of his temperament, he
was often lenient. I have seen the big tear fill
his eye when he compared the success of his labors
with those of his excellent and intimate friend,
Eobert HaU, whom he called a lump of goodness.
No instance of the predominance of his benev
olent impulse and his kindly nature was more
favorably illustrated than in an occurrence at which
I was present, of a long interyiew of three hours
which took place with the Doctor and the cele
brated Abbe Correade Serra, the Portuguese Min
ister. This remarkable man, of rare genius, so
amply stored with ancient and modern languages,

JOHN M. MASON. 61
and so fuU of a knowledge of the sciences, was in
terrogated by Dr. Mason on the government and
ecclesiastical pohty of the Pontifical Church.
Armed at every point, the learned and profound
Abbe vindicated the claims of his order and the
wisdom of the Eomish poUcy, in which he had
been disciplined with the astuteness and dexterity
of the ablest Jesuit, while the calm conversa
tional tone and the courteous diction which flowed
between these two champions won the admi
ration of the company, and afforded the hap
piest proof of the benignity of intellectual cul
ture. The angular points of Scotch Protestant
ism seemed in the discussion to be somewhat
blunted by the exposition given of the Eomish
Church, and I was led to the conclusion that a
religion whose fundamentals were charity and love
depended more upon the conformity of the heart
to its saving principles, and less upon non-con
formity to established rituals.
Dr. Mason's Plea for Sacramental Communion
evinced a tolej;ation worthy of apostoUc Chris
tianity : his address on the formation of the Ame
rican Bible Society, prepared within a few hours for
the great occasion, by its masculine vigor, crushed
opposition even in high quarters, and led cap
tive the convention. " We have not a man
among us," said Ohnthus Gregory, of the Brit
ish Society, " who can cope with your Ma-

62 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
son. AU have wondered at the subUmity and
earnestness of his address." In his conversation.
Dr. Mason was an inteUectual gladiator, whUe 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. He 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 pestUence, 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 caUed an ecclesiastical tub, and said it
cramped both mind and body. With Whitfield,
he wished the mountain for a pulpit, and the
heavens for a sounding-board. His example in in
troducing the platform in its stead has proved so
effective, that he may claim the jnerit of having
led to an innovation which has already become
almost universal among us. As Dr. Mason is his
torical, 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 co-operation of so

EGBERT BENSON. 63
many and worthy individuals in professional life,
determined to prosecute his design with vigor.
He had doubtless submitted his plan to bis 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 Pres
ident. 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 classi
cal scholar of King's College, from which he was
graduated in 1765. He was one of the Commit
tee 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 juris
prudence. By an ordinance of the Convention of
1777, he was appointed first Attorney-General of
the State — ^he was also a member of the first legis
lature the same year. 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 be chosen by Sir Guy Carleton, in superin
tending the embarkatioipof the tories for Nova Sco
tia. The letter to Carleton of their appointment,
signed by Judge Egbert Benson, WUUam Smith,

64 HISTORICAL DISCOUESB.
and Daniel Parker, bears date New York, Juno
17, 1783. I am indebted to our faithful histo
rian, Mr. Lossing, for this curious fact.
In 1789 Mr. Benson was elected one of the six
Eepresentatives of New York to the first Con
gress, in which body he continued four years. In
his Congressional career, he was often associated in
measures with Eufus King, Fisher Ames, OUver
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 Eegent of the University
from 1789 to 1802. He was a most intimate and
reUable friend of that stern and infiexible patriot.
Gov. John Jay. He lived, the admiration of aU
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, and
his poUtical and moral integrity, were never ques
tioned. His kindliness of feeling, and his social
and unassuming demeanor, struck every beholder.
Such was Egbert Bensoq^ the individual earhest
and wisely pointed out as our first President.
My acquaintance with Judge Benson did not

EGBEET BENSON. 65
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. Mil
ler's Discourse, 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 Ben
son 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 Eecord 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, a* we
have witnessed them in our own times. Strong
opposition was met in those days to the adoption
of inoculation for the smaU-pox, as pursued by Dr.
Beekman Van Beuren, in the old Alms House,
prior to 1770. Old McGrath, a violent Scotch
man, who came among us about 1743, and who is
immortaUzed by SmoUett, had the honor of intro
ducing the free use of cold bathing and cold lava-
tions in fever. " He doubtless had drawn his no
tions from Sir John Floyer, but probably had
never conceived a single principle enforced by Cur-
rie. McGrath's whole life was a perpetual tur
moil. The venerable Judge confirmed aU I had
derived from Dr. Samuel Bard concerning Mc-

66 HISTOEICAL DISCOUESB.
Grath's captious disposition and unrefined address.
Neither Middleton, nor Farquhar, nor Clossy,
could be on easy terms with him ; and these men,
with John Jones and John Bard, shed lustre on
the faculty of physic at that early day. Dr.
Henry Mott, who died in 1840, aged 83 years,
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 op
position. I forbear to record at this time the pleasing
reminiscences the Judge gave me at different
times of the Bards — John, the best known for his
intimacy with Franklin, and his essay on the' ma
lignant fever of Long Island, and Samuel, his
accomplished son, the active founder of our first
medical school of King's College. 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 pubUshed an Enghsh
tract on a surgical subject, with a Latin title-
page. The pamphlet was too insignificant to
prove an advantageous advertisement to the pen
niless author, but Dr. Wright Post, of most dis
tinguished renown in our records of surgery, feel
ing annoyed by its appearance, solicited Ms
intimate friend, the acrimonious Dunlap, the dra-

PIERRE MICHAUX. 67
matic writer, to write a caricature of the work and
the author. The request was promptly compUed
with, and at the old John Street Theatre a ludi
crous after-piece was got up, illustrative of a sur
gical case, Fractura Minimi Digiti, with a meet
ing of doctors in solemn consultation upon the
catastrophe. Michaux repaired to the theatre,
took Ms seat among the spectators, and found the
representation, of his person, his dress, his man
ner, and his speech, so fairly a veri-resemblance,
that he was almost ready to admit an aUbi, and
alternately thought himself now among the audi
ence — now. among the performers. The humUi-
ated Michaux sought redress by an assault upon
Dunlap, as, on the ensuing Sabbath, he was com
ing out from worship in the Brick Church. The
violent castigation Dunlap received at the church
portal, suspended his pubUc devotional duties for
at least a month. Michaux, now the object of
popular ridicule, retired to Staten Island, where
after a wMle Ms life was closed, oppressed with
penury, and mortification of mind. I have thus
(by way of parenthesis) introduced some tMngs
touching the doctors of years past. I crave your
clemency for the interruption. I am so constitu
ted, 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

68 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
the materials I derived from Judge Benson Mm-
self They in part iUustrate his minute recognition
of events and Ms tenacious recollection.
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 necessarUy 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 co-operation of that
enlightened and important profession. The laws
of a nation, said he, are pre-eminently Mstorical
in their nature, and faU 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 Associa
tion 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 tMs estabUshment was pronounced
preposterous, by many even of the weU informed.
I shaU glance at a few of these worthies among
our earliest, our strongest, and most devoted sup
porters. Anthony Bleecker, who deserves an am
ple memoir, was a native of the city of New
York ; he was born in October, 1770, and died in

ANTHONY BLEECKER. 69
March, 1827. He was a graduate of Columbia
OoUege, reared to the- profession of the law, and
was a gentleman of classical acquisitions, and re
fined belles-lettres taste. As a member of the
Drone Club, a social and Uterary circle, which had
at that time an existence of some years among us,
and wMch included among its members Kent,
Johnson, Dunlap, Edward and Samuel Miller, and
Charles Brockden Brown, he proved an efficient
associate in our ranks. He was for many years a
prohfic contributor to the periodical press, in ele
gant Hterature, and wrote for the Drone in prose
and verse. WeU stored in historical and topo
graphical matters, not a smaU portion of our
library, which contains our early literature, was
due to Ms 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 Capl. James Eiley
furnished, Bleecker drew up gratuitously that pop
ular " Narrative of the Brig Commerce," wMch
obtained so wide a circulation both in this coun
try and abroad. He was almost unceasingly en
gaged in American records of a hterary nature,
and was just such a scholar for a contributor as
the English " Notes and Queries " would have so-
hcited for their work. He wrote to Bisset, the
Enghsh writer of the reign of George III., to cor
rect the error wMch he had promulgated, that

70 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
Henry Cruger, the coUeague of Burke, had cir
cumscribed Ms speech to the enunciation of three
'words, "I say ditto;" and which Bisset finaUy
canceUed in subsequent reprints. The produc
tions of Mr. Bleecker's pen were such as to make
his friends regret tha't he did not elaborate a work
on some weighty subject. He died a Christian
death, in 1827, aged 57 years. His habits, Ms
morals, his weight of character, may be inferred
from the mention of his associates, Irving, Paul
ding, Verplanck, and Brevoort. The bar passed
sympathizing resolutions on his demise, and John
Pintard lost a wise counseUor. The portrait of
Mr. Bleecker in the N. Y. Society Library, is a
Ufelike work of art.
WUUam Johnson is of too recent death not to
be held in fresh remembrance by many now pres
ent. He was a native of Connecticut ; he settled
early in New York, and entered upon the profes
sion of the law, and was engaged from 1806 to
1823, as Eeporter 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. He was of a calm and dignified bear
ing, and of the strictest integrity. As he was the

PETER A. JAY. 71
authorized reporter of the legal decisions of the
State at a period when her juridical science was
expounded by her greatest masters, Kent, Spen
cer, Van Ness, Thompson, &c., and was at its
Mghest renown and of corresponding authority
throughout the Umon, his numerous volumes are
pronounced the most valuable we possess in the
department of law reports. He was Uberal in his
donations of that part of our library devoted to juris
prudence. His most interesting Mstorical contri
butions to the library were, those of the newspaper
press : — the New York DaUy Advertiser frojn its
commencement, an uninterrupted series, untU near
its close, and the New York Evemng Post from
its beginmng in 1801, and for many consecutive
years, may be cited as proofs in point.
With an earnestness surpassed by none of our
earlier fraternity, the late Peter A. Jay espoused
the cause of tMs institution, and contributed
largely to its hbrary. His benefactions embraced
much of that curious and most valuable material
you find classed with your rare list of newspapers,
printed long before our Eevolutionary contest. I
apprehend he must have been thus enabled through
the liberality of his illustrious father. Governor
Jay. Peter A. Jay was most soUcitous in aU his
doings touching the Society, that the Association
should restrict itself to its specified designation.
Every thing relative to its historical transactions

72 HISTORICAL DISCOUESB.
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 nowise remarkable that the
library is so rich in newspaper and other periodi
cal journals. " A file of American newspapers,"
said Mr. Jay, " is of far more value to our design,
than all the Byzantine Mstorians." You may
well boast of the vast accumulation of that spe
cies 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 Mgh importance of preserving
those too generally evanescent documents. They
are the great source from wMch we are to derive
our knowledge of the form and pressure of the
times. No one was more emphatic in the declara
tion of tMs 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 Con
gress and Convention, together with the proceed
ings 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. Fol-

SAMUEL BAYAED.

73

som, " the period of the' invasion of the territory
of the State by the British army under General
Burgoyne." The minutes of our first meeting notice the
attendance of Samuel Bayard, jun. He was con
nected by marriage with the family of our found
er, Pintard, and they were most intimate friends.
He was a gentleman of the old school, a scholar, a
jurist, a trustee of Princeton CoUege, a pubUc-
spirited man, and a hearty co-operator in estab
lishing this Association ; widely acquainted with
Mstorical occurrences, and, if I err not, on terms
of personal communication with many of the ac
tive men of the Eevolution, including Governor
Livingston, of New Jersey. Through Mr. Bayard's
agency and John Pintard, we obtained the Inde
pendent Eeflector, the Watch Tower of 1754, the
American WMg, &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 Uberty, when Ms
country most needed such advocates : his patriot
ism was of the most intrepid order, and he com
manded the approbation of Washington. Theo
dore Sedgwick, not long since, has given us Ms
valuable biography, and the DuycMncks in the
" Cyclopaedia of American Literature," a legacy
4

74 HISTOEICAL DISCOUESB.
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
abiUty and impartiaUty. Some forty years ago, I
saw the prospectus for the pubUcation of Gover
nor Livingston's works, in several volumes, at the
office of the Messrs. CoUins. Had the plan been
executed, the arm of the patriot would have been
nerved with increased strength in behalf of reli
gious toleration and the rights of man, by the no
ble defence of this bold explorer into the domain
of popular freedom. But, alas ! the materials for
the contemplated work, in print and in manu
script, were suffered to lie in neglect in a printing
ioft, 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 Ms
father's Uterary labors was obliterated from his
memory, through the weightier responsibilities of
juridical business. I beUeve we are obligated to
Samuel Bayard principally for that remarkable
series of M8S., the Journals of the House of
Commons during the Protectorate of CromweU,
which fiU so conspicuous a niche in your library.
Mr. Bayard, I apprehend, obtained them through
Govemor Livingston, or, perhaps, I would be more
accurate, were I to say, that they were once in the

GULIAN C. VEEPLANCK. 75
possession of the Governor. I remember bringing
over from Paulus Hook, now Jersey City, some of
the volumes.
We possessed Uberal benefactors in our earlier
movements for a Ubrary, in Samuel M. HopMns,
CadwaUader 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 haU among the Uving celebri
ties of the EepubUc, both in letters and in hu
manity, stored with varied knowledge, and actu
ated by true Knickerbocker feeUngs, deemed the
Ubrary 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 on the history of its literature ; thus
carrying out the plan unfolded in the Society's ad
dress to the pubUc at their first organization.
That we profit by more than his advice, may be
seen in his historical discourse on the early Euro
pean friends of America, and the tribute he pays
to the character of our forefathers, the Dutch and
the Huguenots.
There is probably little recorded on your min
utes of the services rendered the Historical Society
by Eobert Fulton. Cut off too early in the midst
of Ms great career very shortly after he had united

76 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
in membership with you, his opportunities of per
sonal attendance were Umited ; and the mighty
affairs which engrossed Ms time and weighed upon
his intellect, yielded Uttle leisure from his engross
ing pursuits ; yet you had not one in your list
who cherished a stronger zeal for the advancement
of your important' interests. His patriotic spirit
was so eminently American ; his impulses so gen
erous, and the intimate relations which he held
with the Livingstons, many of whom were most
anxious to secure the perpetuity of your institu
tion, all served to rivet his affections to advance
the great ends you had in view. On his agency in
enabling you to secure the Gates' papers, I need
not dwell ; he justly appreciated their value, and
deemed it a duty that they should be preserved for
the future historian. He comprehended the philo
sophy of history as well as the philosophy of steam
navigation. Amid a thousand individuals you might
readily point out Eobert Fulton. He was conspic
uous for Ms gentlemanly bearing and freedom
from embarrassment ; for Ms extreme activity, Ms
height, somewhat over six feet, Ms slender yet en
ergetic form, and weU-accommodated dress; for
Ms full and curly dark brown hair, carelessly scat
tered over his forehead, and faUing round about his
neck. His complexion was fair ; his forehead
high ; Ms eyes large, dark, and penetrating, and

EOBERT FULTON. 77
revolving in a capacious orbit of cavernous depth ;
Ms brow was thick, and evinced strength and de
termination ; his nose was long and prominent ;
Ms mouth and Ups were beautifully proportioned,
giving the impress of eloquent utterance, equally
as his eyes displayed, according to phrenology, a
pictorial talent and the benevolent affections. In
his sequestered moments a ray of melancholy marked
Ms demeanor ; in the stirring affairs of active
business you might readily designate Mm, indiffer
ent to surrounding objects and persons, giving
directions, and his own personal appliances, to
whatever he might be engaged in. Thus have I
often observed him on the docks, reckless of tem
perature and inclement weather, in our early
steamboat days, anxious to secure practical issues
from his midnight refiections, or to add new im
provements to works not yet completed. His
floating dock cost him much personal labor of this
sort. His hat might have faUen in the water, and
Ms coat be lying on a pile of lumber, yet Fulton's
devotion was not diverted. Trifles were not calcu
lated to impede him, or damp his perseverance.
There are those who have judged the sym
pathies of our nature by the grasp of the hand :
this rale, applied to Mr. Fulton's salutation,
only strengthened your confidence in the de
clarations he uttered. He was social ; capti
vating to the young, instructive even to the

78 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
wisest. He was linked in close association with
the leading characters of our city ; with Emmet,
Colden, Clinton, MitchiU, Hosack, Macneven, and
Morris. A daughter of his first-named, friend,
with artistic talents has painted Ms interesting
features and his habitat. After all, few eminent
men recorded on .the rolls of^fame encountered a
Ufe of severer trials and provoking annoyance.
The incredulity wMch prevailed as to the success of
his projects, as they were caUed, created doubts in
the bosoms of some of Ms warmest friends, and
the cry of " Crazy Fulton," issuing at times from
the ignoble masses, I have heard reverberated from
the lips of old heads, pretenders to science. Nor
is this aU. Even at the time when the auspicious
moment had arrived, when his boat was now
gUding on the waters, individuals were found stiU
incredulous, who named Ms vast achievement the
Marine Smoke Jack and Fulton's Folly. With
pMlosopMcal composure he stood unruffled and
endured all. He knew what Watt and every great
inventor encounter. During his numerous years
of unremitting toil, his genius had solved too many
difficult problems not to have taught him the prin
ciples on which his success depended, and he was
not to be dismayed by the yells of vulgar ignorance.
Besides, he was working for a nation, not for him
self, and the magnitude of the object absorbed all
other thoughts.

ROBERT FULTON. 79
Mr. Fulton was emphatically a man of the
people, ambitious indeed, but void of aU sordid
designs ; he pursued ideas more than money.
Science was more captivating to him than pecu
niary gains, and the promotion of the arts, useful
and refined, more absorbing than the accumula
tion of the miser's treasures.
I shall never forget that night of February
24th, 1815, a frosty mght indeed, on wMch he
died. Dr. Hosack, with whom I was associated
in business, and who saw Mm in consultation with
Dr. Bruce, in the last hours of Ms Ulness, returning
home at midnight from his visit, remarked,
"Fulton is dying; his severe cold amidst the
ice, in crossing the river, has brought on an alarm
ing inflammation and glossitis. He extended to
me," continued the Doctor, " his generous hand,
grasping mine closely, but he could no longer
speak." I had been with Mr. Fulton at his residence
but a short time before, to arrange some papers
relative to Chancellor Livingston and the floating
dock erected at Brooklyn. Business dispatched,
he entered upon the character of West, the paint
er, the Columbiad of Barlow, and the great pic
tures of Lear and Ophelia, which he had deposited
in the American Academy. This interview of an
hour with the iUustrious man has often fumished
grateful reflections.
I enter not into a consideration of the s.pecial

80 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
claims which Fulton possesses as the inventor of
steam navigation ; it is sufficient for me on this
occasion to know, that at the time when the Cler
mont steamed her way on the Hudson from New
York for Albany on the 7th September, 1807, not
another steamboat was in successful operation, save
his own, throughout the globe. WeU might the
eloquent Gouverneur Morris exclaim, in his in
augural discourse before your Historical Society,
" A bird hatched on the Hudson will soon people
the floods of the Wolga ; and cygnets descended
from an American swan, glide along the surface
of the Caspian sea." *
A word or two in relation to another worthy
member of our fratermty, whose life and character
were directed with successful results in behalf of ,
New York, and who, amid numerous benevolent
engagements, was never indifferent to your His
torical Association :¦ I aUude to the late Thomas
Eddy, a philanthropist in the fuUest acceptance of
the term. He was of the Society of Friends, but
free of aU sectional bias ; he had laid the founda
tion of a soUd elementary education, had embarked
in mercantUe transactions, viewed men and things
with the wisdom of an inductive philosopher, read
largely etMcal compends and books of voyages and
* See Colden's Life of Fulton ; Walsh's Appeal, &e., and the
life-like delineation of Fulton, by Tuckerman, in his Biographical

THOMAS EDDY. 81
travels, and was versed in Quaker theology from
Fox and Barclay down to Sarah Grubb, the re
nowned Elias Hicks, and the experience of the
last field preacher. The greater part of his Ufe
was devoted to charitable and humane purposes.
He was associated with the Manumission Society
with Colden ; with the New York Hospital with
Eobert Bowne ; with our Free School system with
Isaac ColUns and John Murray ; and his name is
ever to hold a conspicuous place in the Society for
the Eeformation of Juvenile Delinquents, and the
establishment of the House of Eefuge with John
Grriscom, Isaac Collins, and James W. Gerard.
With De Witt Clinton he was the most promi
nent individual to project and organize the Bloom-
ingdale Asylum for the Insane. He corresponded
largely with the pMlanthropists abroad as well as
at home, on the critical and responsible subject of
diseased manifestations of intellect ; and his pa
tient labors for a series of years, by letters with
Tuke and Colquhoun, Eoscoe and Lindley Murray
in Europe, with Jefferson, Clinton, and Hosack,
Ms American friends, rendered his opinions of cor
responding weight in the discussions which finaUy
led to the adoption in tMs metropohs of the moral
management of madness. His strong common
sense often penetrated deeper than the judgment
of some of Ms ablest associates. ChanceUor Kent
gives a striking instance of tMs truth in a sketch
4*

82 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
of his character addressed to Knapp, the biogra
pher of Eddy ; and his great tact in the cases of
lunacy of the celebrated Count Eegnaud de St,
Jean D'Angely, proved that he might have en
countered with triumph the interrogatories of the
stoutest committee on medical jurisprudence. His
fiscal integrity afforded a captivating illustration of
his Christian beUef. His early career in merchan
dise proved disastrous, and embarrassments of
himself and friends for years followed : by the
simplicity of his habits and a rigid economy, he
was again made whole, when he discharged with
fidelity every obligation with interest. I always
thought that by this one act he had mounted at
least a rung or two up Jacob's ladder. — These few
specifications must suffice for a touch of the qual
ity of the man. Eddy was a great utilitarian,
and quoted Franklin as John Pintard did his mid
night companion, Samuel Johnson. He told most
pleasant stories' of his canal explorations with
Clinton and Morris. He was a model of industry,
and more economical of time than of health. No
saint ever battled with sin more earnestly than he
did with procrastination and delay. His apho
risms were the fruits of practical humamty, and
the whming cadences of the mere sentimentalist
he shook off as if leprous. It must have been a
trying sickness that arrested the march of his mul
tifarious business, and Ms occasional physical suf-

THOMAS EDDY. 83
ferings were rarely adverted to by him. The lines
of Cowper would not apply to Eddy ; he was filled
with other ideas.
" Some people use their health (an ugly trick)
In telling you how oft they have been sick."
Our pubUc charities and the Historical Society
encountered a loss by his death, wMch occurred
in 1827, at the ripe age of 70 years. He left a
name a synonym for benevolence.
From the studies and accompUshments of the
well-instructed physician, from the wide range of
knowledge, physical and mental, that faUs within
his observation ; from the fact that every depart
ment of Nature must be explored, the better to
disciphne Mm properly to exercise Ms art ; the in
ference may be readily drawn that the faculty of
medicine would scarcely prove indifferent to the
creation of an institution fraught with such incen
tives to inteUectual culture, as are necessarily em
braced within the range and intentions of our
Historical Society. Moreover, I incUne to the
belief, that veneration for our predecessors is some
what a characteristic of the cultivators of medi
cal phUosophy : 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 feUowsMp of Hosack, Bruce, MitchiU,

84 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
MUler, WUUamson, and, shortly after, by N. Eo-
mayne, and others of renown. These distin
guished 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 ele
ments of practical utUity idle in their hands. Of
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 Ms
diagnosis were the admiration of all ; Ms efficien
cy in rearing, to a state of high consideration, the
College of Physicians and Surgeons, while he held
the responsible office of professor, is known through
out the EepubUc ; his early movements to estab-
Ush a medical library in the New York Hospital ;
Ms co-operation with the numerous charities which
glorify the metropolis ; his adventurous outlay of
the estabUshment of a State Botanical Garden ;
Ms hygienic suggestions the better to improve the
medical police of New York ; Ms primary forma-

DAVID HOSACK. 85
tion of a mineralogical cabinet ; his copious writ
ings on fevers, quarantines, and foreign pestilence,
in wMch 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 Mm a weight of
character that was almost umversally felt through
out the metropolis. It was not unfrequently re
marked by our citizens, that CUnton, Hosack, and
Hobart, were the tripod on which our city stood.
The lofty aspirations of Hosack were further
evinced by Ms whole career as a citizen. Sur
rounded by his large and costly Ubrary, Ms house
was the resort of the learned and enlightened from
every part of the world. No traveUer from abroad
rested satisfied without a personal interview with
Mm ; and, at his evening soir6es, the Uterati, the
pMlosopher, and the statesman, the skUful in nat
ural science, and the explorer of new regions, the
archseologist and the theologue, met together, par
ticipators in the recreation of famiUar intercourse.
Your printed volumes contain all, I believe, he
ever prepared for you as your President. His
strictly medical writings are of some extent, and
have excited a profitable emulation in the cause of
science and humanity, and renewed inquiry into
the causes of pestUence and the laws of contagion.
His memoir of his friend De Witt CUnton, is a
tribute to the talents and heroic virtues of that

86 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
great statesman, and contains the most ample Ms-
tory we possess of the origin, progress, and termi
nation of the Erie Canal. His Ufe 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 hum
ble in Ufe whom Ms art had reUeved. Hosack was
a man of profuse expenditure ; he regarded money
only for what it might command. Had he pos
sessed 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 His
torical Society was the physician and mineralogist.
He was born in New York in 1771, was graduated
at Columbia College, studied medicine with Ho
sack, and, in 1800, received the doctorate at the
Edinburgh University. While in Scotland, he
acquired a knowledge of the Wemerian theory
under Jameson, and subsequently became a corre
spondent of the Abbe Haiiy, the founder of Crys
tallography. He collected a large cabinet of min
erals whUe travelUng 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

SAMUEL L. MITCHILL. 87
the regents of the University, at the organization
of the College of Physcians and Surgeons. He
had a cultivated taste for the Fine Arts, and con
tributed to our Library. He died in 1818. His
reputation rests with his discovery, at Hoboken, of
the Hydrate of Magnesia. In " SiUiman's Jour
nal " there is a biography of him.
The universal praise wMch Dr. MitcMU en
joyed in almost every part of the globe where sci
ence is cultivated, during a long life, is demon
strative that his merits were of a high order. A
discourse might be deUvered 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 GaUery,"
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 : Ms knowledge was diver
sified and most extensive, if not always profound.
Like most of our sex, he was married ; but, as
Old FuUer 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 chem
istry, when first appointed professor in Columbia
CoUege : Ms first scientific paper was an essay on
Evaporation : Ms mineralogical survey of New
York, in 1797, gave Volney many Mnts : Ms

88 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
analysis of the Saratoga waters enhanced the im
portance of those mineral springs. His ingenious
theory of septic acid gave impulse to Sir Hum
phrey Davy's vast discoveries ; his doctrines on
pestilence awakened inquiry from every class of
observers throughout the Union : Ms expositions
of a theory of the earth and solar systems, capti
vated minds of the Mghest quaUties. His corre
spondence with Priestley is an example of the de
licious manner in which argument can be con
ducted in philosopMcal discussion ; his elaborate
account of 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 Mstory enriched
the annals of the Lyceum, of which he was long,
president. His researches on the ethnological
characteristics of the red man of America, be
trayed the benevolence of Ms nature and his gen
erous spirit : his fanciful article for a new and
more appropriate geograpMcal designation for the
Umted States, was at one period a topic wMch
enUsted 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 ; en
couraged Livingston in appropriation ; awakened
new zeal in Wilson the ornithologist, when the

SAMUEL L. MITCHILL. 89
Governor, Tompkins, had nigh paralyzed him by
Ms frigid and unfeeUng reception ; and, with Pin
tard and Colden, was a zealous promoter of that
system of internal improvement which has stamped
immortaUty on the name of Clinton. He co
operated with Jonathan Williams in furtherance
of the Mihtary Academy at West Point, and for
a long series of years was an important professor
of useful knowledge in Columbia CoUege and in
the College of Physicians and Surgeons. His let
ter to TUloch, of London, on the progress of his
mind in the investigation of septic acid, is curious
as a physiological document. The leading papers
from Ms pen are to be found in the New York
Medical Eepository ; yet he wrote in the Ameri
can Medical and PhilosopMcal Eegister, the New
York Medical and Physical Journal, the Ameri
can Mineralogical Journal, and suppUed several
other periodicals, both abroad and at home, with
the results of his cogitations. He was one of the
commissioners appointed by the general govern
ment for the construction of a new naval force to
be propeUed by steam, the steamer Fulton the
First. WhUe 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 important to the public weal,
strenuous to lessen the duties on the importa
tion of rags, in order to render the manufac*

90 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
ture of paper cheaper, to aid the diffusion of
knowledge by printing.
There was a rare union in Dr. MitchiU of a
mind of vast and multifarious knowledge and of
poetic imagery. Even in his " Epistles to his
Lady Love," the exceUent lady who became his
endeared wife, he gave utterance of Ms emotions
in tuneful numbers, and Ukened Ms condition unto
that of the dove, with trepidation seeking safety
in the ark. Ancient and modern languages were
unlocked to Mm, and a wide range in physical sci
ence, 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 tljat of salt ; now offering
suggestions to Garnet, of New Jersey, the corre
spondent of Mark Akenside, on the angle of the
windmUl, and now concurring with Michaux on
the beauty of the black walnut as ornamental for
parlor furniture. In the moming he might be
found composing songs for the nursery, at noon
dietetically experimenting and writing on fishes,
or unfolding a new theory on terrene formations,

SAMUEL L. MITCHILL. 91
and at evening addressing his fair readers on the
healthy influences of the alkaUs, and the depura-
tive virtues of whitewashing. At his country re
treat at Plandome he might find full employment
in translating, for his mental diversion, Lancisi on
the fens and marshes of Eome, or in rendering into
English poetry the piscatory eclogues of Sannaza-
rius. Yesterday, in workmanlike dress, he might
have been engaged, with his friend Elihu H.
Smith, on the natural Mstory of the American elk,
or perplexed as to the alimentary nature of tad
poles, on which, according to Noah Webster, the
.people of Vermont almost fattened during a sea
son 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 Ulustration, and for the recep
tion, at Ms house, of a meeting of Ms phUosophi-
cal acquaintance ; wMle to-morrow, in the scho
lastic robes of an LL.D., he would grace the exer
cises of a coUege commencement.
I have but very imperfectly glanced at the Ut
erary and scientific writings of Dr. MitchiU : they
are too numerous to notice at length on this occa
sion. To Ms biographer must be assigned that
duty. His detaUed narrative of the earthquakes
which occurred on the 16th day of December, 1811,
and which agitated the parts of North America
that Ue between the Atlantic Ocean and Louisir

92 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
ana, and of subsequent occurrences of a like na
ture, is a record of physical phenomena weU wor
thy the notice of our Storm- Kings, but which
seems to have escaped the attention even of our
distinguished philosopher. Dr. Maury, the famed
author of the Physical Geography of the Sea.*
Of his collegiate labors in the several branches of
knowledge, wMch he taught for almost forty years,
I shall assume the privUege of saying a few words.
His appearance before his class was that of an
earnest inetructor, ready to impart the stores of
his accumulated wisdom for the benefit of his
pupils, wMle Ms oral disquisitions were perpetuaUy ,
enlivened with novel and ingenious observations.
Chemistry, which first engaged his capacious
mind, was rendered the more captivating by his
endeavors to improve the nomenclature of the
French savans, and to render the science subservi
ent to the useful purposes of art and hygiene. In
treating of the materia medica, he deUghted to
dweU on the riches of our native products for the
art of healing, and he sustained ah enormous cor
respondence throughout the land, in order to add
to Ms own practical observations the experience of
the competent, the better to prefer the claims of
our indigenous products. As a physician of the

* Transactions of the New York Literary and Philosophical
Society, 4to., vol. i. pp. 281-310.

SAMUEL L. MITCHILL. 93
New York Hospital, he never omitted, when the
opportunity presented, to employ the results of
Ms investigations for cUnical appUances. The
simpUcity of his prescriptions often provoked a
smile on the part of his students ; wMle he was
acknowledged a sound prescriber at the bedside.
His anecdotical remarks on theories and systems
at once declared that he was fully apprised of pre
vious therapeutical means, from the deductions of
Hippocrates and Pliny, to the fanciful speculations
of Darwin, But Ms great forte was natural his
tory. Here his expositions of that vast science, in
its several ramifications, gave the best proofs of
his capacious stores of bookish and personal knowl
edge. He may fairly be pronounced the pioneer
investigator of geological science among us, pre
ceding McClure by several years. He was early
led to give Ms countenance to the solidity of the
Wemerian theory, but had occasion to announce
his belief, from subsequent investigation in after
hfe, that the Huttonian system was not wholly
without facts deduced from certain phenomena in
this country. His first course of lectures on Nat
ural History, including geology, mineralogy, zoolo
gy, ichthyology, and botany, was delivered, in ex-
ienso, in the CoUege of Physicians and Surgeons,
in 1811, before a gratified audience, who recog
nized in the professor a teacher of rare attain
ments and of singular tact in unfolding complex

94 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
knowledge with analytic power. Few left the lec
tures without the conviction that an able expositor
had enlisted their attention. There was a whole
some natural theology blended with his prelec
tions, and an abundance of patriotism associated
with every rich specimen of native mineral wealth.
It would have proved difficult for him to have
found adequate language to express his gratifica
tion at the present day of our CaUforman treas
ures. His manner throughout as an instructor
was calculated to attract the attention of the stu
dents by his intelligible language and Ms pleasing
elucidations. His confidence in his expositions
was not always permanent ; new facts often led to
new opinions ; but the uncertainties of geological
doctrines, not yet removed, gave him sometimes
more freedom of expression than rigid induction
might justify ; and when he affirmed as Ms behef
that the American continent was the Old World,
and that the Garden of Eden might have origi-
naUy been located in Onondaga HoUow, he im
posed a tax on credulity too onerous to bear. He
felt, in contemplating Ms investigations on fishes,
as though he had enlarged the boundaries of sci
ence, and his exclamation, " Show me a fin, and I
wUl point out the fish," was not thought too
hyperboUcal by his scholars. For nearly a score of
years it was my lot to be associated in collegiate
labors with tMs renowned man ; and I may be

SAMUEL L. MITCHILL. 95
pardoned if my remarks are of some length on his
professorial career,
I never encountered one of more wonderful
memory : when quite a young man, he would re
turn from church service, and write out the ser
mon nearly verbatim. , There was little display
in Ms habits or manners. His means of enjoy
ment corresponded with his desires, and his Frank-
Unean principles enabled him to rise superior to
want. With aU Ms official honors and scientific
testimonials, foreign or native, he was ever acces
sible to everybody ; the counseUor of the young,
the dictionary of the learned. To the interroga
tory, why he did not, after so many years of labor,
revisit abroad the scenes of Ms earUer days for
recreation, his reply was brief : — " I know Great
Britain from the Grampian HiUs to the chalky
cliffs of Dover : there is no need of my going to
Europe, Europe now comes to me." But I must
desist. The Historical Society of New York wiU
long cherish his memory for the distinction he shed
over our institution, Ms unassuming manners, his
kind nature, and the aid he was ever ready to give
to aU who needed Ms 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 Collec
tions. MitcMU has not unjustly been pronounced

96 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
the Nestor of American science. He died in New
York in 1831 : his remains now Ue in the Green
wood Cemetery,
The claims of Edward Miller to your remem
brance are associated with those of his brother
Samuel, Edward MiUer, learned and accom-
pUshed 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 wMch such a society as this holds
with philosophy, and the record of those occur
rences on which pMlosophy is founded. That he
aided his reverend brother in that portion of the
" Brief Eetrospect " 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 ap
probation of his professional writings, though they
may maintain widely different opinions from some
inculcated by other practical observers, and have
received a counterblast in the occurrences which
marked the introduction of pestilential yeUow
fever in several sections of the Union in the year
1856. He survived the commencement of the So
ciety but a few years, dying in March, 1812. I
accompanied hipi, in consultation, in the last pro-

HUGH WILLIAMSON. 97
fesslonal visit he made, in a case of pneumonia, a
few weeks before Ms death. In the sick room he
was a cordial for affliction. His biography was
written by Ms brother, and I have given a memoir
of his life which may be found in the American
Medical and PMlosopMcal Eegister.
I wUl close the record of our friends belonging
to the medical faculty, with a brief notice of two
other members, Hugh WiUiamson and Nicholas
Eomayne ; the former by birth a Pennsylvaman,
bom in 1735, the latter a native, bom in the city
of New York, 1756. After the acquisition of
sound preliminary knowledge, WUUamson was
graduated M. D. at the Umversity of Utrecht,
HoUand. He practised physic but a short time in
PMladelphia, on account of deUcate health. In
1769 he was appointed chairman of a committee
consisting of Eittenhouse, Ewing, Smith, the pro
vost, and Charles Thompson, afterwards secretary
to Congress, aU mathematicians and astronomers,
to observe the transit of Venus in 1769. • He pub
lished an Essay on Comets, afterwards enlarged,
and printed in the Transactions of the Literary
and PMlosopMcal Society of New York. In this
communication he adheres to his original opimon,
that every planet and every comet in our system is
inhabited. By appointment with Dr. Ewing, he
made a tour in Great Britain in 1773, for the
benefit of a Uterary institution. He wrote on the
.5

98 - HISTORICAL DISCOURSE,
Gymnotius electricus, and upon his return to
North Carolina was an active agent in the promo
tion of inoculation, and finally received a commis
sion 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 Com
mons of North Carolina. In 1786 he was one o?
the few members who were sent to AnnapoUs on
the amendment of the constitution, and in 1789
we find him in New York, and in the first Con
gress, when the constitution was carried into
effect. He wrote an octavo volume on the climate
of America. He contends, from numerous facts,
that the climate is ameliorated, and Jefferson ad
mitted that his memoir was an ingenious, sound,
and satisfactory piece of philosophy. In the Med
ical Eepository he offered some new and ingenious
speculations on the fascinating powers of serpents.
In 1812 appeared his History of North Carohna.
He was the author of several papers on medical and
pMlosopMcal subject's, and on the canal policy of the
State, printed in the American Medical and PMlo
sopMcal Eegister. He was among the first of our
citizens who entertained correct views on the practi
cability of the union of the waters of the Hudson
and Lake Erie. He penned the first summons for
the formation of the Literary and PhilosopMcal
Society of New York. He died ia 1819, at the
ad.vanced age of 83 years.

HUGH WILLIAMSON. 99
The career of WUUamson is weU known from
the ample Biography of Ms friend and physician.
Dr. Hosack. He was justly esteemed for Ms tal
ents, his virtues, and Ms pubUc services. Hosack
affirmed on the testimony of Bishop White, John
Adams, President of the United States, Gen.
Eeed, and John WUUamson, that Hugh WiUiam
son was the individual who, by an ingenious de
vice, obtained the famous Hutchinson and OUver
letters from the British foreign office for FrankUn,
and I can add that John WiUiamson, the brother
of the doctor, commumcated to me his concur
rence in the same testimony. This curious rela
tion is however rejected as not weU founded, by
our eminent Mstorians, Sparks and Bancroft.
WiUiamson was a peculiarity in appearance, in
manners, and in address. Tall and slender in per
son, with an erect gait, he perambulated the
streets with the air of a man of consideration ;
Ms long arms and his longer cane preceding him
at a commanding distance, and seemingly guided
by Ms conspicuous nose, wMle his ample wMte
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 perti
nacious in opimon. There was rarely an appeal
from his decision— ^he was generaUy so weU forti
fied. He had great reverence for the past, was

100 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
anecdotical in our revolutionary matters, and cher
ished 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 he was a devoted disciple of
truth. No flattery, no compliment could ever
reach his ear. Witness his curt correspondence
with the ItaUan artist, CaraccM : look at his tes
timony in the case of Alexander WMsteloe. To a
soUcitation for pecumary aid in behalf of an indi
vidual whose moral character he somewhat doubt
ed, when told that a reform had taken place : ,
" Not so," repUed the doctor, " he has not left
the stage, — the stage has left Mm." His punctu
ality in engagements was marveUous ; no hour, no
wind or weather, ever occasioned a disappointment
on the part of the old man, now over eighty years
of age ; and, though in Ms own business transac
tions, from which mainly he derived Ms 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 in
the afternoon, whUe in a carriage excursion to the
country, from excessive solar heat, in June ; yet
it was found that Ms multifarious accounts and

HUGH WILLIAMSON. 101
correspondence had aU 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 in
structive to enjoy the conversation of one who had
enriched the pages of the Eoyal Society ; who had
experimented with John Hunter, and FrankUn,
and Ingenhouze in London, and had enjoyed the
soir6es of Sir John Pringle ; who narrated occur
rences in wMch 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 WasMngton's coat, might -tell you who
had been Ms tailor. A more strictly correct man
in aU fiscal matters could not be pointed out,
whether in bonds and mortgages, or in the pay
ment of the postage of a letter. I wUl give an
Ulustration. He had been appointed in Colonial
times to obtain funds for the Seminary at Basken-
ridge, N. J. : he set out on Ms eastern tour, pro
vided with an" extra pair of gloves, for wMch he
paid 7s. and 6d. ; on Ms return he revisited the'
store in Newark, where he had made the purchase,
had the soUed gloves vamped anew, and parted
with them for 6s. In Ms items of expenditure,
he reports Is. and 6d. for the use of gloves, invest
ing the 6s. with the coUection fund. Such was
Hugh WUUamson, whose breastplate was honesty,
the brightest in the Christian armory. If I mis-

102 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
take not, I think I once saw Mm smUe at the trick
of a jockey. Dr. Thacher, the author of the
" MUitary Journal," told me he had Ustened to
Mm when he was in the ministry, in a sermon
preached at Plymouth ; but Ms oratory was gro
tesque, and Eufus King the Senator, who noticed
Mm in our first Congress, said his elocution pro
voked laughter. Yet he spoke to the point.
Take Mm altogether, he was admirably fitted for
the times, and conscientiously performed many
deeds of exceUence for the period in wMch he
Uved. Deference was paid to Mm by every class
of citizens. He holds a higher regard in my esti
mation, than a score of dukes and duchesses, for
he signed the Constitution of the United States.
His Anniversary Discourse for 1810 you have se
cured in your pubUcations. The portrait of Dr.
WiUiamson by Col. Trumbull, is true to the life,
and eminently suggestive.
A monograph on Eomayne would not be too
much. He entered the Historical Society some
years after its formation. He is associated with
innumerable occurrences in New York, Ms native
city, and was bom in 1756. Of his antecedents
little is satisfactorily known. His early instruc
tion was received from Peter Wilson, the linguist,
at his school at Hackensack. At the commence
ment of the war of the Eevolution, he repaired to
Edinburgh, where he pre-eminently distingmshed

NICHOLAS ROMAYNE. 103
Mmself 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 re
turning to Ms native land, settled first in PhUa-
delphia, and shortly after in New York. He had
a fair chance of becoming a practitioner of exten
sive employment. His eradition justified him in
assuming the office of teacher, and he lectured
with success on several branches of physic. He
was pronounced an extraordinary man. Anatomy,
chemistry, botany, and the , practice of medicine,
were assumed by him. His most eminent associ
ates, Bayley, Kissam, Moore, Treat, and TUlary,
echoed his praises. He spoke with fluency the
French and Latin tongues, and the Low Dutch.
When the provincial government of King's
CoUege was changed after 1783, he was nominated
one of the Trustees. The Board of the CoUege,
now Columbia, determined upon reviving a new
faculty of medicine, but froni causes too numerous
to relate, Dr. Eomayne was not chosen to an ap
pointment. In 1791, an act was passed, author
izing the Eegents of the University to organize a
medical faculty, which, however, did not go into
operation untU January, 1807, when Dr. Eomayne

104 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
was appointed President of the College of Physi
cians and Surgeons under their authority. He
gave lectures on Anatomy and on the Institutes.
I was present at his opening address to the stu
dents on the ensuing -November. It was an ele
gant 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 concermng Ms
varied knowledge and Ms classical taste. He
would rise in his place and deUver a lecture on the
aphorisms of Hippocrates, unfold the structure of
the brain, expound the philosophy of paludal dis
eases, or discourse on the plant which Cliisius
cherished. He was indeed clever in every accep
tation of the word. I find' since that period, by
an examination of his copy of the Conspectus
Medicinse of Gregory, and his MS. notes, that his
Lectures on the Institutions were drawn chiefly
from Gregory's work. Yet was he an original ob
server and an intrepid thinker. He died sudden
ly, after great exposure to heat, in June, 1817.
It rarely occurs to any individual to enjoy a
larger renown among his feUows, than did Dr.
Eomayne, during the time he fiUed the station of
President of the CoUege. Yet he was not con
tent with this condition of affairs, and was con
stantly studying new tMngs, untU ejected from Ms
high office by the Eegents of the University, when

NICHOLAS ROMAYNE. 105
the venerable Samuel Bard was chosen as his
successor. His penury in early Ufe had taught Eomayne
the strictest economy. At Edinburgh Ms ward
robe 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 m his bed till it's dried."
Such, UteraUy, was the case with the student Eo
mayne, and stUl he bore himself with becoming
respectability, and left the University one of the
most accomphshed of her sons in general knowl
edge and professional science. He did well enough
during his two years in Philadelphia as a practi
tioner ; an equally favorable turn in business fol
lowed Mm in New York, in wMch 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 Mm
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
beUieose by nature, preferred his customary cau
tious habit. Eomayne had learned the proverb of
5*

106 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
the old Hebrews : — " One word is worth a shekel
— sUence is worth two." But awhUe after he re
visited Europe, became a licentiate of the Eoyal
CoUege of Edinburgh, returned to Ms native city,
and was chosen President of the College, an insti
tution of only two years later date than your own,
and wMch, amidst great vicissitudes and an anom
alous government, has enriched with meritorious
disciples the noble art of heaUng, and diffused un
told blessings throughout the land.
Eomayne was of huge bulk, of regular propor
tion, and of an agreeable and inteUigent expres
sion of countenance, with a gray eye of deep pen
etration. It was almost a phenomenon to witness
the light, gracious, and facUe step of a man sur
passing 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 generaUy
secured the object of his desire, at least profes-
sionaUy. He was temperate in aU his drinks, but
Ms gastric powers were of inordinate capabihties.
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 sus
pended. Dr. MitchiU long ago had said that the
stomach had no ears. In charity I have conjee-

NICHOLAS ROMAYNE. 107
tured that he must have labored under a species
of bulimia, wMch pathologists affirm wiU often
pervert the moral faculties. His kind friend, the
late Eev. Dr. M'Leod, tells, us, that though many
of Ms acts were crooked, yet that Eomayne died
in the consolations of the Christian reUgion. 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 legis
lative bodies, and at one period of his career was
vested with almost all the honors the medical pro
fession among us can bestow. Some of the older
medical writers, whose works were found in the
residue of the Ubrary of the late Dr. Peter Mid
dleton, as weU as others of the late Dr. Eomayne,
were deposited in your library ; but of late years,
I am sorry to say, I have not recognized them.
I shaU now take leave of the departed doctors,
while memory cannot forget their Uving exceUence,
and cast a glance at some few circumstances, which,
more or less immediate and remote, had an infiu-
ence in fostering those associations wMch finally
accelerated public opinion, and led to the estab
lishment of the Historical Society at the fortunate
epoch in which it was organized.
The extraordinary occurrences of the American
Eevolution, wMch had left their impress on the
minds of most of the patriots who had survived
that mighty event, the peace of 1783, which

108 HISTORICAL DISCOURSB.
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 cir
cumstances calculated to awaken a personal inter
est, more or less deep, in every bosom, and to
excite inquiry, with a curious scrutiny, what Ms
tory would unfold of the marveUous trials through
wMch the people had passed, and what historian
would write the faithful record of their sufferings
and their deeds.
This city, wMch had been the occupancy of
their enemies during that long struggle, though
now freed from the British army, still retained a
vast number of the Tory party, who, wMle they were
ready to be the participators of the benefits of that
freedom which sprung out of the Eevolution, were
known to be dissatisfied by the mortifications of
defeat, under which they stUl writhed, and whose
principal reUef was found in yielding the Ustening
ear to any narrative that might asperse the purity
of American devotion in the patriotic cause of
Uberty. Thus surrounded, the natives, the true
WMgs, 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 imniortal Decla
ration of Independence, was deemed, by the de
feated and disaffected, cruel and unwise, so hard

POEITICAL DIFFICULTIES. 109
was it to root out the doctrines of colonial devo
tion. Here and there measures were in agitation,
and suggestions Muted, the object of wMch was to
prevent the public reading of the Declaration ¦ on
the 4th of July ; and even so late as July, 1804,
I witnessed a turmoil which arose, upon the occa
sion of the expressed sentiments of the orator of
the day, John W. MuUigan, Esq., now, I be
Ueve, the oldest living graduate of Columbia
CoUege. It was in vain that appeals were made to the
instructive facts of the issues of usurpation and
oppression, that mUlions of property had been
wantonly destroyed by British hirelings and mer
cenary troops, that individual rights and posses
sions had been disregarded, that the records of
churches, of institutions of learning, and the Ubra-
ries of schools and coUeges, had been consumed.
A further glance at affairs presented the fact, that
confficting and erroneous statements of the war
itself, and the primary motives of action of its
American leaders, were also perverted and taunt
ingly promulgated as true history by foreign
writers. The champions of freedom were daUy
harassed. To be subjected to such a state of
things, was no more nor less than to yield to re
newed degradation, and to leave the contest an
imperfect work. In fine, the tares wMch had been
rooted out were, it was apprehended, again to

110 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
infest the soU, and Uberty itself again to be-endan-
gered. Topics involving matters of tMs 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
stUl among us men of the same caUbre 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, wMch, in after times, was destined to
prove a second Eevelation to man, unless a proper
and timely spirit were awakened by co-operation
with Uving 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 knowl
edge 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 fa
miliar truths of impressive force. But the memo
rials of a tyranmc government were stiU more
palpable, in the destruction which laid waste so
many places, and wMch encompassed the city
round about. And what spectator, however in
different, could fail to learn by such demonstra
tions, and cherish in his bosom profitable medita
tions. I am speaking now, more especiaUy, of the
scenes presented in tMs city. But more than this.

REVOLUTIONARY WORTHIES. Ill
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 inteUect
and strong muscle in the vast work of colonial dis
franchisement. She could boast of patriots who
now found their homes as citizens among us, in
the residence of their choice. The CUntons, the
Livingstons, the Morrises, Jays — HamUton, Fish,
Gates, Steuben, M'Dougal, Eufus King, Duer,
Ward, WUUamson, Clarkson, Varick, Pendleton,
and hundreds of others, who had done service in
the times that tried men's souls, were now domi
ciliated here. How often have I cast a lingering
look at many of these wortMes in their movements
through the public ways, during the earlier period
of this city, with here and there a Continental tri-
cornered 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 teU you what species of knowl
edge these men diffused among the people, and
what doctrines on Uberty 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 wMch your Ubra
ry is especially enriched.
Other circumstances urged the propriety of or-

112 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
ganizing some institution which might enhance
the patriotic object of a broad foundation, avail
able for the promotion of Mstorical knowledge. ¦ It
has been demonstrated in numerous instances, as I
have in part intimated, that the story of our Eevo
lution, if ever honestly Telated, must be derived
firom 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. Eamsey, and out off
its circulation in Europe ; the war of crimination
wMch originated from General Burgoyne's pubU
cations ; the difficulties wMch arose from Sir Hen
ry Clinton's statements ; the Gallaway letters and
documents, all could be cited in proof of the ex
pediency of a native historian assuming the re
sponsible trust. And when still further it was
ascertained that Gordon's work, on wMch 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 Ms subject : when, I remark, it was ascer
tained that that work was subjected to purification
by British authority, because it contained asper
sions (so caUed) on the British character, that it
recorded too many atrocious truths to assimilate
weU with the digestive functions of John BuU ;
further, that audacious threats were held out that,

BRITISH DISCIPLINE. 113
if pubUshed 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 Ubel upon Ubel, damages
upon damages, and thus impoverish the writer, as
truth ever so well grounded, even if permitted to
be adduced, could not, accordiug to statute, plead
in mitigation, thus defeating that integrity at
wMch Gordon had arrived ; facts of this notorious
nature, comprehended even by the masses, could
be productive of no other result than to strengthen
the general opimon that the American mind must
be up and doing, if ever the seal of truth was to
stamp her imprimatur on the Mstory of the Ameri
can Eevolution.*
* Dr. Waterhouse, in his work on Junius and his Letters, has
very explicitly given us a brief statement of these nefarious trans
actions. I quote from his preliminary view the following extract :
" A very valuable and impartial history of the American Revolution
was written by the Rev. William Gordon, J). 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 Legisla
tures 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
tJie 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,

114 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
Our friend Pintard repeatedly gave wings to
these abuses of foreign writers, as preparatory to
his movements for an historical society. He wag
too full of knowledge, both by observation and by
reading, not to feel himself doubly armed on the
subject ; and your inteUigent Librarian, Mr. Moore,
can point out to you how ample is your collection
of volumes on the Indian, the French, and the
Eevolutionary wars, chiefly brought together by
the zeal and research of your enlightened founder.
WUl 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 sweUed the tide
of popular 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 Mstory of their country, as those
of the United States of North America ; " " for
there are none,'' adds this learned German, "who
enjoy an equaUy great share in their country's his
torical acts." Glorious New York has, from the
beginning of her career down to the present hour,
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 Adams, the President of these
United States, who perused Gordon's manuscript when he was ow
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 havmg corre
sponded with him till near the close of his long life."

FRENCH REVOLUTION. 115
lever 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 EepubUc, and her
thousand examples of improved policy in muni
cipal affairs, in buUding, in domestic economy, in
the several departments of arts and of commerce,
have yielded by their adoption blessings untold to
other cities of the Umon. From the time of that
great improvement, as it was caUed, the construc
tion 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 Eip
Van Winkle torpor,) at which service we find Pin
tard struggled with the corporate authorities hi
1791-2, down to that mighty achievement, the in
troduction of the Croton water, by the genius of
Douglass, she has been the exemplar for other
cities of the EepubUc, and approved by the en-
Ughtened foreigner, from every nation, who has
visited our shores.
Common observation has repeatedly confirmed
the fact, that the greatest and the smallest events
are often synchronous. With the birth of the
Eevolution of France in 1789, I made my first
appearance on this planet ; and the arrival of
I'Embuscade four years after, from the notoriety
of the event and its consequences, enables me to
bring to feeble recoUection many of the scenes

116 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
*
wMch transpired in this city at that time : the
popular excitement and bustle, the liberty cap,
the entr6e of citizen Genet, the Eed Cockade, the
song of the carmagnole, in which with chUdish
ambition I umted, the rencontre with the Boston
frigate, and the commotion arismg from Jay's
treaty. Though I cannot speak earnestly from
actual knowledge, we must aU concede that these
were the times when poUtical strife assumed a for
midable aspect, when the press most flagrantly
outraged individual rights and domestic peace —
when the impugners of the Washington admin
istration received new weapons with wMch to
inflict their assaults upon tried patriotism, by
every arrival from abroad, announcing France in
her progress. The federaUsts and the anti-federal
ists 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 Bel
videre Club House, fanned the embers and en-
Mndled that zeal wMch caused the overthrow of
many of the soundest principles of American free
dom. Even the yeUow fever, wMch from its
novelty and its maUgnancy 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 Ms Argus, Freneau
with Ms Time Piece, and Cobbett with his Porcu-

FEDERAL AND REPUBLICAN PARTIES. 117
pine Gazette, increased the consternation which
only added to the inquietude of the peaceable citi
zen, who had often reasoned within himself, that a
seven years' carnage, through which he had passed,
had been enough for one Ufe. The arrogance of
party-leaders was aUke acrimonious toward 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
pubUc 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 Hoffman, CadwaUader D. Colden, and
WUUam Mooney, as sachems, with many others,
foUowed in her train.
I have not the rashness to invade the chair on
which is seated with so much national benefit and
renown the Mstorian Bancroft, or approach the
sphere of the historical orator of the nation, Ed
ward Everett ; stUl, as your association is historical
in aU its aims, I shaU 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 civiUzed world at large seemed electrified

118 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
by the outbreak of the revolution of France, it
necessarUy foUowed, as the shadow does the sub
stance, that the American soul, never derehct,
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
Uberty. Successive events had now dethroned the
monarchy of France, and the democratic spirit was
now evolved in its fuUest element. It was not
surprising that the experienced and the sober
champions who had effected the great revolution
of the Colonies should now make the cause of
struggling France their own ; and as victors al
ready 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 pros
pects of sympathy and of support were held out in
the prospective to their former friends and bene
factors abroad. Jealousy of Britain, affection for
France, was now the prevaUing impulse, and the
business of the day was often interrupted by tu
multuous noises in the streets. Groups of sailors
might be coUected on the docks and at the ship
ping 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

RIVINGTON AND GAINE. 119
study, because of some fi'csh report of the Ambus
cade or of Genet, the schoolmaster uttering in his
dismissal a new reason for the study of the classics,
by expounding with oracular digmty to his scholars,
Vivat Bespublica, now broadly printed as the cap
tion of the play-bUl or the pamphlet just issued.
The crew of the French frigate moored off Peck
Shp were now disgorged on shore, and organized
to march in ffle, increased by many natives, bear
ing the liberty cap with reverence, to the residence
of the French Consul, in Water street, and thence
proceeding to the Bowling Green, patrioticaUy to
root out, by pavmg 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, wMle from every lip was vociferated the
carmagnole. MeanwhUe the two old notorious
arch-tories, who had fattened on Ues and Ubels,
and before whose doors the procession passed,
were snugly ensconced behind their shop counter ;
Eivington in rich purple velvet coat, fuU wig and
cane, and ample friUs, deaUng out good stationery
to his customers ; and Gaine, in less ostentatious
costume, ready with religious zeal to dispose of Ms
recent edition of the Book of Common Prayer to
all trae worsMppers.
PoUtical clubs abounded everywhere. The
fraternity of the two nations was the great theme.
They deliberated on the doctrine of Lafayette in

120 HISTORICAL DISCOURSB.
the national Assembly — " When oppression ren
ders a revolution necessary, insurrection is the most
sacred of duties." The democratic principle as
sumed a more vigorous form, and the Democratic
Society, the first in this city, and perhaps the first
in the Union, was organized, with Henry Eutgers,
an affiuent and distinguished citizen, as its presi
dent. 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 wMch
America had cherished for struggUng France. She
had contemplated the overthrow of the monarchy,
the destruction of the privileged orders, the execu
tion 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 aU
its doings. But fresher and stUl more portentous
inteUigence now poured in among us. AU knew
that the tree of liberty had been planted in human
blood ; yet the delights at its growth were some
times checked by the means of its nutrition. Nor
was tMs virtiginous state of public opinion long to
last. Some of the hitherto most factious and sturdy
Jacobinical advocates took alarm at the rapid
march of foreign events. In the public assembhes
graver deliberations fiUed the speaker's mind, and

FANATICAL TIMES — GENET. 121
the fulminations of anarchy gave way to the per
suasive logic of rule and right. History was now,
indeed, teacMng philosophy. -So far as concerned
the war itself, nothing abroad so effectively chUled
the ardor of the American people as the sanguinary
measures of Eobespierre, while at home the ex
traordinary career of Genet increased the dissatis
faction to the cause of EepubUcan France, and
added to the anxiety wMch 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 maUgn career of Genet,* the lawless spirit
of the times, and the increase of popular disaffec-
* I have spoken of Genet with severity : he labors under re
proach 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 live
ly 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 touchmg his execution on the piano, he subjoined :
" I have given many hours daily for twelve years to this instru
ment, and now reach some effective sounds." He had a genius
for mechanics, and after he had become an agriculturist in this
country, wrote on machinery and on husbandry. He assured me
(in 1812) the time would arrive when his official conduct as min
ister would be cleared of its dark shades. To other shoulders,
said he, will be transferred the odium I now bear. In a conver
sation with him on the vicissitudes and events of the French Re
volution, he said, "Their leaders were novices: had they been
6

122 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
tion towards England. The appointment of Jay
as minister extraordinary to Great Britain, the
debates in Congress- on the Treaty which he had
negotiated, and the local turmoU wMch found en
couragement elsewhere as weU as in this city, are
facts strongly witMn the memory of the venerable
men stUl alive among us. As might be inferred,
the provisions of the treaty were assailed with
the greatest vehemence by Jacobinical or demo
cratic clubs, and the disciples of the most spotless
of patriots decried in language wMch can scarcely
find a paraUel in the vocabulary of abuse. The
disorganizing multitude, segregated in divers parts
of the town, soon found a raUying 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, — whUe some of the Livingstone, (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 WilUam S, Smith (a
son-in-law of old President Adams) presided with
versed in Albany politics but for three months, we would have es
caped 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 Rous
seau, and years of correspondence with eminent American states
men, down to the close of his eventful life. He died at Jamaica,
Long Island, in 1834, aged 11 years.

jay's treaty. 123
magistefrial importance at a formidable meeting
of the malcontents, who passed resolutions depre
catory of the stipulations of the negotiation and
of the principles and acts espoused by the advo
cates of the great measure. To give a still more
alarming aspect to affairs, HamUton and Eufus
King, occupying the balcony of the City HaU, in
Wall street, and addressing the people in accents
of friendsMp and peace and reconcihation, were
treated in retum by showers of stones leveUed at
their persons by the exasperated mob gathered in
front of that buUding. " These are hard arguments
to encounter," exclaimed the noble-hearted HamU
ton. Edward Livingston, (afterwards so celebrated
for his Louisianian Code,) was, I am' informed,
one of tMs violent number. What WasMngton
caUed a counter-current, however, actually took
place at a meeting of the old Chamber of Com
merce, 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 ap
probation of the treaty. But let me refer you to
the Mstory of that time-honored association writ
ten by Charles King, LL. D., for further par
ticulars. I beUeve old Tammany was then too intent in
effecting their original design, with their charter

124 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
before them, of gathering together the reUcs of na
ture, art, beads, wampum, tomahawks, belts,
earthen jugs and pots, and other Indian antiqui
ties, with aU that could be found of Indian htera
ture in war songs, and Meroglyphical barks, to
take any special movement in this crisis of pubUc
soUcitude for the safety of the Union. Tammany,
to her honor, adhered together by a strong con
servative 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 MitcMU. Early after
the organization of the Society, he discoursed be
fore the Society of Black Friars, on the character
of St. Tammany, the Incas of Peru, and the be
nignant aspect of our EepubUc. Nothing had
reference to our domestic trials. StUl later, at a
season of much agitation among us, as Sachem,
in another address on the Eed Man of the New
World, he congratulated the members on their
patron saint, with the hope that their squaws and
papooses were all weU.
Public opinion, as I have already intimated, had
become somewhat doubtful as to the wisdom wMch
marked the French revolution. Many, once seem
ingly secure in the light of nature alone, now felt
themselves led into a delusion, the results of wMch

SKEPTICAL DOCTEINES. 125
threatened more than temporal inconvenience.
The middle and the best classes of society, the
responsible citizen, who had at one time frater
nized, with these apostles of Uberty, now foresaw
that certain doctrines ingrafted on and interwoven
with the poUtical 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 skep
ticism wMch 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 es
tabUshment, and the downfaU of the strongest
piUars of the Christian faith.
As the darkness which had shrouded the actual
state of things broke away, new Ught shone upon
the conduct of the revolutiomsts.. A devouter
feeUng was in progress, and circumstances were
better comprehended. The Gospel of charity, of
peace, and of good wiU to aU men, it was safely
inferred, was not to be advanced by existing trans
actions, nor its dignity elucidated with advantage
by the foulest blasphemies. It was further seen
that the pestilential exhalations of Paris had not
merely poUuted aU France, but that they had
widely diffused themselves throughout the Con-
tment ; that Germany had her lUummati ; that

126 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
England breathed the noxious vapor with spas
modic vehemence ; that Scotland was tainted ;
that Ireland was ready for a change of elemental
Ufe. Enough had now transpired abroad to awaken
alarm at home. New York, which, to her ever
lasting honor be it said, had been founded and
reared under her original settlers, the Dutch, and
with the exception of some sUght misrule on the
part of certain of her English masters (see our
faithful and distinguished historian Brodhead*),
had uniformly sustained rehgious toleration down
to the present moment ; New York, which had
with the nobleness of freemen looked with sym
pathizing eyes on revolutionary France in her in
cipient warfare on behalf of a persecuted and
trodden-down nation, could no longer continue in
credulous as to the miscMef and abuse which
afflicted others, or 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
* History of the State of New York : by John Romeyn Brod
head. First period, 1609-1664. New York : Harper & Brothers,
8vo., 1853.

ATHEISTICAL TIMES. 127
political clubs took alarm ; in short, among men
of all orders and professions, Doubting Castle
stood before them. Liberty, the attractive god
dess, once decorated in her robes of resplendent
purity, was now transformed into a hideous mon
strosity. The professing Christians stood aghast
when they learned that in France 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
beUef of a God was so pernicious an opinion, as
to be an exception to the general prmciple of toler
ation. The clergy, with us, could no longer < with
stand these atrocious sentiments. " Better," said
they, "abandon the cause of Uberty, so dear to
our humanity, than adhere to it at such a sac-
rUegious cost. Better abandon France than aban
don our God." TEe balance was strack, 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. The
Eev. John McKnight, a professor in Columbia
College, fortified by the patriotic Witherspoon,
had issued a series of Discourses on Faith, and
WUUam Linn, of the CoUegiate Dutch Church,
an eminent divine and accompUshed preacher, was
of the number of the converts. He had pubUshed
the Signs of the Tunes m behalf of Liberty and
France ; his troubled bosom now gave relief to

128 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
itself by his Discourse on National Sins. The
Voice of Warning, a powerful Discourse by a pop
ular man, John M. Mason, was also widely circu
lated. The party feuds which had annoyed real
beUevers of different denominations on such points
as adult and pasdo-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 rehgious conformity by the
clergy of different sects, were apprehended now as
merely notHng, in comparison to the evUs which
seemed impending. The tranquiUity of the whole
clerical body stood on the borders of destruction.
The prelacy was alarmed, and the so-caUed dis
senters of every faith were iU at ease. They had
felt the wMrlwind, they now dreaded the storm.
The wolf threatened to destroy both the shepherd
and his flock. The pulpit, ^o often and so effec
tively the means of reUef of private sorrow, now
waged uncompromising war with her thunderbolts
from heaven, to rescue that only precious book, as
Mason called the Bible, fi-om the consuming influ
ence of atheism.
I am not to measure the extent of the benefits
conferred by the mimstry at that dark titne when
ominous formalities in the streets awakened the
pubUc gaze, when the ears were distracted by ter
rible blasphemy, and foUy and infideUty had
reached their cUmax ; but when I know that that

MINISTERIAL EFFORTS. 129
majestic father of theology. Dr. liivingston, of the
Dutch Eeformed Church, Dr. Eodgers and Dr. John
M. Mason, of the Presbyterian community ; that
learned dignitary of the Episcopate, Bishop Pro-
voopt ; John Foster, of the Baptists ; Francis
Asbury, of the Methodists, and Kunze of the Ger
man Lutheran Church, were of the number, and
were enumerated among the best of men who en
countered the times and openly declared their
faith, in order to rescue the people from them
selves ; I feel bound ^o infer that some of the
lepers must have been cleansed. That eyesight
was not received by all, and the scoffers not alto
gether sUenced, the Mstory of that period gives us
painful proofs. That you may understand me the
better, I wUl weary your patience a moment longer
with a few circumstances which fell under the
observation of every attentive person at that pe
riod. Nor wUl you accuse me of invective wMle I
recite the story.
I beUeve it is set down as a political axiom
that war is not conducive to the progress of re
ligious beUef Be this as it may, our revolutionary
contest in its wide-spread desolation had left the
institutions of learning and of theology encom
passed with perils and in the lowest temporal con
dition. Time was requisite to restore their ability
and their influence ; and ecclesiastical affairs ne
cessarUy halted in their march, from the penury
6*

130 HISTORICAL DISCOURSB.
wMch pervaded the country and the overburdened
cares of a people, fuU of gratitude at their liber
ation from the yoke of tyranny, yet hardly ready
to summon the requisite means for such important
and grave ends. In the meanwhUe, the conclusion
must be made that a sprinkling of phUosopMcal
beUef, in contradistinction to that of religious, had
here and there penetrated the public mind and
entered the soU of Uberty, derived from the aheady
scattered circulation of the writings of Voltaire,
Helvetius, Eousseau, and the Encyclopaedists.
But the land was doomed to be .stUl deeper im
pregnated and the dweUers thereon to partake in
larger bounty of the products of a new husbandry,
the fruits of a new revelation, in the enjoyment of
wMch nature, rejecting absurdities and rejoicing in
a Mgher 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 witMn our waters, was
also brought that material wMch constructed the
Temple of Eeason and led numerous worshippers
to her shrine. The Theophilanthropists reared
their heads, and Deistical Clubs were in formative
operation. However repeUent to the doctrines of
a religion wMch, with uprightness of intention and
the deepest conviction, the people at large main
tained in conscious purity ; however antagonistic
to that faith which they had in infancy been

THEOPHILANTHROPISTS. 131
taught and in riper years cherished as their great
est blessing, their allegiance to the God of their
fathers was nevertheless in many instances neu
tralized by the poison they imbibed, and in many
cases broken asunder by pretexts of superior en-
Ughtenment — a more tenable rationaUty, the pride
of intellect. That these philosopMcal teachers weU
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 spar
ingly diffused among us, and the manageable mul
titude were easUy led captive by the dexterity of
Jacobimcal instructors, who knew how to accom
modate their lessons to the affections of the unen-
Ughtened and untaught. Besides wMch, liberty
and the rights of man were so insidiously inter
woven with the faUacies of skepticism, that while
the former vouchsafed the dearest privUeges, the
latter was so masked that numbers unawares were
indoctrinated and became the disciples, of the the-
istical school.
These clandestine movements were not without
their consequences in other sections of the State,
more especiaUy 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 poUtical sentiments generaUy ran Mgh. It was

132 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
destined afterwards to become the scene of the
Druidical Society, for so the free-thinkers nomi
nated their fraternity. They feigned the principles
of the lUuminati and the Jacobin Clubs ; their
pubUc avowal was Uberty and the rights of man.
They alternately conducted their public worsMp in
New York and at Newburgh ; and at this latter
place I have assurances that the typical symbols of
Christianity were sometimes outrageously profaned,
-and the holy sacraments prostituted to the vUest
ends. 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
feeUngs, strong affections, but lacked the conser
vative and wholesome principles on which a re
public must depend for its prosperity and duration.
I would draw a veU over the closing scenes of
some of their Uves. How often we behold a mys
tery ! The county which had given to Noah Web
ster the school-house in which he first imparted
juvenile knowledge, and where he first concocted
the famous SpeUing-book which has since given
instruction and morality to mUUons of the youth
of both sexes of tMs nation, became in the pro
gress of events the patron of a society whose every

AGE OF REASON. 133
act seemed destined to demoUsh those very princi
ples on wMch both Uberty and Ufe depend.
In the midst of these commotions, certain
presses were not tardy m the diffusion of works
favoring the great designs of infideUty : Condorcet
and Volney, TindaU and Boulanger, became ac
cessible m libraries and circulated widely by pur
chase. But no work had a demand for readers at
aU comparable to that of Paine ; and it is a fact
almost incredible that the Age of Eeason, on its
first appearance in this city, was printed as an or
thodox book, by orthodox pubUshers, of a house
of orthodox faith, doubtless deceived by the vast
renown wMch the author of Common Sense had
obtained, and the prospects of sale ; acting on the
principle given in the Cyclopaedia, in its definition
of a good book, in bookseUers' language, " one
that seUs w&U." The same pubUshers, however,
made early atonement for their bibliographical
error, in their immense circulation of Watson's
Apology. We had in those days other commotions touch
ing articles of beUef of another order of delusion.
I mean the promulgation of the rhapsodies o^
Eichard Brothers, who affirmed he had received a
special gift, and who in England had aroused
attention by Ms revelations and prophetic visions
not altogether unUke those of the MUlerites of the
other day in tMs metropohs. David Austin, an

134 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
ardent preacher, of New Jersey, came hither to
our relief, and occupying a prominent pulpit de
nounced Brothers as a deceiver, imparting his own
learned disquisitions on the miUennium ; wMle
Townley, a worthy man and laborious expositor,
the last in the city of that denomination of
preachers of the old OUver CromweU belief, in a
neighboring edifice in Warren street was expound
ing the " unsearchable riches," and demonstrating
the decrees of infinite wisdom by enUghtening his
audience with a burning candle on his desk, in
which I observed he protruded Ma finger in order
to elucidate that passage of holy writ, " when thou
walkest in the fire, thou shalt not be consumed,
and the flame shaU not burn thee."
The great instrument in the promotion of
deistical doctrines during that singular period' in
New York, was EUhu 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 CoUege,.- brought up a
CongregationaUst — assumed the mimstry, but after
a short period was suddenly transformed mto a
Deist. In his study he was reading the psalm,
paraphrased by Watts, " Lord, I am vile, conceived
in sin." He doubted, he denied the declaration ;
he abandoned preacMng. Eiker, in his valuable
Annals of Newtown, gives an interesting detaU of

ELIHU PALMER. 135
the circumstances. Palmer proceeded to PMla
delphia for the purpose of the study and practice
of the law, took the yeUow fever of 1793, became
totaUy bUnd, 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 PMladelphia of pleurisy, in the ^inter of 1805
or 1806. In what manner he added to the stores
of Ms wisdom after his loss of sight, I know not ;
but must infer that Ms associate foUowers 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 Ustened to
Palmer ; none could be weary witMn the sound
of his voice ; his diction was classical ; and much
of Ms natural theology attractive by variety of
iUustration. But admiration often sunk into de
spondency at his assumption, and his sarcastic
assaults on things most holy. His boldest phUippic
was Ms discourse on the title-page of the Bible,* in
which, with the double shield of jacobinism and
infidelity, he warned rising America against con
fidence 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 sensuaUst issue his Counterblast against the
most innocent recreation that faUs witMn the

136 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
scope of weary mortals. Palmer deUvered Ms
sermons in the Union Hotel, in WUliam street.
His audience was composed of a large body of the
free-thinkers of that day. His Principles of Na-
'ture, a 12mo, was reprinted in London about
the time of the TMstlewood riots. Palmer's
strongest personal friends were John Fellowes,
an author of some volumes ; Epse, an unfortunate
lawyer ; Taylor, a philanthropist, and Charles
Christian, During the later years of his pastoral func
tions, as he called them, he was aided by a co-
laborer in another part of the city, of physical
proportions even more stately, of stUl more daring
speech, whose voice was as the surge of mighty
biUows, whose jacobinism was, if possible, stiU
fiercer ; I aUude to John Foster : I have heard
many speakers, but none whose voice ever equaUed
the volume of Foster's. It fiowed with delicious
ease, and yet penetrated every where. He besides
was favored with a noble presence. Points of dif
ference existed in the theological dogmas of Fos
ter and Palmer, yet they had the same ends in
view ; radicaUsm and the spread of the Jaco
binical element. Foster's exordium consisted gen
eraUy in an invocation to the goddess of hberty,
now unshackled, who inhaled nutrition fi-om
heaven, seated on her throne of more than Alpine
heights. Pahner and Foster caUed each other

THOMAS PAINE. 137
brother, and the fratermty was most cordial. I
have sometimes thought, could we find more fre
quently the same strenuous efforts, as these men
employed, caUed 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 de
ficiency somewhere :
" 'Tis of ourselves that we are thus or thus :
Our bodies are our gardens, to the which
Our minds are gardeners,"
The improved temporal condition of our houses
of worship in tMs city, after the war of indepen
dence, their great numerical increase, with the
Mgher culture and augmented zeal of the preach
ers of different denominations in Christian exhor
tation, produced, if I may be allowed the lan
guage, a more formidable and weU-discipUned
phalanx against the inroads of infidel doctrines,
and the front of deism was now less obtrusive,
when the notorious author of the Age of Eeason
arrived among us in 1802. Nevertheless, Ms pro
digious poUtical renown secured him vast atten
tions. The press on every side, from the north to
the south, was fiUed with the highest eulogies of his
merits and his services, or with direct invectives
on his character. He was once the strong arm on
wMch, in its darkest hour, the revolted colomes

138 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
depended, and he had become the revUer of re
vealed truth and of the immaculate WasMngton.
Jefferson, who had proved his friend, for reasons
not necessary here to specify, was doomed to re
ceive a fuU share, of the vituperation heaped on
Paine. But Paine had many friends ; and, as he
ihere sought retirement rather than office, and felt
that as- he had vindicated the rights of man, he
was able to protect Ms own, seemed indifferent
to public censure, and preserved the vials of Ms
indignation almost solely for the head of Gouver
neur Morris, to whom he had long owed a grudge.
In his Letters to the People of the United States,
his shafts of ridicule were repeatedly aimed at the
great statesman who had penned the Constitu
tion. Morris, who, unfortunately for Mmself, had
suffered amputation of a Umb, rendered necessary
by an accident, was made the subject by Paine of
sarcastic remarks from Ms calamity ; and Paine,
triumphing in the fact, assured the public that
Morris was little to be depended upon in serious
difficulties with other nations, inasmuch as in
such a crisis he would not dare to show a leg. He
often treated the physical infirmities of his oppo
nents as he treated the miracles recorded in Scrip
ture. Penury pleaded most successfuUy with his
feeUngs, and from the abundance of anecdotes
concerning him, he seems to have been generous
when Ms means aUowed Mm. A sorry author,

THOMAS PAINE. 139
wMle Paine was abroad, had fabricated a book
wMch he vended advantageously among us, as the
Eecantation of Paine's Eeligious -Creed. He was
desirous, upon Paine's arrival, pf a personal intro
duction to him, which was accordingly aUdwed.
"Are you not, sir," said Paine to the strangw,
" the writer of" my Eecantation .? Did you do
well with the affair as a business transaction ? "
An affirmative being given to both interrogatories,
" I am glad," rejoined Paine, " you found the ex
pedient a successful shift for your needy family ;
but write no more concermng Thomas Paine ; I
am satisfied with your acknowledgment — try some
thing more worthy of a man."
Paine's writings, it is well known, were gene
raUy the promptings of special occasions. The
yellow fever of 1803 brought out in 1804 his
slender pamphlet on the causes of the pestilence.
Some masonic agitations led shortly after to his
History of the Origin of Masonry. His pen was
rarely idle for the first year or two after his ceturn
to America, nor were the deplorable habits which
marked his closing years so firmly fixed. Like the
opium-eater, inspired by his narcotic, Paine, When
he took pen in hand, demanded the brandy-bot*le,
and the rapidity of his composition seemed almost
an inspiration. During the first few years after
his return, he was often joined in Ms walks about
town by some of our most enUghtened citizens in

140 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
social conversation, and Ms countenance bore the
intellectual traces of Eomney's painting. He now
too received occasional invitations to dine with the
choicer spirits of the ' democracy ; and none could
surpass Mm in the social circle, from the abun-
d^ce of Ms varied knowledge and Ms vivid imagi
nation. The learned and bulky Dr. Nicholas Eo
mayne had solicited his company at a dinner, to
which also he invited Pintard, and other intelh-
gent citizens, who had known Paine m revolution
ary days. Pintard chose this occasion to express
to Paine his opinion of his infidel writings. " I
have read and re-read," said Pintard, " your Age
of Eeason, and any doubts Which I before enter
tained of the truth of revelation, have been re
moved by your logic. Yes, sir, your very argu
ments against Christianity have convinced me of
its truth." " WeU, then," answered Paine, with
a sarcastic glance, " I may return to my couch to
night with the consolation that I have made at
least one Christian."
The plaster-cast of the head and features of
Paine, now preserved in the gaUery of arts of the
Historical Society, is remarkable for its fideUty to
the original, at the close of his Ufe. Jarvis, the
painter, thought it his most successful work in
that Une of occupation, and I can confirm the
opinion from my many opportunities of seeing
Paine. Paine, like Burr, towards the close of Ms

THOMAS PAINE. 141
eartUy career, was subjected to the annoyance of
repeated removals of Ms residence in New York ;
and as time proved, even death did not secure
repose for his mortal remains at New Eochelle.
A singular ' coincidence led me to pay a visit
to Cobbett, at his country seat, witMn a couple-of
mUes of the city, on the island, on the very day
that he had exhumed the bones of Paine, and
shipped them for England. I wiU here repeat the
words I used on a late occasion, and which Cob
bett gave utterance to at the friendly interview
our party had with him. " I have just performed
a duty, gentlemen, which has been too long de
layed : you have neglected too long the remains of
Thomas Paine. I have done myself the honor to
disinter his bones. I have removed them from
New Eochelle. I have dug them up ; they are
now on their way to England. When I myself
return, I shaU cause them to speak the common
sense of the great man ; I shaU gather together
the people of Liverpool and Manchester in one
assembly with those of London, and those bones
wiU effect the reformation of England in Church
and State." The result of Cobbett's experiment
is not forgotten. — Paine created so much history,
that it seems but justice that a brief notice of the
tnan should find a few lines in a discourse on his
torical matters. The moral and the refined may
tMnk that more than is needful has already been

142 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
said concerning Paine, arguing that the corrup
tions of his advanced life outweighed the patriotic
benefits of his earlier career. The principle of
gratitude wUl not, however, allow a genuine spirit
to forget the magical influence once wrought by
his Common Sense over the millions who read it
at the most critical moment in the nation's story.
He fell, low indeed in process of time, from his
Mgh estate, and I have not been indifferent in sift
ing the accounts by his visitors of his loathsome hab
its, and Ms coarse jests with things sacred. Cheet-
ham, who with settled maUgnity wrote the life of
Paine, though he himself had long been in famihar
intercourse with the deistical clubs, felt little desire
to extenuate any of the faults in Paine's charac
ter. I have a suspicion that simster motives of a
poUtical nature were not overlooked by the biogra
pher. He was wont in Ms editorial career to seize
upon circumstances which might effectually turn
the tide of popular favor in his behalf He had
done so with the tergiversations of Burr, he had
done so with the renown of Hamilton ; he had
done so in the case of Dewitt Clinton, and why
not preserve his consistency in his strictures on
the fruits of unbelief in the degradation of the
wretched Paine ? Paine clung, to his infidehty
untU the last moment of Ms natural life. His
death-bed scene was a spectacle. He who in Ms
early days had been associated with and had re-

THE UNIVERSALISTS. 143
ceived counsel from Franklin, was, in his old age,
deserted by the humblest memal : he, whose pen
had proved a very sword among nations, had
shaken empires and made kings tremble, _ now
yielded up the mastery to the most treacherous of
monarchs. King Alcohol.
There is much in the Historical Library con
cerning Paine, and not the least of value is the
revised copy, for a second edition, of Cheetham's
work, which he gave me for the institution.
But the programme of our theological warfare
in those remarkable times is not yet complete.
WhUe these scenes were enacting, there were other
estabUshments not idle. The Society of Friends,
peaceable as from the beginning, and devoted with
characteristic benevolence to works of charity, held
their service in the Pearl street and Liberty street
meeting-houses ; not as yet disturbed by the inno
vations on primitive Barclay, introduced by Ehas
Hicks, an able preacher of strong reasoning pow
ers, and which subsequently agitated that rehgious
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 be
neficence for suffering mortals."
The Universalists, with Edward MitcheU and
Wilham Palmer, though circumscribed in fiscal

144 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
means, nevertheless drew together a most respect
able body of beUevers to their house of worship
in Magazine street.- They were both men of elo
quence and good pleaders in behalf of their tenets,
and had large auditories. OccasionaUy they were
sustained in the work of their conviction by the
preacMng 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 Univer-
saUst, little John Murray, had much of the primi
tive about him ; Ms rich humiUty, Ms grave ac
cent, and his commentaries on the divine love,
won him distinction from every discourse. None
could withhold a kindly approbation. He seemed
to me always charged with tracts on benevolence,
and engaged in distributing a periodical called the
Berean, or Scripture Searcher. He caUed 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

TOLERATION. 145
of the pubUc discourses of Mitchell and Palmer.
Chauncey's book had been read by thousands ;
WUUam Pitt Smith, a doctor of physic, and a
professor of materia medica in Columbia CoUege,
in this city, had published his Letters of Amyntor ;
Winchester's Lectures on Universal Eestoration
and on the Prophecies, had been circulated
with a strong recommendatory letter from the
pen of Dr. Eush ; and Huntington's Calvin
ism Improved, or the Gospel Illustrated as a Sys
tem of Eeal 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 broad
cast, ere Edward MitcheU had mounted the pul
pit. Nevertheless, the Universalists may look
back with equal emotions of gratitude at the
labors of MitcheU and Palmer for a series of years
in their service, begun some fifty years ago, wMle
their society was in its infancy, as at the present
day they haU their accomphshed orator. Dr. Chapin,
as their ecclesiastical leader.
What a beautiful and instructive example of
toleration is set forth in tMs brief Mstory of creeds
and forms of belief ! During the whole of this
7

146 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
critical period of the war of beUef and unbelief
in reUgious matters, I never learned that the least
commotion ever disturbed public tranquilhty. It
was, indeed, occasionaUy otherwise in pohtical
affairs ; but we look in vain for occurrences simi
lar to those wMch disfigured the days of our
colonial vassalage under the reign of that royal
vagabond, Combury, and some of his successors.
Such was the homage paid to the Declaration of
Independence. I had the opportumty, in the Magazine street
church, of listemng 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 pecuUar faciUties to visit almost
every part of the earth as a pedestrian, before we
had raUways, and who enUghtened Ms audience
with descriptive touches of Egypt and her pyra
mids, of Nova Zembla, " and the Lord knows
where." I shaU never forget his unostentatious,
though impressive appearance ; Ms lank figure, his
long neck, his long nose, his wide mouth, and his
broad white hat.
There is one other subject I must place witMn
the background of this picture of past times, and
that is street preaching. The older inhabitants
teU us we had much of it in the earUer condition
of tMs city, shortly after the inauguration of the

LORENZO DOW. 147
first President of the United States. I remember
weU repeated examples of tMs sort of edification
in the pubhc ways. I shaU specify but one, and
tlfet was to be found m the person of Lorenzo Dow.
Dow was a Wesleyan, of rare courage and deter
mined zeal. He scarcely ever presented himself
without drawing together large multitudes of
hearers, in part owing to Ms grotesque appear
ance, but not a Uttle arising irom Ms dexterous
elocution and Ms prompt vocabulary. He was
faithful to his mission, and a benefactor to
Methodism in that day. His weapons a.gainst
Beelzebub were providential interpositions, won
drous disasters, toucMng sentiments, miraculous
escapes, something^ after the method of John
Bunyan. His reUgious zeal armed him with
Christian forbearance, wMle his convictions al
lowed Mm a justifiable use of the strongest fiagel-
lations for besetting sins. Sometimes you were
angered by his coUoquial 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 Eowland HUl. Like the disci
plined Mstriomc performer, he often adjusted him
self to adventitious circumstances ; in his field ex
ercises, at camp meetmgs, and the hke, a raging
storm might be the foreranner of God's immediate
wrath ; a change of elements might betoken Para-

148 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
dise restored, or a new Jerusalem. He might be
come farcical or funereal. He had genius at aU
times to construct a catastrophe. His apparent
sincerity and Ms indubitable earnestness sustained
and carried him onward, whUe many ran to and
fro. Eepartee, humor, wit, irony, were a portion
of Ms stock in trade, the materials he adroitly
managed. Sometimes he was redundant in love
and the affections, at other times acrimomous and
condemnatory. Altogether Lorenzo was an orig
inal, 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 httle to
do with the detersive infiuence of cleanhness.
With dishevelled locks of black flowing hair over
his shoulders, Uke Edward Irving of many tongues,
and a face which, like the fashion of our own day,
rarely ever knew a razor, Ms piercing gray eyes of
rapid mobility, infiltrated with a glabrous moist
ure, roUed with a keen perception, and was the
frequent index of Ms mental ai-mory. I have
impUed that he was always ready at a rejoinder ;
an instance or two may be given. A dissenter
from Dow's Arminian doctrines, after Ustening to
his harangue, asked Mm if he knew what Calvin
ism was ? " Yes," he promptly repUed : —

LORENZO DOW, 149
' 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, (save my year
abroad,) was in the summer of 1824 at Utica with
a 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 Eeservation In
dians, with a vast assemblage of the people of Utica
and the neighboring vUlages. Mounted on an ad
vantageous scaffolding, he discoursed on the re
wards of a good life, and pictured the blessmgs of
heaven. Upon Ms retum to the hotel there was
found among the occupants a Mr. Branch and old
General Eoot, so famiharly known for the oppro
brious name of " the Big Ditch," wMch he gave
to CUnton's Canal. These two gentlemen ad
dressed Dow, told him they had heard him say
much of heaven, and now begged to ask Mm -if
he could describe the place. " Yes," says Dow,
with entire ease. " Heaven is a wide and expan
sive region, a beautiful plain, sometMng Uke our
prairie country — without any thing to obstruct the
vision — there is neither Eoot nor Branch there."
Dow had one great requisite for a preacher ; he
feared no man. With unflincMng resolution he

150 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
presented Mmself every where, and if perchance
signs of a rude commotion among his auditors
manifested themselves, he met them like Whit
field, and exclaimed — These bitter herbs make good
sauce and promote digestion. He might then be
listened to with breathless attention. All annoy
ances he reckoned as the workings of Providence
in his behalf, and preserving a sort of armed neu
trality, kept aloof from personal interference, con
forming to the advice of Eoger Vose, " Let every
man skin his own skunk."
There were but two houses of public wor
ship 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 LoriUards. The other meet
ing-house was in Second, now Forsyth street. In
tMs latter I have listened to Dow from the pulpit,
with his wife Peggy near him, a functionary of
equaUy attractive personal charms. A reciprocal
union of heads and hearts seemed to bind them
together. In short, he was far more fortunate in
the choice of his spouse than his great forerunner
John Wesley. We are not to forget that Moors-
field was mad with threats of damnation when
Lorenzo Dow commenced as an itinerant spiritual
instructor with us. Lorenzo rarely, I believe, for-

METHODISM. 151
sook, even for expediency's sake, the line of Ms
vocation. Blending, as often was the case in those
days, with the itinerant priesthood, the offices of
the physician and the preacher, he might have
sometimes admimstered a bolus for relief; but
I am unaware that he adopted the " Primitive
Physic " of his Great Master, and dealt out crude
quicksUver by ounces to aUeviate physical Uls.
But let me ask who now shall estimate the
advance of that vast denomination of Christians
from that period, with the solitary and starveUng
magazine of WilUam Phoebus as the exponent of
its doctrines, up to its present commanding condi
tion, with the venerable names of Hedding, Fisk,
Durbin, Olin, Simpson and Stevens, among its re
corded apostles, with its rich and affluent period
ical literature, its well-endowed schools and col
leges, its myriad of churches, its soul-sustaining
melodious hymns, its astounding Book Concern,
with its historian Bangs, and its erudite M'Clin-
tock among its great theological professors and
authors. If my memory fails me not, in the month of
May, 1819, arrived in tMs city WUliam EUery
Channing, with a coadjutor, both distinguished
preachers of the Unitarian persuasion, of Boston.
They were soUcitous to procure a suitable place of
worship. They made application at churches of
different denominations of religious beUef, to be

152 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
accommodated at the intermediate hours between
the morning and afternoon service, but in vain.
They next urged their request at several of the
pubUc charities where convenient apartments
might be found, but with the same result. Like
the two saints in Baucis and PhUemon —
" Tried every tone might pity win.
But not a soul would let them in."
StUl not whoUy disheartened, a communication
was received from them, through a committee, ad
dressed to the trustees of the CoUege of Phy
sicians 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 feeUng. TMs communication
read as foUows : — ''May 11, 1819.
" To DAvin Hosack, M. D. '
" Sir : — It may be known to you that there are individuals in
this city who have been accustomed to receive religious instruc
tion 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 con
tinuance 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 men
tion that the Rev. Wilham E. Channing, of Boston, is expected to
pass the next Sunday with his friends in New York.
" Emboldened by a consciousness of the liberaUty which dis
tinguishes your enlightened profession, they take the liberty to

UNITARIANISM. 153
desire you to lay before the Board of the Medical College their
request, that the lecture-room 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 occa
sions when a repetition of the favor now asked, would be grate
fully received, and in such case they would be happy to 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. Sew ALL.
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 CoUege grant permission to the Eev. W.
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 author
ized 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 en
tered the professional desk of the larger lecture-
room, and deUvered, in Ms meUowed accents, a dis
course to a crowded audience, among whom were
Ms associate brother preacher, and several pro
fessors of the college. But two or three days had
transpired, fi-om the occurrence of this first preach-
7*

154 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
ing of Umtariamsm, before it was loudly spoken
of, and in terms of disapprobation not the mUdest.
The censure on such a- pernicious toleration came
strongest from the Presbyterian order of clergy.
I heard but one prominent EpiscopaUan 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 after that memorable
Sunday, I accidentally met the great theological
thunderbolt of the times. Dr. John M. Mason, in
the bookstore of that inteUigent pubUsher and
learned bibUopole, 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 unMnged, I replied, " We
saw no such great evU in an act of religious toler
ation ; nor do I think," I added, "that one indi
vidual member is responsible for the acts of an
entire corporation." " You are all equaUy guilty,"
cried the doctor, with enkindled warmth. " Do
you know what you have done ? You have ad
vanced infideUty by complying with the request

UNITARIANISM. 155
of these skeptics." " Sir," said I, " we hardly
felt disposed to sift their articles of beUef as a re
hgious society." " There, sir, there is the diffi
culty," exclaimed the doctor. " BeUef : they
have no belief— -they beUeve in nothing, having
nothing to believe. They are a paradox ; you
cannot fathom them : how can you fathom a
tMng 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
pubUc worsMp in this city.
If there be present any of that religious asso
ciation 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 ve
racious historical narrative of times long elapsed,
and I feel that my personal knowledge of many
members of that religious persuasion wUl secure
me from inimical animadversion by so enlightened
and charitable a denomination. Umtariamsm had
indeed its advocates among us long before the pU-
grimage of Channing in 1819. Everybody at aU
versed in the progress of reUgious creeds in this
country wUl, I beUeve, assign to Dr. James Free
man the distinction of having been the first Uni
tarian mimster of the first Unitarian church in
New England. He promulgated Ms faith from
the pulpit of King's Chapel in Boston, wMch

156 HISTORICAL DISCOURSB.
church, however, had been vacant for some time,
owing to poUtical circumstances growing out of
the American Eevolution. He thus became the
means of converting the first Episcopal church of
the New England States into the first Umtarian
church. Having been refused ordination by
Bishop Seabury, of Connecticut, Freeman received
a lay ordination by Ms society alone, as their rec
tor and minister, in 1787. I know nothing of him
personaUy ; but the old and the young teU 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 Um
tarian. John Kirkland, so long the admired Presi
dent of Harvard Umversity, impressed with hke
theological doctrines, was sedulous in Ms caUing,
and earnest in making known the " Light of Na
ture," a work of curious metaphysical research
from the acute mind of Abraham Tucker, pub
Ushed under the assumed name of Edward Search.
That our Boston friends had favored us with
disciples of that faith in tMs city before that time
is most certain, else a society of that order of be
Uevers could not have been so rapidly formed as
appears by their organization in Chambers street
in 1821, when the Eev. Edward Everett delivered

UNITARIANISM. 157
the dedication sermon, with suitable exercises by
the Eev. Henry Ware, jun. ; again, at the instal
lation of their new buUding, corner of Prince and
Mercer streets, in 1826, when Dr. Channing
preached the dedication sermon, and the Eev. Dr.
Walker offered the final prayer. StUl further, we
find the Church of the Messiah, in Broadway, con
secrated and the instaUation sermon deUvered by
Dr. Walker, and the pastoral duties assigned to
Dr. Dewey ; but, for some years past, these have
been discharged by Dr. Osgood. And agam, we
find the organization of the Church of the Divine
Unity completed in 1845, the pastoral duties de
volving on Dr. BeUows ; and again, the last-named
church being disposed of to the UniversaUst So
ciety, we witness the magnificent edifice for Um
tarian worship, called All Souls' Church, situated
on the Fourth Avenue, consecrated December 25, -
1855, the Eev. Dr. BeUows, pastor.*
The writmgs of Linsley, of Priestley, of Bel-
sham, of Wakefield, were not whoUy unfamUiar
* The Rev. Dr. Osgood, in his Historical Discourse, entitled
" Twenty-five Years of a Congregation,'' thus expresses himself,
when speaking of the origin and progress of the Unitarian wor
ship in this city : — " Dr. Channing preached to a large audience
in the HaU of the Medical CoUege, 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 of Liberal Chris
tianity the first public hearing in New York."

158 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
works in tMs city ; nor could those early father's,
so often ransacked in the polemical disquisitions on
the church of the first three centuries, have been
altogether overlooked by our scholars and divmes.
TMs inference I deduce from the indignation which
so generaUy sprung up among the patrons of the
work when the American edition of Eees' Cyclo
paedia was commenced by Samuel F. Bradford.
This enterprising pubUsher had in Ms prospectus
announced that that great undertaking would be
revised, corrected, enlarged, and adapted to this
country. It was soon seen that, among other ar
ticles, that of accommodation in theology, which
the learned Eees 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 weU
as among our Eastern brethren, and had nearly
jeopardized the patriotic intentions of the noble-
hearted PhUadelphian, Bradford, whose purpose
was to enrich the literature and pMlosophy of our
EepubUc with that monumental work. The dis
satisfaction at this literary fraud pervaded so many
patrons here and elsewhere that I, even at that
early date, came to the conclusion that Umtarian-
ism could scarcely be classed among the novelties
of the day, and was not limited to any one section

UNITARIANISM. 159
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 criti
cism on the affected emendation of the American
copy of Eees. It is but justice to state of this
great work, wMch still so justly holds a place in
our Ubraries, that these disgraceful mutilations of
Eees ceased, after the reprint of the first volume
of the Cyclopaedia, and the honest Bradford had
weighty reasons to congratulate Mmself on the
seasonable reproofs administered against the unjust
editors by the Tudors, and Kirklands, and Buck-
minsters of " The Literary Emporium."
WMle in London I was a frequent visitor of
Dr. Eees. A more captivating example of the
Christian charities enshrined in one mortal, the
eye could not light on. He possessed a taU and
athletic frame, and a countenance of great benig
nity. He had all the requisites of a powerful
preacher, in person, in manner, in tone, and in
diction. His urbanity and Ms placidity of dispo
sition secured the esteem of aU who approached
him. He told me that Ms labors were then nearly
brought to a close ; that for more than tMrty
years he had been confined to his study, an ordi
nary room ; that his diurnal labor was of many
hours ; that, save Ms Sabbath preaching at the

160 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
Old Jewry, Ms only exercise had been his Umited
walk daUy to Ms pubUshers, the Longmans. His
fair and Uvely skin, his bright eye and his whole
some appearance, with such a life of mental devo
tion and such coiffinement, put at nought all my
theoretical doctrines on the laws of health. He
must have been more than a teetotaUer. I was
informed he was the last of the Doddridge wig
order, an imposing article, but wMch yielded in
dimensions and artistic elaboration to the more
forniidable one wMch invested the brain-case of
the great HeUenist, Dr. Samuel Parr, with its dis-
tensive and seemingly patulous gyrations. To
the curious in habiUments, I may add, that the
wig of that right worthy, lately with us, Dr. Liv
ingston, Was of the Doddridge order, that of old
Dr. Eodgers, Samuel Parr's. Nor is it trifling to
state the fact, for there was a time, according to
Southey, when the wig was considered as necessa
ry for a leamed head, as an ivy bush for an owl.
You wiU pardon this digression on Eees' Cyclopae
dia, inasmuch as it elucidates the point I would
sustain, were tMs a fit occasion, that in the origin
and spread of the Unitarian creed in tMs country,
we are hardly justified to Umit our attention to
the movements of our Boston or Eastern friends.
The weU-known letter of FrankUn to StUes sup
ports this view, and we have seen that when occa
sion has prompted, its advocates rise up limited to

EPISCOPALIANISM, 161
no special locality. The community that can
enumerate among its supporters such writers and
scholars as Channmg, Dewey, Osgood, Fumess, and
Bellows, need cherish no apprehension that their
cause wiU faU through from a stultified indiffer
ence. But I find myself launcMng in deep waters,
and will near the shore.
Enough and more than enough has been said
of the workings of the principles of religious tol
eration among us ; they furmsh instructive proofs
of the freedom secured to the people by our admi
rable constitutional form of government ; the in
teUect knows it, the searcher after truth'is sus
tained by it.
With a very brief notice of the EpiscopaUan
denomination, I shaU terminate these hasty sketch
es of rehgious matters. The EpiscopaUans of tMs
metropohs have exercised a great influence on the
interests of learning among New Yorkers, and on
their institutions of pubhc instruction and hu
manity. They have also proved warm friends to
the New York Historical Society.
The disraption of the colonies from the Mother
Country proved more disastrous in its immediate
effects to the Protestant Episcopal Church than
to that perhaps of any other religious association.
The ties wMch bound her to the forms and cere
monials of the Church of England, were strong
and numerous ; her ministers, with few excep-

162 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
tions, favored the cause of the loyalists, and con
sequently in a large majority of instances were,
upon the restoration of peace, compelled to aban
don their pastoral charges, and seek a Uvehhood
elsewhere. This consequence, with the disasters
of the times, resulted in a deserted ministry, and
in a disabled and poverty-stricken reUgious com
munity. The conscientious Churchman, bewaU-
ing the state of affairs, and anxious for the future,
looked forward with fluctuating hopes to the pe
riod when a happy issue might be found in the
various deliberations wMch now occupied the
minds of the friends of the Episcopate, not unlike
those which agitated the patriots of the Eevolu
tion amidst their discussions on the adoption of
the Articles of Confederation by the old Congress.
At length a convention was held in PMladelpMa,
wMch continued from the 27th of September to
the 7th of October, 1785, and delegates appeared
from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Dela
ware, Maryland, Virginia, and South Carohna.
Its labors brought forth the Protestant Episcopal
Book of Common Prayer, proposed for the Protes
tant Episcopal Church, printed by Hall and Sel
lers, in 1786. TMs book, now rarely to be found,
received the name of the Proposed Book. It was
reprinted at London in 1789 ; it contained no
Nicene Creed, or Athanasian Creed ; it had the
Apostles' Creed, but omitted " he descended into

BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. 163
hell." It had a special prayer for the then exist
ing government. It had a special supplication in
the liturgy for the then Congress, and a form of
service or prayer for the 4th of July.
The Convention was again held in PhUadel-
pMa, in September, 1789, WiUiam WMte, Presi
dent, for the purpose of settling Articles of
Union, discipline, uniformity of worship, and gen
eral 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 Eng
hsh bishops, the passage " he descended into heU,"
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
aU in civU authority. TMs Convention agreed to
abolish the service for the 4th of July, but allowed
each bishop the power of providing a suitable ser
vice for that and aU 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 reUgion were agreed -to
in Convention in 1801, and have since that

164 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
time been pubUshed 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
* The venerable Society for the propagation of the Gospel in
foreign parts, at a very early date of their organization adopted
means for the circulation of the Liturgy among our Indian tribes.
The Society was incorporated in 1*701, and the very next year
they sent missionaries to the Mohawks, who were situated near
the English settlements. Measures were adopted for a translation
of the Liturgy, and this first translation was fir,st printed in New
York about the year 1724, under the direction of the Rev. Mr.
Andrews, the Society's missionary to the Mohawks. This edition
comprised the Morning and Evening Service, the Litany and
Catechism, to which were added select passages from the Old and
New Testament, and some family prayers. The communion office,
that of baptism, matrimony, and burial of the dead, with more
passages of Scripture, occasional prayers, and .some singiijg
psalms, were translated by the Rev. Dr. Henry Barclay, who had
served the Indian mission with great fidelity for many years ; and
these additions of Barclay were inserted in the next edition of
the Indian Prayer Book also printed in New York in 1Y69, under
the inspection of the Eev. Dr. John Ogilvie, who succeeded Dr.
Barclay in that mission. Barclay and OgUvie are among the ven
erable divines associated with Trinity Church.
It is understood that during the course of the American
Eevolutionary war most of the Indian prayer books were de
stroyed, and the Mohawks urged the necessity of a new supply,
when by solicitation on their part the Governor of Canada, Halde-
mand, ordered it to be reprinted at Quebec in 1*780. In 1*787,
the venerable Society above mentioned again caused a repub
lication of the work in large octavo, with engravings, for the Mo
hawks, which was printed in London in that year. To this edition

BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. 165
MgMy 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 im
portant religious community ; it has preserved in
tact her forms and ceremonials, and her devo
tions ; it has saved her from division and dis
union ; it has suppressed intestine broils ; it has
promoted uniformity of worship, a most important
was added the Gospel according to St. Mark, translated into the
Mohawk language by the renowned Indian chief T'Hayendanegea,
Capt. Joseph Brant, whose life was not long since written by the
late Col. Stone. This is said to be the first Gospel which had ap
peared entire in the language of that tribe of Indians.
Certain portions of the Book of Common Prayer, according to
the use of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States
of America, translated into the Mohawk or Iroquois language, by
the request of the Domestic Committee of the Board of Missions
of the Protestant Episcopal Church, were pubUshed in New York,
in small duodecimo, in 1853. This book contained also a selec
tion of the Psalms and Hymns, with the Indian translation. This
work was accomplished by the Rev. Eleazer Williams, Y.D.M.,
the same individual who recently was conjectured by many to
have been the lost prince (Louis XVII.) of the house of the
Bourbons, and whose claims to that distinction were largely set
forth in Putnam's Magazine, and in a distinct work by the late
Rev. Mr. Hanson. I have known Mr. WUliams for nearly half a
century, during nearly aU which time he has been devoted to the
missionary cause : the last time I saw him was about three years -
ago, when he deUvered to me a copy of his translation. I enter
not in this place into a consideration of his Indian blood or of his
royal origin. He looks, I will say, very like a Bourbon. Bishop
Hobart took a deep interest in the man and in his missionary
labors.

166 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
object ; and by it she has avoided the distractions
and the local strifes which have too often dis
turbed the harmony and feUowship of other Chris
tian associations. If from the cold lips and stUl
colder hearts of the mere formalist, its reading
has sometimes wanted the spirit of devotion, how
much oftener has it saved from vulgar importuni
ties in prayer, and rescued the finer emotions -of
the soul from irreverent demands of Heaven, and
noxious crudities. It turns with conscious recti
tude 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 Con
ventions 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 lay
ing on of hands on Thomas John Claggett, D. D,,
of Maryland, in September, 1792 ; at wMch cere
monial White of Pennsylvania, Madison of Vir
ginia, and Seabury of Connecticut, assisted. —
Provoost, White, and Madison, were the regularly
consecrated bishops of the EngUsh Episcopate, of
the American Episcopal Church, the two former

BISHOP SEABURY. 167
having been elevated to the Episcopate by Moore,
Archbishop of Canterbury, in the chapel of Lam
beth 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 EngUsh consecration, and of Bishop Seabury,
the American Episcopal Church (as it is behoved
intentionally) umted both Episcopates in theirs,
thereby closmg the door against the future occur
rence of questions which might prove deUcate and
embarrassing. Seabury was a man of strong na
tive powers, of cultivated intellect, of extensive
influence, ardent in the cause of Episcopacy. The
Church may with sincerity ever hold Mm in grate
ful remembrance. When her sorrows were gravest,
he imparted consolation ; when her weakness was
greatest,, he yielded her strength. Her tribula
tions only added to Ms zealous efforts in her be
half He adhered to the royal side in the great
contest with the Mother Country, and dwelt among
the refugees m New York. He umted in the pro
test declaring abhorrence of aU unlawful con
gresses and committees, and, doubtless with con
scientious views, under the patronage of the
obnoxious Tryon, deUvered a discourse to fear God
and honor the Mng. He died a pensioner of the
British government, and, I incline to the opimon.

168 HISTORICAL DISCOURSB.
was looked upon somewhat with a jaundiced
vision by those devoted ^patriots, Provoost and
White. It has been more than once affirmed, and the de
claration is in print, that Bishop Provoost, as senior
presbyter, and senioi;in the mimstry, was consecrated
first, and Bishop WMte 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
me such was the case. If so, Provoost is to be
recorded as the Father of the American Episco
pate. It is painful to pluck a hair from the ven
erable head of the apostolic White, but we are
deaUng with history. White, who died at the ad
vanced age of eighty-nine years, lived to see the
American Church with some twenty-three bish
ops, he having officiated at nearly every consecra
tion. What vast obUgations are due to Ms hal
lowed memory by the American Episcopate for the
wise counsels, the many and inestimable services
of that divine character !
Dissent, however lowly. Episcopacy, howevei
high, wUl coalesce in opinion of the varied knowl
edge 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 con
spicuous of their order, who have flourished in

BISHOP HOBART. 169
New York ; and were it practicable,, we would
fain dweU in particular upon the earnestness and
achievements of the last-named. His death is too
recent to require much at our hands ; sorrow at
Ms early departure was universal ; it was felt as
an irreparable loss to the interests of a great com
munity, who had almost by Ms individual efforts
been extricated from many difficulties, and risen
to a commanding importance in numbers and in
fluence. The aptitude of Hobart, in the work of
the ministiy, and Ms astonishing executive talent,
have scarcely a parallel : his vigilance noticed
every thing that tended either to retard the ad
vancement or quicken the progress of the Episco
pal Church. He was desirous of a learned priest
hood, and much of his time and his intellect were
given to the maintenance of the General Theo
logical 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 devo
tion superior to his. It may be questioned wheth
er 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 Ms life stamped Ms opinions with a cor
responding value. The Church to Mm was all in
aU. His adhesion to what he deemed its ortho-

170 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
doxy, allowed of no deviation from its prescrip
tions, nor could he cherish reconciliation with the
doubting and the latitudinarian. His frankness
enabled Ms opponents always to know where to
find Mm ; 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 sen
timents rendered Mm obnoxious to a portion of
his diocese. The harshest opinion I ever heard
Mm utter was, that Heber was only a baUad
writer. The sentiment must have taken posses
sion of his bosom from the circumstance that the
Bishop of Calcutta gave countenance to the Brit
ish Bible Society ; and not a few of Bishop Ho-
bart's friends regretted the pertinacity with which
he opposed the organization of a like institution
here. Like Herbert Marsh, he dreaded the conse
quences of distributing the Scriptures without the
Book of Common Prayer. The lamented Milner,
whom the Church stUl mourns, did not whoUy
escape the penalty of resistance to the views of
the American prelate, and that eminent statesman
and patriot, Eufus King, after having been chosen
a Vice President of that National Society, re
signed his office and withdrew from Ms Mgh sta
tion at the special soUcitation of his personal
friend. Bishop Hobart. In his conversation, the
Bishop was animated, abounding in anecdotes and

BISHOP HOBART. 171
general knowledge, and was particularly attrac
tive. His temper was sprightly ; he avowed his
opinions with great freedom. He had strong feel
ings in behalf of American institutions, and was
averse to the umon of Church and State affairs.
The sincerity of Ms Christian belief was edUying-
ly demonstrated in the manner of his death. He
sickened of bilious disease while on his diocesan
visitation, at Auburn ; on the moming of his final
departure, the early sun shone in upon Ms cham
ber ; "it is the last time," said he, " that I shaU
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, wUl consult the
Life, written by the venerable rector of Trinity,
Dr. Berrian, the Eecords pubUshed by Professor
M'Vickar, and the Memorial by the Eev. Dr.
Schroeder. Before I conclude tMs portion of my subject,
I must be permitted to say a few words on the
hterature 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 encom-

172 HISTORICAL DISCOURSB.
passed the Church in the scattered and hmited
number of her ministry. The noble and venerable
Society for propagating the Gospel in foreign parts,
had indeed sown precious seeds in divers places
over the land. But the Church was prostrate, in
volved in fiscal troubles, and wanting in those
effective measures of enUghtenment indispensably
requisite to rear up her intellectual greatness.
Every inteUigent individual is ready to acknowl
edge, 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 hterature of the
nation. We are aware of the scholarship of An-
dover, the bibUcal 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, Eob-
inson. Park, Norton, Stewart, Mason, and a host
of others ; and we believe there is substantial rea
son for the Mgh 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 shaU please to call American the
ology. As respects the hterature of the Episcopal

CHURCH LITERATURE. 173
Church, it seems to be most noteworthy for its con
servative 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
legible on its intellectual progeny. Like the pen
dulum in clockwork, it controls its movements,
guards against irregularity, and secures harmony
in all its parts. We thence see that its elab
orations are characterized less by diversity of
speculation and startUng novelties, and are to be
noticed more for exegetical exposition and the elu
cidation 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 an
nounce the glad tidings from lips of praise, than
in wrathful accents proclaim a Eedeemer's love.
Such it may be affirmed is the policy of the Church,
and such is the attribute of her literature. Prin
ciples 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 poUcy. The divinity which holds possession
in her breast, is the redeeming power of gospel
truth. What triumphs she has secured by such
procedure wiU be best learned by comparing her
vast increase and umted strength at tMs present

174 HISTORICAL DISCOURSB.
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 admi
ration 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 strong
er on the Eock of Ages. Let schismatics know
that exploded theories find no aliment within her
bosom, that obsolete formularies are at war with
her doctrines and her discipline. She repudiates
a pantomimic worship. Her formulary is the con
formity of the heart to the plain and simple and
comprehensible doctrines of apostolic communi
cation. Let her feel that she has arrived to that
vigor by inherent strengthj that in confidence she
may trust in her manhood and go forth triumph
ant. What has served her so weU for more than
half a century, wUl suffice much longer. Her
hardest trials have passed, and she is neither de-
biUtated nor impure. The sound need no crutch.

CHURCH LITERATURE. 175
AU that she now asks is, to Uve in harmony with
the professing Christians of every sect and denom
ination. She is ready, she is wiUing, she trusts
she is able, to do the work of her Master ; and
whether under the humble roof of the viUage
chapel, or within the dome of the mighty cathe
dral, she has learned by experience that her coin
wUl pass current without amalgamation.
A word or two more on the literature of the
Church. If the army of New England divines has
almost overwhelmed the land with their achieve
ments in the field of literature and theology, there
is stiU room enough left for us to point out a few
landmarks secured by the professors of the Episco
pal Church. She has scattered abroad in profusion
single discourses of elevated thought, strong devo
tional sentiments, and sound practical edification.
Trae she lacks earnestness in Mstorical detail, and
seems too Ustless of the character and services of
her predecessors. She ought, in an especial man
ner, 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 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 wis
dom in her Mgh commission. It is gratifying to

176 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. '
see ttat within a few years past the subject has,
among all her caUs 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 Epis
copal Church," pubUshed years ago by the vener
able White, have been followed by those of the
Church of South Carohna, by Dr. Dalcho ; by the
Contributions of Dr. Hawks, in iUustration 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 associa
tion, 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.
AU this augurs well. Bishop Mead's Eeminis
cences are materials of instructive import ; and
the Eemimscences of Bishop Chase wiU 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 worMngs of a strong
spirit in behalf of a mighty cause. He was the

BISHOP CHASE. 177
arcMtect of Ms own renown ; he had Uttle book
learning, but much knowledge of men. Having
early laid plans for his professional life, no obsta
cles 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 accompUshment of his
great designs. His track through almost unknown
wUds wUl be studied hereafter with a more appre
ciating judgment, and the blessings he has be
stowed 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 PhUander ; the sic
vos non vohis being equally the temporal reward
of both. As associated with the Church's History, are the
Memoirs of her eminent men ; and we are not to
complain either of lack of numbers or of value in
those already pubhshed. "The biography of Sam
uel Johnson, the first President of Columbia Col
lege, by Chandler, is the most engaging of this de
partment of literary labor ; and we cannot regret
too much that so few of the great mass of papers
from wMch tMs volume was made up have found
8*

178 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
a place in tMs admirable work. The Memoirs of
WMte are next in order of time, and are indis
pensable to the ecclesiastical Mstorian ; while
those of Hobart, Griswold, Moore, Eavenscroft,
Bedell, and Wharton, unfold characteristics val
uable in elucidation of Church matters. It is not,
however, to be concealed, that, Uke many religious
biograpMes, whether by authors abroad or at home,
they often lack interest from the absence of per
sonal detail, and of that enUvening spirit which
gives to biography its most engaging attraction.
It would have gladdened the hearts of thousands
of every denomination of Christian beUef, had
Professor WUson swelled to a threefold extent the
Memoirs of the exalted WMte, feeling as they do
that no subject of the Church in its primary days
was encompassed round about with such precious
material concerning its struggles, blended with the
devotional services of its early promoters. Amid
difficulties innumerable we constantly meet the
wise counsellor, the hallowed White.
Honorable mention deserves to be made of the
learned labor of Dr, Samuel Farmer Jarvis. This
ripe scholar had been professor of bibUcal Mstory
in the recently organized General Theological Semi
nary of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and was
subsequently made Historiographer of the Church
at large by the General Convention. In his Eccle
siastical Chronology and History he evinced the

SAMUEL H. TURNER. 179
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
Ms last work has met with by the reading pub
hc, — I mean Ms American Citizen. The devoted
EpiscopaUan might often look with satisfaction
into the writings of Bishops Hobart, Brownell,
Potter, Whittingham, Eastburn, Burgess, M'll-
vaine, Onderdonk, and Doane, and find proofs of
scholastic lore in the pages of Verplanck, Wins-
low, Coit, Griffin and Spencer.
The canons of the Church have been elucidated
by Judge Murray Hoffman of the New York bar,
and by the Eev. Dr. Hawks. The Constitution,
and Canons, by the latter, was a peculiarly appro
priate subject for her ecclesiastical historian, and
the competent have given their testimony in behalf
of the exceUence of the undertaking. I shall con
clude these very brief and imperfect sketches of
the Uterary labors of the Church with a name
widely known and appreciated by the eradite of
both hemispheres, Samuel H. Turner. Dr. Tur
ner's reputation for varied and profound scholar
ship, for rabbinical knowledge, and the activity of
his pen in critical expositions of sacred writ, have
secured Mm permanent renown. I am forbidden
an enumeration of his many works. The Theo
logical Seminary, in which he has labored so long,
may congratulate herself on the honors with wMch

180 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
such a professor enriches her, and freely add Ms
name to the select list of her ablest associates.
Proofs sufficient, I think, have already been ad
vanced to show that the literature of the Church
is not locked up in sealed Ubraries, but is an active
power ; and from her present advanced and im
proved state, we may draw an equally safe infer
ence 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 wMch the phUosopher
maiy pronounce of equal importance in a national
point of view, — I allude to our system of pubhc
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 phi
lanthropist, and clearly pointed out with what
earnestness the sagacity of the Dutch penetrated
into the wisdom of establishments for that pur
pose ; 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 poUtical strife, ever
caused them to neglect the duty of educating
their offspring." And with a love of the past, he

PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. 181
has recorded the name of tMs first schoolmaster,
Adam Ecel^ndsen ; and it well merits to be fur
ther stated, that Ecelandsen's original estabUsh
ment continues in a prosperous condition to tMs
day, and is the parochial school of the Protestant
Eeformed Dutch Church, supported by voluntary
contributions. I have some recollection of the
first formation of that system in tMs city, wMch
finaUy eventuated in the system of pubhc schools.
Only one year after your first measures were
adopted to estabhsh the Historical 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 differ
ent 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 reUgious order was 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 appUcants 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 re
hgious society, are duly recorded in the reports of
the Board of Education ; and he who looks over
the Ust wUl recognize that many of the names of
our prominent residents, of exalted exceUence, are

182 HISirORICAL DISCOURSE.
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 Uberality of the city government, in
1808 they were provided a spacious buUding, which
admitted five hundred pupUs.
I remember weU the discourse dehvered at the
opening of this improved edifice, at the comer of
Tryon Eow and Chatham street, by De Witt
CUnton, the moving spirit of the whole affair.
He was the president of the Society, and the
Board of Ed*ucation, in their Eeport 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 ac
companied Mr. CUnton in those earUer days, in his
tour of inspection, with Thomas Eddy, Jacob
Morton, Samuel Wood, Joseph Curtis, Eobert
Bowne, Charles Wilkes, .CadwaUader D. Colden,
and others ; and I can testify to the scratinizing
devotion which Mr. CUnton gave to every thing
that seemed calculated for the promotion of the
great and novel design. By the . death of Mr.
Curtis very recently, aU, I believe, of that pMlan-
thropic corps are departed. I see none left of the
original body of incorporators.
It is impossible at this time to be more minute
or dweU longer on tMs grateful subject. In every

SYSTEM OF PUBLIC EDUCATION. 183
condition of public trast to which Clinton was
chosen through hfe, he never forgot education and
the pubUc schools. Every message of Ms, while
governor, descants on the vast theme, and his sug
gestions, years ago, as head of the State, may, I
think, be honestly stated to have led to that spe
cial department, the Normal Schools. He is the
first mdividual I ever heard descant on their im
mense importance to the proper rearing of com
petent tutors, and on the provision which ought to
be made for such an undertakiiig. I can scarcely
conceive of a greater subject for a public discourse
than the origin, the progress, and present state of
our system of PubUc Education ; in every condi
tion, from its humble beginning up to its com
manding importance at the present day, from the
Free School Society of 1805 through the change
to the PubUc School Society of 1826, providing
for all classes of cMldren ; next the Ward school
organization of the then called District schools ;
then to its present consolidation under the Board
of Education of the City of New York, a period
of nearly half a century. WeU may that en
lightened citizen and public-spirited character, E.
C. Benedict, in his Eeport of 1854, as president,
say, " The services of those phUanthropic laborers
in tbe noblest of causes have imposed upon the city
a debt of gratitude that can never be fitly esti
mated, much less repaid." During that period it

184 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
has conferred the blessings of instruction on 600,000
cMldren, and on more than 12,000 teachers. So
long as the influence of those cMldren and their
teachers shall be felt, (and when wUl it cease ?) so
long, justly adds Mr. Benedict, " shaU the useful
ness of the PubUc School Society continue." I
wUl add, that according to the last Eeport of the
Board of Education fi-om the present enlightened
President, WUliam H. NeUson, the whole number
of schools within its jurisdiction during the year
1855, was 271. The glory and imperishable ex
cellence of our public system of education, en
hanced by the influence of our self-government,
by universal freedom and a free press, were demon
strated to be in accordance with enhghtened pub
lic intelUgence, 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 conflrmation,
how easUy cotUd we sweU the testimony by the re
corded 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

JOSEPH LANCASTER. 185
characteristic of such a state, that the'people thus
blessed daUy achieve some new step in advance,
whether it be m the modification of a raU or in
new powers for the steam-engine.
It would be omitting a duty and infiicting an
act of injustice not to notice in the course of these
remarks on education the weU-remembered philan
thropist, Joseph Lancaster, whose arrival among
us about the year 1820, created a sensation among
the friends of useful knowledge. Lancaster, by
many years service abroad, and by the discussion,
wMch arose from Ms system of instruction, had
rendered Ms name quite famUiar at the time of his
appearance in New York. It was conceded that
he had effected a substantial advance in the means
of enhghtemng the masses, and at a pecuniary
expense well worth the action of the economical
teacher. The patrons of the common schools, such
men as Clinton, Griscom, Eddy and Wood,.felt the
duty obligatory to pay deference to the pMlosopM
cal stranger, and give countenance to Ms sugges
tions. But he had little to offer that was new ; the
Lancasterian plan had been already widely tested ;
it had its friends and its opponents. Lancaster laid
claims to originaUty, and m part it was admitted
that Ms merits were not to be overlooked. He had
announced his innovation, for imparting elementary
tuition, in 1803, but the controUers of the schools
were aUve to what BeU had done, with the Uke

186 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
intent, some years before ; hence he lost the re
nown of priority of discovery, and his opportunity
of essentially doing much to further his system
was cut ¦ off ; for with a patriotic vigUance the
directors of these juvenUe scholars were intent on
further improvements, which were finaUy commend
ed for adoption under a new organization. Lan
caster finaUy announced that he had been walking
in the steps of Dr. Bell, but that the notoriety
and adoption of the new system were due to Ms
energies ; but BeU had first conceived the idea of
conducting a school through the medium of the
scholars themselves. The very Quakerism of Lan
caster had tended vastly to promote the diffusion
of his system, and the encouragement of his plans,
and the support he received ought to have secured
at least Ms temporal independence. But with in
creased fiscal means his expenditures had increased,
and the philanthropic man, deserting the rigid
and frugal habits of his sect, involved himseff in
many obUgations, and now sought the chances of
redemption by his transatlantic residence. There
was, however, little to do by Lancaster or for him.
Within a short time he became an object of elee
mosynary reUef ; yet his Quaker disciples, with
characteristic benevolence, were not behindhand in
contributions. While, however, he could enumerate
De Witt CUnton within his charity circle of
friends, he felt protected. The latter years of Ms

JOSEPH LANCASTER. 187
life gave unmistakable evidences of hard times with
Mm. I have rarely seen an object of deeper com
miseration among individuals who, according to
the world's decision, had made a mark. He who
had once figured in England, in his chariot and six,
felt the want of means to purchase a crutch. An
accident terminated Ms hfe, in New York, in 1839.
I have indicated that Clinton was specially kind
toward Lancaster ; it was that sort of kindness that
tirose from a consideration of the good he had done,
and could in nowise originate from a contemplation
of the man himself He was now a mass of obesity,
unwieldy, and of feeble articulation, such as we oc
casionally see in individuals of objectionable habits,
loaded with adipose deposits, "an aggravated agglo
meration of superabundant redundances." More
over, Chnton possessed a peculiar disposition to be
drawn toward those who enjoyed any thing hke a
Uterary taste, or were engaged as professors of
knowledge, and who retained a fondness for reading.
He himself was emphaticaUy a book- worm : when
ever released from public cares, he might be found
day or night with Ms volume in or at hand. As
might be conjectured, Ms taste embraced a pro
digious variety ; but natural history was his most
congenial study ; and he preserved the habit to
tha last of Ms Ufe of enlisting individuals to dis
cover in the bookstores or at the staUs old and
curious authors on physical science. No expense

188 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
was spared to add to his library the noted worthies
of bygone days. His Uterary messenger on one
occasion notified Mm that a rare . old father on
natural Mstory was to be obtained for some eighty
dollars. The work was ordered by Chnton ; he
was delighted on having secured it, and with
hardly more than ferriage money in his pocket he
returned to Albany ; but he had Aldrovandus
with him. TMs anecdote is scarcely within the
scope of a Mstory of our pubhc system of educa
tion, but it is not irrelevant to iUustrate sometMng
of the qualities of De Witt CUnton, the great in
stigator of our school system.
The Free Academy, which, it has been very
properly remarked, gives completeness to the sys
tem of public instruction, and is an integrant
branch of the whole system for the enlightenment
of the people, possesses the great advantage of a
Uberal system of education "simUar to that wMch
is embraced in our coUeges for the highest depart
ments of study. Indeed, few, if any, of our col
legiate estabUshments hold out so ample a course
of instruction in classical literature, m modem
languages, in mathematical and physical science.
The existence of the Academy is brief, yet already
have precious fruits been scattered widely 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

FREE ACADEMY. 189
professors of that great school ; but if Dr. Gibbs
is to be taken as a specimen of its teachers, un
bounded confidence may be reposed in the acqui
sitions of its scholars. I only repeat what is ut
tered daily, that the distinguished principal. Dr.
Webster, has solved the problem, how manifold
are the benefits which may flow from a wise ad
ministration of able coUegiate authority.
Let me in all sincerity ask, in what other place
may the poorest and the humblest chUd of indi
gence find instruction from the A, B, C, to the
highest branches of classical and scientific knowl
edge, through every stage of his study, without
one doUar's expense to the recipient ; and all this,
every device and measure, planned and accom
plished since our organization in 1804. Let all
praise be given to our constituted authorities for
tMs exemplar of their wisdom and patriotic fore
thought ; let, above all others, that capacious mind
wMch 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 Ids-
torical record. Let our chUdren and their chil
dren's children keep within memory the names of
Hawley, Bernard, EandaU, 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

190 HISTORICAL DISCOURSB.
Tuckerman, in Ms biographical volume, daUy ob
servation keeps fresh the memory of Clinton.*
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 capa
ble of becoming an enlightened momtor. 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 ;
* Most astounding disclosures were made at the London Edu
cational 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, aU the liberality of
Churchmen and of Dissenters, of corporations and of individuals,
there are in England and Wales, out of nearly five milUons of
children between the ages of three and fifteen years, little more
than two miUions who attend any school whatever, leaving
2,861,848 — nearly three milUons, — 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 milUons of chUdren
who attend existing schools, we are informed by the Prince that
only six hundred thousand — less than one-third — are abovg the
age of nine. In other words, more than one-half of the poor
children of England receive no school instructfon at all, and two-
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 en
during 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."

THE DRAMA. 191
for what adequate notions can be imparted within
the few moments at command, of the dramatic oc
currences of New York during the past fifty years ?
It has so happened that for forty, years of my life
I have been, witM 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 aU the individuals com
memorated 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 his
trionic profession ; yet as one ever gratified with
the displays of inteUectual power, I have expe
rienced the raptures inspired by genius, in a voca
tion wMch, while it holds the mirror up to nature,
is the acknowledged school of oratory, and has re
ceived in all ages, among the refined, the counte
nance and support of many of the loftiest minds
and most sympathizing hearts. Moreover, I think
it not too much to say, that my professional inter
course 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 famUiar with that condition of physical

192 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
and mental toU which the ceremonies and per
formances due to "personation," impose on the
feelings of the successful artist.
I take it for granted that no intelligent man
wUl 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 caUing fflled with the
largest benovolence and enriched with the graces
wMch dignify human nature. The actor's life is
especiaUy 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 reaUties not less than the actual, and
the wardrobe no more protects its denizen than do
the common habUiments of the ordinary citizen.
" The Ufe of an actor," says a modern essayist of
the school of English undefiled, " is a severe trial
of humamty. His temptations are many ; Ms
fortitude, too, often ineffectual ; his success pre
carious. 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
moraUst, but also deserving the admiration of the
critic. The prejudice against the profession, like
most prevaiUng prejudices, is founded on general

THE DRAMA. 193
trath ; but it is frequently absurd and baseless."*
If the stage has fallen from its high estate, and
faUed 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
solely with the representatives of Shakspeare and
Jonson ; let something be ascribed to the revolu
tions of taste and to the mutability of popular
opinion ; but more than all, let us suffer within
ourselves the chagrin of self-condemnation, Uke
the dyspeptic patient, who in searching for the
causes of his own horrors, finds them to have
originated from the pernicious aliment in which
Ms disturbed propensities had led him most un
wittingly 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 eradi
cation. I am no such bigot for the stage," con
tinues he, " as to say that it is necessarUy a school
of morals ; for, by bad management, it may be
made the reverse ; and I think, on the whole, that
the drama rather foUows than leads public morals."
"The drama wUl exist," says Dunlap, "in good
or evU repute, to guide or mislead, whether legis
lators wUl it or not. The people will have it so.
The choice of the legislator is only to render
* Characters and Criticisms, by W. Alfred Jones, A. M., New
York, Vol. 2, p. 182. 12mo. 1857.
9

194 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
that beneficial which may be otherwise." 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 con
centration 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 tMng of fancy. The scholar, how
ever fastidious, cannot wholly disregard a theme
)5rhich found favor among the lucubrations of the
mighty Warburton : he who would penetrate into
the ethics of human life need not suffer appre
hension of evil from studies which absorbed many
of the precious hours of the great moralist, John
son ; nor can the Christian philosopher be afraid
to reason oh the subject with the example before
him of Young, the successful author of the Ee-
venge, and the poet of the Night Thoughts, a
work whose devotional excellence has made it a
manual of closest study to mUlions 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.

THE DRAMA. 195
It was formerly supported by reUgious partialities,
and every body is aware that it owes its origin to
reUgion, and that the first actors were priests or
missionaries. An Uhterate multitude were thus
enhghtened, and the clergy with an inherent sa
gacity represented the wonders of belief and the
actions of the gods in appropriate temples. CoUier,
with the zeal of an antiquary, has traced the origin
of the " Miracle-Plays " or " Mysteries," as the
source and foundation of the English national drama,
and the connection between the miracle-plays con
sisting in the outset only of Scripture characters,
and " Moral Plays," or "' Moralities," represented
by aUegorical personages ; and he has aimed to
show how the first, almost imperceptibly, deviated
into the last, by the gradual intermixture of alle
gory with sacred history, untU miracle-plays were
finaUy superseded.* "Mysteries" and "Moral
ities" were often made the vehicles of religious
controversies. For a long while the stage was a school of in
struction, for manners and behavior, and on this ac
count it is stUl higher to be appreciated. Shak
speare has taught more history to the masses than all
the schoolmasters, from the time when the first ped
agogue was installed ; and Lord Chesterfield's dicta
have proved a mere cipher compared to the opera-
* ColUer's Annals of the Stage.

196 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
tions which scenic influence has wrought in molli
fying the intercourse of society. Yet there is a
progress in refinement which eclipses the exhibition
of the stage, and he whose mind is stored with
much knowledge, wUl abandon theatricals as hav
ing lost their former interest with him. It cer
tainly is a foe to hypocrisy, and that alone, with
the real pMlanthropist, 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 la,sting 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.
HfeUows, lately delivered in the Academy of Music,
before the Dramatic Fund Association.
The Mstory of the first introduction of the
stage in the American colomes is fuU of perplexity.
Dunlap, our leading dramatic historian, in Ms
work on the American Theatre, & 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

THE AMERICAN COMPANY. 197
too great reliance on the story given by Burk, in
Ms 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 Monday evening, the 26th of February, 1750,
in a convenient room for the purpose, in one of the
buUdings which had belonged to the estate of Eip
Van Dam (a renowned Knickerbocker) in Nassau
street. The play was the historical tragedy of
Eichard the Third, written originaUy by Shak
speare, and altered by CoUey Cibber, under the
management of Lewis Hallam, whose famUy con
sisted of his wife, a son Lewis, and a younger son,
Adam, with a niece, Miss HaUam. His elder son
Lewis, was but twelve years of age. Dunlap says,
that he made his first appearance in September
1752, at WUliamsburg, in Virgima. 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 tMs company, under manager
Hallam, appeared next in WUUamsburg ; but on
the 15th of April, 1754, they opened in Philadel
phia with the " Fair Penitent."
We have not before us the cast of the play
(Eichard the Third) enacted in tMs city. It pos
sesses so many dramatis personce, that we have
Uttle doubt that several of the company had to

198 HISTORICAL DISCOURSB.
take double parts. Eigby, we may safely infer,
enacted Eichard TMrd. There was no accommo
dation of boxes, only pit and gaUery. There was
no farce after Eichard Third. The permission for
the performance was given by the British governor,
CUnton. 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 tMs fact stiU survive.
Manager Hallam died in PhUadelphia in 1808.
TMs company was generally designated by the
name of the Old American Company, and HaUam
the father of the American stage.
Thus it appears that this city has enjoyed the
drama for upwards of one hundred years. On that
fifty which had passed away before the estabUsh
ment of our Historical Society, I intend not now
to enlarge. Suffice it to say, as to the character
and abUities of the performers of the American
company, our oldest playgoers were often heard to
speak in terms of Mghest approbation ; and when
we enumerate Hallam, Henry, Harwood, Jefferson,
Cooper, FenneU, Johnstone, HodgMnson and his
wife, Mrs. Oldmixon, 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 bUls
which announced the arrival of Cooke.

THE DRAMA. 199
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 Ulustrates our early reUance 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 CordeUa might be in
cluded among importable articles, for the praise
worthy design of disciplining the humanities of
the man of refinement. At the time of the first
representation of Eichard the Third, animadver
sions appeared on the corruptions of the stage ;
but, in its defence, WMtfield is cited, inasmuch
as he had ascribed Ms immitable 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 demoUshing kind
of logic. There was little dramatic criticism,
however, among us in the earUer days of the
theatre.

200 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
The chronicler who would be faithful to the
history of the stage in New York would be com-
peUed 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, Colman, O'Keefe, Sheridan,
and others, reached from time to time tMs coun
try, and were enacted by the officers of the army
and navy, and by select aids in private or social
circles ; and a remarkable pecuUarity 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 inhab
itants 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. At
wood knew every thing of every family ; he
abounded in anecdote, but Ms company was more
courted than admired. He at one time possessed,
by inheritance, great wealth, but died poor, through
the conduct of his son Charles.
When Laugh and Grow Fat appeared, the

THE DRAMA OF THE REVOLUTION. 201
pubhc 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
buUt 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 as
cribed 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 appli
cable 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 Dr. James
Smith, the brother of the Mstorian of New York,
the man whom I described in my sketch of Chris
topher CoUes 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, and wMle he was sequestered
beMnd the Dunderbarracks on the Hudson, on ac
count of Ms Bermuda troubles. Smith had the te
merity to offer with renewed vigor his poetic obla
tions on the altar of love. I knew him well. He
was an M.D. of Leyden. I have often seen Mm,

202 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
when he had arrived at the age of seventy and up
ward, attired in velvet coat, with his gold snuff
box in one hand, pressing forward with his vast
projecting sMrt frills, discolored with the drippings
of his box, and Ms little brochure of poetry in the
other hand, tottering through the streets, engaged
in distributing to the chosen fair his rhyming pro
ducts : " He reeled as though he scarce could stand.
Yet Cupid led him by the hand."
When professor of chemistry in Columbia CoUege,
then called King's, his fiowery diction with the
students about the " round-tops " of science, greatly
disturbed both analysis and synthesis. Hempstead
Plains was brought forward in those times, most
probably an indigenous work. It is affirmed that
it aUuded to a descendant of one of the prominent
members of the affluent Beekman family, Gerardus,
a great sportsman, who secured the reputation of
having, kUled more birds than any other man that
ever Uved. He shot deer in the city Common
(now Park), and antlers, the trophies of Ms skiU,
are yet preserved among his descendants as curi
osities to mark the city's progress. He kept a
diary of his gunnery. I need scarcely add that
Beekman street received its name from these first
settlers. During the possession of the city by the Brit-

LAMBERTUS DE RHONDE. 203
ish, I find that comparatively little deference was
paid to the condition of the ministry, not of the
Episcopate, by the men in power, and more par
ticularly by the mUitary order. Lampoons on the
clergy were not unfrequent, particularly if they
were found tinctured with Whigism. Lambertus
de Ehonde, whom our learned Vice President, Dr.
De Witt, has faithfuUy recorded in Ms Discourse
and History of the North Dutch Church, was one
of those against whom the shafts of ridicule were
aimed. De Ehonde was thoroughly educated* in
Holland, and preached here in the Dutch lan
guage — he had a long career. His ardor attracted
notice, and he came under the lashes of the abet
tors of royalty. He was accordingly Ulustrated in
return for Ms fervor and earnestness, by a farce
caUed HeU in a Smoke. TMs worthy man Uved
untU 1795, and died honored and respected.
But we must hasten to times nearer our own.
About the beginning of the second part of the
designated one, hundred years, the Morning Chron
icle, a journal of much taste in literature and the
arts, edited by Dr. Peter Ir^dng, and the New
York Evening Post, edited by WiUiam Coleman,
were the prominent papers in which any tMng like
regular theatrical criticisms was published. In
the former a series of articles on plays and actors
was printed in 1802-3, over the signature of Jona
than Oldstyle. At the time of their appearance

204 HISTORICAL DISCOURSB.
they were generaUy ascribed to the accompUshed
editor. Dr. Irving, who enjoyed great distinction
for classical acquisition and beUes-lettres knowl
edge. I knew him only in his advanced life, when
Ulness had nearly exhausted his frame : yet he
was most courteous, refined, and engaging. He
was a graduate in medicine of Columbia CoUege.
Years elapsed before the real author became
known. They are, I believe, among the earliest
Uterary efforts of our countryman, ' Washmgton
Irving, then about the nineteenth year of Ms age.
These criticisms were not wanting in free ani
madversion ; yet betrayed something of that
gemal humor wMch so amply abounds in several
of the subsequent writings of that eininent author.
Coleman, a man of culture and of impulse, often
suppUed the city with his lucubrations, and aimed
to settle aU other criticisms by Ms individual ver
dict. He was often furnished with articles of pe
culiar merit on acting and actors, by John Wells,
afterwards the renowned lawyer, by WilUam John
son, the weU-remembered reporter, and by our
lamented Anthony Bleecker. WiU Wizz^rd, 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 tMs country consti
tutes the great epoch in the progress of the drama,
and is the period at which the Mstorian of the

G. F. COOKE. 205
American stage turns to contemplate the wonders
of scenic power. On the night of the 21st of No
vember, 1810, Cooke appeared at the Park The
atre in Eichard TMrd, before an unprecedentedly
crowded house. His vast renown had preceded
bim ; but every anticipation was more than real
ized. He had reached his fifty-fourth year, yet
possessed aU the physical energies of tMrty, profit
ing largely on the score of health by his sea voy
age. The old playgoers, by his expositions, dis
covered a mme of wealth in Shakspeare, now first
opened. His commanding person, his expressive
countenance, his elevated front, Ms eye, his every
feature and movement, Ms intonations, showed
the great master who eclipsed aU predecessors.
His capacious inteUect, his boldness and origi-
nahty, at once convinced his hearers of the supe
riority of his study and his matchless compre
hension of his great author. The critics pro
nounced Mm the first of hving actors : he engrossed
aU minds. It must suffice at tMs time to observe,
that this remarkable man and performer, during
his whole career in the several cities of the Union,
sustained Ms dramatic reputation unimpaired.
The sad infirmity wMch too often laid hold of
Mm, to the casual detriment of Ms great abUities,
was dealt with by the pubhc more in pity than" in
anger ; and indeed he seemed to be at times be
loved the more for the dangers he had passed.

206 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
Dunlap appears throughout Ms whole biography
to have deUghted more to record his inebriation,
than to unfold Ms great professional powers. Per
haps it was easier to describe a debauch than to
analyze the qualities of a sublime genius.
At this late date, after a lapse of nearly half a
century, it might be pronounced fooUshness to
offer even a passing remark on Cooke's pecuhar
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 httle that I utter, the im
pressions experienced from actors of a later date.
Cooke's Shylock, a new reading to the westem
world, was a most impassioned exhibition. His
aquiline nose was of itself a legacy here. The re-'
vengeful Jew made his great and successful im
pression with Tubal, and in the trial scene Ms
triumph was complete. lago, with Cooke, was a
more palpable and consummate viUain 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 inteUectual

G. F. COOKE. 207
repast. His Lear verified the opmion of Johnson
conceming that tragedy. " There is no play,"
says he, "wMch so much agitates our passions
and interests our curiosity." As a whole, Cooke's
performance of the wretched monarch was one of
great credit, and possessed points of exquisite con
ception and felicity, as when he interrogates the
Theban phUosopher, " What is the cause of thun
der ?" Cooke's Sir Pertmax, for comic force, ver-
satUity of features, blandishments, inimitable pUa-
bUity of address, and perfect personation of char
acter, is acknowledged to have greatly surpassed
Macklin's. A like tribute is due to Ms Sir Archy
M'Sarcasm. I beheve that no actor in any one
part witMn the compass of the entire drama, ever
exceUed therein to an equal degree as did Mr.
Cooke in the Scotch character. The impression
created by its representation is too deep to be ob-
hterated 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 Mm con
cerning his personation of Sir Pertmax, 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 EngUshman." And how, sir
did you acquire so profound a knowledge of the

208 HISTORICAL DISCOURSB.
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 ven
tured 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 un
dertook." Cooke justly demands a greater space than
this occasion warrants ; but the able critical pens
of the time have commemorated Ms achievements,
and the veteran Wood, in his personal reminis
cences of the stage, has dealt with him impar
tially, 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 improved by read
ing, yet more by observation and a study of man
kind. Self-reUance was his distinguisMng quality ;
few ever were at any time able to overcome his de
termination. His resolves scarcely ever yielded.
When not influenced by the goblet, his conver
sation was instructive and Ms manners urbane ;
be had a tear for distress, and a hand of hberahty
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 ar
tificial rhetoric. He thought much of Kemble,
and every tMng of Garrick, both of whom he had

G, F, COOKE. 209
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 Frankhn's aphorism, " If you make a sheep of
yourself, the wolves wiU devour you." He toler
ated no invasion of his rights. And yet that one
stain on his character, his mania for drink (a peri
odical disease, often of some duration), dethroned
Ms Mgh purpose, and at times degraded Mm below
the dignity of man. In that condition his whole
nature was altered, and his appearance almost dia
bolical ; you dwindled under his indignant frown ;
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 Mm, and ask,
" What part is George Frederick Cooke placarded
for to-mght ? "
After one of those catastrophes to wMch I
have aUuded, I paid him a visit at early afternoon,
the better to secure his attendance at the theatre.
He was seated at Ms 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 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.

210 HISTORICAL DISCOURSB.
Price saw he was the worse from excess, but the
public were not to be disappointed. " Let Mm,"
says the manager, " only get before the lights and
the receipts are secure." Within the wonted time
Cooke entered on Ms 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-
four hours after this memorable night, he scattered
some $400 among the needy and the solicitous,
and took refreshment in a sound sleep. A striking
peculiarity often marked the conduct of Cooke ;
he was the most indifferent of mortals to the
results wMch might be attendant on his folly and
Ms recklessness. When his society was solicited
by the highest in hterature and the arts, he might
determine to whUe away a limited leisure among
the iUiterate and the vulgar, and yet none was so
fastidious in the demands of courtesy. When the
painter Stuart was engaged with the delineation
of his noble features, he chos^ to select those hours
for sleeping ; yet the great artist triumphed and
satisfied his liberal patron. Price. Stuart proved
a match for him, by occasionaUy raising the hd of
his eye. On the night of Ms benefit, the most
memorable of Ms career in New York, with a
house crowded to suffocation, he abused public
confidence, and had nothing to say but that

G. F. COOKE. 211
Cato had full right to take liberty with Ms
senate. 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.
In consultation with Drs. Maclean and Hosack I
often attended him, and in his last illness passed
most of my time_ with him until the closing scene.
He died September, 1812. Serous effusion of
the chest and abdomen were the immediate caus^
of Ms death. He was conscious to the last and
resigned to Ms fate. 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 mem
bers of the dramatic corps, and a large concourse
of citizens moved in the procession. My worthy
friend, George B. Eapelye, is the only survivor
of the long train, whom I can now call to mind.
The quiet Sabbath added to the solemnity. He
nad no kindred to follow in the procession, but
there were many real mourners. The sketches of
Mr. Cooke in the Dramatic Mirror of PhUadelphia,
executed by LesUe, then a boy, and now the artist

212 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
of European celebrity, are of most remarkable
fideUty. The professional triumphs of Cooke led Holman
soon after to visit America. He arrived in 1812,
and saw Ms old friend on his dying bed. Holman
had a checkered career. He was an Oxford scholar,
and was granted the honors of the University even
after he had become attached to the stage. On
assuming the civilian's gown, he delivered with
great success a Latin oration ; the eclat wMch
followed his oratorical displays at the Soho Acad
emy, led him to abandon theology and adopt the
stage. He made* a great Mt in Orestes, and his
appearance as Eomeo 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 tem
perance, surpassing all I had seen in any other
person, and Ms fidehty to aU obligations, secured
him a consideration which enhanced the moral es
timation of the dramatic corps. His nature was
truly noble. His pecuniary resources were sacri
ficed in Ms ambitious efforts to enhance dramatic
taste, and add splendor to sCenic representation.
He was the first to give me an idea of the extent
of works on dramatic literature. His books on
costumes alone formed quite a library. Impaired
health led Mm to seek relief at the watering-place,
Eockaway, where he was seized with a fatal apo-

J. HOWARD PAYNE. 213
plexy, in August, 1817. The journals abroad
stated that he lost his hfe by one of those remark
able phenomena which sometimes signahze our
chmate, a sort of epidemical lightning, by wMch
himself and several of his family were stricken
down. We gave Mm a vUlage funeral, most re
spectable 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, who subsequently married Hol-
man's daughter. »
There are about tMs period of the drama, as
sociated 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 Eoscius, who was signalized
for Ms Nerval, and his playing Edgar to Cooke's
Lear. As an author, Payne's Brutus, and his
Home Sweet Home, have secured Mm a world
wide renown. I became acquainted with Mm as
the editor of the Thespian Mirror, when he was
about tMrteen years of age. A more engaging
youth could not be imagined ; he won all hearts
by the beauty of Ms person, and his captivating
address, the premature richness of his mind, and
his chaste and flowing utterance. But I wUl ab
stain from further notice of Mm on this occasion ;

214 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
every reader enamored of the story of Ms eventful
Ufe, with the vicissitudes of authorship, of play
wrights, and of actors, will satisfy his desires by
turning to the instructive pages of Duyckinck's
Cyclopaedia of American Literature.
A Ust of the most popular actors, male and
female, of that period, and of some subsequent
years, would necessarily include Jefferson, Simpson,
Wood, Hogg, HUson, Barnes, Bernard, Barret,
the Placides, Conway, J^mes Wallack, Mrs. Old
mixon, Mrs. Johnson, Miss Johnson, Mrs., Wheat-
ley, Mrs. Darley, Mrs. Gilfert, and Mrs. Holman.
As prominent in tMs long catalogue, James Wal
lack might be permitted to stand first, as a trage
dian of powers, and as a comic performer of re
markable capabihties. His Shaksperian range and
Ms Dick DashaU are enough for present citation.
Wallack is stiU with us, and continues as the con-
necting link between the old and new order of
theatrical affairs. 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 hps of fastidious critics, and whose Yan
kee characters have stamped Ms powers with the
bold impress of originaUty. Moreover, Hackett,
in his correspondence on Hamlet with that able
scholar, John Quincy Adams, has given us proof's
that he had trained himself in a deep study of the

EDMUND SIMPSON. 215
pMlosophy of Shakspeare. It would not be un
profitable to dweU upon the capabUities of Edmund
Simpson, whose range of characters was most ex
tensive, and whose talents manifested deep pene
tration in a broad expanse of dramatic individual
ities. He was for many years the active manager
of the Park Theatre, and Ms systematic attention
to Ms business gave satisfaction to authors, actors,
and the pubhc. No pendulum could be more
regular than Simpson in Ms engagements : w^tch
the dial plate of the City HaU, and m aU seasons
and in all weather you might see Mm in Ms daUy
walk in Broadway towards old Drury at the same
spot, within the same hour, at the same minute.
The passers-by often used Mm as a chronometer.
His ambition to gratify the taste of the play
goers led Mm to seek the highest Mstrionic talent,
a task of some perplexity to gratify a community
who had enjoyed HaUam and Hodgkinson, T waits,
the Placides, Mrs. Merry, Mrs. Oldmixon, Mrs.
Johnson. But Simpson found HUson and Barnes,
Yates, SpUler,'and Barret, Cooper and FenneU,
Mrs. Mason, &c. With the exception of the
younger Placide and George Barret, the grave
has closed upon aU these heroes and heroines. Gen
tleman George, whom I saw on what I thought
Ms deathbed, nearly fifty years ago, has only re
cently retired from the stage, and Uves, I believe,
on Long Island, with the prospect of approaching

216 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
the age of the indurated Irishman, Macklin. Hen
ry Placide still sustains his almost unrivalled
powers as the great comedian. But here I must
forbear the recital of a thousand circumstances in
cident to dramatic Ufe. I may be justified in
remarking that, professionally, I became acquaint
ed with many of these players, and can testify
to the repeated evidences they afforded, from
time to time, of their charitable feehngs for the
relief of suffering humanity, and their excellent
principles in the conduct of Ufe. At a little later
date we fimd the boards enriched by George Bart-
ley and his wife, formerly a Miss Smith, to whom
Moore dedicated a series of Ms Irish melodies.
His Autolychus, his Sir Anthony Absolute, and
his Falstaff, wiU long hold possession of the mem
ory, and Mrs. Bartley, enacting the Ode on the
Passions, was a consummation of artistic skill
equally rare and entrancing.
We had a doubtful case of royalty on our
boards at the Old Park Theatre, during the man
agement of Simpson and Price, Without even the
play-goers being weU apprised of the fact. This
occurrence took place in the person of Mrs. Alsop,
who had been sent out by the manager. Price, from
London. She signalized herself by her performance
of the Actress of All Work, and by some efforts
in comedy of tolerable acceptance. She needed
more grace and beauty than nature had favored

MRS. ALSOP. 217
her with, yet her mental quaUties were much
above mediocrity. Like the opium eaters, De
Quincy and Coleridge, and the weU-remembered
declaimer, OgUvie, the Scotch orator, and many
others, she demanded the Uberal use of narcotics
to elevate her for the time being in her mimic pro
fession. The consequence was impaired health,
followed by great dejection of spirits and prostra
tion of strength. But other causes stiU more
potent led to her hasty loss of Ufe. She was a
daughter of Mrs. Jordan, whose relationship with
the Duke of Clarence, afterwards WiUiam the
Fourth, is recorded Mstory. Aware of her origin,
and necessitated in a foreign land to derive her
precarious maintenance from the stage, after a few
months she terminated her earthly career by an
overdose of laudanum. When I arrived at her
lodgings she was just breathing her last. She died
in Greenwich street, near Dey ; and SpUler, the
comedian, and myself, sought a burial spot for
her. The requirement of a doctor's certificate for
the cause of death was not then exacted as now
adays. I give these particulars to counteract
errors, as it has been stated she closed her career
during a tour through the Southern States. My
indignation was somewhat awakened at the occur
rence of this unhappy woman's end ; anguish of
mind, I think, must have wrought tlie work of
destraction. Contrary to my usual practice with
10

218 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
the poor, I sent a medical charge to His Majesty
for services rendered ; but like most bills against
those Hanoverian monarchs, it remains non-ac
cepted up to the present hour. I necessarily act,
as I am informed the mercantile world sometimes
do, place it among my deferred stock, though I am
ready to seU out upon application.
StUl a little later, and a fiood 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
Mstrionic powers of these remarkable men, might
justly claim psychological and descriptive instincts
of the Mghest order. They were not all of equal
or of Uke merits. They were all, however, ele
vated students, under difficulties, and long strug
gled against the assaults of a vituperative press
and an incredulous pubhc ; they all in the end
secured the glories of a great success. With Kean
I may say I was most intimate. He won my
feeUngs and admiration from the moment of my
first interview with him. Association and obser
vation convinced me that he added to a mind of
various culture the resources of original intellect ;
that he was frank and open-heartedj often too
much so, to tally with worldly wisdom. I was
taught by Ms expositions in private, as well as by
his Mstriomc displays, that the great secret of the
actor's art depended upon a scrutinizing analysis

EDMUND KEAN, 219
of the mutual play of mmd and matter, the reflex
power of mental transactions on organic structure.
His Uttle, but weU-wrought, strong frame, seemed
made up of a tissue of nerves. Every sense ap
peared capable of immediate impression, and each
impression having within itself a flexibility truly
wondrous. The drudgery of Ms early life, had
given a pliability to his muscular powers that ren
dered 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 sMlful
artist of the ring, and Garrick, if half that is said
be trae, might have won a grace from him. He
had read history, and aU concerning Shakspeare
was famUiar to him : times, costumes, habits, and
the manners of the age. He had dipped into
phrenology, and was a physiognomist of rare dis
cernment. His analysis of characters who visited
him, to do homage to his renown, often strack me
with astonishment. His eye was the brightest
and most penetrating any mortal could boast, an
inteUectual 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 Eichard
and Sir GUes, of his Lear and Ms Othello, is
ready to grant. His transitions from gay to grave,
yielded proofs of his capacity over the passions.

220 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
He knew almost instinctively the feeUngs of the
house, whether an appreciating audience was as
sembled or not, and soon decided the case, often
by the earhest 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 stickahle.
Though I was with him almost daily during his
visits among us, I never knew Mm to look at the
writings of the great poet, save once with King
John, for any preparation for the stage ; he very
seldom attended rehearsals, and yet, during all Ms
performances here, he never once disappointed the
pubhc, even when I knew Mm suffering from
bodUy iUs that might have kept a hero on his
couch. There is something marvellous in that
function, memory. The metaphysician, Dugald
Stewart, was astounded when Henderson, after
reading a newspaper once, repeated such a por
tion as seemed to him wonderful. A like oc
currence took place with our Hodgkinson. He
made a triffing 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 Uke, could not

EDMUND KEAN. 221
thus be retained. Henderson told Dugald Stewart
that habit produced that power of retention. Has
the memory, like that pecuUar faculty of calcula
tion which Zera Colburn possessed, some anomalous
function not yet unravelled ?
It is weU known that Kean, at one period of
Ms histrionic career, enjoyed the unbounded ad
miration of the Scotch metropohs ; and it is re
corded that the Highland Society honored Mm
with a magnificent sword for his highly wrought
performance of Macbeth. He on several occasions
adverted to the circumstance of old Sir John Sin
clair'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 pMlosophers, professors, and critics
usually congregated in that enlightened city.
Scott and WUson, I take it, were of the number,
headed by the octogenarian, Henry Mackenzie,
the " Man of Feehng," president of the Highland
Society. * It was easy to foresee, that such an op
portumty 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
Mm. The old professors of rhetoric had too long
handled the square and compass in their CMro-
mania not to feel desirous of hearing if some new
postulates might not be assumed, whose exceUence

222 HISTORICAL DISCOURSB,
might advance their science. My old friend, John
Pillans, of the High School, broached the subject.
Kean had little to disclose ; yet that httle had to
suffice. He had no harangue on eloquence to de
liver. He maintained that Shakspeare was his _
own interpreter, by his intensity and the wonder
ful genius of his language. Shakspeare, he con
tinued, was a study ; his deep and scrutinizing
research into human nature, and his subhme 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 perform
ances than upon those of some others who fulfilled
the severe caUing of the actor, he thought it might
be due in part to the devotion which he bestowed
on the author, and the conceptions engendered by
refiection. I have overlooked, said he, the school
men, 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 rhet
oric enjoins. It is the sympathy of mental im
pression that acts. I forgot the affections of art,
and relied upon the emotions of the soul. It is
human nature that gives her promptings. Kean
rejected the cadence, or very rarely had recourse to
it : it was at war with a successful termination of
speech. Sententious thought is cut off, and too

EDMUND KEAN. 223
often loses its effective power by that rule. He
considered the low modulation at the end too
often destructive to a fuU comprehension of the
sentence. Popular oratory seems more and more
to reject it as an obsolete law, and I think, from
daUy observation, that our hving exemplars of
oratorical power, as Everett, Hawks, and others,
practically carry out Kean's innovation.
I interrogated Kean, at one of those intel
lectual recreations which now and then occurred
in New York, if no other writer could be pointed
out whose language might awaken simUar emotions
by elucidation. The funeral service of the Church,
he repUed, wiU demonstrate the capabUities of the
speaker. When a new candidate for Mstrionic
patronage waits at Old Drury, he is perhaps tested
by the committee to declaim the speech over the
dead body of Ceesar, or the opening address of
Eichard the Third, or perhaps something from
that mawkish lover, Eomeo ; or he may be re
quested to read a portion of the funeral service of
the Church ; this last answers as well as any thing
from Shakspeare. We have hotMng higher in
eloquence ; nothing more effective, and the-quaU-
fications of the speaker are often by such a crite
rion determmed upon.* I myself shaU only add
* It is only within a few months that Garrick's work. Direc
tions for the reading of the Liturgy, has been repubUshed in.
London.

224 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
that Kean was controlled by an inherent sagacity,
and, as events proved, that sagacity was convincing.
The turmoUs of the mind wMch led to such re
sults, he could not expound. Aided by a masterly
judgment, he knew where the golden treasures of
the poet were buried, and Ms genius knew how
and when to bring them to light, and to give them
their pecuUar force.
Kean's success was not equal in aU characters,
and he frankly declared it. But how often has
this proved to be the case with others ! Kemble
could not excel in Eichard the Third or in Sir
Edward Mortimer, and Kean could not approach
the exceUence of Kemble's Coriolanus. Miss
O'NeU, when she played Mrs. Haller, proved that
the pathetic had scarcely entered the bosom of Mrs.
Siddons. Kean's scope was too wide for any mor
tal to cherish a design so presumptuous as univer
sal success ; but the impartial and well-informed
Mstoriographer of the stage wiU aUow, that no
predecessor in Kean's vocation ever exceUed 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 wMch original genius
had planted within him ; to that boldness that
dreaded not a new path, to that self-reliance which
trained Mm, by untiring industry, to his assigned
duty ; to that confidence wMch he cherished, that

EDMUND KEAN. 225
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 Ufe there might be such
laws, and admiration excited at the regularity of
the penduliim, but the inteUectual 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 heart was Ms prompter — Ms
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 Ms 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
stiU lingered there, and further recoUect the abih-
ties of those, too, who, at the very time when he
made Ms 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
10*

226 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
artists could do no wrong ; yet the little man, who
had feasted sumptuously on herring at a shilling a
week, who had studied Shakspeare at the Cock
and Bottle, who had enacted him amidst the
clanMng chains of a prison, appears 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 ex
hausted in ink and paper in laudation ; the poly
glot is ransacked for new phrases of approbation.
The httle man, but mighty actor, assumes a suc
cession of Shakspearian characters, and London is
taken, as if 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 Kemble exclaims,
" He acts terribly in earnest ! " Coleridge says,
" To see Kean act is reading Shakspeare by light-
nmg ; " 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 humiUty aUied,
But tribute of allegiance owes to thee.
The shrine thou worshippest is Nature's self —
The only altar genius deigns to seek.

EDMUND KEAN. 227
Thine offering — a bold and burning mind.
Whose impulse guides thee to the realms of fame,
Where, crowned with well-earned laurels, aU thine own,
I herald thee to immortaUty."
To demonstrate that Ms empire was not alone,
Shakspeare and the lofty tragic writers, he as
sumed comedy ; he gave us the Duke Aranza,
Octavian, Sylvester, Daggerwood, Luke, etc, and
played Mungo, and Tom Tug ; with most ex
pressive power he enacted the fine tragedy, the
Jew of Malta, and for the afterpiece sang sweetly
Paul, exMbiting the variety and extent of Ms dra
matic capabihties without loss of his mighty fame
as the greatest living tragedian. I attribute Kean's
unrivaUed success in so wide a range of characters
somewhat to Ms extraordinary capacity for obser
vation. He individualized every character he as
sumed — we. saw not Mr. Kean. Wherever he
was, he was all eye, aU ear. Every thing around
Mm, or wherever he moved, feU within Ms cogni
zance. 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 Mm-

228 ~ HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
self the composer of several popular airs. Thus
qualified, he drew his materials fresh from obser
vations amid the busy scenes of Ufe, 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 Eegan as
did Mr. Kean, or to be able to rival the pathos of
Ms Othello ?
The Lake Poets, as they were caUed, took a
new road m their strides towards Parnassus, but
that road is now mainly forsaken, and remains
almost unvisited. Kean, with loftier aspirations
and stUl more daring, essayed a new reading of
Shakspeare ; there was large by-play, but no stiU
Ufe in Mm ; he rejected the monotonous and so
porific tone ; he left the artfficial cadence and the
cold antique to Kemble. The passions. with which
the Almighty has gifted mortals were his reliance,
and as these wUl last while life's blood courses
through the heart, so long wUl endure the his
trionic school wMch Kean founded.
That Kean's first visit to the United States
was a complete triumph none wUl deny ; that his
second, after Ms disasters in London, by which his
own folly and crime had made him notorious, now
rendered the American people less charitable to
Ms errors, and less cordial in their support of his
theatrical glory, is also an admitted fact ; yet his

EDMUND KEAN. 229
return among us gave demonstrations enough to
prove that his professional merits were still recog
nized as of thfe highest order : he might have re
pined 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 Ms casual sinking of the spirits,
and perhaps at times to nullify that contrition
that weighed so heavily at the heart. His devo
tion as an actor was not less eamest than when I
first knew him. His Sir GUes in New York
abated not of the vehemence and terror that char
acterized it as I had witnessed it at Old Drury in
London, in 1816. The sarcastic parts of tMs
great drama yielded the richest opportunities for
the display of Ms acting powers, and of an utter
ance most natural as the outpouring of a con
summate viUain. Jhere were sometimes with Mm
moments of renewed study, and he threw Mmself
into several new characters wMch he had not pre
viously represented here ; his Jew of Malta, Ms •
Zanga, Ms 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 third
act in Othello his most satisfactory performance
within the range of Ms Mstrionic career. " Such,"
I said, " seems to be the pubhc verdict ; yet I

230 HISTORICAL DISCOURSB.
have been more held in wonder and admiration at
your King Lear ; your discourse with Edgar con
centrates a body of mental phUosbphy." " The
real insanity aW, 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 com
prehend the manifestations of real insamty ere I
appeared in Lear. I understand you have an asy
lum for lunatics ; I should Uke to pay it a visit,
and learn if there be any difference in the insanity
of John BuU and of you Americans." He was
promised an opportumty.
A few days after, we made 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
tMther. On the excursion he remarked he should
like to see our VauxhaU. We stopped ; he en
tered 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 buUd
ing, a deUghtful prospect would be presented to

EDMUND KEAN. 231
Ms contemplation : many counties, an,d an area
of sea, rivers, and lands, mountains and valleys,
embracing a circuit of forty mUes in circumference.
His admiration was expressed in deUcious accents.
" I'U walk the ridge of the roof of the Asylum ! "
he exclaimed, "and take a leap ! it's the best
end I can make of my hfe," and forthwith started
for the westem gable end of the building. My
associate and myself, as he hurried onward, seized
him by the arins, and he submissively returned.
I have ever been at a loss to account for this sud
den freak in his feelings ; he was buoyant at the
onset of the journey ; he astonished the VauxhaU
doorkeeper by his harlequin trick, and took an in
terest in the various forms of insanity which came
before him. He might have become too sublimated
in Ms feeUngs, or had Ms 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 Mm,
arising from the disaster wMch had occurred to
him a few days before with the Boston audience,
and the irreparable loss he had sustained in the
plunder of his truiiks and valuable papers, while
journeying Mther and thither on his return to New
York. We rejoiced together, however, when we
found Mm again safely at home, at Ms old lodg-

232 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
ings, at the City Hotel. I asked him in the even
ing how he studied the phrases of disordered intel
lect ; 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
wMch the temple of tMs great actor's reputation
must now rest ; and the ' obscene birds ' of criti
cism may try in vain to reach its summit and
deflle it, and the restless waves of envy and igno
rance may beat against its foundation unheeded,
for their noise cannot be heard so high."
There are a thousand stories afloat concerning
Kean. I shall sweU the number with one or two
derived from personal knowledge. The criticisms
of the American papers on his acting were little
heeded by Mm ; he said after an actor has made
a severe study of Ms character he feels Mmself be
yond the animadversions of the press. While
here, however, a periodical was published by the
poet Dana, caUed the " Idle Man." A number,
in wMch 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 pMlosopMcal man ;
I shaU take his work across the water." On sev
eral alternate nights he played the same round of

EDMUND KEAN. 233
characters with the distinguished Cooper ; and
two parties were naturally created by it. He
soon saw that Cooper had Ms friends, and noticing
the caption of the respective papers, after one or
two successive days, he ordered his man MiUer
regularly to handle the opposition gazette with a
pair of tongs, and convey it away from his pres
ence. He said he never read attacks.
Kean had early determined to erect a monu
ment to the memory of the actor he most es
teemed, 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 rephed, " we desire to remove the re
mains 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 wiU be a
work of taste and durabUity." " 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
Ms first visit to America. He repaired in the
afternoon to pay his last devotion to it. He
was singularly pleased with the eulogistic hues on
Cooke :

234 HISTORICAL DISCOURSB.
" Three Kingdoms claim his birth,
Both Hemispheres pronounce his worth."
Tears feU from his eyes in abundance, and as the
evening closed he walked Broadway, Ustened to
the cMmes of Trinity, returned again to the
churchyard, and sang, sweeter than ever, " Those
Evening BeUs," 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 cMld 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 Ms second visit to Amer
ica, Kean made a tour through the northern part
of the State, and visited Canada ; he feU 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 cMef, by the name of Alantenaida, as the
highly fimshed card left at my house had it.
Kean's ordinary card" was Edmund Kean, en
graved ; he generaUy wrote underneath, " Integer
vitee scelerisque purus." I repaired to the hotel,
and was conducted up stairs to the folding-doors
of the hall, when the servant left me. I entered,
aided by the feeble light of the room ; but at the

EDMUND KEAN. 235
remote end I soon perceived something Uke a forest
of evergreens, lighted up by many rays from floor
lamps, and surrounding a stage or throne ; and
seated in great state was the cMef I advanced,
and a more terrific warrior I never surveyed. Eed
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 ; Ms.
moccasons decorated with beads ; his head decked
with the war-eagle's plumes, behind wMch flowed
massive black locks of disheveUed horse-hair ;
golden-colored rings pendant from the nose and
ears ; streaks of yeUow 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 ; Ms 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 meteoric and fear
ful, hke the furnace of the cyclops. He vocifer
ously exclaimed, Alantenaida ! the vowels strong
enough. I was reUeved ; he betrayed something
of his raucous voice in imprecation. It was Kean.
An explanation took place. He wished to know
the merits of the representation. The Hurons
had honored Mm by admission mto their tribe,

236 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
and he could not now determine whether to seek
his final earthly abode with them for real happi
ness, 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 In
dian honor he had received, and declared that even
Old Drury had never conferred so proud a distinc
tion 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 prevaUed upon to change his dress and retire
to rest. A day or two after, he saUed for Europe,
with Ms Indian paraphernaUa.*
* The professional receipts of Kean during his engagement in
New York, were, I believe, at least equal to those for a Uke num
ber 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 ex
travagance chargeable to him ; but he was reckless in money mat
ters, and figures entered not into his calculations. He had a help
ing hand for aU applications, and he never forgot his early friends.
As in the case of Quin, the needy found in him a benefactor. The
noble conduct of his son Charles is famiUarly known, and hia at
tention in giving greater protection to his father's monument of
Cooke in St. Paul's churchyard, is proof suficient of his generous
quaUties ; but no language can plead in extenuation of the de
plorable prodigality of the elder Kean.

EDMUND KEAN. 237
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 an
other's poison, has much of fact in it. Viewing,
moreover, intemperance as among the greatest ca
lamities that afflict mortals, I should sadden in
my soul if a word proceeded from my lips that
might give it any quarters. But Mr. Kean's sus-
ceptibUities to impression were such that high ex
citement might foUow two or three glasses of port.
Mr. Grattan has weU described the progress of
that condition in Kean, and I have observed, at
several times, that those Latin citations of Ms
were ominous. Yet I never saw Mr. Kean indulge
in any drink whatever, untU 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 repUed it was just the right measure. John
Eeeve, according to manager Simpson, partook
stUl more bountifully to carry through his broad
farce ; but he was very bulky, and required almost
a kUderkin to saturate him. The benevolence of
Kean, and his charities, were almost proverbs.

238 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
Another noble attribute characterized him : he
was free of professional envy, and lauded rising
merit. AU he asked was to be announced to the
pubUc in large letters. He prognosticated the
career of Forest, after seeing Ms OtheUo 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 Tucker
man, in his Biographical Essays, has given us an
admirable exposition of the phUosophy of the man
and his acting, and Proctor has done weU with
him, but might have done better. I shaU say less
of Mathews and Macready.
Hemmed in as I am by ~ time and circum
stances, I am compeUed to restrict my observations
on Charles Mathews, a man of extraordinary facul
ties, who had secured a prodigious renown in his
vocation ere his arrival in the American States,
and wMch reputation 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
Mm special advantages. His close observation,
his susceptible nervous system, his half hypochon
driacal temperament, sharpened a natural acute-
ness, 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 occur-

CHARLES MATHEWS. 239
rences with the severity of phUosopMcal analysis.
Attitudes, the lear of the eye, the motion of the
hp, 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 witMn
the scope of his capabUities. The characteristics
of divers nations marking every condition of varied
hfe, from the dignity of the Plenipo to the ser
vitude of the memal, were aU caught by Mm, and
you looked in turn to him for the verisimilitude of
every delineation he attempted. The brooding
cadence of the cooing dove, and the Mdeous bray
ing of the donkey, were equally at the command
of Ms versatile talents. He was^ in short, the
master of mimic power, and used it with unpar
alleled effect. In comedy he was the acknowl
edged head in numerous parts. His Goldfinch is
represented to me, by experienced theatrical goers,
to have surpassed that of Hodgkinson ; his Lord
OgUby, Ms Morbleau, Ms Monsieur MaUet, his
Coddle, and many other portraitures, still remain
in vivid recoUection. His " At Home " proved
him, indeed, the actor of aU work, and with the
American commumty, yielding to the persuasions
of friends, he evinced the extraordinary capacity
that Othello could be enacted by him with signal
success. ,
If it be asked how came Mathews the posses
sor of such rare gifts, I answer, they were derived

240 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE,
from a nervous susceptibility of the most impres
sible order, from intense study, and the cultiva
tion of elegant Uterature. He read largely ; he
was quickened into observation by every phase of
varied Ufe, and his morbid constitution never for
sook Mm, or tolerated indifference to surrounding
objects. Like an homeopathic patient, he was
never well — always complaimng, and ever on the
look-out, with this difference, however, that while
the narcotized victim seems incessantly in search
of physical improvement, Mathews seemed ever to
be busy in intellectual progress. With the dex
terity of an archer he aimed at characteristics
wherever they might be found, and made the pe
culiarities of individuals the pledge of his skfll.
Abroad he sought out John Philpot Curran, and
embodied both the manner and thoughts' of the
orator most faithfully. In tMs country he looked
out for the great Irish orator, Thomas Addis Em
met, and unconsciously, to the great pleader, took
Mm to the Ufe, in manner and in tone, with tran
scendent effect. Had that jurist Uved in these
latter days, with spiritualism and clairvoyance
running mad, he might have concluded himself
to have been translated into some other individu-
ahty. Mathews' arrival in New York occurred in Sep
tember, 1822 ; the yellow fever was prevaUing. I
received a Mnd note from that benevolent man.

CHARLES MATHEWS. 241
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 pros
pect of landing. The phenomena exhibited by
his nervous temperament were most 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 pestUential air of the city ; every cloud came
to him surcharged with mortality ; every wav.e
imparted from the deep exhalations of destruc
tion. He walked the deck, tottering, and in the
extremest agitation. He refused to land at the
city, and insisted upon finding shelter in some re
mote 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 walk
ing to and fro in his limited apartment, ruminat
ing 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 dur
ing his professional toil, and very often, after his
theatrical duties were discharged, Jie was conveyed
at midnight hour to that then beautiful locality.
Not a few of the suggestions which crossed his
11

242 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
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 knowl
edge, and cherished a heartfelt love for Uterary char
acters ; 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 pur
suits. Our Cooper, our Irving, HaUeck.and Dun
lap, were among his favorite friends. With Dr.
Hosack and the generous PhUip Hone, he enjoyed
many festive hours. Mathews was the first indi
vidual, I heard, who gave a pretty decisive opin
ion that Scott was the author of the WaveJrley
novels ; tMs 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 trath, and that a Mar
jor or Col. Scott, of Canada, was the actual au
thor. 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 wi|h a man who contended through
life that Bonaparte was no soldier ; that Priestley
had done the world infinitely more harm than

WILLIAM C. MACREADY. 243
good ; that skullcap was a certain specific for the
cure of hydrophobia, and that yeUow 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 hterature, as weU as in politics. There was
much of worldly prudence in the habits and de
meanor of Charles Mathews, and he who would
comprehend the labors, self-denials, and toils of
the successful competitor for Mstrionic distinction,
might profitably study the Ufe of this renowned
actor. He was the apostle of temperance and
circumspection. Macready, having secured a provincial reputa
tion, appeared on the London boards at that par
ticular 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 Miss O'Neil was on the eve of
closing her brilliant and most successful career.
His first appearance in the metropolis was in the
character of Orestes, in the Distressed Mother.
His reception was aU that could be desired, and
Kean, with his wonted liberality, applauded his
talents. He soon assumed the Shakspearian char
acters, and his Coriolanus, Eichard the Third,
Macbeth, and his lago, added vastly to his re
nown. The world, however, cannot always be de
voted to Shakspeare ; novelty is sought, and

244 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
Macready presented a captivating example of it
in his Eob Eoy. He became the original repre
sentative of several of Sheridan Knowles' heroes,
and his Cains Gracchus and WUham TeU 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 Ms King Lear, WU
liam Tell, and his Eichelieu. 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 pub
lic approbation. To analyze the wide range of the drama which
the professional life of Macready embraced, would
be presumptuous, and is hot within our power ; we
are, moreover, merely toucMng some of the leading
incidents in the histrionic movements of this city,
and are exempt from the obligations which an ad
dress to the Dramatic Association might impose.
Mr. Macready is less of a comedian than tragedian,

WILLIAM C. MACREADY. 245
but in this latter, the materials are ample to de
monstrate that, in the maturity of Ms faculties,
Ms efficiency justly placed Mm at the head of the
English stage. He cannot be entirely classed with
the exclusive followers_ of nature, though he bor
rowed largely from her resources ; and it would be
unjust to his original powers to attribute his ex
cellences to his adoption of the cold and formal
school of actors. Hazlitt, a discriminating dra
matic 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 incom
parable 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 ai the
innovations of even Dryden and Massinger. They
were obstacles to the true worship of Shakspeare,
and he deemed it imperative that they be over
come. We should hold no parley, he said, with
critics who could pUfer an absurdity, and then pro-

246 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
fanely saddle it on Shakspeare. Assuredly he de
serves all praise for his unceasing toU and his noble
ambition. Mr. Macready has been ever scrupulously
careful about assuming a part in plays which
tended to the exaltation of the baser passions,
and the increase of licentiousness. The regularity
of his own Ufe added to the self-gratification he
enjoyed from so. scrupulous a Une of conduct in his
professional duty. Believing that a great etMcal
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 httle 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 estab
Ushment of public schools. He virtually, if recent
reports be true, is at tMs present period a volun
tary teacher of morals and science. His pMlan-
thropy has created a school for the rising gen
eration, and even for maturer years, at Ms beautiful
retreat, at Sherborne, in Dorsetshire. Whatever
may have been the vicissitudes and trials which

WILLI AM_ C. MACREADY. 247
have oppressed at times the course of his honorable
hfe, he wUl assuredly find an adequate recompense
in the benevolent and grateful pursuits wMch now
absorb so largely Ms experienced intellect. His
late lecture on poetry, and its infiuence on popular
education, delivered before the British Atheneeum,
has been read by thousands with the strongest ap
proval. To these fragmentary observations on the drama
and the players, I shaU add a quotation from a
judicious criticism on the edition of Shakspeare
lately published, with numerous annotations, by
the Eev. H. N. Hudson. Few wUl dissent -from
the closing remarks of the able writer. Mr. Gould
observes : " We cannot forbear a passing remark
on the disappearance of the theatrical represen
tatives of Shakspeare, just at the point of time
when his text, in its highest attainable purity, 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 gemus of the author, unfolded
to five successive generations the Uving reaUties of
Shakspeare's power. These six luminaries have
now- aU passed away ; Macready alone surviving
to enjoy in retirement the homage due to his pub
Uc talents and private virtues. The loss of these
great actors is the more to be deplored, because

248 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
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 Uving will see Mm resuscitated."
To tMs brief but impartial narrative of the his-
tripnic art among us, I can add but httle more at
present. The past twenty or thirty years are indeed
fuU of dramatic in»ident, and demand an ample
page for iUustration. Some one doubtless wiU ap
pear in due season to record its triumphs and its
defeats. Conway might justify some few lines ;
a man of acknowledged powers, of high aspira
tions, and of close study, whose tuition in the
once popular school of Kemble failed as a
passport to entire success. Something more he
found was wanting, and laboring in the complex
ities of various readings and orthoepy, his ner
vous temperament yielded to the mortification of
defeat : finding himself undervalued, melancholy
marked him as her own, and a fixed reserve and
seclusion characterized his entire demeanor. His
sensitive nature finaUy led him to self-destruction,
by drowning Mmself in Ms passage by sea for
Charleston. That remarkable woman in literary
Mstory, Mrs. Piozzi, in her eightieth year had
addressed to him many letters touching affairs of
the heart, wMch the sense of Conway must have
deemed the offspring of dotage ; but after his

COOPER.  CLASON. 249
death an mquisitive pubhc brought them to Ught.
Conway was beyond the reach of medical skiU
when I became acquainted with him.
The career of Cooper, long signahzed by suc
cess, would constitute a chapter in diversffied Ufe
richly instractive. His laurels were withered by
Cooke, but he achieved new honors in William
TeU, Virginius, and other parts. Wood, in his
interesting EecoUections of the Stage, quotes the
approbation bestowed on Cooper by Eoscoe, the
Mstorian of Leo X. Cooper was an incessant reader
of Schlegel, who, he said, was the only worthy
commentator on Shakspeare. Booth, an eccentric,
reckless, and unreliable man, who assumed a
rivalsMp with the elder Kean, might be noted for
his extravagant displays of dramatic power, and
Ms final failure. He lacked judgment, he pos
sessed genius. He, nevertheless, was held in ad
miration by many of the friends of the drama.
Brief and imperfect as these sketches of the stage
are, I cannot omit a record of the appearance of
Clason on the New York boards in 1824. He
enacted Zanga and Hamlet with artistic skiU, ripe
judgment, and effect. He early was drawn into a
fondness for elegant literature ; he read history
profoundly ; studied rhetoric, and had given in
struction in the art of reading with great appro
bation. His genius was mamfested in an eminent
degree by his pubUcation of two cantos of Don
11*

250 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
Juan, the l7th and 18th, as a continuation by
Lord Byron. In England he formed an acquaint
ance with Dibdin, the celebrated song writer, and
for a wMle wrote for the periodical journals ; and
having exhausted fortune and friends, terminated
Ufe by suffocation from charcoal, in 1830, at the
age of about thirty-two years. " His fate," says
Dr. Griswold, " is an unfavorable commentary on
his character." We may more wonder that so
great a libertine Uved so long, than that so incon
siderate a man died so soon.
Other names of equal consideration might find
a place in the modern history of theatrical affairs
in New York. PhUips and Incledon, in the melo
dramatic line ; Tyrone Power, the attractive co
median ; Home, the vocalist. Excessive mobUity
of the nervous system characterized all these dis
ciples of the musical world. The first of them is
best remembered by his falsetto and Ms Eveleen's
Bower ; Incledon, by the uncommon powers of his
voice, Ms energetic and harmomous strains ; the
ballad was his forte, and his Black-eyed Susan
and the Storm, the proofs of his mastery in melo
dy ; Ms part in the " Quaker" was Ms best acting.
Power excelled in the Irish character, as did his
great predecessor Johnstone ; he introduced the
richest brogue, and was the soul of vivacity. The
direful disaster, his loss in the steamship President,
is stUl fresh in memory. Horn first evinced his

CHARLES E. HORN. 251
musical talent in New York, in the character of
Caspar in Der Freischutz ; he was a composer as
weU as a performer, and much of the popular song
music of the past twenty years was of his coinage.
At the stated meeting of the venerable Society
of Cmcinnati, held 4th of July, 1842, at which
Gen. Morgan Lewis, as President, officiated, then
in the eighty-seventh year of his age, with Major
Popham, soon after Ms successor in office, and
several other revolutionary worthies, Horn was an
invited guest. Like aU other musical men whom
I have known, and who have seeiv much of the
world, I found Mm courteous, refined, and of agree
able address. He told us of the vast sums several
of his musical compositions had brought him,
sang several of Ms own melodies, and two or three
of our continental ballads, conceming Gage and
ComwaUis, to the dehght of the old patriots.
Horn died in Boston, a few years after, of pul
monary disorder.
For a series of years the manager of our Park
Theatre, Price, strove hard by hberal pecuniary
proffers to secure the appearance of John Kemble
and Mrs. Siddons on our boards. The insuperable
difficulty was the dread of an Atlantic voyage.
It would appear these renowned performers could
never overcome their apprehensions of danger from
such an undertaking. Price often regretted the
disappointment, and he had friends enough to

255 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
unite in sympathy with Mm. Yet after the lapse
of a generation the gratifying inteUigence was an
nounced that Charles Kemble and hb accom
plished daughter. Miss Fanny Kemble, had reached
our shores. This was in 1831. The reputation
of the father had long been estabhshed ; his comic
and Ms tragic abUities were matters of record in
dramatic annals ; his Charles Surface, his Mirabel,
his Edgar, his Pierre, and his Falconbridge, were
the parts that won him his brightest laurels ; and
his other achievements were crowned by Ms Ham
let. His daughter, Fanny, enlisted the warmest
plaudits, and soon increased admiration by every
new display of Mstrionic talent. She assumed
tragic and comic parts, and demonstrated that she
was fairly entitled to her hereditary honors.
Dismissing further remarks on this gifted lady's
stage-acting, I shall add a few words on her read
ings. As the last representative of this remark
able famUy now among us, Mrs. Kemble, since her
retirement from the stage, has again and again
deUghted intellectual audiences in our principal
cities by Shakspearian readings. She possesses in
an eminent degree the physical superiority and the
mental force of her Mndred. Her voice is of great
compass, singularly flexible, and capable of every
tone of emotional significance ; we have the ring
ing laugh of Beatrice, when Benedick offers him
self, and the heart-rending cry of Macduff, "he

FANNY KEMBLE. 253
has no chUdren ; " the change of her voice is almost
ventriloquism. She possesses a rare sympathetic
intelhgence whereby she is able to illustrate the
feeUng and the sentiment of Shakspeare, and the
secret of her wondrous elocutionary success is ap
parent. She adapts her voice, expression of coun
tenance, gesture and manner, to the respective
parts in each drama, and this with an artistic sMU
and earnest feeUng which charm the auditor.
She comprehends the true depths of inspiration,
feels what she acts and acts what she feels ; now
the gentle, innocent OUvia, jjow the dissimulating
fiend Lady Macbeth ; when hstening you forget
that one is reading, you see and hear aU ; so sud
den is her transition in dialogue — so rapid the
change of every expression. Night after night to
crowded audiences, she thus gave us the highest
pleasure without the artificial Ulusions of the stage
in its palmy days. In comic dialogue and in iat-
passioned sohloquy she seems inspired, and revives
the richest memories of those histrionic triumphs
which have made for ever celebrated the names of
her iUustrious aunt and classic father.,
Were my individual feelings to be consulted, I
would fain dweU at some length on the introduc
tion of the Garcia Itahan opera troupe in tMs city
as an historical occurrence in intellectual progress
of permanent interest. It was destined to create
new feeUngs, to awaken new sentiments in the cir-

254 , HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
cle of refined and social Ufe, and its mission I
believe is accompUshed. The opera, whatever may
be the disputes toucMng its origin, was known to
be the offspring . of genius. It had universal ap
proval as an exalted mental recreation to recom
mend it ; its novelty here secured prompt atten
tion to its ¦ claims, and its troupe of artists who
honored us with their eni/r^e 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 drafna,
wMch had possession of the feelings, the lifeless
materials of chUdish ignorance. Something, per
haps, 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 hberahty 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 fasMonable and
festive board, a gentleman of the ton, and a melo
dist 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

ITALIAN OPERA. 255
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 accom
plished, and he sought out, while in Europe, an
Italian troupe, which his persuasive eloquence and
the liberal spirit of Price led to embark for our
shores, where they arrived in November, 1825.
The old ItaUan poet and composer of the libretto
of Don Giovanni and Le Nozze di Figaro, the as
sociate of Mozart, was here in this city to greet
them, and on the night of 29th of October, 1825,
at the Park Theatre, we Ustened to II Barbi^re de
SevigUe of the matcMess Eossini.
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 ac
clamations. The indonutable energy of Garcia,
aided by his melodious strains and Ms exhaustless
powers, the bewitcMng talents of his daughter,
the Signorina Garcia, with her artistic faculties as
an actress, and her flights of inspirations, the
novelty of her co^peption, 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 maMng up the roll, were added Angrisani,
whose bass seemed as the peal of the noted organ
at Haerlem ; Eosich, a buffo of great resources ;

256 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
CreveUi, a promising debutante ; the younger
Garcia, with Signora Garcia, and Madame Bar-
biere with her capacious tenor, constituting a mu
sical 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 PhilUps (which
had made Coleman, the editor, music-mad), the
melodies of Moore, and even the baUads of Scot
land, as shorn of their popularity, and even now I
think myself not much in error in holding to the
same opimon. The Italian opera is an elaboration
of many thoughts, of intelUgence extensive and
various ; whUe it assimilates itself by its harmo
mous construction and entirety, it becomes effec
tive by external impression and rational com
bination. 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 destmies, it might stiU exist in its attractive
displays as a permanent institution in tMs en
Ughtened and liberal metropolis.
I must add a few words on that great Maestro,
Garcia. It is true that Ms vast reputation is secured
for the future by his biographer ; he was a suc
cessful teacher, a composer of many operas, and
his merits as a performer are fresh in the recollec
tions of the operatic world ; but it is sometimes

SIGNOR GARCIA. 257
profitable to cast a backward glance over what we
have lost. He was a native of Seville, reared in
Spamsh music, and in fulfiUing his part in that
role with enthusiasm, was summoned in 1809 to
Paris, wherp he was the first Spamsh musician
that appeared in that capital. Garat, on hearing
him, exclaimed, " 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 Eossini saw Mm, and ar
ranged affairs so that he appeared in the Barber
of SeviUe, of which he was the original represent
ative. He visited England in 1817, where his
wonderful powers were stiU higher extoUed, from
Ms Othello and Ms Don Juan. In Paris our New
York friend Lynch found him, and proffered in
ducements for him to visit America. "Here his
combined qualities as singer and actor, have never
been equalled ; his OtheUo, for force, just discrimi
nation, and expression, astounding the beholder,
and fiUing the house with raptures. His career
in Mexico foUowed ; and sad to relate, while on
his return to Vera Cruz, he was beset by ban
ditti, stripped of his clothing, and plundered of
his 1000 oz. of gold (about $17,000/of our money),
the results of his severe earnings : penniless he
finally reached Paris, to resume his professional
labors. His spirits faUed Mm not, but Ms musical

258 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
powers were on the wane, and being the first to
detect the decline of Ms 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 Ms age, and through
life, Garcia was the arbiter of his own fortunes.
He may be pronounced the restorer of Mozart and
the promulgator of Eossini's matchless works. His
daughter, afterwards Madame Malibran, eclipsed
even the talents of her father ; and her abiUties
are stUl 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 almost a frantic enthusiasm. Animated
by the lofty consciousness of genius, the novelty
of her conceptions, her vivid pictures, her inex
haustible spirits, had never been equalled by any
predecessor in her ca/lUng. She had no Farinelli for
an instructor, but the tremendous energy, not to
say severity of her father, brought out the facul
ties of her voice to the wonder of aU 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 instru
mentation, according to the opinion of the most
astute judges. She has been foUowed by no imi
tator, because none could approach her. Eecently
with Alboni and Jenny Lind we have had a par
tial echo of her. Perhaps her ravishing person

SIGNORA GARCIA. 259
served to swell the tide of public approbation of
her ravisMng voice. She enchained eyes and ears.
Her earlier (not her earhest) efforts were first ap
preciated at the Park Theatre, and the predictions
there uttered of her ultimate victories, were fully
verified on her return to England. • So far Ameri
can appreciation did honor to the then state of
musical culture with the New Yorkers.
In my medical capacity I became weU ac
quainted with the Garcia troupe ; they possessed
good constitutions and took httle physic ; but
what I would aim at in the few remarks I have
yet to make is, to show that those who are not ar
tists little know the toil demalided for eminent
success in the musical world. Some twelve or .six
teen 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 yeara 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 pubhc 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 ChanceUor methinks might be easier reared
than a Malibran. I dismiss all allusion to nature's
gifts and pecuUar aptitudes. It is assumed that

260 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
brains are demanded in all intellectual business.
The simplicity of Ufe, and the prescribed tem
perance 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 sucr6e, were aU 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
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 weU re
member their old teacher, Signor Lorenzo Da
Ponte, so long a professor of Italian Uterature in
Columbia CoUege, the stately nonogenarian whose
wMte locks so richly ornamented his classical front
and his graceful and elegant person. He faUs
within the compass of this imperfect address from
Ms " lonely conspicuity," for the taste he cherished,
and the industry he -displayed in the cultivation
of Italian letters ; more than two thousand scho
lars havings been initiated in the language of Italy
by him, and he is still more intervoven with our
theme by Ms enthusiastic efforts to estabhsh the

LORENZO DA PONTE. 261
Italian opera with us. He was upwards of sixty
years of age upon his arrival in America, but en
joyed sturdy manhood. His credentials to con
sideration 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 hfe 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
untU the Garcia troupe triumphed at New York,
as erst at Vienna, in Don Giovanni. The lan
guage of Italy and her music were deeply-rooted
in his heart.
A fair estimate may be formed of the great
extent and variety of Da Ponte's knowledge, of
his deep devotion to the mental capacity of Italy,
his adoration of her language, and his laudations
of her mighty authors ; the strength, the copious
ness and the sweetness of her language, and the
fertility and special excellence of her divine music,
by a perusal of his elaborate pamphlet which he
published in N-w York in 1821, entitled Bull'

"262 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
Italia. Discorso Apologetico in risposta alia let
ter a delV advocato Carlo PJiillips. I was of the
audience when Da Ponte delivered this Discourse
in EngUsh before a large assemblage, with all the
earnestness and animation of a great speaker. The
work itself took its origin from the aspersions cast
upon the Italian character by the British press, at
the time when the English papers were filled with
the detaUs.of the aUeged corrupt conduct of Caro
line, the queen consort of George the Fourth, and
of the Italian witnesses. The copious stores of
Da Ponte's reading can be estimated by a perusal
of this vindication of his country and his country
men. In reference to Ms native tongue he thus
speaks : " With her' good fortune, Italy for five
hundred years has preserved her charming lan
guage. That language which, from its united
sweetness, deUcacy, force, and richness, compares
with every ancient language, and surpasses every
modern tongue ; wMch equals in subUmity the
Greek, the Latin in magnificence, in grandeur and
conciseness the Hebrew, the German in boldness,
in majesty the Spanish, and the English in energy.
That language in fine, which Providence bestowed
on the ItaUans, because so perfectly adapted in its
almost supernatural harmoniousness to the deU
cacy of their organs and perceptions, to the
vivacity of their minds, and to the complexion of
their ideas and sentiments, and which was formed

LORENZO DA PONTE. 263
SO justly to Ulustrate their character." This
pamphlet by Da Ponte is weU worth an attentive
perusal at the present day, and is not to be classed
among ephemeral productions.
It was a day of lofty thought for the old pa
triarch, says his American biographer, when came
among us Garcia with Ms lovely daughter, then in
the moming of her renown ; Eosich, the inimi
table buffo ; Angrisani with his tomb note,' and
Madame Barbiere, aU led by our lamented Alma-
viva.* I must refer to the able articles on the
introduction of the opera, written by a philosoph
ical critic in the New York Eeview and Athe-
neum Magazine for December, 1825. They con
stitute a record of the social progress of this city
that cannot be overlooked. Da Ponte died in
New York in August, 1838, at mnety 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. Ver
planck, Pietro MaroncelU, the fellow-prisoner of
Sylvio Pellico, and Ms physician, &c. That Ms
long hfe created no wasting infirmity of mind, was
shown in a striking manner by Ms publication of
a portion of the poet HUlhouse's Hadad, not long
before his final UMess, and' which he beautifully
rendered in ItaUan with scholastic fidelity. The
* Dominick Lynch, Esq.

264 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
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 stiU entire. He died firm in the Catho
lic faith, and was buried in the Eoman Catholic
cemetery. Second Avenue.
Mr. Ward, his American biographer, in his
sketch has thus pictorially described the last
hours of tbe venerable Da Ponte. " The closing
thirty years of an existence, so rife with incident
and adventure, terminated in tMs city at nine
o'clock on Friday evening, the seventeenth day of
August, 1838, just three months after the decease
of Prince TaUeyrand, whom he preceded five years
upon the stage of hfe. Like that Ulustrious states
man, he died in the Catholic faith, of wMch he
had for some time past been a zealous promoter.
" Two days previous to tMs event his sick
chamber presented an interesting spectacle. Doc
tor J. W. Francis, Ms friend and kind physician
since the old operatic days, and to whom the aged
poet had in gratitude addressed a parting ode on
the day preceding, perceiving symptoms of ap
proaching dissolution, notified his numerous friends
of the change in the venerable patient. It was
one of those afternoons of waning summer, when
the meUdw sunset foretells approaching autumn.
The old poet's magnificent head lay upon a sea of

LORENZO DA PONTE. 265
pUlows, and the conscious eye still shed its beams
of regard upon aU around Mm. Besides several
of Ms countrymen, were assembled some remnants
of the old ItaUan troupe, who knelt for a farewell
blessing around the paUet of their expirmg bard ;
among them might be seen the fine head of
Fornasari and Signor Bagioli's benevolent coun
tenance. AU wept as the patriarch bade them an
affectionate and earnest fareweU, and implored a
blessing on their common country. The doctor,
watcMng the fiickerings of the life-torch, stood at
the head -of the couch, and a group of fearful
women at the foot, completed a scene not unlike
the portraiture we have aU seen of the last hours
of Napoleon." Vicissitudes had made Da Ponte a great ob
server of Ufe ; Ms intimate associations with
Mozart, the countenance and encouragement he
received from Joseph II., his acquaintance with
Metastasio, the lyric poet and writer of operas and
dramas in Italy, are prominent among the events
of Ms earlier career, at which time he established
his reputation as a melo-dramatist.
The opportumties which presented themselves
to me of obtaining circumstantial facts concerning
Mozart fi:om the personal knowledge of Da Ponte,
were not so frequent as desirable, but the incidents
which Da Ponte gave were aU of a most agree
able character. His accounts strengthened the
12

266 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
reports of the ardent, nay, almost impetuous
energy and industry of Mozart ; his promptness
in decision, and Ms adventurous inteUect. The
story of Don Juan had indeed become famihar in
a thousand ways ; Mozart determmed to cast the
opera exclusively as serious, and had weU advanced
in the work. Da Ponte assured me, that he re
monstrated and urged the expediency on the great
composer of the introduction of the vis comica,
in order to accomplish a greater success, and pre
pared the role with Batti, batti, L^ ci darem, &c.
How far he influenced Mozart in the composition,
Nozze de Figaro, I am unprepared to say ; but the
Libretto of these two works, from the testimony
of the best judges, enhanced the renown already
widely recognized of Da Ponte as a dominant
genius in his profession, enabling melody to pos
sess its fuUest expression in facUe language, and
with deUcacy, simpUcity, and exquisite tenderness.
It will ever remain a difficulty to know why so
long a time elapsed ere those master works, Don
Giovanni and Nozze de Figaro, were introduced
to the admiration of the English pubhc. National
prejudice had indeed its influence, and the legiti
mate drama was disposed to ward off an opponent
whose powers when once understood were sure to
rival, in due season, all that the dramatic world
could summon in its own behalf. Dr. Arne had,
almost a century before, given a foretaste of the

LORENZO DA PONTE. 267
Italian style in Ms music to Tom Thumb ; and his
celebrated opera of Artaxerxes, about 1760, had
gained the author a vast accession of fame, and
had deUghted the British nation ; yet Mozart's
Don Giovanni only saw the hght of the stage in
London, in 1817. The mock-bravuras and the
travesties of Cherry, the patriotic songs of Dibdin
in the times of England's great struggle, &c., may
perhaps be considered as among the causes which
retarded the day when the national taste was to be
refined by tMs pure source of inteUectual pleasure.
Such, I think, was in part Da Ponte's views ; but
he was never very ardent in his praises of the Eng
hsh as a musical people. Yet it is to be conceded,
that a foretaste of that gratification wMch foUowed
the advent of Eossini, had been enjoyed in the
vocal displays of Storace, BUlington, and John
Braham. It was easy to perceive, after a short interview
with Da Ponte, that his capacious intellect was
fiUed with bookish wisdom. He had recitals at
command for the diversity of society in wMch he
chanced to be. He loved his beautiful Italy, and
was prohfic in praise of her authors. He extoUed
Caldani and Scarpa, and had many charming
stories concerning the great Ulustrator of sound
and morbid anatomy, Morgagni. Da Ponte at
tended the last course of instruction imparted by
that pre-eminent phUosopher, who had then been

268 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
professor soifle sixty years. On that memorable
occasion, when Morgagm was to meet his class for
the last time, he summoned his cara sposa, Sig
nora Morgagni, a lady of noble famUy, 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 bene
diction on the University and on Ms class, and
then appealed to Ms venerable wife for the fidehty
of his domestic life, and to Ms cMldren as the
tokens of her love and affection. He was now in
Ms ninetieth year. Da Ponte said he was never
more in eamest, 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
aU others, which commanded the admiration of
the cultivators of real science wherever the dignity
and utility of medicine were appreciated. I am
aware I have trespassed beyond my proper Umits
in this notice, but it was difficult* 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 m the
courses of practical instruction, on certam branches,
than Morgagni, though now dead more than two
generations. I wished to draw a moral from the
story, cheering to the devoted student m Ms
severe toUs to qualify him for medical responsibihty.

MORGAGNI. 269
Morgagni, besides great professional acquisitions,
was a master of elegant literature, an antiquarian
of research, a proficienrt in Mstorical lore. The
learned associations of every order in Europe en-
roUed him as a member. His numerous writings,
fuU of original discoveries, are compressed in five
huge fohos, and are consulted as a treasury of es
tablished facts on a thousand subjects. , To his
responsible duties, mvolving Ufe and death, he
superadded for more than sixty years his univer
sity teachmgs, and died at ninety with Ms mental
faculties entire. How was the miracle wrought .?
In the presence of herculean labors, if ennui ever
dared to approach, an Italian lyric of Metastasio
was aU-sufficient for relief By proper frugality
he secured property ; by a regular Ufe he preserved
health ; by system and devotion he secured Ms
immortal renown.
Thus much may suffice as a Mstorical record
of the introduction of the ItaUan 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 wUl
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 on this occasion, did time allow, to
state particulars concerning the several opera com
panies which have favored us with ^^heir presence

270 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
and their skiU since the Garcia period ; the
Pedrotte company, that of Montressor, with For
nasari, 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 Uveliest incidents in proof of the Uberality
of the patrons of this inteUectual and refimng
recreation in our metropohs.
That cultivated gentleman and scholar, Eobert
Winthrop, in Ms Address, lately delivered at the
opening of the grand musical festival at the Music
HaU, 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
Mstory 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 ammation and utterance have been given

FINE ARTS. 271
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
notMng among the utterances aUowed to man is
felt to be so divine.
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 obser
vations of Sir Arthur Martin Shoe, that there is,
perhaps, no topic so unmanageable as that of the
arts in the hands of those who bring to its dis
cussion only the superficial acquirements of ama
teur taste, I shall exercise a wise prudence in my
limited notice of the subject. Antiquarian re
search wUl 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 to
wards their encouragement are hardly worth the
notice. Our sedate and conservative Dutch an
cestors were content with the architectural dis
plays of the old-fashioned gable brick residence,
the glazed tile roof, and the artificial china square
plate, enriched with grotesque illustrations of
dykes and wind-mUls, and the prodigal son, as
ornaments for the ample mantel and fire-jams. I

272 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
have not forgotten the ten commandments thus
Ulustrated as decorations of the fireplace in the
humble suburban dwelUng near the head of Pearl
street, where I passed my earlier days, at that pe
riod of childhood when I studied with overflowing
tears the mournful story of Cock Eobin. 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, In-
man, and Dunlap, are of quite a recent date. I
have seen the portraits of the Hunters of Ehode
Island, by Smybert ; and the Washington by
Pine, in the possession of the late Henry Bre
voort. 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 pecuUar reputation for fideUty
in portraiture and exceUence in coloring. In
speaMng 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 por
traits wMch we have of the eminent magistrates
and divmes of New England and New York, who

FINE ARTS. 273
lived between 1725 and 1751, are from his pencil."
TrumbuU 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 pencU New
England is indebted for portraits of many of her
early statesmen and clergy. Among others, he
pamted for a Scotch gentleman the only authentic
likeness of Jonathan Edwards.* It was the ex
treme value at which Pintard estimated the pro
ductions of Pine, that led Mm to search so ear
nestly for the lost portraits of the Colden family
by that artist, which you have in your gaUery, and
we have lately seen the value of Ms 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. OgUvie, of
Trmity Church, and now in their collection, is, I
believe, by Pine. We have, therefore, evidences
of Ms great merits to be seen in many places.
Pintard represented to me that Pine was a Uttle
fellow, active, assiduous, and ambitious to excel.
He had received great countenance from the famUy
of the Hopkinsons, of PMladelphia.
We find no statue at tMs early date as orna
mental to our city, if we except that of the elder
* Essays, Biographical and Critical ; or, Studies of Character.
By Henry T. Tuckerman. Boston : 8vo. IBS'?.
12*

274 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
Pitt, which stood at the junction of Wall and
WiUiam streets, and the leaden figure of George
III., in the BowUng Green, both destroyed by
popular violence in" the incipient troubles of the
Eevolution. An ap.proach to a loftier encouragement of the
Fine Arts was manifested by our civil authorities
in the selection of the great American Mstorical
artist, the late Col. TrumbuU, who was employed
to execute, in 1790, the two Ufe-sized paintings of
Washington and of George Clinton, the revo
lutionary general. If we except the Sortie of
Gibraltar, by the same artist, they may be pro
nounced emphaticaUy the great works of this dis
tinguished painter. I have often heard the richest
praises bestowed on these artistic productions, for
their remarkable fideUty to the originals, by our
old patriots, who frequently honored them wiih a
visit, and who personally were well acquainted
with the subjects. I can easily imagine the feel
ings wMch glowed in the breast of this long-tried
patriot and associate of the men of the revolution
ary 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 TrumbuU correspond with what I have
again and again heard uttered by the men of '76.
During his whole life TrumbuU seems to have

JOHN TRUMBULL. 275
been controUed by the highest motives of patriot
ism in order to perpetuate the historical occur
rences of Ms native country ; to secure for pos
terity faithful and characteristic Ukenesses of our
American heroes and statesmen, seems to have
been the ultimate desire of his heart, regardless of
labor or expense. ' Greatj indeed, would have been
our misfortune deprived of his pictorial delin
eations of revolutionary times, and the graphic
exhibitions of his prohfic pencil of the men of the
Eight Years' War.
TMs accomplished scholar, enUghtened and
unswerving patriot, eminent artist and delineator
of American history, closed his honorable career in
New York, in 1843, in the eighty-eighth year of
Ms age. He was conspicuous among the old
school gentlemen then among us. A few days
before his death he accepted the presidency of the
Washmgton Monument Association, recently or
ganized in this city. He readily gave his coun
tenance to the work. I attended him in his last
illness, in consultation with his exceUent physician,
the late Dr. Washington, and it is curious to re
mark 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.
TrambuU. The Eeminiscences which he pub-

276 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
lished give us the events most prominent in his
career. A genuine love of country, a noble devo
tion to her interest in times of deep adversity, a
patriotic ardor which led him, in season and out
of season, amidst almost insuperable difficulties
and perUs, to rescue the fleeting and precious ma
terials which might give additional interest to her
annals, entitle Mm to the admiration of all future
time. We already see that the lapse of each suc
cessive day gives increased value to his labors for
the student of American Mstory.
The arrivalfrom Europe of that consummate
genius, Gilbert Stuart, and Ms settlement in New
York, in 1793, constitute another era in the pro
gress 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 abUities. Many of his portraits
of that period are of speqial value, and may
stiU be found in the residences of our older
famUies 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 pahit Wash
ington was so great as to cause him to leave for
PhUadelphia to gratify his feelings, and it is, per
haps, not saying too much, that vast as is. the in
herent glory wMch encircles the name of the spot
less patriot, the merits of that standard and

ACADEMY OF ARTS. 277
unrivaUed portrait by Stuart, have augmented
even the renown of the founder of the EepubUc.
The arts of design were promoted by the as-
aduous labors of Eembrandt Peale, a devoted
scholar and an artist of wide repute, whose Court
of Death is among the tropMes of the pencU ; and
by Sharpless, of New York, whom I became weU
acquainted with in his after Ufe. His likenesses,
in crayon, won general commendation, and justice
to his memory demands that he be placed in the
foremost ranks of successful portrait-painters. The
same remarks wUl honestly apply to Alexander
Eobertson. In sculpture, at and about this time, Houdon
and CarracM gave proofs of their mastery in their
professional hue.
Such was the platform on which the Fine
Arts rested, when a number of the friends of
hberal culture and elegant pursuits contemplated
the organization of the first association in this
city, under the name of the New York Academy
of Fme Arts, in 1801. In 1808 it received the
act of incorporation under the name of the Ameri
can Academy of Fine Arts, and Chancellor Living
ston was chosen President ; CoL John TrumbuU,
Vice President ; Dewitt CUnton, David Hosack,
John E. Murray, WUUam Cutting, and Charles
WUkes, directors. If we add the names of C. D.
Colden, Edward Livingston, and Eobert Fulton,

278 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
we include in tMs enumeration the leading New
Yorkers who, for years, were liberal in their patron
age to promote the undertaking. Through the
instrumentality of the American minister at the,
court of France, Napoleon presented to the in
stitution many valuable 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
JElobert Fulton, with the Ariadne of Vanderlyn,
and other results of the easel of that distinguished
artist, sustained it for a few years longer from dis
solution, wMle the several addresses of CUnton,
Hosack, and Trumbull, gave it for a season addi
tional popularity. At this particular crisis in the
Academy, a measure long contemplated was at
tempted to be carried into effect, viz., the organi
zation of a School of Instruction, by lectures,
models, and by anatomical Ulustrations. The
distinction was conferred on me of professor of the
Anatomy of Painting ; and although miserably
deficient in the great requisites demanded in a suc
cessful teacher of so refined a study, I was not
whoUy ignorant of what WilUam Hunter and
John Sheldon and Charles BeU had done, and I
commenced preparations under the guidance of
Col. TrumbuU ; but witMn a very short time the

ACADEMY OF DESIGN. 279
straightened condition of the Academy put a
period to aU plans cherished to protect its dura
tion and increase its usefuMess. With the down
faU of the American Academy, the National Acad
emy of Design took its rise about 1828. S. F. B.
Morse, he who has recently become so famous by
Ms invention of the electric telegraph, was elected
President, and the constitutional provisions of this
association being far more acceptable to the feel
ings and 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 plan of Ana
tomical Lectures was now carried into effect, and
Morse, and Dr. F. G. King, gave instruction to
numerous scholars for a succession of years. 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 Ufe
and antique school, has also proved a constant
source of gratification and improvement to the
pupil in tMs elegant pursuit.
He who is soUcitous 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 WUliam Dunlap, a writer of
patient research, and abating the influence of oc
casional prejudice, a reUable authority. And could

280 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
I, Uke Sir Walter Ealeigh, compress the Mstory
of the world in a volume, I should record many
things more amply, and be wiUing to take an ex
tended notice of the ApoUo Association, which,
some time after its formation, merged into the
American Art Umon, and which for a series of
years exerted a wholesome influence in the diffu
sion of an improved taste, which was no less con
ducive to the fiscal advantage of those ingenious
men most interested in the popularity of their
important caUing. The enlarged views and pubhc
spirit of James Herring in tMs goodly undertaking,
ought not to be passed over ; his labor and talents
united with Longacre, and appropriated to the
Biography of Distinguished Americans, accom
plished much for the arts and for national history.
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 AUston, Vanderlyn, Peale, Durand, Cole,
Waldo, Jarvis, Inman, Mount, Stearns, and
others, by association a stUl greater power was
wielded and successfuUy carried into operation in
behalf of tMs branch of refined knowledge.
It is not to be concealed that some of our.
artists pursue their calling cMefly to secure a Uve-

A. H. WENZLER. 281
hhood, yet there are many others who cherish a
Mgher ideal ; imbued with the greatest earnest
ness, patience, and faith, they have striven to
comprehend the secrets of nature and achieve more
than a temporary fame, the consciousness of orig
inal research and inspiration. In the enumeration
of tMs class of painters, I would place A. H.
Wenzler, so famUiarly known by his unrivalled
miniatures. For years his studies have been di
rected to the phUosophy of colors. I borrow in
part the language of a classical writer on art, who
appeals to comprehend the subject. " Mr Wenzler
has been convinced," (says tMs 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 de
picted in rough the material objects of a land
scape — trees, rocks, a stream, a church, and a
meadow, and over the whole, including a range of
Mils in the background, thrown these naturaUy
graduated tints, from the prismatic rays in the
immediate vicinity of the sun, to the cool Ught of
the distant earth : the effect is exactly like nature ;
you imagine yourself gazing through an open win
dow upon an actual scene ; the distances through
out 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 artia-

282 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
tic truth, and vindicates a Mtherto unacknowledged
law ; it embodies in theory what Turner aimed
at." An accemplished writer on the state of art
in the United States, Dr. Bethune, in Putnam's
Home Book of the Picturesque, in adverting to
the Mndrances which have operated on the pro
gress 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 aU 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 imme
diately 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 inutation. 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 untU they had secured a substantial pros
perity before they ventured to gratify themselves

ARTISTS. 283
with the beautiful. The brilliant examples of
West and Copley, with some others of inferior
note, showed the presence of genius, but those
artists found abroad the encouragement and in-
Btruction 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 most prominent and important of
the mechanical arts. There is a genius through
out the land developing itself in these elevated
pursuits. In steam navigation what has she not
accomphshed since the mighty innovation of Ful
ton ? in naval architecture where has she a rival ?
Where shall I find room for an enumeration of her
thousand discoveries and improvements (not no
tions) 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
gemus been furnished in modem time, than are
given us by Durand, Weir, EUiot, Huntington,
Bogle, Hicks, Stagg, and Church. Had we room
we might feel ourselves ennobled in contemplating
the individual triumphs and merits of the devoted

284 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
disciples of the fipe arts our country has pro
duced. An undertaking of this nature, though not
imperative, would lead to reflections cheering to
our feelings, and gratifying in even a national
point of view. We have noted that the original
Academy of Arts, through fiscal embarrassments
and other causes, terminated its career — the once
popular Art-Union, to the regret of many, no
longer exists, and the pioneers in New York artis
tic fame, Vanderlyn, 'Jarvis, Inman, and others
are no ¦ more, — whUe Morse has left painting to
acquire lasting renown in science, there are signs
of the times which indicate that this metropohs
has steadily advanced, and our country made de
cisive progress, both in facilities for the student
and in the fame of the votaries of art. Let me
recall to your minds the fact, that at this moment
there are open in our city adequate galleries of
painting representative of each great school, the
Italian, French, English, and German ; that the
enterprise of a Bryan, and a Boker, have brought
home to us the " old masters," and the finest mod
ern painters of the EMne ; that the munificent
patronage of a Lenox, a Belmont, a Cozzens, . a
Sturgis, and a Leupp, has garnered up some of the
choicest specimens of European and native art to
adorn the private mansions of New York. Our
Historical Society has also added a permanent

WORKS OF ART. 285
gallery to its library. More than one English
nobleman has given Kensett an order for Ms
graphic American scenes ; Euskin, the famous
art-critic, is, we are told, a frequent visitor of
Cropsey, at his studio at Kensington ; the name
of Page is honored at Eome as that of the first
portrait-painter of the Eternal City ; Cole's " Voy
age of Life" has afforded a series of the choicest
modern engravings, as popular as they are poet
ical ; Church's Niagara was a theme of universal
admiration in London ; Leutze stands high among
the Dusseldorf painters ; a constant throng sur
rounded Powers' Greek Slave at the World's Fair
in the original Crystal Palace ; at Munich, Craw
ford's WasMngton was pronounced by all, from
the King of Bavaria to the oldest artist, the
noblest equestrian statue of the age, and now that
death has canonized his fame, it is aUowed that
no sculptor of his years ever accomplished so much
and so well ; Palmer, a son of your own State,
has made ideal heads in marble of the most ex
quisite and original beauty ; * Durand, it has been
truly said, expresses on canvas the sentiment of
the picturesque, in the same spirit as Bryant in
verse ; Darley's "IUustrations of Margaret" have
been pronounced by competent foreign critics as
the best Outline, for expression, grace, and signffi-
* For an account of this self-taught artist, see " the Sculptor
of Albany " in Putnam's Monthly.

286 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
cance, since those of Eetzch ; ElUot paints vener
able heads with much of the vigor and freshness
of color for which Stuart was remarkable ; Chap
man's Drawing Book is the most scientific and
practicaUy valuable treatise of the Mnd yet pub
Ushed ; and for a memoir of AUston's life and
labors, Mtherto better appreciated abroad than at
home, let me refer you to the New American En-
cyclopeedia. One of our merchants haS' lately
erected a costly edifice here expressly for studios,
and a prosperous citizen of New Jersey commis
sioned Huntington, Eossiter, Hicks, and Baker, to
execute respectively elaborate portrait groups of
the leading scientific men, merchants, authors,
and artists of America. These few hasty sug
gestions will serve to evidence how much has been
and is doing in the highest spheres of Art-culture
among us, and no small part thereof dates from
our Association with our own city. The classical
volume of Mr. Tuckerman, entitled Artist-Life,
wUl prove an advantageous work to aU who study
the achievements of American Pictorial Genius.
The art of engraving on wood was first under
taken in this country in New York, by Alexander
Anderson, a native of tMs city, about the year
1794. This ingenious artist, stiU alive and in
fuU employment, now in Ms 83d year, was origi
nally a physician, and had graduated M. D. in
Columbia College. The extent of his labors in

ENGRAVERS ON WOOD. 287
the profession he has exercised so long can scarcely
be calculated. He has often been termed a second
Bewick. Contemporary with Anderson we find Ma
son, Lansmg, Adams, Bobbett, and Lossing. The
success of American talent in this pecuhar depart
ment of the Arts of Design has commanded the
approbation of the severest critics ; and the Field-
Book of the American Eevolution, by Benson J.
Lossmg, may be cited for the excellencies which
have resulted from the combined talents of that
trathful writer as designer, engraver, and author
of this work of extensive research, originality, and
fideUty. Yet later, this species of engraving has
been adopted stUl more extensively, the photo-
grapMc art, independent of drawing, being directly
appUed to the wood itself, by its inventor, Mr.
Price. As a steel engraver of Mstorical portraits,
Jackman is pre-eminent.
In order to render the fragmentary records of
this address less imperfect in relation to the social
features of New York, a sentence or two may find
a place here conceming a peculiarity which early
took its rise in our cosmopohtan city. Our Dutch
annals of domestic society and manners are not
entirely free* of this distinctive feature, and our
undying historian, Deiderich Knickerbocker, seems
to glance at this circumstance amid aU the turmoU
and vicissitudes of our early Dutch governors, as
one which at times Ughtened the cares of official

288 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
station, and rendered the duties of office less bur-
thensome : I allude to the formation or the estab
lishment of those social compacts called Clubs.
The curious and instructive contents of the work
recently j)ubUshed, entitled the Huguenot FamUy,
by Miss Maury, depict Ughts and shades of social
relationsMp that awaken reminiscences of iUus-
trative value. Not many years after English pos
session of Manhattan, we find that our royal gov
ernors and their immediate dependents were wont
to assemble together, the better to discuss pubhc
affairs and enjoy the temporal benefits of the social
board. We find a convivial club of professional
gentlemen in New York about 1750, and that
John Bard, CadwaUader D. Colden, Leonard Cut
ting and others were of the membership. Frank
lin occasionally honored them with Ms presence.
StiU later, and about the time the revolution of '76
broke out, the Social Club was created in New
York, and continued its existence in tMs city until
the capture of CornwaUis led to their sudden dis
solution. TMs club, it is almost superfluous to
say, was composed chiefly of the tory party ; the
most eminent in the law and in the other hberal
pursuits were of the number : Lieutenant Gov
ernor Moore, Colden, S. Bard, Miles Cooper, and
Dr. Clossy, are included in the list. After the
peace of 1783, several years appear to have elapsed
without any special organization of a private or

BELVIDERE CLUB. 289
social kmd, when, in 1789, St. Tammany erected
her standard on the broad and popular grounds of
American rights, and secured by legislation her
charter powers. I was weU acquainted, at a
juvenile period of my life, with William Mooney,
their first sachem, and in after years knew many
of their primary and most efficient members, as
0. D. Colden, J. 0. Hoffman, and others. The
Belvidere Club took its origin upon the arrival of
the Ambuscade with the memorable citizen Genet.
By many he is reported to have founded the Jacobin
Clubs, but he was a Girondist. The Belvidere was
an hUarious association. The names of Atkinson,
Gouveneur, Kemble, Baretto, Seaton, Marston,
WMte, Fish, are to be found in their Ust of mem
bers. It was strong in the promulgation of popu
lar rights and in vindication of the democratic ele
ment. John Eeed, a weU-known bookseUer of that
period had, as the prominent decoration of Ms store,
the sign of the head of Thomas Paine, an index
of the reigning spirit of the time. The Friendly
Club, under the presidency of General Laight, ex
isted for some few years about this period of poUti
cal agitation ; but I am ignorant whether political
discussion absorbed any of its cares. A Uterary
confederarcy about the same period, viz., 1792-3,
was formed, the design of wMch was of an intel
lectual rather than of a social or festive nature.
It was caUed the Drone. The particular aim of
13

290 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
its members seems to have been the cultivation
and diffusion of letters, constituting a sort of
society for mutual mental advancement. Every
member, I believe, was to be recognized by proofs
of authorship ; and when we turn over the cata
logue of their names we must be ready to allow
they were tenacious of their specific intent. I
have already mentioned in other parts of tMs Dis
course many of this Association. Law, physic and
divinity had each their representatives among
them. The old ChanceUor Samuel Jones, who
died recently, was on this recorded list, and proved
their last survivor. Our famous Dr. MitchiU was
of the number, and with that remarkable pecu
Uarity which so often characterized him, he ad
dressed the ladies through the medium of the
Drones on ¦ the value of whitewashing, as among
the most important of the Hygienic arts in house
keeping, thus perpetually vindicating the saving
efficacy of the alkaUs, most effectuaUy to eradicate
that evU genius, Septon, the destroyer of the
physical world. Samuel MUler, John Blair Linn,
and WUliam Dunlop, were for a time associates,
and Josiah Ogden Hoffman, who occasionaUy fur
nished a law decision, sometimes an Indian frag
ment, and sometimes a poetic stave. Charles
Brockden Brown, I have reason to think, was an
associate. John WeUs, afterwards the great and
eloquent lawyer, here, I apprehend, first commu-

BREAD AND CHEESE CLUB. 291
nicated his lucubrations on the importance of a
steady cultivation of the Lombardy poplar for
American agriculture, at the very time when the
indignation of the community was waxing warm
toucMng the pernicious tendency of this wide-
spreadmg exotic.
The Bread and Cheese Club originated in
1824, through the instrumentality of James Feni-
more Cooper. Shortly after his renown burst forth
as the author of the Spy. The selection of mem
bers for nomination to this fraternity rested, I be
heve, entirely with him : bread and cheese were
the baUots used, and one of cheese decided ad
versely to admittance, so that in fact a unanimous
vote was essential to iliembership. This associa
tion generaUy met at the Washington HaU once,
if I remember rightly, every fortnight, during the
winter season. It included a large number of the
most conspicuous of professional men, statesmen,
lawyers, and physicians. Science was not absent.
I cannot in tMs place attempt any tMng like an
enumeration of the fellows. Our most renowned
poet was Halleck, our greatest naturalist was De
Kay : Wilham and John Duer were among the
representatives of the bar; Eenwick, of philos
ophy ; letters found associates in Verplanck and
King ; merchants, in Charles A. Davis and PMlip
Hone ; and politicians, who had long before dis
charged their pubhc trusts, were here and there

292 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
chronicled in feUowship. The meetings of the Club
(or Lunch) were often sweUed to quite a formidable
assembly by members of Congress, senators, and
representatives, and in this array were often found
Webster and Storrs, W. B. Lawrence, and the
French minister, Hyde de NeuviUe. To alleviate
the dryness of detail, I may here perhaps invade
the sanctity of social transaction ; but the occur
rence to which I aUude is innocent, and may be
deemed curious as weU as rare. A theatrical
benefit had been announced at the Park, and
Hamlet the play. A subordinate of the theatre
at a late hour hurried to my office for a skuU ; I
was compeUed to loan the head of my old friend,
George Frederick Cooke. " Alas, poor Yorick ! "
It was returned in the morning ; but on the en
suing evening, at a meeting of the Cooper Club,
the circumstance becoming known to several of the
members, and a general desire bemg expressed to
investigate phrenologically the head of the great
tragedian, the article was again released from its
privacy, when Daniel Webster, Henry Wheaton,
and many others who enriched the meeting of that
night, applied the principles of craniological science
to the interesting specimen before them ; the head
was pronounced capacious, the function of animal-
ity amply developed ; the height of the forehead
ordinary ; the space between the orbits of unusual
breadth, giving proofs of strong perceptive powers ;

SKETCH CLUB. 293'
the transverse basUar portion of the skuU of corre
sponding width. Such was the phrenology of
Cooke. This scientific exploration added to the
variety and gratifications of that memorable meet
ing. Cooper felt as a coadjutor of Albinus, and
Cooke enacted a great part that night.
The Sketch Club, originaUy intended as an ar
tistic fratermty, yet gradually including gentlemen
of other professions but interested in art, stUl
flourishes and boasts as original members Ver
planck and Bryant. A sketch of its history ex
ists, if I mistake not, from the facUe pen of one
of its founders, the late gifted Eobert C. Sands.
The Sketch Club meets bi-monthly at the mem
bers' dweUings during the winter. The luxury of
the Union and the social enterprise of the Century
Club are on a larger scale, and partake of the
metropohtan spirit of the day.
I shaU terminate these hasty notices of those
social compacts denominated Clubs, wMch, as
before stated, seem to have very early constituted
a striking feature in New York society, and, at
different eras in its progress, marked its advance
in refinement and affiuence, with a brief account
of the last orgamzation of that nature which had
its existence among us : I allude to the Hone
Club, founded some twenty-two years ago, the
original projector being the late distinguished
Philip Hone. It was circumscribed in numbers,

294 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
and was rarely permitted to include more than
twenty members. It abjured discussions on theo
logical dogmas, on party poUtics, and individual
personaUties. Its themes were the American Eevo
lution and its heroes ; the framers of the Consti
tution, the Umted States judiciary. New York
and her improvements, CUnton and the canal, the
mercantUe advancement of the city, banks, Wash
ington and HamUton, Hancock and Adams, the
Umon and its powers. It justly boasted of its
strong disciples, and gathered at its festivals the
leading men of the EepubUc. Webster was
cherished as a divinity among them, and in tMs
circle of unalloyed friendship and devotion his
absorbed mind often experienced relief in the cheer
ing views of busy life imparted by his associates
and in the estimates formed of national measures ;
while he Mmself proved the great expositor of
characters deceased, something after the manner
of another Plutarch, the instructive chromcler of
historical events lost in the mysticism of conflict
ing accounts, and the vindicator of the genius and
wisdom of government founded on cautious legis
lation and conservative polity. I never heard a
breath in this Club of South or North : it had
broader views and more congenial topics. Web
ster talked of the whole country — its seas, its
lakes, its rivers ; its native products, its forests,
from the pinus DouglassU to the wUlow at the

HONE CLUB. 295
brook ; from the buffalo of the prairie to the fire
fly of the garden. I have seldom encountered a
naturahst who had so prompt a knowledge of the
kingdom of nature. The gatherings of the Hone
Club were cordial communions of a most at
tractive character ; they were held at intervals of
a fortnight, and they only ceased upon the demise
of then benevolent founder. Their festivals were
of the highest order of gustatory enjoyment, — the
appetite could ask no more, — and a Devonshire
duke might have been astounded at the amphtude
of the repast, and the richness and style of the
entertainment. When I have conned over the
unadorned simplicity of our ancestors, and had
authentic records for the fact that at their more
sumptuous demonstrations of hospitaUty, corned
beef might have been decorating the board at both
ends, constituting what the host called a tautology,
and that old Schiedam imported by Anthony
Doyer, made up the popular exMlarating bever
age, and compared what I now witnessed in these
my own days, the canvass backs and grouse hardly
invoking appetite; that "nabob" would. stand
without reproach, and Bingham alone receive the
attention due its merit, I am irresistibly led to
the Conclusion arrived at on a different occasion, by
my friend Pintard, that there is a great deal of
good pickmg to be foimd in tMs wicked world, but
that the chances of possession are somewhat rare.

296 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
And yet this ratio of tMngs is not perhaps dispro
portionate to other circumstances. Within less
than a century the city's progress in the com
forts and luxuries of existence is a noticeable oc
currence : New York in that interval, from the
scattered vUlage has become the metropolis of the
Umon ; the soUtary carriage of Lieut. Governor
Colden and the Uttle carry-aU of Dr. John Bard,
(the only doctor of the day who was not a pedes
trian,) have multiplied into their tens of thousands
of veMcles ; and the doctor's fee of half a crown
has augmented to the tangible value of a one
pound note. When calhng to mind the Hone
Club memory dwells with gratitude on the accom
modating functions of the gastric powers and the
beneficent means which seem provided for their
normal continuance.
My most exceUent friend, and I may caU him
the friend of mankind, PhUip Hone, died of pro
tracted Ulness at Ms residence in tMs city, in May,
1851, in the 7lst year of his age, to the deep
regret of the community. I cannot find a more
appropriate opportunity than tMs place of giving
some record of Ms Ufe and character. His career
is an event which blends itself with the civil
progress and Mstory of New York. The Histori
cal Society were not indifferent at Ms death, as he
was long associated with them as member and in
several offices of trust and responsibUity. As an

PHILIP HONE. 297
old and intimate friend of Mr. Hone, my relations
to Mm are among the most cherished of my pro
fessional experience. The urbanity and Mgh tone
of sentiment wMch distinguished him endeared
his name as a trae gentleman ; Ms great industry
in the cultivation of his mind, and the acquisition
of knowledge amid the absorbing cares of mercan
tUe life, is an example worthy of the Mghest re
spect ; whUe the steadfast integrity wMch was the
noblest element of his character wUl secure for it
enduring honor. PhUip Hone, in addition to these
claims upon our affection as a man, possessed
others none the less rare as a citizen. He was a
thorough American in feeUng and principle, and a
genume Kmckerbocker in local attachment and in
pubhc spirit. He watched with most mtelUgent
zeal over the fortunes of this growing metropohs,
identified Mmself with every project for its ad
vancement, and labored with fiUal devotion in her
behalf Our most useful as weU as most orna
mental changes won Ms attention and enhsted Ms
aid. From the laying a Euss pavement to the elab
oration of a church portico ; from the widening
of a street avenue to the magnificent enterprise
that resulted in the Croton Aqueduct, Mr. Hone
was the efficient coadjutor of his feUow-citizens.
He was eminently conspicuous among the most
eminent of our active and exalted men. Several
of our most important and useful institutions are
13*

298 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
largely indebted to him^for their successful estab
Ushment. With the late John Pintard, and WU
liam Bayard and Theodore Dwight, he assiduously
devoted Ms best energies in rearing the Savings
Bank ; and the Clinton Hall Association, with its
important branch the Mercantile Library, are in
debted to him as its founder and benefactor. He
also, with others of the Hone family, gave support
to the canal policy of his persecuted friend, De
witt Chnton. I believe it is admitted without
a dissentient voice, that, as Mayor .of New York,
he is to be classed among the most competent and
able Chief Magistrates our city ever possessed.
At the period of Mr. Hone's birth his native
city contained about twenty thousand inhabitants,
and at the time of his exit five hundred thousand
had been added to that number. It can be easUy
understood that so active a spirit in deeds of good
report, for some thirty years and upwards, must
have largely contributed to the promotion of the
numerous works of beneficence and knowledge
which have marked the career of so progressive
and enterprising a population, amid whom he
lived and labored. Your records wiU point out
the service he rendered your Historical Society ;
but I forbear to be more minute.
• Mr. Hone's career as a merchant precluded ex
tensive triumphs of scholarship. His mind was
but partially imbued with classical lore ; but its

PHILIP HONE. 299
ceaseless activity, elegant tone, and j-udicious di
rection, rendered it not only a delightful resource
to its possessor, but a blessing to the community.
There can be little doubt that Ms Private Diary,
embracing the records of his life and associations
for a long number of years, will prove an historical
document of permanent value. Through transla
tions Mr. Hone had grown famUiar with the spirit
and imagery of classical and Italian Uterature.
Homer and Tasso he read with delight ; but his
favorite department of study was history, and
here he was thoroughly at home and a credit to
the Historical Society. Thus his public spirit, his
private character, gentlemanly address, studious
habits, and fiscal integrity, combine to form a har
momous and noble specimen of character of which
our city is proud, and around wMch wiU ever hang
the incense of our undying remembrance. To
these feeble expressions of my estimate of Mr.
Hone, I may be permitted to add that Ms personal
appearance was of an elegant and commanding
order ; that Ms physical infirmities for some
time, though they invaded not his intellectual
faculties, gradually prepared Mm to foresee his
eartMy departure was at hand. Sustained by the
consolations of religion, and surrounded by his
family, he closed his useful life, sensible to the
last, composed and resigned.
Comcident with the increase of our social and

300 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
artistic resources, those of literature and science
began to exMbit a magnitude and permanence
worthy pf a great and growing metropolis. By
the munificent bequest of John Jacob Astor, and
the wise self-devotion of Dr. CogsweU, a Library
now exists here second to none in the world for
the choice, convemently arranged, and most re
quisite books for the scholar and general mquirer.
The buUding, the exquisitely filled alcoves, the dis
tribution and the gradual increase of the Astor
Library, are admired by each visitor in proportion
to Ms erudition, taste, and famiharity with other
institutions of a kindred character. Foreign
scholars, of whom political exigencies have driven
hundreds to our shores, find the Astor Library,
free as it is, the most charming resort in New
York. The additional gift of the son of the
founder wUl soon double the space, treasures, and
usefuMess of the noble institution which wiU bear
his father's name in grateful remembrance to the
latest posterity.
I cannot dweU upon the several benefits arising
to the youth of the city from the MercantUe Li
brary; from the Apprentices' Library ; the Franklin
Library, the offspring of the Typographical Asso
ciation ; from the rising Institute of the phUan
thropic Cooper ; from the conservative enjoyment
derived from the Society Library : but I must
refer to the precious coUection of Egyptian an-

EGYPTIAN MUSEUM. 301
tiquities brought Mther by Dr. Abbott, of Cairo,
and now awaiting the purchase money destined, I
am confident, sooner or later to secure them to our
city. The renowned Egyptologist, Seyfforth, has
home testimony to the distiiyitive value of this
unique coUection ; one of your most learned cler
gymen, Eev. Dr. Thompson, has elucidated thereby
the speciahties of BibUcal Mstory ; an artist. Eu
genic LatiUa, has illustrated the origin and growth
of early art from the same materials. Professor
Felton, of Harvard University, recently read a
paper before the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences in Boston, detaiUng Ms examination of a
Greek inscription on one of the venerable tablets
conserved in tMs museum, and then urged upon
the Academy its rare worth, assuring them that,
having visited the cMef Egyptian Museums of
Europe, he found objects in that of New York
not elsewhere preserved. We must deem it a for
tunate circumstance that, now when the coUection
of Egyptian antiquities is so difficult, and the
entire series so rare, our city boasts so complete
and authentic a museum in a department of ines
timable importance as iUustrating the domestic
economy, arts, manufactures and sepulchral in-
sigma, as weU as the lore and the actual Mstory
of the land of the Ptolemies.
A striMng characteristic of New York which
reflects signal honor on the benevolence and hu-

302 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
manity 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 popul.ation scarcely exceeded six thou
sand. Dr. McCready in his late historical address
assures us, on the authority of our city's cMonicler,
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 HaU now
stands. This institution held its locahty for some .
seventy years or more ; with the coUateral aid of
a dispensary, which owed its origin .chiefly to Dr.
John Bard, the indigent found succor and rehef
The almshouse yielded medical instruction by the
clinical talents of Dr. WiUiam Moore, Dr. Eichard
S. Kissam, and Dr. Nicholas Eomayne. In 1769
a pest-house was estabhshed for the reception of
diseased emigrants, and the organization of a med
ical society in 1788, placed John Bard at its head
as president. Through the efficient instrumental
ity of Drs. Peter Middleton, John Jones, and Sam
uel Bard, we flnd the New York Hospital took its
rise and was chartered in 1771. In 1790 we find
the first of our city dispensaries in operation ;

BELLEYUE HOSPITAL. 303
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 con
verted to other purposes, Uterary and historical,
and destroyed by fire some three or four 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 super
vision and the talents of able cUnical direction,
medical and surgical. The, original faculty of
physic orgamzed by King's (subsequently Colum
bia) College, were among the prominent teachers
and prescribers, and Bard and Clossy, and after- '
wards Bayley, Hosack, MitchiU, Post, Crosby, and
NichoUs, are to be enumerated.
In 1811 was projected the ample Bellevue
Hospital and Almshouse, which was rendered fit
for the reception of its inmates in 1816 ; Dr. Mc
Cready teUs us, from official records, at a cost of
nearly half a mUUon of dollars. The medical
government of this great estabUshment 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
mahgnant 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

304 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
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 febrUe cases were transferred, when
witMn a month the pestUence was happUy at -an
end. Dr. Isaac Wood now received the appoint
ment of resident physician of the BeUevue Hos
pital, and held the office seven years, with signal
benefit to the pubhc interests and to humanity,
when his resignation led to the acceptance of the
trust by Dr. B. Ogden. The tortuous pohcy of
politics, however, now led to party appointments,
' and the evils incident to such policy flowed in with
increased force ; inexperience betrayed her incom
petency, and the soundest whiggism and most
radical democracy often proved equaUy ignorant of
the principles of hygiene and curative measures.
Typhus again resumed her work, and change be
came imperative. In the midst of revolutionary
struggles, in order to rectify this deplorable condi
tion the government of tMs great institution was
at length placed under the medical disciphne of
Dr. David M. Eeese, as physician in chief Jus
tice demands that it be recorded, that this appoint
ment led to a great reformation. Dr. Eeese, during
Ms term of office, stood forward the champion of
innovation and improvement, and displayed in a

BELLEVUE HOSPITAL. 305
noble cause a perseverance and abUity which have
proved of lasting benefit.
In 1849 the office of Eesident Physician was
abohshed by the Board of Governors of the Alms
house, to whom the control of the estabhshment
had passed, and the administration of the medical
department of the BeUevue given over entirely to
a Medical Board. Enlargements of tMs vast
charity have from time to time been made com
mensurate to the wants of an increasing popula
tion, and advantageous improvements have been
adopted, characteristic of the enlarged pohcy of
our municipal authorities ; and, were I to dweU
longer on the subject, I might adopt with benefit
the eulogistic language wMch Dr. McCready em
ploys when speaMng of the present renovated state
of the edffice, its ample dimensions, the conve
nient disposition of its large and airy wards, sup-
phed with every essential want for the afflicted,
and its pecuUarly sanative location on the borders
of the East Eiver.
The BeUevue 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 aU ; and from my official connection with its
affairs, for some years, -I can testify to the disin
terested zeal and benevolence and devotion which
dignify its medical and surgical Board, and cUni-

306 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
cal instractors. It is due to individual zeal and
professional ardor to add that the great field of
medical and surgical practice which the Bellevue
Hospital presents, has recently led to the formation
of a museum of pathological anatomy, by Dr. J.
E. Wood, one of the chnical .instructors.
But where am I to stop when I have entered
upon a consideration of the humane and benevo
lent institutions of this metropohs ? the briefest
notice of those alone wMch have been created,
since the incorporation of the Historical Society,
by legislative authority and individual hberahty,
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 institu
tions the names and promoters of those beneficent
foundations, I cannot separate the blessings wMch
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 tMther for some two
or three generations, and the triumphs of skUl
wMch the professional Uterature of the countsy
records, achieved by Bayley, Post, Hosack, Kissam,
Seaman, Stringham, and Mott. Memoirs of these
eminent professors of the art of healing have long

RICHARD S. KISSAM. 307
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 Eichard S.
Kissam. For thirty years he was one of the sur
gical faculty of the New York Hospital, a station
he was soUcited to accept, and displayed in his
art resources of practical tact and original genius.
He was emulous of surgical glory, and he obtained
it. Our city had the honor of his birth ; ho 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 educa
tion under Cutting, of Long Island, and was
graduated M. D. at Edinburgh in 1787. TJpon
receiving the doctorate he travelled over the con
tinent, and made a visit to Zimmerman, who pre
sented him with a copy of Ms work on Solitude.
Horace and Zimmerman were the two authors
Kissam most dehghted in. His long and triumph
ant career leaves no possibUity of doubt as to the
soUdity of Ms pretensions. Society had Uttle at
tractions for him ; he was absorbed in his profes
sion. 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 pro
fessional hberahty to the afflicted poor was a strik
ing characteristic of his whole life ; whUe from the
afluent he demanded a becoming return for his

308 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
skill. He died in November, 1822, aged fifty-nine
years. There are due, by the inhabitants of this me
tropolis, many obligations to the administration
of the New York Hospital, for their early and in
cessant efforts to mitigate the horrors, and aUeviate
the sufferings of the insane. The loudest calls of
humanity are often awakened in cases of afflicted
inteUect, and the soUcitude which has from time
to time invoked new desires for their rehef, has
by this institution been crowned with results cheer
ing to the phUanthropist. 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 Dr. ArcMbald
Brace was elected as physician. In 1820 the
large and commodious institution at Blooming-
dale, under their government, was opened for that
special class of patients.* This beautiful site,
with its ample buUdings, is eminently fitted for
the benevolent design origmaUy projected, and De
Witt CUnton secured its perpetuity by legislative
grants. Among the medical , prescribers to this
magnificent institution have been Hosack, NeUson,
Bayley, Ogden, MacDonald, Pliny Earle, and
Brown. To Dr. Earle the public are obUgated for
valuable statistics and reports on mental ahen-
* Hosack's Life of Chnton.

BLOOMINGDALE ASYLUM. 309
ation. When justice is done in an historical ac
count of the Bloomingdale Asylum, the services of
that prominent citizen, in acts of benevolence, the
late Thomas Eddy, will be more entirely appre
ciated. He seized the first opportunity to enter
into a correspondence with Samuel Tuke, of York,
in England, learning of the success wMch, under
moral management, had foUowed the ti-eatment
of the insane ; and in Knapp's Life of Eddy are
to be found many incid.ents connected vnth the
hterary 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 suffer
ing the tortures of a diseased mind, were subjects
attracting great notice. The Eeport of the Inquiry
instituted by ParUament was then just pubhshed,
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 institu
tions devoted to msanity, and the treatment adopt
ed by them. I dare not speak in commendation
of the practice of Monro, at BetHehem. I found
more barbarity and indiffeftnce in the medical dis
cipline of those lamentable subjects of insanity in
the estabhshments in HoUand, than elsewhere. At
the Bic^tre, in Paris, I was deUghted with the
fatherly care and medical tact of Pinel, now the
acknowledged discoverer of the great benefits of

310 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
moral management, but who, a short time before,
was annoyed by the vituperations of the British
press. At the retreat of Samuel Tuke, the benev
olent and phUosophic Quaker, I found aU 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 traveUers
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 \yhUe
the doctor's 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 man
agement which the Eetreat so advantageously en
forced. Thomas Eddy wUl ever be remembered
as the active agent in tMs great measure in the
New World. Pathology has not as yet yielded us
any great Ught on the grave causes of mental
aberration, and the knife of the dissector has often
faUed to trace altered structure in the most per
verted cases of lunacy. Hence we estimate at a
stiU Mgher price the value of discipline, the exer-

woman's hospital. 311
cise of the kmdUer affections, and moral culture.
When the adoption of these curative measures
shaU have become more general, we shall no longer
hear of the flageUation of an inflrm monarch, or
of ponderous manacles and eternal night as arti
cles of the materia medica. Our countryman
Eush has enlarged our storehouse of facts on the
diseases of the mind ; and the treatise of Dr. Eay,
of Ehode Island, has strengthened our phUosophy
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 benevo
lence, aided by the outpouring UberaUty of our
opulent citizens — with the further prospects we
have before us of a Woman's Hospital, for the
special rehef of infirmities hitherto among the
most disconsolate of human trials, and over which
recent science has triumphed in the hands of Dr.
Sims : with the cherished hopes derived from the
success of our enhghtened countryman. Dr. Howe,
of Boston, that in due season even the forlorn idiot
may be rescued, I reluctantly dismiss aU further
notice of the corporations of like benevolence
which fiourish in this metropolis. But it is the
less necessary on tMs occasion to notice the pro
gress of humamty in tMs rapidly increasing city

312 historical discourse.
since the commencement of the Historical So
ciety's labors ; a partial estimate may be formed
of the work that is actually done, and is doing
among us, from the statement lately fumished by
that accurate observer. Dr. Griscom.*
With facts of this import before us, who wiU
gainsay the claims of the divine art of heahng to
that pubhc recognition which is yielded to the
Mghest and most solemn of the professional labors
of Ufe ? who that properly contemplates the du
ties, the objects, and the desires of the real physi-
* 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 hos
pitals, five dispensaries, two eye and car infirmaries, one lying-in
asylum, three special hospitals (on BlackweU's and BandaU's
Islands), several orphan asylums and prison hospitals, besides
other unenumerated charitable and penal estabUshments, 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 pa
tients, we find recorded the names of 169 medical men. Esti
mating 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 ne
cessity 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 in|fitutions, or receive pay equiva
lent thereto, amounting in all to |6,5S2 ; 30 of them receive
salaries varying from $200 to $1,500, m the aggregate $20,560;
whUe the remaining 103 receive no compensation whatever. In

MEDICAL ADVANCEMENT. 313
cian, can prove reluctant in awarding to his re
sponsible calhng merits not surpassed by those of
any other human avocation ? Let the morahst
and the phUosopher give attention to the progress
medical science has made durmg a period not
longer than that of an ordinary human hfe ; in
vestigate the acMevements wMch have marked the
past tMrty years ; learn in how many ways pesti
lence has been disarmed of half of her weapons ;
individual disorders lessened in malignity or exter-
timated ; hygiene fortified with new capabihties ;
the principles of sanitary laws comprehended and
apphed ; mdividual life made happier and pro
longed ; the health of mighty populations im
proved, and the great numerical increase in lon
gevity. 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
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 of $100 per annum, the num
ber 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 ser
vices 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 $2'7,112. In whatever Ught it may be viewed, the
rendition of these services is simply the contribution of the medi
cal profession to the support of public charity, to the fuU amount
mentioned ; it is so much saved to the tax-payers. — Anniversary
Discourse before the New York Academy of Medicine, Nov. lid,
1854, by John H. Geiscom, M. D.
14

314 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
to the pubhc by our distinguished countryman. Dr.
Campbell F. Stewart,* show us the grounds upon
wMch hfe annuities may be granted to the greater
advantage of the insurer, a ratio of improvement
which Price, Morgan, and Finlaison, never antici
pated. In another work previously pubhshed, of
elaborate exposition, and pregnant with instructive
facts relative to vital statistics and hospitals, by
the gentleman to whom I have just alluded, the
able Dr. Stewart, we are furnished with stUl more
striking views of the enlarged science compre
hended in the medical art, of the wide benevolence ¦
exercised by the French government for the pro
motion of healing knowledge and the deep inter
ests of hupianity. " While affording a judicious
and parental care to aU its poor subjects," says Dr.
Stewart, " it is towards the sick and infirm, how
ever, that the most benevolent attentions have
been extended by the government, in establishing
for their accommodation, and particularly for those
of the capital, the most extensive and best organ
ized hospitals and houses of refuge that are to be
met with anywhere in the world.""!"
The intimate connection between the heaUng
art and religious sentiment is obvious throughout
the history of both ; the charities of the Eomish,
* Discoure before the New York Academy of Medicine.
f The Hospitals and Surgeons of Paris. By F. CampbeU
Stewart, M. D. New York : 8vo, 1848.

REV. B. M. P. WELLS. 315
and the humane enterprises of the Protestant
Church, are identified with the divine system of
faith, whose holy Author was sanctioned to the
popular heart by miraculous healing. At the
commencement of my professional career, and
wMle yet a student, it was not uncommon to hear
breathed over the process of vaccination a special
form of prayer, invoMng a blessing on this re
medial experiment, and thereby exorcising the
bitter animosity of its pertmacious opponents. In
our own day this pious union of reUgious exercises
with medical charities takes a broader range ; most
of our hospitals and asylums enjoy the minis
trations of a chaplain, as in the case of the be
nign guardian of St. Stephen's House at Boston,
that modem apostle with whom Paul would have
loved to fraternize, the Eev. Dr. WeUs. The
exact period at wMch provision was made for such
spiritual consolation for the afflicted in various in
stitutions of the States, I am unable to record.
Pastoral duties and rehgious instruction seem to
have been first regularly imparted in the charitable
organizations of New York in 1810. They have
become an integrant portion of the adjuvants to
the afflicted ; and perhaps no official of this paro-
cMal function has ever longer or more faithfully dis
charged that responsible trust than John Stanford,
D. D., the lately deceased chaplain of the New
York Hospital.

316 HISTORICAL DISCOURSB.
How much then 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 advan
tages, we might boast of a population whose mor
tality might safely be estimated at twenty-five or
tMrty 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 taMng a retrospective view of the progress
of medical science during the past fifty or sixty
years in New York, the instructors and practition
ers of the healing art have had many reasons for
rejoicing. Our medical coUeges have enhanced in
power, and the means of enlightenment.* The
coUateral branches of science are unfolded by more
ample apparatus, and by experiments such as in
former days were wholly beyond our reach. Our
* Now three in number : — The College of Physicians and
Surgeons, founded in 1801, its present head. Dr. Cock ; the Uni
versity of the City of New York, founded in 1840, present head.
Dr. Draper ; and the New York Medical CoUege, founded in 1848,
present head, Dr. Greene.

MEDICAL SCIENCE. 317
medical annals are enriched with recorded evi
dences of great chirurgical skUl, of novel and suc
cessful proofs of wise discrimination, and of genius
happUy demonstrated ; in the practical displays
of clinical science, the writings of our authors
have furmshed 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 indi
vidual pride, and flattering to our character as a
rising people. Yet it is not to be concealed that
imposture stiU holds its influence among us, and
that, as a learned, body, the medical profession is
stni disfigured by pretenders to its secrets ; that
jarring elements StUl disturb its harmony, and that
the public, scarcely to be presumed to be the best
judges of the recondite qualifications of the disci
ples of heaUng, are still molested by the artifices
of the designing and the effrontery of the igno
rant. More than forty years ago I gave utterance to
my opimon on the condition of the medical art in
New York.* The reasons for denunciation of
* " 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 in-

318 • HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
many occurrences then prevalent, were stronger
than at the present day. The condition of affairs
is ameliorated. Numerous agencies have been in
operatioff 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 Ucentiates
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 presupaes to ap
proach the bedside without the chnical knowledge
of hospitals. I shaU never forget the tone of
dolence, are totaUy ignorant of the first principles of their pro
fession, and who degrade the noblest of studies into the meanest
of arts, cannot have' escaped the attention of any who at all re
gard 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 gen
erally found in the uninhabited wilds of the country, while those
are most abundantly congregated in our largest and most popu
lous cities, yet they wage war with equal success as it regards the
destruction of their objects. So frequently, indeed, do they pre
sent themselves to our view as almost to have become domesti
cated and famiUar with us, and to have lost that novelty which
monsters in general possess. The inroads and depredations which
they commit, bid defiance to aU calculation ; whether they come
in the natural shape of nostrum-mongers and venders of infalUble
cures, or whether they assume a peculiar grimace and affected
sapience, their touch is equally pestilential." — American Medical
and Philosophicai Register, vol. iii.

MEDICAL SCIENCE. - 319
voice, the elocution wMch I heard proceed from
the mouth of John Abernethy, when he told the
boys (for be called all by that designation, though
some were sixty years old), that they must judge
for themselves of the truth of what he uttered by
what they derived from hospital practice. " I was
the first," said he, " who described fungous haema-
todes ; I have seen as yet but three cases, but the
disease is distinctive, well marked, and cannot be
mistaken by the cUnical eye ; yet," added he, " I
meet practioners now and then, who tell me they
have had twenty cases. No dependence can be
placed upon such observers. If they would but
visit St. Thomas, I could convince them of their
error,"and expose their ignorance. These pests of
the profession have no chnical experience, and
magnify their stupidity by falsehood. Boys, the
hospital is the coUege to build up the practitioner."
If I were placed here to defend or advance the
importance of bedside knowledge, I might cut the
argument very short, by requesting the young dis
ciples of .^jsculapius to sift the merits of the once
great work of CuUen, the First Lines, and then read
the Practice of Physic by Watson, of this our day :
he would then be able to pronounce by which
teacher he becomes best discipUned to fulfil the
grave duties of hcaUng the gick. I am not to
overlook what the contributions of half a century
have made to the noble science, and of wMch the

320 HISTORICAL DISCOURSB.
Ulustrious CuUen could scarcely have possessed a
glimpse ; but the theories of the one, and the
clinical data of the other, may be looked at with
scrutinizing judgment, to determine the inherent
merits of refined theory, and that special wisdom
on which the practical physician relies. 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. Nevertheless, it would be criminal to ignore the
fact that the noble art with us stiU struggles with
many difficulties ; and it is a glaring trath, that not
the least of them has arisen in the vicissitudes of leg
islation. The few wholesome laws, which a century
had brought forth, for the advancement of medi
cine and the protection of its rights, were by State
authority, some ten or twelve years since, abro
gated, and, strange to add, the biU wMch accom
phshed that nefarious measure was introduced into
the chamber of the Senate by a partisan repre
sentative from tMs city. The distinguished presi
dent of our Historical Society, Lieut. Gov. Bradish,
was then a member of the Senate. It is scarcely
necessary to add that his cultivated mind recoUed
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 coUeges

PERNICIOUS LEGISLATION. 321
did no more than confer their usual honors, to dis
tinguish and reward merit ; they fostered rising
talent, and held communion with mature expe
rience, with no other aim than to exalt excellence ;
their very incorporation forbade their countenance
of corrapt practices ; and with the principles ever
inherent in disciplined minds, they disdained to
mar the rank of professional worth. I have often
had my creduhty taxed to beUeve that in these
enhghtened days such hardihood could have been
exMbited by the makers pf our laws, and that too
at the very seat of wisdom, where our special
guardians of literature and science, the Hon. the
Eegents of the University, annuaUy convene, and
where, moreover, that long created association, the
State Medical Society, with its many able mem
bers, are wont to exercise their chartered privi
leges for medical improvement.
It is almost superfluous to remark that the
memorable act to which I have alluded was re
ceived by the Profession with emotions of sorrow
and indignation. It was now seen that the noble
art was again left unprotected by the representa
tives of the people, and consequently by the peo
ple themselves. It had thus found itself in the
beginmng of the city, but a revolving century had
presented some rehef; its prospects had bright-
ened,^and the rights and immunities of the regular
physician had been recognized, and approved laws
14*

322 HISTORICAL DISCOURSB.
had secured him against the tricks of the harleqmn
and the wUes of the over-reaching. The disci
pUned 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 famUiar with Mndrances, and in the exercise
of his art has often prescribed for individual men
tal 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
wMch their lives were devoted should foUow as a
consequence of pernicious legislation. Notwith
standing aU restrictions of quaUfications for the
exercise of the art might be considered as removed,
lyet the city was not to be dismayed by absurd
enactments, or the profession alarmed because
the door was opened so wide that aU who chose
might 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 deUberations," and there
was no reason for delay. The auspicious hour had

ACADEMY OF MEDICINE. 323
at length arrived, and the formation of an Acad
emy of Medicine in this city was secured. This
timely, this judicious, this important, this neces
sary movement, owed its creation to the wants and
honor of the profession, and the perpetuity of its
rights. Association, it was reasoned, would pro
tect its claims as the noblest of pursuits, and its
divine origm 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 tMs sucpessful institution
during its first decennial. Our Nestors in Hip-
pocratic science, moved by weighty reasons in be
half of pubhc health and individual happiness,
laid its foundation, and in this goodly work we find
recorded the names of Stevens, Mott, Smith, Stew
art, Wood, Eeese, Kissam, Detmold, Gardner, and
Stearns. The Academy has been generously fostered by
an imposing number of the erudite and accom
phshed of the medical and surgical profession, and
order and harmony have characterized aU its pro
ceedings. 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 rea
soning is stUl among the diagnostic marks of the
cultivated practical physician. Its printed trans
actions speak in louder accents of the exceUence

324 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
of its labors than my feeble pen can here express. It
has contributed largely to the diffusion of the great
principles on sanitary laws, medicine, pohce, and
other grave matters in wMch the public health is
deeply involved. It has awakened new interest on
other subjects sadly overlooked, medical topography
and topics of special and immediate consequence to
the framers of our municipal laws, and whUe thus
engaged it has with phUosophical gratification dis
dained not to encourage eradite inquiries into the
condition and progress of the Divine art among its
earhest cultivators ; thus digmfying the requisites
of modern knowledge with the love of antiquarian
lore, and with true devotion to the past announced
its verdict in behalf of that wisdom which the
pregnant pages of the History of Ancient Medicine
has unfolded for our contemplation and delight, by
our learned associate Dr. John Watson.* With
an inflexible intent to keep a watchful eye over
the interests of professional learning and practical
skiU, to hold in reverential regard the obligations
of sound medical ethics, to guard agq,inst the de
lusions 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 other
wise than a rich boon to medical pMlosophy, and
* The Medical Profession of Ancient Times. New York :
8vo. 1856.

JOHN STEARNS. 325
a blessing to this great, prosperous, and vastly in
creasing metropohs.
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 cor
responding experience, and could look back with
satisfaction on an extensive career of professional
service. He^was a native of Massachusetts, and
bom in 1770. He was graduated in the arts at
Yale College in 1786. He attended the lectures
of Eush, Shippen, Kuhn, and others of PhUadel
phia, but did not receive the doctorate untU 1812,
when the Eegents of the Umversity of New York
conferred on him the honorary degree of M. D.
He commenced the practical exercise of Ms pro
fession 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, untU
the close of Ms long life, in March, 1848. His
death, which was greatly lamented, was occasioned
by a dissection wound, arising from his zeal to ar
rive, by a post-mortem examination, at more cer
tain pathological conclusions, in a case of singular
interest. He met tMs unexpected disaster with
exemplary forbearance, and experienced the conso
lation of a Christian's hope in Ms final departure.
The Academy paid appropriate funeral honors to

326 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
Ms memory, and the Eev. Dr. Tyng, of St. George's
Chapel, of which Dr. Stearns had long been a
member, deUvered an appropriate discourse on the
life and character of the " Good Physician."
Great as was the devotion paid by Dr. Steams
to practical medicine, he was in earlier life enhsted
in political affairs ; and we find htm 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 Medical Society, he de
livered the annual address, as President. He was
for many years a Trustee of the College of Phy
sicians and Surgeons. His name is recorded as
one of the founders of the American Tract So
ciety, and he took a deep interest in the welfare of
the Bible Society, and the Institution for the
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 indis-
solubly 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 the choice of
their first officer, and both his inaugural address

VALENTINE MOTT. 327
and the manner in which he fulfilled Ms trust,
soon dismissed aU 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 im
partiality added fairness to debate, and increased
the gratification of intellectual association.
The office of President is filled by annual elec
tions. 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 testUy. The lustre
of Ms great name seems to have stiU further
swelled the number of friends to the Academy,
and excited additional activity among them to
promote the expressed designs of its mcorporation.
At the commencement of tMs address I briefly
recorded some of the more striking changes which
had modified the topograpMcal aspect of the sur
face of New York. Dr. King, in Ms " Progress
of the City," had noticed others, and stiU addi
tional facts and Ulustrations were recently given
hy General Dix, in his public lecture on the
Growth, Destimes, and Duties of New York : to
these tracts I must refer the curious inquirer. In
the astonishing march of improvement no physical
obstacle has proved insuperable to the designs of
the projectors, and no expense, however great, has
been withheld. It has been said, perhaps too

328 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
figuratively, that the whole island has been in
the shovel, either to cut down or fill up the
surface. Assuredly posterity will never form a
true conception of the alterations which have
been made on the- site of New York, and the
onus of taxation which has been borne by the
past generation or two. But aU seems justifiable
by the growth, the wealth, and the increased
resources of the metropohs. Here, however, I
make a pause, and as an episode to the medical
section of tMs discourse, subjoin a few observations
derived from those very changes which have over
turned the physical aspect of the city, and pene
trated even the sanctuaries of the dead. The
facts brought to light by the opening of church
yards and the removal of the dead to other places
of interment, that I have witnessed, during the
last half century, have been many. Graveyards,
" those populous cities of the dead," as Mr. King
remarks, " have not been sacred from the hand of
improvement or the foot of progress." Hence the
disinterring human remains has taken place in this
city to a great extent, and the knowledge thus
obtained, as it was ample and direct, has furnished
many curious facta on the subject of human de
composition after death. I may have taken more
than ordinary interest in this matter, inasmuch as
it was a legitimate subject for discussion in medical
jurisprudence, and I have passed no little portion

CHURCH VAULTS. 329
of time in observation when these sepulchral tene
ments were dislodged. Every reader is acquainted
with the long durabiUty of bone not subjected to
corroding causes ; but I have arrived at the conclu
sion that the diversified forms which the decay of
the human body after death assumes, are no less
numerous than the immense variety of causes by
wMch life becomes extinct. The evidence of this
assertion may be witnessed by any one who will
enter a vault containing many bodies, deposited
therein at different periods more or less remote,
and observe the materials with which he is sur
rounded : season, age, the character of the disease,
protracted illness, sudden death, as by lightning or
other accident, &c., wUl aU exercise a greater or
less influence in facilitating or retarding decom
position. The decayed subject by marasmus wUl
longer retam its constituents than one occasioned
by dropsy, for " water is a sore decay er of the dead
body." If these positions be correct, we may in
part account for the extraordinary preservation of
bodies in hmestone, or marble cemeteries ; they
possess advantages wMch are denied to vaults of
brick, or those in the structure of wMch proper
precautions have not been observed, as a dry or
gravelly soil, &c. In reflecting upon the manner
in wMch marble seems to cherish the lineaments
of our mortal remams, one feels incUned to adopt
the language of old Jeremy Taylor, "after aU,

330 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
our vaults are our longest and sincerest mourn
ers."* When I subjected to manipulation the neglected
pMlosopher, old Christopher Colles,f the more ad
vantageously to present Mm to the pubhc view, I
partiaUy brought forward some occurrences wMch
marked the Uterary condition of our metropoUs.
I design at present to enter a Uttle more mmutely
into some circumstances associated with the ad
vancement of knowledge in this city, particularly
as connected with the time somewhat anterior to
the establishment of the New York Historical So
ciety, and then to notice a few prominent events
of more recent date, which seem calculated to give
confidence to the friends of inteUectual 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
Uterary memorials possess an intrinsic interest, in
asmuch as they are decisive of the humble state
and embarrassments in wMch mstraction and
knowledge generaUy were involved, and of the
feeble powers which the Press, only two or three
generations ago, sustained in tMs country. They
* See Guy's Medical Jurisprudence ; edited by Dr. Lee.
f Knickerbocker Gallery. New York : 8vo. 1865.

STATE OF PRINTING. 331
are a suitable prelude to the great drama now
enacting. Southey has said that an American's first play-
tHng is the rattlesnake's taU ; and as he grows up
he lays traps for opossums and shoots squirrels for
his breakfast. TMs exaggeration may possibly
have had a shadow of trath in it at the time when
the pUgrim fathers established their first printing
press, or when Bradford first published our laws,
or even when the flying coach traveUed once a
week between New York and PhUadelpMa. An
impartial examination of facts wUl generally lead
to the conviction that elementary education for the
most part accompanies the progress of population,
and that the requirements of information are pro-
portionably furnished. From her very commence
ment, it has seemed to me that New York has
been characterized more by her sdentific displays
than by her Uterary 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 con
dition of the people at different epochs in their
country's history, and weigh the force of circum
stances : as for example, that in some instances
where the Declaration of Independence being read

332 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
at the head of mUitary detachments, and then
ordered to be printed for wider distribution, types
could not be found to execute the work. Indeed a
like difficulty, that of possessing types, was expe
rienced when it was contemplated to publish the
first American edition of the English Bible, at
Philadelphia, by E. Aitken. The unsettled state
of the country, and the horrors of warfare, caused
the pious design to be protracted from its incep
tion in 1777 to 1782, when the sacred volume ap
peared in small duodecimo and in brevier type.
At the date at which I would commence these
remimscences, the old DaUy Advertiser, and Mc
Lean's New York Gazette, were the leading ora
cles. The former, it is curious to observe, was
printed with the press and types which had been
used by FrankUn in PMladelphia, and which, I
am told. Poor Eichard disposed of advantageously
to Francis Childs, of New York. For mercantUe
purposes these papers did weU, and had a corre
sponding circulation ; they betokened in part the
state of mental culture among the masses. If,
however, we except the discussions on the Ameri
can Constitution by the writers of the Federahst,
and some few other subjects of national impor
tance, by Eufus 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 intel-

THE NEWSPAPER PRESS. 333
lectual material than a year's flle of these old
journals. In 1793 was projected the Minerva,
wMch under the control of its editor, Noah Web
ster, 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
Francis H. HaU, and has attained a longevity
greater than that of any other journal ever orig
inated in tMs city. Among its memorable editors
was the late W. L. Stone, a devoted man to his
responsible trust, of great fidehty in his political
views. It can boast of a succession of editors re
markable for their freedom from violent political
aspersion, of extreme jealousy in behalf of moral
and rehgious instruction, and strong attachment
to American institutions. Lewis, who succeeded
Webster, had been reared a divine, and was hardly
adapted to encounter the antagonistic assaults of
the party press ; Col. Stone, equal to Ms prede
cessor in refinement of feeling and charitable im
pulse, with stronger devotion and greater industry,
fiUed the measure of Ms renown by a perseverance
in patriotism and benevolence that won the ad
miration of numerous patrons. To his daUy toU
he superadded other responsible labors, and wrote
the life of Brant, of Eed Jacket, on the Canal

334 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
poUcy of the State, The Uncas, Wyoming, and
other volumes of an historical design, besides sev
eral papers for our Association.
Samuel Loudon, who arrived among us about
1775, though stated by Thomas, in Ms Mstory of
Printing, as an Irishman, was born in Scotland.
He published a newspaper in New York in 1776,
before the British took possession of the city, upon
which event he rfetired to FishkUl, on the Hudson,
where he issued the New York Packet, and be
came a printer to the convention which was held
at Kingston. He was ardent in the American
cause, and adventurous in Ms career. He was for
a time associated with Greenleaf in the pubhcation
of the Argus, a journal of extreme political vio
lence and anti-federal in politics. . Upon the death
of Greenleaf, by yellow fever in 1798, the Argus
became the American Citizen, under the editorial
government of James Cheetham, a writer caustic
and defiant, of surpassing rigor, and of untram
melled license, and whose remarkable death in
1810 I have on a former occasion recorded.* Lou
don's devotion to the country of Ms adoption was
patriotic indeed, but the spirit of sectional con
tention marred Ms fiscal prospects. I have repeat
edly seen the old man, now advancing to his four
score years, grave, gray, and mfirm, perambulating
* Griswold's International Magazine, vol. 5.

CHEETHAM.  COLEMAN. 335
the pubhc walks, unobserved of even observers,
himseff indifferent to aU but his own inward cogi
tations. He was in 1785 an active member of the
St. Andrew's Society, and an elder of the Scotch
Kirk of old Dr. Mason.
In this enumeration of the prominent political
journals wMch preceded the formation of the His
torical Society, I shaU say a few words on the New
York Evening Post. It was projected at the com
mencement of the Jefferson administration, and
could justly boast of its lofty parentage, HamU
ton and WeUs being among the most conspicuous
of its able writers. WiUiam Coleman, an eastern
man, in the prime of his faculties assumed the
editorsMp, and labored in Ms vocation until the
period of his death in 1829, aged 63 years. The
Uterary tact of tMs gazette was a striMng feature
in its columns ; its poUtical acrimony was scarcely
inferior, to that of the American Citizen, and whUe
Cheetham was its rival, an almost continuous war
fare was maintained between an enlarged democ
racy and the conservative doctrines of federaUsm.
Victory on either side was often sought with little
scruples touching the vahdity of facts. The physical
organizations of the two men were not bad repre
sentatives of their mental attributes. Cheetham
was some years younger than Coleman, but of
robust form, larger frame, and greater height. An
English radical, escaped from the Manchester riots

336 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
of 1798, he became the principal of an already
radical press, and promulgated with little circum
spection the strongest doctrines in behalf of the
widest democracy. He had largely cultivated his
mind by choice historical reading, and the poets ;
he was remarkable for the personalities of his in
vective, and often with a delicious richness recalled
to memory the style of Junius. Coleman, of deU
cate structure and often in feeble health, was less
personal in his general spirit and expression, yet
far from being deficient in pointed epithets and
lacerating remarks. Cheetham was sententious ;
Coleman often verbose. Cheetham might feU you
at a blow ; Coleman's greater deUght was in pro
tracted torture. There was more of pohcy and
prudence in the latter. Their satisfaction at the
prostration of their victims might be equally great.
These editors seemed to live antagonistically.
Cheetham might present himself in the pubhc
ways with the bold face and majestic bearing of a
great captain ; Coleman might be observed on like
occasions, with the grave countenance and pensive
look of a thoughtful student. Cheetham might
have thrown off his Uterary missUes at a Table
d'H6te or from the head of a drum ; Coleman
profited best in the sequestered hbrary. Cheet
ham's salutation might be a grasp of the hand
that made your very knuckles ache, whUe with
Coleman your arm might incautiously faU down

CHEETHAM.  COLEMAN. 337
by your side. Cheetham wore a presumptuous
front, Coleman betrayed a sinister leer ; Cheet
ham would readUy forgive, Coleman long har
bored an imagined injury ; Cheetham made bare
his strength, and gloried in encountering difficul
ties ; Coleman found it more congenial to under
mine and lay waste. The temperaments of the
two men are pretty weU manifested in the stric
tures of Cheetham on John Wood's history of the
Administration of John Adams, and in Coleman's
prolonged disquisitions on Jefferson's Message.
Cheetham umted with ample lungs in the pa
triotic bravura with General Gates and his other
friends, whUe Coleman, more attuned to melodious
strains, calmly yielded a benignant ear to the
welcome notes of a pensive falsetto. Coleman
might at times be soothed by a sonnet on the
affections ; Cheetham demanded a chapter of
Bohngbroke. They were both men of personal
prowess and confident aims ; both were duellists,
but that was at a period when dueUing was a
fasMonaliJe recreation. The idols of Cheetham
were Jefferson and George Chnton ; the idols of
Coleman were HamUton and Timothy Pickering.
Burr had no chance with either ; he was offensive
to both, though countenanced by the Mormng
Chronicle, and sustained by the mollifying appli
ances of the resolute WUliam P. Van Ness. I
may say I was fairly acquainted with these two
15

338 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
able editors ; I occasionally attended them pro
fessionally with my preceptor. Dr. Hosack, and was
often occupied with them in common business
affairs. But I am constrained to affirm that the
characters I have given them are mainly drawn
from transactions associated with their political
vocation. They were assuredly men of personal
courage, of warm temperaments, of keen suscep
tibilities, but more or less transformed or deformed
by the crafty art of the staid politician ; for the rot
tenness of party dogmas during the career of the
phUosopMc Jefferson-was doubtless as great as in
this our own day. At the calamities of others they
could sorrow and weep as members of the household
of humamty. I have witnessed Cheetham, half a
mUe from his residence, expending his best energies
at midnight to extinguish the flames of the humble
residence of a common citizen, and Coleman pour
out tears at the grievances of the wearied printer
boy. With aU their faults, they diffused much
truth as weU as error ; they advanced the power
of the press in talents, and in improved knowledge ;
they aided the progress of hterary culture ; there
fore I have made this brief record of them. The
Post has survived its half century, and still lives
in more than its pristine vigor. Both editors were
friendly to the Historical Society.
The New York Magazine, projected by the
Swords, was the only montMy periodical that re-

EARLY MAGAZINES. 339
ceived a becoming patronage, which sustained it
for some eight or nine years, when it was succeeded
by the American Magazine and the New York
Eeview, whose writers were not unfrequently called
the Mohawk Eeviewers, from their hostUity 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 veMcle
for a series of essays of a literary circle, caUed the
Drone Club. TMs association, as I have already
stated, included many accomplished writers, as
MitchiU, Kent, &c. The last survivor of the Drones
was the late CMef Justice Samuel Jones, an early
member of the Historical Society and a prodigy
in black-letter learning. He died in 1853, aged
80 years. In 1797 the Medical Eepository was
commenced by Drs. MitcMU, MiUer and Smith,
the first journal of a scientific character the coun
try 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 inteUectual guide, under
taken by individuals whose cMef recommendation
was their dexterity with the awl and the hammer.
Some qualified for the great trust, were, however,
found. Edward Eiggs, long the master of a
grammar school in tMs city, pubUshed Ms Intro-

340 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
duction to the Latin Tongue in 1784, the first in
digenous work of that kind among us. He may
be considered our Ezekiel Cheever. Eiggs was
foUowed by James Hardy, the compUer of several
compends for instruction in the classics, in l793-'4.
The remembrance of him is stUl vivid. He was
an Aberdeen scholar ; Ms early hfe was devoted to
the seas ; he became an inmate of the family of
Dr. Beattie, who gave him recommendations as
weU quaUfied for a professorsMp of classical liter
ature. At Dr. Beattie's suggestion he came out
to tMs city. In Ms best estate he was an approved
teacher. After a while he abandoned the school
master's office, and finaUy sought a liveUhood as a
supernumerary of the Board of Health. He en
countered the yeUow fever in its most maUgnant
form with consummate bravery during its several
visitations after 1795, and compUed those volumes'
of facts and opinions on the pestUence wMch bear
his name. He Uved through many vicissitudes,
and died in great indigence, of cholera, in"1832.
The elementary spelling books of Webster, and
the geography of Morse, in my urchin days, were
making their way to pubhc approbation, not how
ever without much opposition ; they had a long
contest with Dilworth and Salmon, and almost a
score of years had passed before Pike and Eoot,
authorities with the federal currency, overcame the
schoolmaster's assistant and the Irishman Gough,

AMERICAN LITERATURE. 341
with their sterling standard value of pounds,
shillmgs, and pence. The success of these under
takings of Webster and- Morse is to be classed
among the wonders in hterary history ; the period
of their appearance was most opportune, and the
pubhc demand has caused the multiplication of
editions that for a long series of years may have
amounted in the aggregate to upwards of a mUlion
of copies annually. Such is indeed the fact with
the elementary book of Webster, and the geography
of Morse for a long whUe maintained a umversal
popularity. It is not saying too much that these
books were great boons for the advancement of
popular knowledge. As we advance a Uttle fur
ther we find that Enfield's Speaker was forced to
yield to Bingham's Preceptor, and Dwight's Co
lumbia superseded Eule Britannia. I cannot
dwell on the speculations thrown out by the
teachers of the day on the merits and demerits of
these mstruments of their art, and on the necessity
then urged by them, of a disenthraUed 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,
tUl at length we find at the commencement ofthis
century, the New Practical Navigator of Nathaniel
Bowditch, of Boston, securing its triumphs for
every sea, over the time-honored Practical Navi-

342 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
gator of HamUton Moore, of Tower-MU, London.
It is a fact of curious import that the eminent jurist,
TheophUus Parsons, was the editor of the first
American edition of the Practical Navigator, pub
Ushed by E. Blunt, the renowned projector of
many works on coast surveys and nautical affairs.
TMs desire for fresh mental aUmeht 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 in
volved equally the infant primer and the elaborate
treatise. In the colomal condition of affairs Stern-
hold and HopMns had sustained many assaults,
but their strongholds were now invaded by the
popular zeal of Barlow and Dwight. Nor were
these innovations confined to sacred poetry alone.
The psalmody wMch had for almost centuries mol-
Ufied the distresses of the heart, and elevated the
drooping spirits of the devout, surrendered its
wonted claims to the Columbian Harmonist of
Eead. A tolerable library might be formed of the
various pioductions of these operatives in the busi
ness of popular instruction. Noah Webster had
engendered tMs zeal more perhaps than any other
individual, and by incessant devotion had kept it
alive'. His Dissertations on the Enghsh Language
he sent to Frankhn, and FrankUn in return wrote
to Webster that his book would be useful in turn
ing the thoughts of his countrymen to correct

AMERICAN LITERATURE. 843
writing, yet 'administered to Mm profitable cau
tions. But hterature, like the free soU of the
country in these days, was infested with many
weeds, and words ran high on many points of ver
bal logic. Amidst aU these commotions some
tMngs were deemed too sacred on all sides to be
molested. Such was the affecting history of the
martyrdom of John Eodgers, burnt at Smithfield ;
but the nursery rhyme.
Whales in the sea — God's voice obey,
by acclamation was transformed into another
equaUy undemable truth :
By Washington — Great deeds were done.
A truth moreover which came home immediately
to the feehngs of the American bosom, and cleaved
perhaps nearer the heart.
While the English language therefore, in the
hands of the discipUnarians, was struggling for
new powers and a loftier phraseology, — for few
were enumerated in those days who behoved with
Gibbon, and Frankhn that the French tongue
might absorb all other speech, — the patriotism of
the youthful population ran no less wild than the
hterary ravings of the schoolmasters and the would-
be philologists ; yet, as time has proved, with Uke
innocence to the detriment of the Eepublic. The
continental songs of revolutionary renown were

344 HISTORICAL DISCOURSB.
sung here and there in divers parts of^ the city, by
the old soldiers congregated at places of pubhc
resort, who renewed their martial ardor by melody
and mead, a beverage now almost forgotten, but
then largely purchasable at the Knickerbocker
taverns, along the Stuyvesant lane or Bowery.
The Duyckincks have not in their Cyclopaedia of
American Literature, among their baUads of the
Indian, French, and Eevolutionary times, more
striking instances of poetic license than I have
often listened to, at these patriotic festivals. I
give a verse from one of these most popular songs,
vociferated to the tune of Malbrook :
King George sent his sheep-stealers,
Poor refugees and tories,
King George sent his sheep-stealers
To filch for mutton here :
But Yankees Vere hard dealers.
They sold their sheep skins dear.
Wars and rumors of wars kept the juvenUes ahve.
Social companies of youngsters were formed, ac
coutred with wooden guns and kettle drums, and
were perpetuaUy seen, with braggart front in harm
less squads, marching with the air of Captain
BobadU, chanting some piece of continental poetry :
Behold ! 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 ?

AMERICAN LITERATURE. 345
But these trifles were looked upon as the flying
cloud ; the nation had ripe men at its head ; gov
ernment was successfully securing the measures
for commerce and flnance ; the schools were daily
stronger with better teachers, and the haUs of col
leges were better suppUed with candidates for ele
vated instruction. The press was more prolific, and
sometMng beside the Fool of QuaUty and EveUna,
the Shepherd of Salisbury Plain and George Barn-
weU, were with the reading public. Pope, and
Anne Eadcliffe and Monk Lewis, might be found
on the staUs, ¦with Bonaparte's Campaigns in Italy,
a work fiUed with the martial acMevements of the
great soldier, and dedicated to Col. Burr, by the
translator John Davis, who affirnied that the ex
ploits of Alexander the Great were the marches of
a mere holiday captam compared with the cam
paigns of the French general. Franklin's Life
and Essays were in everybody's hands. Dobson,
of PhUadelpMa, had heroically undertaken the re-
pubUcation of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, and
CoUins, of New Jersey, about the same time, had
issued his MgMy prized quarto FamUy Bible. Nor
were our New York pubUshers lukewarm at the
printmg of elaborate works of grave import and
scholastic value. If, however, we except the Poems
of Freneau and the reprint of Bums, we find httle
in the region of the muses that issued from the
15*

346 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
press ; CUfton, Honeywood, Low, and Linn, were
our prominent domestic poets.
The DeUa Cruscan muse how, however, invaded
us : Mrs. Eobinson's Poems was a dog-eared vol
ume ; and the song of the melodious Bard, Moore,
" I knew by the smoke that so gracefuUy curled,"
received a popularity surpassmg that of perhaps
any other verses. It found its way in the daily
journals, weeMy museums, weekly visitors and
ladies' magazines ; it was printed on single sheets,
placarded at inns and in stage coaches ; it travel
led to the races as the inner limng of hats ; it oc
cupied the cabins of the wood boats, and was found
surrounding the trunk of the orchard tree ; it was
among the earhest of our music printing, and old
Dr. Anderson, now some eighty years of age, our
first engraver on wood, stiU alive and stiU busy,
gave it Ulustrations ; it was seen among the con
tents of the young misses' reticule, and was read
in secret at the doors of churches, wMle the youth
ful maiden was tarrying for a partner to accom
pany her within the house of worship. My de
fective memory does not permit me to state posi
tively that Blanchard, in his aeronautic expedi
tions, wafted it to the skies. In short, it was
everywhere. But the prospects of a French war
and HaU Columbia ere long limited the duration
of tMs electric poem ; and as if to facUitate tMs
object, here and there appeared a sylvan rhymist

DELLA CRUSCAN BARDS. 347
who entwined a chaplet of the Eosa MatUda ordct.
"What had been considered rare, now lost its fresh
ness, and spurious articles had currency in the
market without detection by the multitude. The
insidious assaults of the Baviad and Maviad, firom
the pen of GiBford, seriously crippled the progress
of tMs species of sentimentaUsm ; but the pre
tensions of the DeUa Cruscan finery came at last
to a somewhat sudden and unexpected end in the
humorous effusion of Barrett : *
TO DOEOTHT PULVEETAFT.
"If Black Sea, White Sea, Red Sea ran
On tide of ink to Ispahan ;
If aU the geese in Lincoln feus.
Produced spontaneous weU-made pens ;
If HoUand old, or HoUand new.
One wond'rous sheet of paper grew ;
Could I by stenographic power
Write twenty Ubraries an hour.
And should I sing but half the grace
Of half a freckle on thy facei ;
Each syUable I wrote, should reach —
From Inverness to Bognor's beach ;
Each hairstroke be a river Rhine,
Each verse an equinoctial line."
* The author of those exquisite lines, occurring in hia poem
entitled "Woman": " Not she -with traitrous kiss her master stung,
Not she denied him with unfaithful tongue ;
jSfie, when apostles fled, could dange'r brave,
Last at his cross, and earliest at his grave."
Lines dear to the heart of the world as a beloved proverb.

348 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
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. Campbell and Bloomfield appeared as
authors in London with Uttle interval between
them. The Pleasures of Hope and the Farmer's
Boy were here reprinted nearly simultaneously ;
the former had been subjected to the revision of
Dr. Anderson, the editor of the British Poets ; the
latter had undergone the incubation of Capel Lofft.
Thus fortified, there was Uttle hesitation as to the
safety of the undertaking. Such was the impor
tance attached to these works, that the rival pub-
hshers blazoned forth their labors, so that every
corner of the city was enUvened by large placards
announcing the important fact. It is almost su-
perfiuous to add, that with the literary taste 'which
had been cherished, the Farmer's Boy outran in
popularity the Pleasures of Hope. As the case
now stands, Campbell makes one of every dozen
volumes we meet with, whUe it might be difficult
to find a copy of Bloomfield.
In 1804 Scott enriched the poetic world with
his Lay of the Last Minstrel. Soon after its ap
pearance 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

.Scott's minstrel. 349
was seen that the' Mmstrel was a classic,, and the
volume circiUated widely among friends. It shortly
after feU into the hands of a-pubUsMog house, and
the great question now to be decided was, whether
it could bear an American reprint, kgeping in ¦view
the primary object of the bookseUer, that the
wheel of fortune must turn in the right way. A
hterary coterie was selected who might determine
the chances of adventure. Among other dissuasive
arguments, the Lay was pronounced too* local m
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 Ms BeUes-Lettres Eepository of 1805, the um
versally known introduction to the first canto.
Such was the cool and calculating reception of Scott
with us. One might almost think from the open
ing hues of the poem, that the poet had, with
prophetic vision, foreseen Mmself in the New
World : " The way was long, the night was cold,
The Minstrel was infirm and old."
..These were probably the first Unes 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 Ulustrious author presented it, Mrs.

350 historical discourse.
Divie Bethune, the founder of our Infant schools.
Who can now tell the hundreds of thousands of
volumes of tMs noble writer wMch the press of
tMs 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 naturaUy
grew out of the spirit of the times and the condi
tion of the EepubUc. Scott was a new name
among authors, and elegant letters are not among
the first wants of a people. Yet it wUl be con
ceded that at that very period a broad foundation
was already being laid, on which at no remote day
Uterature, as weU as science, would command its
disciples. The trepidation at the hazard of print
ing a few leaves of poetry experienced by some, is
to be judged merely as an individual infirmity, in
asmuch as we find that even then .typography was
prohfiB of works of voluminous extent, and many
of its products at that day constitute a sound por
tion of existing Ubraries. Longworth himself was
a man of enterprise, but he had bought experience
by his omamental edition of Hayley's Triumphs
of Temper, and he was moreover sustaming his
Shakspeare GaUery at no smaU sacrifice ; whUe
we find that Evert Duyckinck, Isaac ColUns, Geo.
F. HopMns, Samuel CampbeU, and T. and J.
Swords, were the leading men to whom we may
turn for evidence that the press was not idle, and

LITERARY CHARACTERS. 351
for iUustration of the rising capabilitieiJ of the
book-pubhshers' craft. An author was a scarce
article in those days, about the beginning of the
nineteenth century ; the returns for hterary labor
must have been smaU. Noah Webster wa« un
questionably the most successful of the tribe, and
in his wake followed the geographer Morse. The
city hbrary, and the circulating library of Caritat,
constituted pretty much aU the estabUshments of
that order we possessed. Pmtard was then at
New Orleans, and years elapsed before he and the
exceUent WiUiam Wood began to tMnk of the
Apprentices' Library, and to suggest the Mariners'
Library for sMps at sea. The MercantUe Library,
now so vast a concern, was not then dreamt of, and
Phihp Hone, with aU Ms ardor as a patriotic citi
zen, had not as yet enhsted in the great cause of
knowledge, or manifested that attention to those
important interests which absorbed the years of
his more advanced hfe. In a pedestrian excursion
through our then tMnly populated streets, one
might see the learned Bishop Provoost, the ample
Dr. MitcMU and Ms coUeague Dr. Miller, Dr. Bay-
ley, Dr. Hosack, Dr. Livingston, Dr. S. MiUer, Dr.
Mason, and Dunlap, aU writers ; Caines, the deep-
read reporter ; Cheetham and Coleman, the an
tagonistic editors ; Kent, afterwards the great
ChanceUor. In the court room we might behold
HamUton and Burr, Harrison, Brockholst Living-

352 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
ston and Martin Wilkins, Colden and Slosson,
Hoffman and Pendleton, and young Wells.*
The Uterary struggles of those days deserve
more ample notice, but our task may be honestly
abridged at this time. The curious in a knowl
edge of Uterary toil, in the progress of letters, and
in the detaUs of authorsMp, wiU not fail frequent
consultation of the several works of the late Dr.
Griswold, a faithful pioneer of mental acumen in
tMs department of study, and turn with renewed
deUght and increased satisfaction to the Biograph-
* 'To render these imperfect sketches of the times less defec
tive, I had designed to notice briefly the New York Bar, with
which I was partiaUy. acquainted, by my repeated visits at the
courts ; often as medical witness in behalf of the people in crimi
nal cases involving medical jurisprudence ; but my resources are
not adequate to the great subject, and the undertaking is the less
necessary after the precious and interesting History of the Court
of Common Pleas, from the pen of the Hon. Charles P. Dalt,
one of the Judges, and printed in volume 1st of the Report of
Cases, by CounseUor 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 Hoffman, with whom he was a pupil. The great
men of the legal profession of those days to which I aUude, 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 lips, was the harmony of the world. Legal
medicine, I am inclined to think, received more homage in the
days of the great Thomas Addis Emmet and the Hon. Hugh
MaxweU, the District Attorney, than it had before or has since.

harper's book ENTERTAINMENT. 353
ical Essays of the Eesthetic Tuckerman, and the
pages of the Cyclopaedia of American Literature,
by the Messrs. Duyckinck. When thoroughly in
vestigated, the candid inquirer may wonder that
under such difficulties so much was in reality ac
comphshed.- So long ago as in 1802 I had the pleasure of
witnessing the first social gathering of American
pubhshers at the old City Hotel, Broadway, an
orgamzation under the auspices of the venerable
Matthew Carey. About tMrty years after I was
one of a large assembly brought together by the
Brothers Harper's great entertainment. I remem
ber weU the literary wares displayed on that first
memorable occasion, and I stUl see in " my mind's
eye" the prominent group of American authors
Emmet was profoundly learned as a physician ; and upon his arrival
in this country in 1804, deUberated whether to enter upon the
practice of medicine or enter the courts of law. In aU cases
of death that came before Emmet requiring medical testimony,
an examination of the brain he made a prerequisite. It is not
irrelevant to add, that Dr. James S. Stringham 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 Univer
sity 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 investi
gations of Paulus Zacchias, down to the recent productions of
Foderfi 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 181*7.

354 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
who participated in the festivities of the latter
celebration. Again in 1855 a compUmentary fes
tival of the New York Book Pubhshers' Associa
tion to authors and bookseUers took place at the
Crystal Palace. A comparative view of these
three periods in Uterary progress would furnish an
instructive Ulustration of the worMngs of the
American mind and of the enterprise and capa
bihties of the American press. The venerable
Matthew Carey at the primary meeting held forth,
in earnest language, persuasives to renewed meet
ings of a like nature as the most effective means
for the promotion and diffusion of knowledge.
Isaac CoUins, that jewel of a man for soUd worth
and integrity, concurred in sentiment. At the
Harper entertainment simUar opimons proceeded
from many minds, and the livehest responses in
confirmation were Ustened to from ChanceUor
Kent and a large number of native writers of ce
lebrity. At the last celebration of 1855, which
was conducted on a scale of great variety and ele
gance, WasMngton Irving and a most imposmg
association of distinguished authors, male and
female, graced the occasion : those public, spirited
pubUshers, the Appletons, with WUey and Put
nam, rendered the banquet a genial gathering of
kindred spirits. The inteUigent and patriotic
Putnam, in an appropriate introductory address,
stated the fact that for twelve years, ending

FECUNDITY OF THE PRESS. 355
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 orig
inal American works ; thus showing an increase of
about 800 per cent, in less than twenty years. Mr.
Putnani thus draws, the conclusion that Uterature
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
stUl 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 last memorable occasion of the publishers'
celebration our distinguished poet, Bryant, re
sponded, to a sentiment on American literature in
Ms happiest manner. I quote a few Unes from his
suggestive address : " The promise of American
authorsMp, given by the appearance of Cotton
Mather, has never been redeemed tUl now. In
Mm the age saw one of its ripest scholars, though
formed in the New England schools and by New
England hbraries, in the very infancy of the colo
nies ; a man, as learned as the author of the
Anatomy of Melancholy, and sometimes as quaint
ly eloquent, sending out huge quartos as the fruit
of his labors, interspersed with duodecimos, the

356 HISTORICAL DISCOURSB.
fruit of his recreations ; but his pubUcations ex
ceeded the number of the days of the year. After
his time, in the hundred and fifty years wMch fol
lowed, the procession of American authors was a
straggling one ; at present they are a crowd which
fairly choke the way ; Ulustrious Mstorians, able
and acute theologians, authors of books of travels,
instructive or amusing, clever novelists, brilhant
essayists, learned and patient lexicographers. Every
bush, I had almost said every buttercup of the
fields has its ,poet ; poets start up Uke the soldiers
of Eoderick Dhu, from beMnd every rock and out
of every bank of fern."
I must Unger a moment longer on this subject.
Our Uterary annals, wMle they abound with occur
rences most gratifying to the inteUectual and moral
advancement of our species, possess yet another
claim to estimation. The maMng of books has
not been an employment of selfish and inert grati
fication ; it has proved a prolific source of emol
ument, no less remarkable than the peculiar occa
sions wMch have awakened the talents necessary
for the healthy exercise of the art itself. Liter
ature, independently of its own noble nature, has
superadded to its powers a productive result of
substantial issue ; and whUe it beautifies and en
riches with precious benefits the progress of civU-
ization, it has secured the comforts wMch spring
up from the wholesome pursuit of other sources

CONDITION OF AUTHORSHIP. 357
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 huckstermg wMch once marred the trans
actions between publishers and authors no longer
occurs ; the starvehng writers whom I now and
then saw, at about the time of the first meeting
of our Uterary venders, the bookseUers of 1802,
have paid the debt of. nature, I dare not add pre
maturely ; and we can now enroll a Ust of the
hterary and the scientific who have increased far
and wide the nation's renown. For a considerable
whUe during my early medical career my diagnosis
often led me to attribute the causes of mental in
quietude and physical suffering among this cir
cumscribed order of men to inanition ; but if the
hterary squad, as old 'Dr. TiUary denominated
them, preserve intact their wonted energies and
privUeges, their improved condition may sometimes
demand an alterative treatment corresponding
with that robust state and imposing plethora, in
wMch they so generaUy present themselves to
our admUation 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 walMng-stick, but very bad crutches."
Other reflections seem naturaUy to occur when

358 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
contemplating the condition of Uterature among
us. There are noticeable changes to be observed
during the past fifty years and upwards in all the
walks of professional life. The Bar has swoUen in
the number of its members to an enormous mul
titude ; its talents and capacity are doubtless ade
quate to the fulfilment of its Mgh behests : its
tact and its sagacity were perhaps never greater
than at present, but we neither witness nor hear
of those forensic displays of elocutionary power
wMch were formerly so often the theme of public
remark. Perhaps in any age the brUUant mani
festations of oratory exhibited by Hamilton, Morris,
Livingston, and Emmet, could be classed only as
rare exceptions of individual success in the mighty
art, and justify no grounds of sorrow at the ab
sence of any general deficiency of that marveUous
gift. I have witnessed abroad and at home the
disciphned speakers of Mghest celebrity, whose
genius was enriched with the profoundest wisdom,
and in whom long practice had accomplished its
most desirable ends ; such gifted men as Brougham,
Mackintosh, Grattan, fall far short in effective re
sults and in that divine impulse which leads to
conviction, compared with the mighty and seem
ingly unstudied energy of Thomas Addis Emmet.
I was near the scene when about noon of the 14th
of November, 1827, in the City HaU Court Eoom,
he was seized by effusion of the brain, in the midst

EMMET.  KENT. 359
of his vast forensic utterance, and suddenly fell by
apoplexy. His robust habit and the nature of his
attack justified my immediate recourse to the
lancet ; he was taken home, and every measure
adopted for Ms rehef by his old and devoted friend.
Dr. Macneven, by Dr. Hosack, and myself; but
unconscious from the beginmng of his attack, he
continued so some ten hours, when he expired.
That distmguished jurist, John Duer, with equal
classical purity and truth, has drawn Emmet's
character in the inscription engraven on Ms monu
ment. While on the subject of tMs great pro
fession I would fain caU to mind the character of
those eminent judges who stamped that value on
your judiciary which rendered the New York de
cisions the law of the land, Spencer, Piatt, Thomp
son, Van Ness, and others ; I would recall Kent
once agam in association with aU that ennobles
moral exceUence, dignifies erudition and profes
sional life, and secures in perpetuity the fame of
the learned author of Commentaries on American
Law ; but the occasion forbids ; and the disciples
of that Mgh caUing will look for such expositions
from a more appropriate source.
There is an. essential change in the great char
acteristics of our pulpit instruction : the spirit of
polemical controversy has almost wholly died out ;
the UmversaUsts and the Unitarians are rarely
'molested by counter preacMng, and Strebeck, were

360 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
he now with us, might anathematize in vain on
the wrath to come. The elaborate controversies on
church government and apostolic succession, if
vivified even with new powers, would faU to secure
the consideration that once enchained the attention
of Mason, McLeod, MUler, Hobart, Howe, and
Bowden. Ezra StUes Ely might draw his paraUels
between Calvinism and HopMnsiamsm, but he
would remain unanswered by an antagonist im
pregnated with the popular spirit of modem the
ological desires, and the venerable Dr. Spring, now
habf a century with us, would not deign to mingle
with the unprofitable contest. The vexed question
whether a widower may marry his deceased wife's
sister, absorbing as it once appeared in Levitical
law, would now leave the pious Dr. Livingston
without a reader. Whelpley, with his Triangle,
in^ye parts, however acute Ms logic, would search
in vain for another mathematician like Professor
Adrain, with provoked risibles, to laugh at his in
ferential doctrines. In fine, the spirit of the minis
try is vastly changed, and that change is for the
better. The deists and the theopMlanthropists
have taken their flight, or put on an altered
vesture not cognizable for classification. Ee-
Ugious controversy, often so acrimomous, is a
stranger where once it was difficult to avoid en
countering it. Polemics, even with the discon
tented and the anxious, have lost that charm wMch

CHRISTIANITY A DEMOCRATIC ELEMENT. 361
excited the spirits of every order of advocates to
secure victory at almost any price. The game of
hfe is no longer the game of nine-pins, to knock
down as many as you can. The etMcal doctrines
of Holy Writ, and the Sermon on the Mount, are
more than ever the momtors and the guides of
the CMistian behever, and accommodated equaUy
to the Ebenezer Chapel and the lofty cathedral ;
and that preacher who is most likened unto him
described by Cowper, is best equipped, according
to the order of the day, for the spread of gospel
love. Christiamty is recognized as a democratic
element, profitable for all conditions of men, as the
Declaration of Independence and our Constitution
are the palladium of our civU and reUgious rights.
Our popular song writer, Morris, has conveyed in
beatitiful verse ideas not unlike the sentiments I
have thus frankly expressed, in his classical verses
on the Eock of the Pilgrims. What is applicable
to the land of the Pilgrims, history tells us is equaUy
apphcable to New Amsterdam.
" The pilgrims of old an example have, given
Of mUd resignation, devotion and love,
Which beams like a star in the blue vault of heaven,
A beacon-Ught swung in their mansion above.
" In church and cathedral we kneel in our prayer,
Their temple and chapel were valley and hill,
But God is the same in the aisle and the air.
And He is the Eock that we lean upon stiU."
16

362 .HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
It were superfluous to ask attention to further
reflections on the state of the Faculty of Physic,
and the condition of the medical prescriber at the
present day, after what has been already uttered
in that section of the discourse which treats of the
progress of the science of heahng, and in an ad
dress recently pronounced at the Bellevue Hos
pital, concermng the multipUed sources for cUnical
knowledge offered by our innumerable charities,
sustained by private and pubUc munificence. The
doctors, hke the lawyers, have multipUed more
than tenfold during the past fifty years ; higher re-
. quisites are looked for in those who exercise the art,
and as a general truth they have been fuUy met,
corresponding with the march of phUosophical and
medical knowledge, and in their professional pub
Ucations they have given us incontrovertible proofs
of their, instructive merits.
As associated with Uterature and authorsMp,
none can be ignorant of the worldlike reputation
secured by our prominent writers. National re
nown has foUowed the Commentaries of Kent, the
International Law of Wheaton, the Historical
Orations of Everett, the legal writings of Story,
the Spanish Literature of Ticknor, the E.xploring
Expeditions of WUkes and of Perry, the Ee-
searches of Eobinson, the Biblical learning of Nor
ton, the Ornithology of Audubon, the Mstories of
Bancroft, Prescott, 'and Motley, the Field-Book of

AMERICAN LITERATURE. 363
Lossing, and the Biographies of Sparks. In states--
manship the published intellectual legacies of Clay,
Calhoun, Webster, and Legare, the living manifes
tations of Benton, Seward, Curtis, and Elliot, prove
that the prestige of our country in this regard is
unimpaired, while the new and improved editions of
the writings of Washington, HamUton, Adams,
Franklin, and Jefferson, evince a wholesome appre
ciation of the patriotism of the past. Irving may be
pronounced a umversal classic. The cosmopolitan
Pliny MUes tells us that even in that seemingly
bemghted region,- Iceland, the pages of Irving are
among the studies of the cultivated. Cooper's
Forest and Sea Novels are known abroad in almost
every Uving language. Where shall we not find
the poetry of Bryant, HaUeck, Willis, Whittier,
Holmes, Sprague, Dana, and Percival ? while the
melodies of LongfeUow have found translators in
German versification, and Wilde in modern Greek.
Ethnological studies have commanded the talents
of Morton, Hawks, Squier, Davis, Turner, Bart-
lett, Cotheal, Dwight, and GaUatin. Schoolcraft's
Indian Eesearches, by their variety and magnitude
have given Mm claims to lasting gratitude. The
classical annotations of Anthon and of Felton are
held in admiration abroad and at home. The
critical essays of Whipple, Channing, Hillard,_ and
Tuckerman, the sesthetic travels of Calvert, the
romances of Hawthorne and of MelvUle, and the

364 HISTORICAL DISCOURSB.
Mstorical and romantic writings of Simms have met
with a reception flattering to the most aspiring au
thor ; nor am I in this imperfect enumeration to
forget the classical dramas of Boker ; and the Ee
mimscences of that venerable worthy of typograph
ical celebrity, BucMngham, and those of that
faithful and genial chromcler, Manlius Sargent.
Surely I have said enough to answer the inter
rogatory of Sidney Smith ; he who is not sat
isfied may consult the Cyclopaedia of the Duyc
Mncks. Within the period now under consideration
what a new range in versatility, in talent, and in
increasing power, has American joumahsm as
sumed. We are assured that those papers, the
Times, the Herald, and Tribune, have a daily issue
varying from forty to seventy thoi;isand, and a
weeMy impression of double that number. How
has the case about the time of the adoption of our
State Constitution. Old Hugh Gaine, with his
almost solitary Gazette, was satisfied with the sale
of some three or four hundred papers, he himself
being compositor, pressman, folder and distributer
of his literary ware. Hoe's leviathan press of the
present day throws off some twenty or thUty thou
sand copies per hour. If to these circumstances
we add the multiplying capacity of the press, by
the process of stereotyping, a device which I have
years ago shown to have originated in New York,

AMERICAN LITERATURE. 365
by Colden and FrankUn,* we may stUl more fuUy
comprehend the intellectual progeny the great art
brings forth. Have we need to wonder that a sin
gle American edition may outnumber twenty or
tMrty of the London pubUsher ?
For much of tMs salutary change in the Eepub-
hc of Letters, let aU praise be given to knowledge
more avaUable ; the appetite grows by what it feeds
on ; to the higher culture of the people, and to the
patronage of our enlightened pubhshers. I aUude
to such patrons as the Appletons, the Harpers,
Scribner, WUey and Putnam. I am Umited to
New York in these specifications. But the
leading Boston firms are identified with our
national historians, poets, and essayists. What
ChUds and Peterson have done for the gen
erous enterprise of the lamented Kane, both in
the mechanical execution of those endearing vol
umes, the Arctic Expedition, and in the returns
secured by Uberal appropriation in artistic display,
is enough of itself for the renown of PMladelphia.
Nor can I omit to notice in this connection, that
the most complete and authentic Dictionary of
Authors in our vernacular tongue, (Biographical,
BibliograpMcal, and^ Critical,) is in progress of
pubhcation under the auspices of this enterprising
house, for wMch noble monument of Uterary toU
* See Hosack and Francis' American Medical and Philosophical
Register, vol. 1, 1811.

366 HISTORICAL DISCOURSB.
and industry we are indebted to the accompUshed
Samuel A. AlUbone, of PhUadelphia ; that the
Clerical Biographies of the erudite Dr. Sprague,
now in press, promise a rich body of original eccle
siastical history from an early date to the present
time ; whUe in our own city, we are favored by
Appleton & Co., with a New Cyclopaedia of Gen
eral Knowledge, especially rich in native science
and biography, brought down to the latest day,
prepared by the erudite and gifted editors, George
Eipley and Charles A. Dana, assisted by enlight
ened coUaborators of literary and scientific renown.
I believe I have secured the concurrence of my
audience in the opinion that I have already said
enough of the eventful Past in its complex rela
tions with the New York Historical Society. If I
mistake not, the narrative which I have given of
the passing events and living movements of our
times elucidates the incalculable value of your
Institution, and points out how indispensable is
the duty to cherish that conservative element
which your charter demands. The fragmentary
information brought together in this discourse may
not be whoUy without its use : it may serve at
least to furnish some hints to subsequent writers
who may venture to fiU up, with higher aspirations,
the mighty void wMch exists in the annals of this
vast Metropolis. With the phUosopMcal historian
every new fact wUl be duly appreciated, the tran-

REFLECTIONS. 367
sitory nature of many occurrences better under
stood m their relation to simultaneous events, and
the men of consequence in their day more faith
fuUy estimated. SkUl indeed will be demanded
in selection and judgment in arrangement, but an
enlarged vision will comprehend the truth, that
what seems temporary may sometimes become per
manent, that what is local often becomes national.
The task assigned me by your courtesy for tMs
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 na
tive feehngs and my love of the olden times, have
prompted the spirit and the tendency of this
address. " Whatever," says the great moraUst,
Dr. Johnson, "makes the past, the distant, and the
future predominate over the present, exalts us in
the scale of tMnMng beings." None can feel more
deeply than myself the imperfect execution of the
service I have attempted, and none of its deficien
cies causes greater uneasiness than the circum
stance 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
tMs Society in its earUer existence. WMle I am
conscious that the men of to-day are not inferior
to those whose ranks they now supply, I have also
been compelled to overlook a long catalogue of

368 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
Uving wortMes, who stUl co-operate in the great
design of rearing tMs Historical Institution to na
tional consideration. Fortunately your printed
CoUections and Proceedings, a long series, have
perpetuated the contributions of many of these
distinguished members, and posterity wUl seek in
struction and delight in the discourses wMch you
have preserved of your CUnton and Verplanck,
your Morris and Hosack, your MitchiU and Blunt,
your Wheaton and Lawrence, your Kent and But
ler, your Bradford and Bancroft. The records of
your secretary wUl point out your indebtedness to
those long tried members who have adhered to
your interests in seasons of greatest depression ;
ChanceUor Matthews, the founder, I may add, of
our City University ; George B. Eapelye, a friend
with a Knickerbocker's heart, who has often invig
orated my statements by Ms minute knowledge ;
Samuel Ward, a generous benefactor to your rich
possessions ; and Albert GaUatin, many years your
presiding officer, who needs no voucher of mine to
place bim in the front rank of inteUectual mor
tals. The thousand and one occurrences wMch have
weighed on my mind wMle in tMs attempt to
sketch a picture of the times in New York during
the past sixty years, have made the difficulty of
choice perplexing to recoUection and embarrassing
to the judgment. It might have been more ac-

REFLECTIONS. 369
ceptable to many had tMs Discourse been concen
trated on some special topics of general interest,
or that the importance of history as a pMlosophical
study had been set forth, the better to urge the
high claims which this institution proffers to the
countenance and support of tMs enlightened com
mumty. 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
faU to have arrived at a knowledge of many things
characteristic of the age and profitable as practi
cal wisdom ; to one who has ever cherished a deep
sympathy in whatever adds to the renown of the
city of Ms birth, or increases the benefits of its
population, the accumulation of facts would nat
urally become almost formidable ; and whUe with
becoming deference Ms aim on such an occasion as
the present would lead him in Ms selection to
group together, without tedious minuteness, the
more prominent incidents which have marked its
career, it might be tolerated if he here and there,
with fond reluctance, dwelt upon what most in
volved Ms feeUngs, even should the subject-matter
prove deficient in popular importance. In the
wide and fertUe field which I have entered, it re
quired an anthologist of rare gifts to select with
wisdom products the healtMest, the richest, and
16*

370 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
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 institu
tion during its long career, and are its merits of an
exclusive character ? It may be promptly an
swered. No. It was preceded in its formation by
the Massachusetts Historical Society, a bright ex
ample for imitation, some ten or twelve years ; and
it has been followed by the organization of many
other Mstorical societies formed in different and
widely-distant States of the Umon. They have
grown up around her, not by the desire of imitation,
but by the force of utUity ; and I wiU be bold
enough to affirm, that consultation of their nu
merous 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 se-
curmg ' for future research, authentic materials
touching events in Mstory, in the arts, in science,
in jurisprudence, and in literature ; and if I mis
take not, the intelUgence of the people is awak
ened to their import ; individual pride and State
ambition have been invoked in fiirtherance of the
measure, and results productive of national good
must crown the efforts. Truth, it is often said, is

ETHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 371
reserved for posterity — trath 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 His
torical and Genealogical Society, a recent orgam
zation, whose labors, however already, amount to
many volumes, aided by the herculean devotion of
Samuel G. Drake, and the stUl more recent His
torical Magazine pubUshed by Eichardson, now of
New York. TMs last-named periodical gives
promise of exceUence of the Mghest order, and
demands the patronage of every genuine lover of
American annals.
I would caU attention to our New York Ethno
logical Society, now founded several years. Its vol
umes evince that the Association has adepts
among its members able to throw light on the
most intricate subjects of human inquiry. Its pres
ent president is the learned Dr. Eobinson, so dis
tinguished in philology and bibUcal Uterature.
StiU more recently a Geographical Society has
sprang up among us. Though of but short dura
tion, its transactions have commanded approbation
both abroad and at home. Among its leading
members is Henry Grinnell, the well known pro
moter of the Arctic expeditions under the direc
tion of Doctor Kane. The Eev. Dr. Hawks is
the present head of tMs association.

372 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
As connected with the great design of pro-
motmg useful knowledge, the institution of the
Lyceum of Natural History in tMs city may be
included in the number. This association has now
been in operation forty years. It was founded by
MitchiU 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 Ulustrative of our nat
ural products in the several Mngdoms of nature.
Many of the rarest treasures of our marine waters
have become known by the investigations of the
Lyceum : among its scientific supporters are Tor
rey, De Kay, Cooper, Le Conte, and Jay. Like
the Academy of Natural Sciences of PhUadelpMa,
the Boston Natural History Society, and the So
ciety of Charleston, S. C, with its President Hol-
brook, its opinions are authoritative.
The impulse given to inteUectual labor in these,
our own times, is stUl further shown in the com
pletion of that great undertaking, the Natural
History of the State of New York. TMs vast
project was, I beUeve, commenced during the ad
ministration of Govemor Seward ; and if we value
science by the research which it displays, this ex
tensive work presents claims of unquestionable
exceUence to our recognition. Its able authors,
with a scrutimzing observation that has never
tired, have unfolded the richness of our native

NATURAL HISTORY OF THE STATE. 373
productions to the* deUght of the naturahst and
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 fehcitous introduction to the
entire series of volumes from the pen of Governor
Seward, wUl always be perused with emotions of
patriotic pride. Associated with another measure
not less pubhc spirited, is the Documentary His
tory of the State of New York, under the direc
tion of executive authority, and prepared for the
press by the editorial supervision of Dr. O'Cal-
laghan. 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 mis-
ceUany of knowledge Mtherto inaccessible. Less
could not be said of the labors of Dr. O'Callaghan,
when we remember the precious materials he has
at command, and that these documents include
the Brodhead Papers.
Is it speaking too earnestly, when it is said
that the Eepublic at large appears determined to
secure her Mstory from doubt and uncertainty ?
Associations for the preservation of historical mate
rials seem sprmging up in every State. We might
enumerate among the most prominent of these
State institutions, that of Pennsylvania, of Ehode
Island, of Maine, of Connecticut, of New Jersey, of

374 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
South Carohna, Georgia, and' very recently the
Historical Society of Iowa. We are assured
further that religious denominations are engaged
in' Uke duties, to secure authentic records of the
trials and progress of their respective creeds. In
our own city the Baptists have formed an Ms
torical society, at the head of which is the vener
able David T. Valentine, the editor of the Cor
poration Manual, wMch yearly enlarges our topo
graphical and civil Mstory ; and an association of
the Protestant Episcopal faith has recently pub
Ushed two volumes of Historical Eecords in iUus
tration of the early condition of the Church. AU
this looks well ; and I am confident that our asso
ciation 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 accomphsh.
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 poUcy, afford lessons wMch the wisest
may study with profit. Long neglect has only in
creased the duty of mvestigation, and added value
to every new revelation offered. The Hudson and
Niagara are but types of her physical formation.

HISTORY. 375
Her geology has dissolved the theories of the closet,
and given new principles to geognostic science.
Her men of action have been signaUy neglected.
Feeble records only are to be found of her most
eminent statesmen. Where shaU we look, through
out our country's annals, for a more heroic spirit,
one of more personal courage, of greater devotion
to Ms country, one greater in greatest trial, one of
more decision of character, one of sterner integ
rity, than Gov. George Chnton, to whom this
State and the Union are under such mighty obU
gations ; and yet we fruitlessly search for a worthy
memorial of him. FeUow associates, I repeat it,
there is work enough to do.
I have spoken of Mstory and its many relations.
History the schoolmen have divided into sacred
and profane. AU 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 phUosophy, 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, cherisMng
as a rule of Ufe the revealed truth, that there is
a still higher wisdom witMn our reach, and that
our inteUigence, however great, must recognize
the inflexible sentence, uttered of old ; the tree of
knowledge is not the tree of life.

376 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
The rapid sketch I have given, however im
perfect, is, I believe, authentic. Brief as is the
period included in my -reminiscent glance, it is in
some important respects as much a picture of the
past, as a century's retrospect would be in Euro
pean communities. Not only have many of the
individuals I have attempted to describe, passed
away, but not a few of the local, social, political,
and professional characteristics of New York, sixty
years ago, are now traditional. In the old world
we are caUed a fast people, and the history of no
spot in our vast confederacy, is more impressed
with the change that seems a normal condition of
our republican Ufe, than tMs city. Its original
land-marks are scarcely to be recognized ; its
population is utterly transformed ; its resources
indefinitely enlarged ; nay, to the backward and
loving gaze of a venerable Knickerbocker, its
individuaUty is almost lost. I think there has
been mahifest in this discourse, a sympathy with
progress, vivid and earnest enough to save me
from the imputation of a prejudiced and obtuse
conservatism. I have expressed, and certainly
feel no want of interest in new truth, improved
methods, and growing knowledge ; I am so far
of the old school ^.s to firmly believe that integrity
is the corner-stone of Christian morality, that ht
erature, art, and science are the noblest human
vocations, that benevolence is the most obvious

NEW YORK, COSMOPOLITAN.* 377
duty, friendsMp the greatest solace, domestic ties
the purest sphere, and simple habits tbe most sa
lubrious hygiene ; I am also loyal to the aspira
tions of humamty, and firm in the conviction that
God's wUl ordains the highest development of our
race. If I have betrayed an honest local attachment
and some national partiaUty for the men and
tMngs amid which I was born and live, it is not
because I am bUnd to the faults and insensible to
the dangers of our beloved metropolis. Her for
tunes have been marveUously prosperous, but her
position is unique. As the mart of the nation,
miUions of enUgrants land on her quays, thousands
of foreigners crowd her thoroughfares : more casual
residents dwell here for temporary objects than in
any city on earth. Every nation of Europe is
represented, every phase of opimon finds voice, the
refuse and the cream of the old world float on the
surface or disappear in the wMrlpool of New York
life : read the signs down town, scan the draw
ing-rooms of the upper quarter, turn over the
journals, look in at the places of pubhc amuse
ment, observe the festive celebrations, enter the
churches, and you wiU find somewhat, — a man, a
custom, a language, a vocation or a faith borrowed
from every quarter of the globe.
New York is the most cosmopohtan of modern
cities ; hence, in a great measure, its ineffective

378 *• HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
municipal government, its rowdyism, its perpetual
demoUtion, its spasmodic and versatUe phenomena,
its advantages and its nuisances, its dangers and
its blessings as a place of abode ; larger opportu
nities with greater risks, more Uberality of senti
ment with less rectitude of principle, more work
and more dissipation, higher acMevement and
deeper recklessness ; in a word, more obvious and
actual extremes of fortune, character, violence,
phUanthropy, indifference alid zeal, taste and
vulgarity, isolation and gregariousness, business
and pleasure, vice and piety. Wherever there is
more in quantity there is a corresponding latitude
in quality. Enterprise hath here an everlasting
carnival ; fashion is often rampant ; financial crises
sweep away fortunes ; reputations are made and
lost with magical facUity ; friends come and go,
Ufe and death, toU and amusement, worth and
folly, truth and error, poetry and matter of fact
alternate with more than dramatic celerity.
The multifarious access to New York, the nu
cleus it forms to ocean and continent, the remark
able salubrity, the abundant capital, and the large
floating population ; its natural resources and the
circumstances of its history, aU conduce to these
results. Our duty as natives and citizens under
such conditions is apparent. We should cling to
republican simplicity, to personal independence,
to fldeUty in our respective spheres ; we should

NEW YORK IN THE PAST. 379
obey a patriotic inspiration, and in household and
vocation, by word and act, keep up a public spirit
which repudiates external corruption, insists on
civic duty, promotes education, defles the en
croachments of material luxury, fiscal recklessness
and political turpitude. Whatever is said of the
indifference to moral and intellectual distinction
and the slavery to gain prevalent, men and women
here assuredly find their just level and pass eventu-
aUy for what they are worth. Fraud enjoys but a
temporary success ; imposture is sure to be un
masked, and benevolence to be duly honored. New
York in the past affords us innumerable precious
memories and honorable achievements : New York
in the future may, through the loyalty of her
faithful chUdren, reach a, height of auspicious re
nown, commensurate with her mercantUe fame,
her historical significance and her material pros
perity. The Dutch gable ends have disappeared,
the unpretending hospitality has vanished, the
rural vicinage is demolished ; Peter Stuyvesant's
pear tree is the last reUc of suburban gardens ;
theology has ramified, and in so doing miti
gated its rancor ; physic has multiplied her dis
ciples ; law has acquired a thousand clever, for a
dozen brUliant votaries ; the opera has outvied
the drama ; rents have become fabulous ; land has
risen in value beyond aU precedent ; Yankees have
driven out burgomasters ; Cuban segars HoUand

380 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
pipes ; raUways old fashioned gigs, and omnibuses
family chariots : the tonsorial occupation is all
but superseded by the perpetual hoUday of beards ;
and skirts, instead of being gathered up as of
old, sway in fixed expansion on the encroaching
hoop ; turbans, shoe-buckles, cues, the pillory,
spmning-wheels, and short ruffles are obsolete,
while the "last of the cocked hats" is visi
ble in our streets ; but the good old Knicker
bocker honesty and geniality may yet be found by
some firesides. We have eloquent proof that Wash
ington's memory is still tenderly revered, that
FranMin's maxims are yet reliable, that Hamil
ton's poUtical sagacity and cMvalry are not for
gotten, that Fulton's inventive genius and De
Witt CUnton's comprehensive poUty are stiU ap
preciated ; and wMle this remains true. New York
" stUl Uves," the New York where the principle of
internal improvement was initiated, the hberty of
the press earliest recognized, and the first Presi
dent of the republic inaugurated.
Mr. President :
For a series of years you have held the ele
vated office of head of the Historical Society. The
distmguished men, your predecessors, who have
ffiled that prominent station, have, I believe, aU
departed. You stand the sole representative of a
long list of wortMes who have discharged trusts

HISTORICAL TREASURES. 381
similar to those committed to you, and which your
wisdom and experience in public councUs and in
state affairs have enabled you to fortify with an
ability which reflects credit on your administra
tion, and has proved signaUy advantageous to tMs
institution. The duties wMch have devolved on you
may at times have been onerous, but if I can fathoib
your nature, must have proved grateful to your
feelings, and congenial to your patriotism. Your
copious reading had made you famUiar 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 Mstorian, could not be gathered from
any other colony. This Society, amidst its other
treasures, has secured for the most part these pre
cious documents ; and from the period at which
New York assumed the sovereignty of an inde
pendent 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 inter
pretation of its charter power, it may be affirmed
to be that in whose transactions you have taken
so deep an interest. The work demanded intel
hgence, and it received it ; it called for devotion
and earnestness, and they were at hand ; and
thus was secured that continuity of effort so re-

382 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
quisite to accomplish the undertaking. With
what judgment the work has been executed, mlist
be left to the decision of our arbiters, the pubUc ;
I fear not the verdict.
Scholarship, the learned have said, was a rare
acquisition in England, untU the time of Bentley.'
a may as truthfully be asserted, that untU the
career of our founder commenced, there was Uttle
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 found else
where 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 tri
umphantly have maintained, was not a mere hoU
day officer, but an untiring laborer in the great
design. The talent he possessed was of pecuhar
value, and under certain circumstances might have
commanded the highest premium. He had a fit
ness 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 pohcy, which, as
occasion demanded, have proved most salutary to

THE SOCIETY. 383
the institution. Their enlightened cooperation
must, on some occasions, have lessened individual
responsibiUty, and Ughtened perplexities in the
path of duty. I am incUned to thiak, that there
is an unity of opinion throughout the Society in
commendation of the manner in wMch the various
.services, rendered by your fiscal and other com
mittees, your secretaries, corresponding and record
ing, have been discharged. In times hke these,
sagacity in finance may be acknowledged wisdom
of the Mghest order ; and the fruits of sound fore
thought, when demonstrated by palpable results,
yield arguments that cannot be demolished. I
have but to add, that your intelUgent and inde
fatigable librarian has nobly fulfilled his account
able appomtment. Every tMng 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 tMs curious repository of historical
material. Where aU deserve commendation, and
there remains nothing for censure, conscious recti
tude yields unadulterated satisfaction to official
capacity. Mr. President : An abiding conviction prevaUs,
that the interests of the Society have been in proper
hands, and controUed by wise counsels. The
memory of your administration wUl long endure

384 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.
with us. The ornamental and stately edifice, in
which we are now gathered, erected by the liber
ality of our citizens, and in an especial manner
by that class so often found generous in good
works, the mercantUe community, wUl, I trust,
stand, for generations to come, a monument of the
pubhc spirit of New York — of her love and devo
tion to the refined and useful — and vindicate to
the rising youth of the nation the estimate wMch
their fathers formed of the blessings of wisdom de
rived from pure historical truth. " If I am rightly
informed, I stand before you at this Anniversary,
among the oldest Uving members of tMs associa
tion. Yet have I consoled myself with the pleasing
thought, while meditating on the eventful occur
rences of this day, that although the sun of my
declining years is nearly set, its last rays, however
feeble, are reflected from the classical waUs of the
New York Historical Society.

FINIS.

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