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diff --git a/10141-0.txt b/10141-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..37466b6 --- /dev/null +++ b/10141-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1252 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10141 *** + +A Discourse on the Life, Character and Writings of Gulian Crommelin +Verplanck + +Delivered before the New-York Historical Society, May 17th, 1870 + +By William Cullen Bryant. + +New York: +Printed for the Society +MDCCCLXX + + + + + + +At a special meeting of the New York Historical Society, held at Steinway +Hall, on Tuesday evening, May 17, 1870, WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT delivered a +discourse on the _Life, Character and Writings of Gulian C. Verplanck_. + +On its conclusion HUGH MAXWELL submitted the following resolution, which +was adopted unanimously: + +_Resolved_, That the thanks of this Society be presented to Mr. BRYANT +for his eloquent and instructive discourse, delivered this evening, and +that he be requested to furnish a copy for publication. + +Extract from the Minutes, + +Andrew Warner, +_Recording Secretary_. + + + + +Officers of the Society, Elected January, 1870. + + +President, Thomas De Witt, D.D. +First Vice-President, Gulian C. Verplanck, LL.D. +Second Vice-President, John A. Dix, LL.D. +Foreign Corresponding Secretary, John Romeyn Brodhead, LL.D. +Domestic Corresponding Secretary, William J. Hoppin. +Recording Secretary, Andrew Warner. +Treasurer, Benjamin H. Field. +Librarian, George H. Moore, LL.D. + + + + +The life of him in honor of whose memory we are assembled, was prolonged +to so late a period and to the last was so full of usefulness, that it +almost seemed a permanent part of the organization and the active movement +of society here. His departure has left a sad vacuity in the framework +which he helped to uphold and adorn. It is as if one of the columns which +support a massive building had been suddenly taken away; the sight of the +space which it once occupied troubles us, and the mind wearies itself in +the unavailing wish to restore it to its place. + +In what I am about to say, I shall put together some notices of the +character, the writings, and the services of this eminent man, but the +portraiture which I shall draw will be but a miniature. To do it full +justice a larger canvas would be required than the one I propose to take. +He acted in so many important capacities; he was connected in so many ways +with our literature, our legislation, our jurisprudence, our public +education, and public charities, that it would require a volume adequately +to set forth the obligations we owe to the exertion of his fine faculties +for the general good. + +Gulian Crommelin Verplanck was born in Wall street, in the city of New +York, on the 6th of August, 1786. The house in which he was born was a +large yellow mansion, standing on the spot on which the Assay Office has +since been built. A little beyond this street, a few rods only, lay the +island of New York in all its original beauty, so that it was but a step +from Wall street to the country. His father, Daniel Crommelin Verplanck, +was a respectable citizen of the old stock of colonists from Holland, who +for several terms was a member of Congress, and whom I remember as a +short, stout old gentleman, commonly called Judge Verplanck, from having +been in the latter years of his life a Judge of the County Court of +Dutchess. Here he resided in the latter years of his life on the +patrimonial estate, where the son, ever since I knew him, was always in +the habit of passing a part of the summer. It had been in the family of +the Verplancks ever since their ancestor Gulian Verplanck with Francis +Rombout, in 1683, purchased it, with other lands, of the Wappinger Indians +for a certain amount of money and merchandize, specified in a deed signed +by the Sachem Sakoraghuck and other chiefs, the spelling of whose names +seems to defy pronunciation. The two purchasers afterwards divided this +domain, and to the Verplancks was assigned a tract which they have ever +since held. + +This fine old estate has a long western border on the Hudson, and extends +easterly for four or five miles to the village of Fishkill. About half a +mile from the great river stands the family mansion, among its ancient +groves, a large stone building of one story when I saw it; with a sharp +roof and dormer windows, beside its old fashioned and well stocked garden. +A winding path leads down to the river's edge, through an ancient forest +which has stood there ever since Hendrick Hudson navigated the river +bearing his name, and centuries before. This mansion was the country +retreat of Mr. Verplanck ever since I knew him, and here it was that his +grandfather on the paternal side, Samuel Verplanck, passed much of his +time during our revolutionary war, in which, although he took no share in +political measures, his inclinations were on the side of the mother +country. This Samuel Verplanck, by a custom which seems not to have become +obsolete in his time, was betrothed when but seven years old to his cousin +Judith Crommelin, the daughter of a wealthy banker of the Huguenot stock +in Amsterdam. When the young gentleman was of the proper age he was sent +to make the tour of Europe, and bring home his bride. He was married in +the banker's great stone house, standing beside a fair Dutch garden, with +a wide marble entrance hall, the counting room on one side of it, and the +drawing room, bright with gilding, on the other. When the grandson, in +after years, visited Amsterdam, the mansion which had often been described +to him by his grandmother, had to him quite a familiar aspect. + +The lady from Amsterdam was particularly accomplished, and versed not only +in several modern languages, but in Greek and Latin, speaking fluently the +Latin, of which the Colloquies of her great countryman, Erasmus, furnish +so rich a store of phrases for ordinary dialogue. Her conversation is said +to have been uncommonly brilliant and her society much sought. During the +revolutionary war her house was open to the British officers, General +Howe, and others, accomplished men, of whom she had many anecdotes to +relate to her grandson, when he came under her care. For the greater part +of this time her husband remained at the country seat in Fishkill, quietly +occupied with his books and the care of his estate. Meantime, she wrote +anxious letters to her father, in Amsterdam, which were answered in neat +French. The banker consoled his daughter by saying that "Mr. Samuel +Verplanck was a man so universally known and honored, both for his +integrity and scholarly attainments, that in the end all would be well." +This proved true; the extensive estate at Fishkill was never confiscated, +and its owner was left unmolested. + +On the mother's side, our friend had an ancestry of quite different +political views. His grandfather, William Samuel Johnson, of Stratford, in +Connecticut, was one of the revolutionary fathers. Before the revolution, +he was the agent of Connecticut in England; when it broke out he took a +zealous part in the cause of the revolted colonies; he was a delegate to +Congress from his State when Congress sat in New York, and he aided in +framing the Constitution of the United States. Afterwards, he was +President of Columbia College from the year 1787 to the year 1800, when, +resigning the post, he returned to Stratford, where he died in 1819, at +the age of ninety-two. His father, the great-grandfather of the subject of +this memoir, was Dr. Samuel Johnson, of Stratford, one of the finest +American scholars of his day, and the first President of Columbia College, +which however, he left after nine years, to return and pass a serene old +age at Stratford. He had been a Congregational minister in Connecticut, +but by reading the works of Barrow and other eminent divines of the +Anglican Church, became a convert to that church, went to England, and +taking orders returned to introduce its ritual into Connecticut. He was +the friend of Bishop Berkeley, whose arm-chair was preserved as an +heir-loom in his family. When in England, he saw Pope, who gave him +cuttings from his Twickenham willow. These he brought from the banks of +the Thames, and planted on the wilder borders of his own beautiful river +the Housatonic, which at Stratford enters the Sound. They were, probably, +the progenitors of all the weeping willows which are seen in this part of +the country, where they rapidly grow to a size which I have never seen +them attain in any other part of the world. + +The younger of these Dr. Johnsons--for they both received the degree of +Doctor of Divinity from the University of Oxford--had a daughter +Elizabeth, who married Daniel Crommelin Verplanck, the son of Samuel +Verplanck, and the only fruit of their marriage was the subject of this +memoir. The fair-haired young mother was a frequent visitor with her child +to Stratford, where, under the willow trees from Twickenham, as appears +from some of her letters, he learned to walk. She died when he was but +three years old, leaving the boy to the care of his grandmother, by whom +he was indulgently yet carefully reared. + +The grandmother is spoken of as a lively little lady, often seen walking +up Wall Street, dressed in pink satin and in dainty high heeled shoes, +with a quaint jewelled watch swinging from her waist. Wall Street was +then the fashionable quarter; the city, still in its embryo stater +extending but a little way above it; it was full of dwelling houses, with +here and there a church, which has long since disappeared. Over that +region of the metropolis where Mammon is worshipped in six days out of +seven, there now broods on Sunday a sepulchral silence, but then the walks +were thronged with churchgoers. The boy was his grandmother's constant +companion. He was trained by her to love books and study, to which, +however, he seems to have had a natural and inherited inclination. It is +said that at a very tender age she taught him to declaim passages from +Latin authors, standing on a table, and rewarded him with hot pound-cake. +Another story is, that she used to put sugar-plums near his bedside, to be +at hand in case he should take a fancy to them in the night. But, as he +was not spoiled by indulgence, it is but fair to conclude that her gentle +method of educating him was tempered by firmness on proper occasions--a +quality somewhat rare in grandmothers. A letter from one of her +descendants playfully says: + +"It is a picture to think of her, seated at a marvellous Dutch bureau, now +in possession of her great-grand-daughters, which is filled with a +complexity of small and mysterious drawers, talking to the child, while +her servant built the powdered tower on her head, or hung the diamond +rings in her ears. Very likely, at such times, the child was thrusting his +little fingers into the rouge pot, or making havoc with the powder, and +perhaps she knew no better way to bring him to order than to tell him of +many of a fright of her own in the war, or she may have gone further back +in history, and told the boy how her and his Huguenot ancestors fled from +France when the bad King Louis forbade every form of worship but his own." + +Dr. Johnson, the grandfather of young Verplanck, on the mother's side, +came from Stratford to be President of Columbia College, the year after +his grandson was born. To him, in an equal degree with his grandmother, we +must give the credit of bringing forward the precocious boy in his early +studies. I have diligently inquired what school he attended and who were +his teachers, but can hear of no other. His father had married again, and +to the lively Huguenot lady was left the almost entire charge of the boy. +He was a born scholar; he took to books as other boys take to marbles; and +the lessons which he received in the household sufficed to prepare him for +entering college when yet a mere child, at eleven years of age. He took +his first degree four years afterwards, in 1801, one year after his +maternal grandfather had returned to Stratford. To that place he very +frequently resorted in his youth, and there, in the well-stored and +well-arranged library he pursued the studies he loved. The tradition is +that he conned his Greek lessons lying flat on the floor with his thumb in +his mouth, and the fingers of the other hand employed in twisting a lock +of the brown, hair on his forehead. He took no pleasure in fishing or in +hunting; I doubt whether he ever let off a fowling-piece or drew a trout +from the brook in his life. He was fond of younger children, and would +recreate himself in play with his little relatives, but was no visitor to +other families. His contemporaries, Washington Irving, James K. Paulding, +and Governeur Kemble, had their amusements and frolics, in which he took +no part. According to Mr. Kemble, the elder men of the time held up to the +youths the example of young Verplanck, so studious and accomplished, and +so ready with every kind of knowledge, and withal of such faultless +habits, as a model for their imitation. + +I have said that his relatives on the mother's side were of a different +political school from his high tory grandmother. From them he would hear +of the inalienable rights of the people, and the duty, under certain +circumstances, of revolution; from her he would hear of the obligation of +loyalty and obedience. The Johnsons would speak of the patriotism, the +wisdom, and the services of Franklin; the grandmother of the virtues and +accomplishments of Cornwallis. The boy, of course, had to choose between +these different sides, and he chose the side of his country and of the +people. + +I think that I perceive in these circumstances how it was that the mind of +Verplanck was educated to that independence of judgment, and that +self-reliance, which in after life so eminently distinguished it. He never +adopted an opinion for the reason that it had been adopted by another. On +some points--on more, I think, than is usual with most men--he was content +not to decide, but when he formed an opinion it was his own. He had no +hesitation in differing from others if he saw reason; indeed, he sometimes +showed that he rather liked to differ, or chose at least, by questioning +their opinions, to intimate that they were prematurely formed. Another +result of the peculiar political education which I have described, was the +fairness with which he judged of the characters and motives of men who +were not of his party. I saw much, very much of him while he was a member +of Congress, when political animosities were at their fiercest, and I must +say that I never knew a party man who had less party rancor, or who was +more ready to acknowledge in his political opponents the good qualities +which they really possessed. + +After taking his degree he read law in the office of Josiah Ogden Hoffman, +an eminent member of the New York bar, much esteemed in social life, whose +house was the resort of the best company in New York. His first public +address, a Fourth of July oration, was delivered when he was eighteen +years of age. It was printed, but no copy of it is now to be found. In due +season he was admitted to the bar, and opened an office for the practice +of law in New York. A letter from Dr. Moore, formerly President of +Columbia College, relates that Verplanck and himself took an office +together on the east side of Pearl street, opposite to Hanover square. +"Little business as I had then," proceeds the Doctor, "he seemed to have +still less. Indeed I am not aware that he had, or cared to have, any legal +business whatever. He spent much of his time out of the office and was not +very studious when within, but it was evident that he read or had read +elsewhere to good purpose, for though I read more Greek than law and +thought myself studious, I had occasion to discover more than once that he +was a better Grecian than I, and could enlighten my ignorance." From other +sources I learn that in his legal studies he delighted in the reports of +law cases in Norman French, that he was fond of old French literature, and +read Rabelais in the perplexing French of the original. It is mentioned in +some accounts of his life that he was elected in 1811 to the New York +House of Assembly by a party called the malcontents, but I have not had +the means of verifying this account, nor am I able to discover what were +the objects for which the party called malcontents was formed. In this +year an incident occurred of more importance to him than his election to +the Assembly. + +On the 8th of August, 1811, the Annual Commencement of Columbia College +was held in Trinity Church. Among those who were to receive the degree of +Bachelor of Arts was a young man named Stevenson, who had composed an +oration to be delivered on the platform. It contained some passages of a +political nature, insisting on the duty of a representative to obey the +will of his constituents. Political parties were at that time much +exasperated against each other, and Dr. Wilson of the College, to whom the +oration was submitted, acting it was thought at the suggestion of Dr. John +Mason, the eloquent divine, who was then Provost of the College, struck +out the passages in question and directed that they should be omitted in +the delivery. Stevenson spoke them notwithstanding, and was then privately +informed by one of the professors that his degree would be denied him. +Yet, when the diplomas were delivered, he mounted the platform with the +other graduates and demanded the degree of Dr. Mason. It was refused +because of his disobedience. Mr. Hugh Maxwell, afterwards eminent as an +advocate, sprang upon the platform and appealed to the audience against +this denial of what he claimed to be the right of Stevenson. Great +confusion followed, shouts, applauses and hisses, in the midst of which +Verplanck appeared on the platform saying: "The reasons are not +satisfactory; Mr. Maxwell must be supported," and then he moved "that the +thanks of the audience be given to Mr. Maxwell for his spirited defence of +an injured man." It was some time before the tumult could be allayed, the +audience taking part with the disturbers; but the result was that Maxwell, +Verplanck, and several others were prosecuted for riot in the Mayor's +Court. DeWitt Clinton was then Mayor of New York. In his charge to the +jury he inveighed with great severity against the accused, particularly +Verplanck, of whose conduct he spoke as a piece of matchless impudence, +and declared the disturbance to be one of the grossest and most shameless +outrages he had ever known. They were found guilty; Maxwell, Verplanck, +and Stevenson were fined two hundred dollars each, and several others +less. An appeal was entered by the accused but afterwards withdrawn. I +have heard one of our judges express a doubt whether this disturbance +could properly be considered as a riot, but they did not choose to avail +themselves of the doubt, if there was any, and submitted. + +There is this extenuation of the rashness of these young men, that Dr. +Mason, to whom was attributed the attempt to suppress certain passages in +Stevenson's oration, was himself in the habit of giving free expression to +his political sentiments in the pulpit. He belonged to the federal party, +Stevenson to the party then called republican. + +I have said the accused submitted; but the phrase is scarcely accurate. +Verplanck took his own way of obtaining redress, and annoyed Clinton with +satirical attacks for several years afterward. Some of these appeared in a +newspaper called the _Corrector_, but those which attracted the most +attention, were the pamphlets styled Letters of Abimelech Coody, Ladies' +Shoemaker, the first of which was published in 1811, addressed to Dr. +Samuel Latham Mitchell. + +The war went on until Clinton or some friend was provoked to answer in a +pamphlet entitled An Account of Abimelech Coody and other celebrated +Worthies of New York, in a Letter from a Traveller. The writer saterizes +not only Verplanck, but James K. Paulding and Washington Irving, of whose +History of New York he speaks disparagingly. In what he says of Verplanck +he allows himself to refer to his figure and features as subjects of +ridicule. This war I think was closed by the publication of "The Bucktail +Bards," as the little volume is called, which contains The State +Triumvirate, a Political Tale, and the Epistles of Brevet Major Pindar +Puff. These I have heard spoken of as the joint productions of Verplanck +and Rudolph Bunner, a scholar and a man of wit. The State Triumvirate is +in octo-syllabic verse, and in the manner of Swift, but the allusions are +obscure, and it is a task to read it. The notes, in which the hand of +Verplanck is very apparent, are intelligible enough and are clever, +caustic and learned. The Epistles, which are in heroic verse, have +striking passages, and the notes are of a like incisive character. De Witt +Clinton, then Governor of the State, valued himself on his devotion to +science and literature, but he was sometimes obliged, in his messages and +public discourses, to refer to compends which are in every body's hands, +and his antagonists made this the subject of unsparing ridicule. + +In the family of Josiah Ogden Hoffman, lived Mary Eliza Fenno, the sister +of his wife, and daughter of John Ward Fenno, originally of Boston, and +afterwards proprietor of a newspaper published in Philadelphia, entitled +the _Gazette of the United States_. Between this young lady and Verplanck +there grew up an attachment, and in 1811 they were married. I have seen an +exquisite miniature of her by Malbone, taken in her early girlhood when +about fifteen years old--beautiful as an angel, with light chestnut hair +and a soft blue eye, in the look of which is a touch of sadness, as if +caused by some dim presentiment of her early death. I remember hearing +Miss Sedgwick say that she should always think the better of Verplanck for +having been the husband of Eliza Fenno. Several of her letters written to +him before their marriage are preserved, which, amidst the sprightliness +natural to her age, show a more than usual thoughtfulness. She rallies him +on being adopted by the mob, and making harangues at ward meetings. She +playfully chides him for wandering from the Apostolic Church to hear +popular preachers and clerks that sing well; which she regards as crimes +against the memory of his ancestors--an allusion to that part of the +family pedigree which traced his descent in some way from the royal line +of the Stuarts. She rallies him on his passion for old books, remarking +that some interesting works had just appeared which must be kept from him +till he reaches the age of three score, when they will be fit for his +perusal. She writes to him from Boston, that he is accounted there an +amazingly plain spoken man--he had called the Boston people heretics. She +writes to him in Stratford, imagining him in Bishop Berkeley's arm-chair, +surrounded by family pictures and huge folios. These letters were +carefully preserved by her husband till his death, along with various +memorials of her whom he had lost; locks of her sunny brown hair, the +diamond ring which he had placed on her finger when they were engaged to +each other, wrapt in tresses of the same bright hair, and miniatures of +her, which the family never heard of till he died; all variously disposed +among the papers in the drawers of his desk; so that whenever he opened +it, he might be reminded of her, and her memory might become a part of his +daily life. With these were preserved some letters of his own, written to +her about the same time, and of a sportive character. In one of these he +laments the passing away of the good old customs, and simple ways of +living in the country, supplanted by the usages of town life. Everybody +was then reading Coelebs in Search of a Wife, and Verplanck who had just +been looking over some of the writings of Wilberforce, sees in it +resemblances to his style, which led him to set down Wilberforce as the +author. + +He lived with his young wife five years, and she bore him two sons, one of +whom died at the age of thirty unmarried, and the other has become the +father of a numerous family. Her health failing he took her to Europe, in +the hope that it might be restored by a change of air and scene, but after +languishing a while she died at Paris, in the year 1817. She sleeps in the +cemetery of Pere La Chaise, among monuments inscribed with words strange +to her childhood, while he, after surviving her for sixty-three years, yet +never forgetting her, is laid in the ancestral burying ground at Fishkill, +and the Atlantic ocean rolls between their graves. + +He remained in Europe a little while after this event, and having looked +at what the continent had to show him, went over to England. In his +letters to his friends at home he spoke pathetically of the loss of her +who was the blessing of his life, of the delight with which, had she +lived, she would have looked at so many things in the old world now +attracting his attention; and of the misfortune of his children to be +deprived of her care and guidance. In one of his letters he speaks +enthusiastically of the painter, Allston, with whose genius he was deeply +impressed as he looked on the grand picture of Daniel interpreting the +Dream of Belshazzar, then begun but never to be finished. In the same +letter he relates this anecdote: + +"You may expect another explosion of mad poetry from Lord Byron. Lord +Holland, who returned from Geneva, a few days ago, told Mr. Gallatin that +he was the bearer of a considerable cargo of verses from his lordship to +Murray the publisher, the subject not known. That you may have a higher +relish for the new poem, I give you a little anecdote which is told in +London. Some time ago Lord Byron's books were sold at auction, where a +gentleman purchased a splendid edition of Shakespeare. When it was sent +home a volume was missing. After several fruitless inquiries of the +auctioneer the purchaser went to Byron. 'What play was in the volume?' +asked he. 'I think Othello,' 'Ah! I remember. I was reading that when Lady +Byron did something to vex me. I threw the book at her head and she +carried it out of the room. Inquire of some of her people and you will get +your book.'" + +While abroad, Verplanck fell in with Dr. Mason, who had refused Stephenson +his degree. The two travellers took kindly to each other, and the +unpleasant affair of the college disturbance was forgotten. + +In 1818, after his return from Europe, he delivered before this Society +the noble Anniversary Discourse in which he commemorates the virtues and +labors of some of those illustrious men who, to use his words, "have most +largely contributed to raise or support our national institutions, and to +form or elevate our national character." Las Casas, Roger Williams, +William Penn, General Oglethorpe, Professor Luzac, and Berkeley are among +the worthies whom he celebrates. It has always seemed to me that this is +one of the happiest examples in our language of the class of compositions +to which it belongs, both as regards the general scope and the execution, +and it is read with as much interest now as when it was first written. + +Mr. Verplanck was elected in 1820 a member of the New York House of +Assembly, but I do not learn that he particularly distinguished himself +while in that body. In the year following he was appointed, in the General +Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church, Professor of the Evidences +of Revealed Religion and Moral Science in its relations to Theology. For +four years he performed the duties of this Professorship, with what +ability is shown by his Treatise on the Evidences of Christianity, the +fruit of his studies during this interval. It is principally a clear and +impressive view of that class of proofs of the Christian religion which +have a direct relation to the intellectual and moral wants of mankind. For +he was a devout believer in the Christian gospel, and cherished religious +convictions for the sake of their influence on the character and the life. +This work was published in 1824, about the time that he resigned his +Professorship. + +It was in 1824, that, on a visit to New York, I first became acquainted +with Verplanck. On the appearance of a small volume of poems of mine, +containing one or two which have been the most favorably received, he +wrote, in 1822, some account of them for the New York American, a daily +paper which not long before had been established by his cousin, Johnson +Verplanck, in conjunction with the late Dr. Charles King. He spoke of them +at considerable length and in the kindest manner. As I was then an unknown +literary adventurer, I could not but be grateful to the hand that was so +cordially held out to welcome me, and when I came to live in New York, in +1825, an intimacy began in which I suspect the advantage was all on my +side. + +It was in 1825 that he published his Essay on the Doctrine of Contracts, +in which he maintained that the transaction between the buyer and seller +of a commodity should be one of perfect frankness and an entire absence of +concealment; that the seller should be held to disclose everything within +his knowledge which would affect the price of what he offered for sale, +and that the maxim which is compressed into the two Latin words, _caveat +emptor_--the maxim that the buyer takes the risk of a bad bargain--is not +only a selfish but a knavish and immoral rule of conduct, and should not +be recognized by the tribunals. The question is ably argued on the grounds +of an elevated morality--but I have heard jurists object to the doctrine +of this essay, that if it were to prevail it would greatly multiply the +number of lawsuits. + +In 1825, Mr Verplanck was elected one of the three Representatives in +Congress, to which this city was then entitled. He immediately +distinguished himself as a working member. This appellation is given in +Congress to members who labor faithfully in Committees, consider petitions +and report upon them, investigate claims, inquire into matters referred to +their judgment, frame bills and present them through their Chairman. +Besides these, there are the talking members who take part in every +debate, often without knowing anything of the question, save what they +learn while the debate is proceeding, and the idle members, who do nothing +but vote--generally I believe, without knowing anything of the question +whatever; but to neither of these classes did Verplanck belong. He was a +diligent, useful, and valued member of the Committee of Ways and Means, +and at an important period of our political history was its Chairman. + +Then arose the great controversy concerning the right of a State to +refuse obedience at pleasure to any law of Congress, a right contended for +under the name of nullification by some of the most eminent men of the +South, whose ability, political influence, and power of putting a +plausible face on their heresy, gave their cause at first an appearance of +great strength, and seemed to threaten the very existence of the Union. + +With their denial of the binding force of any law of Congress which a +State might think proper to set aside, these men combined another +argument. They denied the power of Congress, under the Constitution, to +levy duties on imported merchandize, for the purpose of favoring the home +manufacturer, and maintained that it could only lay duties for the sake of +raising a revenue. Mr. Verplanck favored neither this view nor their +theory of nullification. He held that the power to lay duties being given +to Congress, without reservation by the Constitution, the end or motive of +laying them was left to the discretion of the Legislature. He showed also +that the power to regulate commerce given to that body in the +Constitution, was, from an early period in our history, held to imply a +right, by laying duties, to favor particular traffics, products or +fabrics. + +This view of the subject was presented with great skill and force in a +pamphlet entitled "A Letter to Colonel William Drayton, of South +Carolina," published in 1831. Mr. Verplanck was through life a friend to +the freedom of exchange, but he would not use in its favor any argument +which did not seem to him just. His pamphlet was so ably reasoned that +William Leggett said to him, in my presence, "Mr. Verplanck, you have +convinced me; I was, till now, of a different opinion from yours, but you +have settled the question against me. I now see that whatever may be the +injustice of protective duties, Congress has the constitutional right to +impose them." + +It was while this controversy was going on that President Jackson issued +his proclamation warning those who resisted the revenue laws that their +resistance was regarded as rebellion, and would be quelled at the +bayonet's point. Mr. Calhoun and his friends were not prepared for this: +indeed, I do not think that in any of his plans for the separate action of +the slave States, he contemplated a resort to arms on either side. They +looked about them to find some plausible pretext for submission, and this +the country was not unwilling to give. It was generally admitted that the +duties on imported goods ought to be reduced, and Mr. McLane, Secretary of +the Treasury, and Mr. Verplanck, Chairman of the Committee of Ways and +Means, each drew up a plan for lessening the burdens of the tariff. + +Mr. McLane had just returned from a successful mission to Great Britain, +and had the advantage of considerable personal popularity. He was a +moderate protectionist, and with great pains drew up a scheme of duties +which kept the protection of home manufactures in view. Some branches of +industry, he thought, were so far advanced that they would bear a small +reduction of the duty; others a still larger; others were yet so weak that +they could not prosper unless the whole existing duty was retained. The +scheme was laid before Congress, but met with little attention from any +quarter; the southern politicians regarded it with scorn, as made up of +mere cheese-parings. Mr. Verplanck's plan of a tariff was more liberal. He +was not a protectionist, and his scheme contemplated a large reduction of +duties--as large as it was thought could possibly be adopted by +Congress--yet so framed as to cause as little inconvenience as might be to +the manufacturers. It was thought that Mr. Calhoun and his friends would +readily accept it as affording them a not ignoble retreat from their +dangerous position. + +While these projects were before Congress, Mr. Littell, a gentleman of the +free-trade school, and now editor of the "Living Age," drew up a scheme of +revenue reform more thorough than either of the others. It proposed to +reduce the duties annually until, at the end of ten years the principle of +protection, which was what the southern politicians complained of, should +disappear from the tariff, and a system of duties take, its place which +should in no case exceed the rate of twenty per cent, on the value of the +commodity imported. The draft of this scheme was shown to Mr. Clay: he saw +at once that it would satisfy the southern politicians; he adopted it, +brought it before Congress, urged its enactment in several earnest +speeches, and by the help of his great influence over his party it was +rapidly carried through both houses, under the name of the Compromise +Tariff, to the astonishment of the friends of free-trade, the mill owners, +the Secretary of the Treasury, the Committee of Ways and Means, and, I +think, the country at large. I thought it hard measure for Mr. Verplanck +that the credit of this reform should be taken out of his hands by one who +had always been the great advocate of protective duties; but this was one +of the fortunate strokes of policy which Mr. Clay, when in the vigor of +his faculties, had the skill to make. He afterwards defended the measure +as inflicting no injury upon the manufacturers, and it never appeared to +lessen the good will which his party bore him. + +About this time I was witness to a circumstance which showed the sagacity +of Mr. Verplanck in estimating the consequences of political measures. Mr. +Van Buren had been sent by President Jackson as our Minister to the +British Court while Congress was not in session, and the nomination yet +awaited confirmation by the Senate. It led to a long and spirited debate, +in which Mr. Marcy uttered the memorable maxim: "To the victor belong the +spoils of the enemy," which was so often quoted against him. I was in +Washington, dining with Mr. Verplanck, when the vote on this nomination +was taken. As we were at the table, two of the Senators, Dickinson, of New +Jersey, and Tazewell, of Virginia, entered. Verplanck, turning to them, +asked eagerly: "How has it gone?" Dickinson, extending his left arm, with +the fingers closed, swept the other hand over it, striking the fingers +open, to signify that the nomination was rejected. "There," said +Verplanck, "that makes Van Buren President of the United States." +Verplanck was by no means a partizan of Van Buren, but he saw what the +effect of that vote would be, and his prediction was, in due time, +verified. + +While in Congress, Mr. Verplanck procured the enactment of a law for the +further security of literary property. To use his own words, it "gave +additional security to the property of authors and artists in their works, +and more than doubled the term of legal protection to them, besides +simplifying the law in various respects." It was passed in 1831, though +Mr. Verplanck had begun to urge the measure three years before, when he +brought in a bill for the purpose, but party strife was then at its +height, and little else than the approaching elections were thought of by +the members of Congress. When party heat had cooled a little, he gained +their attention, and his bill became a law. If we had now in Congress a +member so much interested for the rights of authors and artists, and at +the same time so learned, so honored, and so persevering, we might hope +that the inhospitable usage which makes the property of the American +author in Great Britain and of the British author in the United States the +lawful prize of whosoever chooses to appropriate it to himself, would be +abolished. + +A dinner was given to Verplanck on his return from Washington, in the name +of several literary gentlemen of New York, but the expense was, in fact, +defrayed by a generous and liberal-minded bookseller, Elam Bliss, who held +authors in high veneration and only needed a more discriminating +perception of literary merit to make him, in their eyes at least, a +perfect bookseller. On this occasion Mr. Verplanck spoke well and modestly +of the part he had taken in procuring the passage of the new law; +mentioned with especial honor the "first and ablest champion" who had then +"appeared in this cause," the Hon. Willard Phillips, who had discussed the +question in the "North American Review;" referred to the opinions of +various eminent publicists, and pointed out that our own Constitution had +recognized the right of literary property while it left to Congress the +duty of securing it. He closed with an animated view of what American +literature ought to be and might be under circumstances favorable to its +wholesome and vigorous growth. We listened with delight and were proud of +our Representative. + +During Mr. Verplanck's fourth and last term in Congress he became +separated from his associates of the Democratic party by a difference in +regard to the Bank of the United States. General Jackson had laid rough +hands on this institution and removed to the State banks the public money +which had till then been entrusted to its keeping. Many of our best men +had then a high opinion of the utility of the bank, and thought much +better of its management than, as afterwards appeared, it deserved. The +Whig party declared itself in favor of the bank. Mr. Calhoun and the +Southern politicians of his immediate school joined them on this question, +and Mr. Verplanck, who regarded the bank with a friendly eye, found +himself on the same side, which proved to be the minority. The time +arrived for another election of members of Congress from this City. The +Democratic party desired to re-elect Mr. Verplanck, if some assurance +could be obtained from him that he would not oppose the policy of the +Administration in regard to the bank. That party understood very well his +merits and his usefulness, and made a strong effort to retain him, but he +would give no assurance, even to pursue a neutral course, on the bank +question, and accordingly his name was reluctantly dropped from their +list of nominations. A long separation ensued between him and those who up +to that time had been his political associates. + +In 1834, the Whig party, looking for a strong candidate for the Mayoralty +of the City, offered the nomination to Verplanck, who accepted it. On the +other side, the Democrats brought forward Cornelius W. Lawrence, a man of +popular manners and unquestioned integrity. Those were happy days when, in +voting for a Mayor, the citizen could be certain that he would not vote +amiss, and that whoever succeeded in the election, the City was sure of an +honest man for its chief officer. One would have thought that this +consideration might make the election a quiet one, but it was not so; the +struggle was for party supremacy, and it was violent on both sides. At +that time the polls were kept open for three days, and each day the +excitement increased; disorders took place; some heads were broken, and at +last it appeared that Lawrence was elected Mayor by a majority of about +two hundred votes. + +While in Congress, Verplanck had leisure, during the interval between one +session and another, for literary occupations. He wrote about one-third of +an annual collection of miscellanies entitled, the "Talisman," which was +published by Dr. Bliss in the year 1827 and the two following years. To +these volumes he contributed the "Peregrinations of Petrus Mudd," a +humorous and lively sketch, founded on the travels of a New Yorker of the +genuine old stock, who when he returned from wandering over all Europe and +part of Asia, set himself down to study geography in order to know where +he had been. Of the graver articles he wrote "De Gourges," a chapter from +the history of the Huguenot colonists of this country, "Gelyna, a Tale of +Albany and Ticonderoga," and several others. In conjunction with Robert C. +Sands, a writer of a peculiar vein of quaint humor, he contributed two +papers to the collection, entitled "Scenes in Washington," of a humorous +and satirical character. He disliked the manual labor of writing and was +fond of dictating while another held the pen. I was the third contributor +to the "Talisman," and sometimes acted as his amanuensis. In estimating +Verplanck's literary character, these compositions, some of which are +marked by great beauty of style and others by a rich humor, should not be +over-looked. The first volume of the "Talisman" was put in type by a young +Englishman named Cox, who, while working at his desk as a printer, +composed a clever review of the work, which appeared in the "New York +Mirror," and of which Verplanck often spoke with praise. + +In 1833, Verplanck collected his public speeches into a volume. Among +these is one delivered in August of that year, at Columbia College, in +which he holds up to imitation the illustrious examples of great men +educated at that institution. In one of those passages of stately +eloquence which he knew so well to frame, he speaks of the worth of his +old adversary, De Witt Clinton, the first graduate of the College after +the peace of 1783, and pays due "honor to that lofty ambition which taught +him to look to designs of grand utility, and to their successful execution +as his arts of gaining or redeeming the confidence of a generous and +public spirited people." In the same discourse he pronounced the eulogy of +Dr. Mason, who had died a few days before. In the same year, Verplanck, at +Geneva College, delivered an address on the "Right Moral Influence and Use +of Liberal Studies," and the next year, at Amherst College, another on the +converse of that subject, namely, the "Influence of Moral Causes upon +Opinion, Science and Literature." In 1836, he gave a discourse on "the +Advantages and Dangers of the American Scholar." Of these addresses let me +say, that I know of no compositions of their class which I read with more +pleasure or more instruction. Enlarged views, elevated sentiments, a +hopeful and courageous spirit, a wide knowledge of men and men's recorded +experience, and a manly dignity of style, mark them all as the productions +of no common mind. + +After separating from the Democratic party, Mr. Verplanck was elected by +the Whigs, in 1837, to the Senate of the State of New York, while that +body was yet a Court for the Correction of Errors,--a tribunal of the +last resort,--and in that capacity decided questions of law of the highest +magnitude and importance. Nothing in his life was more remarkable than the +new character in which he now appeared. The practiced statesman, the +elegant scholar and the writer of graceful sketches, the satirist, the +critic, the theologian, started up a profound jurist. During the four +years in which he sat in this Court, he heard the arguments in nearly +every case which came before it, and delivered seventy-one opinions--not +simply his written conclusions, but elaborate judgments founded on the +closest investigation of the questions submitted, the most careful and +exhaustive examination of authorities, and a practical, comprehensive and +familiar acquaintance with legal rules and principles, even those of the +most technical nature, which astonished those who knew that he had never +appeared for a client in Court, or sat before in a judicial tribunal. I +use in this the language of an able lawyer, Judge Daly, who has made this +part of Verplanck's labors a subject of special study. + +As examples of his judicial ability, I may instance his examination of the +whole structure of our State and Federal Government in the case of +Delafield against the State of Illinois, where the question came up +whether an individual could sue a State; his survey of the whole law of +marine insurance and the principles on which it is founded, in the case of +the American Insurance Company against Bryan; his admirable statement of +the reasons on which rests the law of prescription, or right established +by usage, in the case of Post against Pearsall; his exposition of the +extent of the right which in this country the owners of land on the +borders of rivers and navigable streams have in the bed of the river, in +Kempshall's case--a masterly opinion, in which the whole Court concurred. +I might also mention the great case of Alice Lispenard, in which he +considered the degree of mental capacity requisite to make a will, a case +involving a vast amount of property in this city, decided by his opinion. +There is also the case of Smith against Acker, relating to the taint of +fraud in mortgages of personal property, in which he carried the Court +with him against the Chancellor and overturned all the previous decisions. +Not less important is his elaborate, learned and exhaustive opinion in the +case of Thompson against the People, decided by a single vote and by his +opinion,--in which he examined the true nature of franchises conferred on +individuals in this country by the sovereign power, the right to construct +bridges over navigable streams, and the proper operation of the writ of +_quo warranto_. These opinions of Verplanck form an important part of the +legal literature of our State. If he had made the law his special pursuit, +and been placed on the bench of one of our higher tribunals, there is no +degree of judicial eminence to which he might not have aspired. The +Standing Committee of the Diocese of New York, of which he was a member, +in their resolutions expressive of sorrow for his death, spoke of him as +one whose judicial wisdom and familiarity with the principles and practice +of the law, made his counsels of the highest value. + +In 1844, after, I doubt not, some years of previous study, appeared the +first number of Verplanck's edition of Shakespeare, issued by Harper & +Brothers. The numbers appeared from time to time till 1847, when the work +was completed. He made some corrections of the text but never rashly; he +selected the notes of other commentators with care; he added some +excellent ones of his own, and wrote admirable critical and historical +prefaces to the different plays. This edition has always seemed to me the +very one for which the general reader has occasion. + +Almost ever since the American Revolution a Board of Regents of the +University of the State of New York has existed, on which is laid the duty +of visiting and superintending in a general way our institutions of +education above the degree of Common Schools. It consists of twenty-three +members, including the Governor and Lieutenant-Governor, the Secretary of +State and the Superintendent of Public Instruction; the other nineteen +members are appointed by the Legislature. The Board assists at the +incorporation of all colleges and academies, looks into their condition, +interposes in certain specified cases, receives reports from them and +makes annual reports to the Legislature, and confers by diploma such +degrees as are granted by any college or university in Europe. Mr. +Verplanck was appointed a member of this Board in 1826, in place of +Matthew Clarkson, who had been a Regent ever since 1787. In 1855 he was +appointed Vice-Chancellor of the University, and to the time of his death +punctually attended the meetings of the Board, shared in its discussions +and bore his part in its various duties. In 1844 the State Library was +placed under the superintendence of the Regents. Mr. Verplanck was +immediately put on the Library Committee, where his knowledge of books and +editions of books made his services invaluable. There were then about ten +thousand volumes in the collection, and many of these consisted of broken +sets. Under the care of the Regents--Mr. Verplanck principally, who gave +it his particular attention--it has grown into a well selected, well +arranged library of more than eighty-two thousand volumes. About the same +time the State Cabinets of Natural History were put under the care of the +Board, and these have equally prospered, every year adding to their +extent, until now the Regents publish annually, catalogues of the +additions made to them from various sources, and, occasionally, papers +communicated by experts in natural history. + +Every year in the month of August a University Convocation is held at +Albany, to which are invited all the leading teachers and professors of +our colleges and academies, and carefully prepared papers relating to +education are read. At the first of these conventions, in 1863, Mr. D.J. +Pratt, now the Assistant Secretary of the Board, had read a paper on +"Language as the Chief Educator and the noblest Liberal Art," in which he +dwelt upon the importance of studying the ancient classic authors in their +original tongues. Mr. Verplanck remarked that in what he had to say he +would content himself with relating an anecdote respecting the first +Napoleon, which he had from a private source, and which had never been in +print. The Emperor wishing to keep himself advised of what was passing in +the University of France, yet without attracting public attention, was +wont on certain occasions to send to the University a trustworthy and +intelligent person from his household, who was to bring back a report. +This man at one time reported that the question of paying more attention +to the mathematical sciences had been agitated. On this Napoleon exclaimed +with emphasis: "Go to the Polytechnic for mathematics, but classics, +classics, classics for the University." At another time Verplanck, still +occupied with his favorite studies, gave the convention an address on the +pronunciation of the Latin language, in which he came to the conclusion +that of all the branches of the Latin race, the Portuguese in their +pronunciation of Latin make the nearest approach to that of the ancient +Romans. He was desired by the members of the Board to write out the +address for publication, but this was never done. Verplanck, as I have +already remarked, was an unwilling scribe, and did not like to handle the +pen. + +The Annual Reports of the Regents, which are voluminous documents, give +much the same view of the arrangements for public education in the State +as is obtained of a country by looking down upon it from an observatory. +Every college, every academy, every school, not merely a private +enterprise, and above the degree of common schools, makes its yearly +report to the Regents, and these are embodied in the general report which +they make to the Legislature, so that the whole great system, with all its +appendages, its libraries, its revenues, its expenditures, the number of +its teachers and its pupils, and the opportunities of instruction which it +gives, lies before the eye of the reader. It now comprehends twenty +Colleges of Literature and Science, three Law Departments, two Medical +Colleges, two hundred or more Academies, or Schools of that class, besides +the Normal School at Albany. + +In his discourse delivered before this Society in 1818, Mr. Verplanck had +apostrophized his native country as the Land of Refuge. He could not then +have foreseen how well in after times it would deserve this name, nor +what labors and responsibilities the care of that mighty throng who resort +to our shores for work and bread would cast upon him. Shortly before the +year 1847 the number of emigrants from Europe arriving in our country had +rapidly and surprisingly increased. The famine in Ireland had caused the +people of that island to migrate to ours in swarms like those which the +populous North poured from her frozen loins to overwhelm the Roman Empire. +In the ten years from 1845 to 1854 inclusive, more than a million and a +half of Irish emigrants left the United Kingdom. The emigration from +Germany had also prodigiously increased and promised to become still +larger. All these were exposed, and the Germans in a particular manner, on +account of their ignorance of our language, to the extortions of a knavish +class, called runners, and of the keepers of boarding-houses, who often +defrauded them of all that they possessed, and left them to charity. Most +of those who, after these extortions, had the means, made their way into +the interior and settled upon farms, but a large number remained to become +inmates of the almshouse, or to starve and sicken in crowded and +unwholesome rooms. Mr. Kapp, for some time a Commissioner of Emigration, +relates, in his interesting work on Emigration, an example of the manner +in which these poor creatures were cheated. An emigrant came to a +boarding-house keeper to pay his bill: "It is eighteen dollars," said the +landlord. "Why," said the emigrant, "did you not agree to board me for +sixpence a meal and threepence for a bed?" "Yes," was the answer, "and +that is just seventy-five cents a day; you have been here eight days, and +that makes just eighteen dollars." + +These things had become a grievous scandal, and it was clear that +something must be done to protect the emigrant from pillage, and the +country from the burden of his support. The Act of May, 1847, was +therefore passed by the New York Legislature. It named six gentlemen of +the very highest character, Gulian C. Verplanck, James Boorman, Jacob +Harvey, Robert B. Minturn, William F. Havemeyer, and David C. Colden, who +were to form a Board of Commissioners of Emigration, charged with the +oversight and care of this vast influx of strangers from the Old World. To +these were added the Mayors of New York and Brooklyn, and the Presidents +of the German Society and the Irish Emigrant Society. Every master of a +vessel was, within twenty-four hours of his arrival, to give this Board a +list of his passengers, with a report of their origin, age, occupation, +condition, health and other particulars, and either give bonds to save the +community from the cost of maintaining them in case they became paupers, +or pay for each of them the sum of two dollars and a half. The payment of +money has been preferred, and this has put into the hands of the +Commissioners a liberal revenue, faithfully applied to the advantage of +the emigrants. + +Mr. Havemeyer was chosen President of the Board, but resigned the office +after a few months, and was succeeded in it by Mr. Verplanck, who held it +till the day of his death. Under the management of the Commissioners, the +Bureau of Emigration, becoming with almost every year more perfectly +adapted to its purpose, has grown to vast dimensions, till it is now like +one of the departments of government in a great empire. Whoever passes by +Ward's Island, where the tides of the East River and the Sound meet and +rush swiftly to and fro through their narrow channels, will have some idea +of what the Board has done as he sees the domes and spires of that great +cluster of buildings, forming a vast caravanserai in which the poorer +class of emigrants are temporarily lodged, before they can be sent into +the interior or find employment here. Here are barracks for the men, a +spacious building for the women and children, a nursery for children of a +tender age, Catholic and Protestant chapels, a dispensary, workshops, a +lunatic asylum, fever wards, surgical wards, storehouses, residences of +the physicians and other persons employed in the care of the place, and +out-houses and offices of various kinds. Here, too, rise the stately +turrets of the spacious new hospital styled the Verplanck Emigrant +Hospital, in honor of the great philanthropist, for such his constant and +noiseless labors in this department of charity entitle him to be called. + +The Commissioners found that they could not protect the emigrants from +imposition without a special landing place from which they could wholly +exclude the rascal crew who cheated them. It took eight years to obtain +this from the New York Legislature, but at last, in 1855, it was granted, +and the old fort at the foot of Manhattan Island, called Castle Garden, +was leased for this purpose. This is now the Emigrants' Landing, the gate +of the New World for those who, pressing westward, throng into it from the +Old. Night and day it is open, and through this passage the vast tide of +stranger population, which is to mingle with and swell our own, rushes +like the current of the Bosphorus from the Black Sea towards the Propontis +and the Hellespont, to help fill the great basin of the Mediterranean. +What will be the condition of mankind when the populations of the two +hemispheres, the East and the West, shall have found, as they must, a +common level, and when the human race, now struggling for room in its +ancient abodes, shall look in vain for some unoccupied region where a +virgin soil is waiting to reward the laborer with bread? + +As he enters Castle Garden the emigrant undergoes inspection by a +competent physician, and if he be aged, sick, or in any way disabled, the +master of the vessel must give a special bond for his maintenance. He is +introduced into the building--here he finds one department in which he is +duly registered, another from which he receives such information as a +stranger requires, another from which his luggage is dispatched to its +destination, another at which attend clerks, skilled in the languages of +continental Europe, to write his letters, another at which railway tickets +are procured without danger of extortion, another at which fair +arrangements are made with boarding houses, another from which, if sick or +destitute, he is sent to Ward's Island, and half a dozen others, important +as helps to one who has no knowledge of the usages of the country to which +he has come. I refer to these arrangements, among a multitude of others, +in order to show what administrative talent and what constant attention +were necessary to ensure the regular and punctual working of so vast a +system. To this duty Mr. Verplanck, aided by able and disinterested +associates like himself, gave the labors of a third of a century, +uncompensated save by the consciousness of doing good. The composition of +this Board has just been changed by the Legislature of the State, in such +a manner as unfortunately to introduce party influences, from which, +during all the time of Mr. Verplanck's connection with it, it had been +kept wholly free. + +Yet Mr. Verplanck had his party attachments, though he never suffered them +to lead him out of the way he had marked for himself. He would accompany a +party, but never follow it. His party record is singular enough. He was +educated a federalist, but early in life found himself acting against the +federal party. He was with the whigs in supporting General Harrison for +the Presidency, and claimed the credit of suggesting his nomination. Mr. +Clay he would never support on account of his protectionist principles, +and when that gentleman was nominated by the whigs he left them and voted +for Mr. Polk, though he was disgusted by the trick which obtained the vote +of Pennsylvania for Mr. Polk under the pretence of his being a +protectionist. Subsequently he supported General Taylor, the whig +candidate for the Presidency, but the nomination of Mr. Buchanan, in 1857, +saw him once more with the democrats, from whom he did not again separate. +When the proposal to make government paper a legal tender for debts was +before Congress, he opposed it with great zeal, writing against it in the +democratic journals. I agreed with him that the measure was an act of +folly, for which I could find no excuse, but he almost regarded it as a +public crime. He vehemently disapproved, also, of the arbitrary arrests +made by our government during the war, some of which, without question, +were exceedingly ill advised. His zeal on these points, I think, made him +blind to the great issues involved in our late civil war, and led his +usually clear and liberal judgment astray. + +I have not yet mentioned various capacities in which he served the public +without any motive but to minister to the public welfare. He was from a +very early period a Trustee of the Society Library, in which he took great +interest, delighting to make additions to its stock of books, and passing +much time in its alcoves and its reading rooms. He was one of the wardens +of Trinity Church, that mistress of mighty revenues. He was for some years +one of the governors of the New York Hospital, and I remember when he made +periodical visits to the Insane Asylum at Bloomingdale, as one invested +with authority there. During the existence of the Public School Society he +was one of its Trustees from 1834 to 1841, and rendered essential service +to the cause of public education. + +His useful life closed on the 18th of March last. For some months before +this date his strength had declined, and when I met him from time to time +it seemed to me that his features had become sharper and his frame more +attenuated, yet I perceived no diminution of mental vigor. He took the +same interest in the events and questions of the day as he had done years +before, his apprehension seemed as quick, and all the powers of his mind +as active. + +On the Wednesday before his death he attended one of those weekly meetings +which he took care never to miss, that of the Commissioners of Emigration, +But in one of his walks on a rainy day he had taken a cold which resulted +in a congestion of the lungs. On Thursday evening he lay upon a sofa, +conversing from time to time, after his usual manner, until near midnight. +On Friday morning, when his body servant entered the room and looked at +him he perceived a change and called his grandson, who, with a +grand-daughter, had constantly attended him during the past winter. The +grandson immediately went for his physician, Dr. Carnochan, who, however, +was not to be found, and whose assistant, a young man, came in his stead. +Mr. Verplanck, in a way which was characteristic of him, studied the young +man's face for a moment and then asked: "From what college were you +graduated?" The reply was--"Paris;" on which Mr. Verplanck turned away as +if it did not much please him, and in a moment afterward expired. He was +spared the previous suffering which so many are called to endure. His son +had visited him from time to time, and was with him the day before his +death, yet this event was unexpected to all the family. His father, in his +old age, had as suddenly passed away, having fallen dead by the wayside. + +The private life of our friend was as beautiful as his public life was +useful and beneficent. He took great interest in the education of his +grandchildren; inquired into their studies, talked with them of the books +they read, and sought with great success to make them fond of all good +learning, directing their attention to all that was noble in literature +and in art. His mind was a storehouse of facts in history and biography on +which he drew for their entertainment, and upon occasion diversified the +graver narratives with fairy tales and stories of wonder from the Arabian +Nights. He made learning pleasant to them by taking them on Saturdays to +places of amusement from which he contrived that they should return not +only amused but instructed. In short, it seemed as if, in his solicitude +for the education of his descendants, he sought to repay the cares +bestowed upon his early youth by his grandfather of Stratford, of whom he +said in his discourse delivered at Amherst College, that his best +education was bestowed by the more than paternal care of one of the wisest +and most excellent sons of New England. Long after he was an old man he +would make pleasant summer journeys with these young people and look to +their comfort and safety with the tenderest solicitude. + +Christmas was merry Christmas at the old family mansion in Fishkill. He +caused the day to be kept with many of the ancient usages, to the great +satisfaction of the younger members of the household. He was fond of +observing particular days and seasons, and marking them by some pleasant +custom of historical significance--for with all the ancient customs and +rites and pastimes pertaining to them he was as familiar as if they were +matters of to-day. It distressed him even to tears when, last Christmas, +he found that his health did not allow him to make the journey to Fishkill +as usual. He made much of the birthdays of his grandchildren, and taught +them to observe that of Shakespeare by adorning the dwelling with the +flowers mentioned in those aerial verses of the Winters Tale-- + + "daffodils, + That come before the swallow dares and take + The winds of March with beauty; violets dim, + But sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes + Or Cytherea's breath; pale primroses + That die unmarried," &c., &c. + +For many years past he had divided his time pretty equally between +Fishkill and New York, visiting the homestead in the latter part of the +week and returning in time to attend the weekly meetings of the +Commissioners of Emigration. While in the country he was a great deal in +the open air, superintending the patrimonial estate, which he managed with +ability as a man of business, giving a careful attention, even to the +minutest details. But he was most agreeably employed in his large and well +stored library. Here were different editions of the Greek and Latin +classics, some of them rare and enriched with sumptuous +illustrations--thirty different ones of Horace and nearly as many of +Virgil. With the Greek tragedians he was as familiar as with our own +Shakespeare. In this library he wrote for the Crayon his entertaining +paper on Garrick and his portrait, and his charming little volume +entitled "Twelfth Night at the Century Club." Here also he wrote several +papers respecting the true interpretation of certain passages in Virgil, +which were published in the 'Evening Post.' It is to be regretted that he +did not collect and publish his literary papers, which would form a very +agreeable miscellany. He seemed, however, almost indifferent to literary +fame, and when he had once sent forth into the world an essay or a +treatise, left it to its fate as an affair which was now off his hands. On +Sunday morning he was alway at the old church in the village of Fishkill, +one of the most attentive and devout worshippers there. It is an ancient +building of homely architecture, looking now just as it did a century ago, +with a big old pulpit and sounding board in the midst of the church, which +the people would have been glad to remove, but refrained, because Mr. +Verplanck, whom they so venerated, preferred that it should remain. + +The patrimonial mansion at Fishkill had historical associations which must +have added to the interest with which our friend regarded it. Mr. +Tuckerman relates, in the "North American Review," though without naming +the place or the persons, a story in which they were brought out in a +singular manner. He was there fifteen or twenty years since, a guest at +Verplanck's table. He describes the June sunshine which played through the +shifting branches of tall elms on the smooth oaken floor of the old +dining room, the plate of antique pattern on the sideboard and the +portraits of revolutionary heroes on the walls. As they sat down to +dinner, an old lady, bowed with years and with a restless, yet serene +look, entered and took a seat beside Mr. Verplanck. A servant adjusted a +napkin under her chin and the dinner proceeded. A steamer was passing up +the river and a band on board struck up a martial air. The old lady +trembled, clasped her hands, and, raising her eyes, exclaimed, "Ah! all +intercession is vain. Andre must die." Mr. Verplanck made a sign to the +company to listen, and calling the lady Aunt, addressed her with some kind +inquiry, on which she went on to speak of the events and personages of the +Revolution as matters of the present day. She repeated rapidly the names +of the English officers whom she had known, "described her lofty +head-dress of ostrich feathers, which caught fire at the theatre, and +repeated the verses of her admirer who was so fortunate as to extinguish +it." She dwelt upon the majestic bearing of Washington, the elegance of +the French, the dogmatism of the British officers; the by-words, the names +of gallants, belles and heroes; the incidents, the questions, the +etiquette of those times seemed to live again in her tremulous accents, +which gradually became feeble, until she fell asleep! "It was," continued +the narrator, "like a voice from the grave." This old lady was a Miss +Walton, a sister of Judge Verplanck's second wife. + +When he found time for the studies by which his mind was kept so full of +useful and curious knowledge, I cannot well conceive. He loved to protract +an interesting conversation into the small hours of the night, and he was +by no means, as it is said most long-lived men are, an early riser. An +anecdote related by a gentleman of the New York bar will serve to +illustrate, in some degree, his desultory habits during that part of his +time which was passed in New York. This gentleman gave a dinner at +Delmonico's, then in William Street, to a professional brother from +another city, who was in town only for the day. Mr. Verplanck, Judge +William Kent, and one or two other clever lawyers, were of the party. I +will allow him to tell the story in his own words. + +"We of course," he says, "had a delightful evening, for our stranger guest +was a diamond; Kent was never more charming and witty; Mr.---- never more +stately and brilliant, and Verplanck was in his most genial mood, full of +his peculiarly interesting, graceful and instructive conversations. The +spirit of the hour was unrestrained and cordial. We had a good time, and +it was not early when the dispersion began. Verplanck and Kent remained +with us after the others withdrew, and as midnight approached Kent also +departed. After a while Verplanck and I went forth and sauntered along in +the darkness through the deserted streets, among the tenantless and gloomy +houses, till we reached the point where his path would diverge for +Broadway and up-town, and mine for Fulton Ferry and Brooklyn Heights. +Instead of leaving me the good philosopher volunteered to keep on with me +to the river, and when we reached the river, proposed to remain with me +until the boat arrived, and then proposed to cross the river with me. We +were, I think, the only passengers, and his conversation continued to flow +as fresh and interesting as at the dinner table until we reached the +Brooklyn shore. He declined to pass the rest of the night at my house, and +while I waited with him till the boat should leave the wharf to take him +back, the night editor of the Courier and Enquirer, a clever and +accomplished gentleman, came on board on the way to his nocturnal labors. +I introduced them to each other; they were at once in good accord; I saw +them off and went homeward. A day or two after I learned that when they +reached the New York shore, Verplanck volunteered to stroll down to the +Courier office with the editor, accepted his invitation to walk in, +ascending with him to his room in the attic, and, to the editor's great +delight and edification, remained with him, conversing, reading and +ruminating until broad daylight. There was a charm in Mr. Verplanck's +conversation that was distinctive and peculiar. It was 'green pastures and +still waters.'" + +Our friend had, it is true, a memory which faithfully retained the +acquisitions made in early life, but, in some way or other, was +continually enlarging them. I think I have never known one whose thoughts +were so much with the past, whose memory was so familiar with the words +and actions of those who inhabited the earth before us, and who so loved +and reverenced the worthy examples they have given us, yet who so much +interested himself in the present and was so hopeful of the future. There +was no tendency of this shifting and changeful age which he did not +observe, no new discovery made, no new theory started, no untrodden path +of speculation opened to human thought, which did not immediately engage +his attention, and of which he had not something instructive to say. He +was as familiar with the literature of the day as are the crowd of common +readers who know no other, yet he suffered not the brilliant novelties of +the hour to wean his admiration from the authors whose reputation has +stood the test of time. He was generous, however, to rising merit, and +took pleasure in commending it to the attention of others. + +His learning was not secular merely; his library was well stocked with +works on theology; he was familiar with the questions discussed in them; +the New Testament, in the original, was a part of his daily reading; he +had examined the dark or doubtful passages of Scripture, and they who were +much in his society needed no more satisfactory commentator. Not long +since he sent to the Society Library for a theological work rather out of +date. "It is the first time that work was ever called for," said the +librarian, smiling as he took it from the shelf, and aired the leaves a +little. + +His kindness to his fellow men was shown more in deeds than in words--for +of words of compliment he was particularly sparing; and he loved to do +good by stealth. A letter from his pastor, the Rev. Dr. Shelton, says: "He +was very kind and affectionate when he thought he discovered merit in any +body however humble, and though he dropped never so much as a hint to the +individual himself, he was pretty sure to speak a good word for him in +quarters where it would have an influence. A great many never knew whom +they had to thank for this. Here he recommended some one for a place, +there he picked up a book or a set of books for some distant library. In +this way he went about doing good, and, not given to impulse, was +systematically benevolent." A letter from another hand speaks of the +clergymen whom he had put in the way of getting a parish, the youths for +whom he had procured employment--favors quietly conferred, when perhaps +the person benefited had forgotten the application or given up the +pursuit. He preserved carefully all that related to those persons in whom +he took a kindly interest. "Never," says Dr. Shelton, "did a juvenile +letter come to him that he did not carefully put away. Whole packages of +them are found among his papers; if they had been State documents they +could not have been more important in his eyes." + +I have spoken of the hopefulness of his temper. This was doubtless in a +great degree constitutional, for he is said to have been an utter stranger +to physical fear, preserving his calmness on occasions when others would +be in a fever of alarm. He loved our free institutions, he had a serene +and steady confidence in their duration and his published writings are for +the most part eloquent pleas for freedom, political equality and +toleration. Even the shameless corruption which has seized on the local +government of this city, did not dismay or discourage him. He maintained, +in a manner which it was not easy to controvert, that the great cities of +Europe are quite as grossly misgoverned, and that every overgrown +community like ours must find it a difficult task to rid itself of the +official leeches that seek to fatten on its blood. + +In looking back upon the public services of our friend it occurs to me +that his life is the more to be held up as an example, inasmuch as, though +possessed of an ample fortune, he occupied himself as diligently in +gratuitous labors for the general good as other men do in the labors of +their profession. In the dispensation of his income he leaned, perhaps, to +the side of frugality, but his daily thought and employment were to make +his fellow men happier and better; yet I never knew a man who made less +parade of his philanthropy. He rarely, and never, save when the occasion +required it, spoke of what he had done for others. I never heard, I think +no man ever heard, anything like a boast proceed from his lips, nor did he +practice any, even the most innocent expedients, to attract attention to +his public services. Not that I suppose him insensible to the good will +and good word of his fellow men. He valued them, doubtless, as every wise +man must, but sought them not, except as they might be earned by the +unostentatious performance of his duty. If they came they were welcome, if +not, he was content with the testimony of his own conscience and the +approval of Him who seeth in secret. + +It may be said that in almost every instance the place of those who pass +from the stage of life is readily supplied from among the multitude of +those who are entering upon it; the well-graced actor who makes his exit +is succeeded by another, who soon shows that he is as fully competent to +perform the part as his predecessor. But when I look for one to supply the +place of our friend who has departed, I confess I look in vain. I ask, but +vainly, where we shall find one with such capacities for earning a great +name, such large endowments of mind and acquisitions of study united with +such modesty, disinterestedness and sincerity, and such steady and various +labors for the good of our race conjoined with so little desire for the +rewards which the world has to bestow on those who render it the highest +services. But though we sorrow for his departure and see not how his +honored place is to be filled, let us congratulate ourselves, and the +community in which we live, that he was spared to us so many years. His +day was like one of the finest days in the season of the summer solstice, +bright, unclouded, and long. + +Farewell--thou who hast already entered upon thy reward! happy in this, +that thou wert not called from thy beneficent labors before the night. +Thou hadst already garnered an ample harvest; the sickle was yet in thy +hand; the newly reaped sheaves lay on the field at thy side, when, as the +beams of the setting sun trembled on the horizon, the voice of the Master +summoned thee to thine appointed rest. May all those who are as nobly +endowed as thou, and who as willingly devote themselves to the service of +God and mankind be spared to the world as long as thou hast been. + +EVENING POST, 41 Nassau St., corner Liberty. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10141 *** |