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ON THE 
 
 CHARACTER 
 
 AND 
 
 PUBLIC SERVICES 
 
 OF 
 
 DEWITT CLINTON. 
 
DISCOURSE 
 
 ON THE 
 
 CHARACTER AND PUBLIC SERVICES 
 
 OF 
 
 DEWITT CLINTON, 
 
 DELIVERED 
 
 BEFORE THE ASSOCIATION OF THE ALUMNI OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE, 
 
 AT THEIR ANNIVERSARY, 6th MAY, 1829; 
 
 BY 
 
 JAMES RENWICK, M. A. 
 
 Professor of Natural Experimental Philosophy and Chemistry. 
 
 PUBLISHED AT THE REQUEST OF THE ASSOCIATION. ' 
 
 "* NEW-YORK: 
 G. & C. & H. CARVILL. 
 
 1829. 
 
 
 

 right whereof they claim as proprietors, m befo |he 
 
 «A Discourse on the Character an, Pub 'C Se »' l . et « ^versary, 6th May, 1329; by JameB 
 
 sssr-t f^s* rias^« y - &T' pub " hed ai iho 
 
 B mt of LaM by ■?«"»»« '"" 'T'Jm Suoned." And .!•» »•• ■"> A «. «"""'"'• A " *?' ' 
 
 vb&za2S&'X3S l z as. ssjre .... « - **— ««* 
 
 and etching historical and other prints. D; RIC ,- j. BE TTS, 
 
 C?erfc o/ tfe Swifter* District cf ]Se»-l or h. ^ ■ 
 
 Ludwig & Tolefree, Printers. 
 
DISCOURSE 
 
 Another anniversary of our association has arrived. 
 We are again assembled in these halls to renew the ties 
 that bind us to our common Alma Mater, and those, not 
 less dear that exist among us as alumni. The associations 
 of our youth are here to be revived ; and we here meet to 
 hail as brothers, not only those who along with us pursued 
 the paths of learning, or followed us in them, but those 
 who held out the example our young exertions were once 
 proud to emulate. 
 
 Here, at least, however varied may be our pursuits or 
 opposite our callings — nay, although political opposition 
 may divide, or rivalry separate us, we can unite in the 
 feelings of a common interest, and congratulate each other 
 on the return of the epoch of our union, and of the day 
 whence our elder brethren date the commencement of 
 their honourable and useful career. Permit me to join in 
 these friendly salutations, in the greetings of those who 
 
often far estranged by the business of life, are yet happy 
 to re-awaken the tender recollections of juvenile intimacy. 
 Brother alumni, allow me to express the satisfaction I feel 
 at seeing so many of my former associates, so many of my 
 younger friends, so many, may I say it, of my affectionate 
 pupils here assembled ; while the venerable band of our 
 elder brethren also appears to honour our celebration, 
 undiminished in number since our last anniversary. 
 
 Such at least would have been my greeting, had this 
 address been delivered a few hours sooner. But at this 
 very moment, a train of mourners is conveying to the tomb 
 of his ancestors, one of the few survivors of that venerable 
 band,* the last of a name illustrious in the ancient annals 
 of our province, but in whom the conscious dignity of high 
 birth, was tempered and illustrated by polished manners, 
 and the graces which a finished education can alone 
 bestow. 
 
 Gratitude that we count numbers but little diminished, 
 is a feeling too earnest to be controlled ; and, indeed, the 
 pleasure we experience in saluting those whom we find 
 present, is not more intense than the anxiety with which 
 we inquire for the fate of those whom we miss in this 
 assembly. Have any of our number suffered in health or 
 happiness since our last meeting 1 Has death called from 
 the path of usefulness, the ripened growth of manly talent, 
 or nipped the bud of youthful promise 1 If so, then before 
 
 * Frederick Philipse, Esq. of Philipstown. 
 
we enter into the festivities of the day, is our tribute of 
 mournful recollection, or of affectionate admiration due. 
 
 Of all the objects which an association such as ours 
 can propose, none is more useful, none can be more inter- 
 esting, than thus annually to commemorate the worth 
 of the departed. Subjects of general and public interest 
 are not indeed unsuited to the purposes of our meeting ; 
 our institution has produced those who have filled with 
 honour to themselves, and advantage to the country, the 
 most exalted stations of public life, or have risen to the 
 height of reputation in those professions emphatically 
 called the learned. Such men it is to be hoped will still 
 continue to issue from these halls ; and when they shall 
 be called upon to address you, the scope of the institution 
 admits — nay, their associates will expect, that they shall 
 treat of subjects with which the business of their life has 
 rendered them familiar. Instruction and eloquence have 
 thus flowed from the discourses of my predecessors in the 
 honourable appointment of orator of your anniversary. 
 But to lament the untimely fate of youthful talent ; to 
 rescue from oblivion the deeds of modest and unobtrusive 
 usefulness ; to celebrate the praises of public benefactors ; 
 are topics which seem to be exactly suited to the day and 
 its associations. It cannot in truth be a day of unalloyed 
 pleasure. If it recall to our recollection the happy period 
 when young, ardent, and impetuous, we entered the arena 
 of the more than Olympian contest, where not only bodies 
 but minds struggle for the honours and rewards, which 
 
8 
 
 fortune often bestows with no impartial hand ; if it bring 
 to mind the hopes, that thought no office too high, no 
 wealth too enormous, no literary glories too lofty to be 
 reached by our exertions. It also recalls the memory of 
 the chilling of those youthful aspirations, the checking of 
 those lofty hopes, and the gradual intrusion of the dark 
 realities of life, into the picture coloured in rainbow tints 
 by our youthful imaginations. 
 
 In a more especial manner does this celebration 
 awaken the remembrance of those with whom we jointly 
 received the instructions of the same teachers, but who 
 have been snatched from the world before the expectations 
 of their Alma Mater were realized ; or of those of more 
 advanced standing, who, although full of honours and glory, 
 have been called from the fields of their usefulness, too 
 soon for their friends and their country. 
 
 If such thoughts are excited by the very nature of our 
 meeting, let them not be repressed. The value of the 
 living friend is enhanced by the memory of him that it is 
 dead ; and we now hail with more of intense pleasure the 
 few survivors of a numerous class, than we should some 
 years since have greeted the whole. Here, as in all other 
 cases, our sorrows tend to heighten our enjoyments ; and 
 the temperate conviviality of our banquet will be the better 
 relished, that we have paid our just tribute of respect to 
 to those whose places know them no longer. 
 
 Such are the views with which I acceded to the request 
 of your committee, to deliver before you on this occasion a 
 
9 
 
 discourse in honour of one of our departed associates ; 
 departed indeed before our last meeting, but at too short 
 an interval to admit of his worth being then commemorated. 
 Many of you there are, more competent than I to this 
 task ; more learned, more eloquent, more in the habit of 
 addressing a public assemblage ; many more intimate with 
 the illustrious deceased, the close associates of his private 
 life, the followers of his political fortunes. But why such 
 a one was not selected, it became not me to inquire ; 
 and the very sense I entertained of my own unfitness 
 enhanced the compliment paid me, and precluded my 
 declining what I feel as an honour of the most gratifying 
 description. To be asked to address you ere so many of my 
 seniors have performed that task, to be the first to whom 
 an opportunity has been offered of fulfilling this interesting 
 but mournful duty of our association, and more than all, 
 to have such a theme assigned me, are favours for which 
 I am far more indebted to your kindness than to my own 
 merit. 
 
 It has then become my melancholy privilege, to be 
 the organ to express your regrets at the loss of the most 
 distinguished of our members, who, if he had lived long 
 enough for glory and an enduring reputation, died in the 
 pride of his strength, and the acme of his mental vigour. 
 If, indeed, it be not only a matter of duty, but of feeling, 
 that we shall commemorate our departed associates, rarely 
 will occasions present themselves where the tribute is so 
 
 appropriate or so justly due. No alumnus of this institu- 
 
 2 
 
10 
 
 tion has ever filled a greater space in the eye of the public 
 than the late Dewitt Clinton ; none has contributed more 
 to the honour of his country, none so much to the pros- 
 perity of his native state ; while we of the younger order 
 of graduates, whose acquaintance with our alma mater, 
 even by tradition, hardly extends beyond the time of her 
 change of name, look up to him as the first matriculated 
 student of Columbia College. 
 
 What however render our expressions of respect most ap- 
 propriate, his public acts and national services, make the task 
 an arduous one. Every quarter of the Union has teemed 
 with eulogies of our departed associate ; and it is hopeless 
 to attempt to elicit new views of his character, or invent new 
 expressions to emblazon his exalted worth. Nor would 
 a simple biographical sketch possess either novelty or in- 
 terest, were I to have recourse to such a mode of occupying 
 your attention. The task of writing a memoir of the life of 
 of Clinton, has already been performed by one, who, by long 
 personal intimacy, by constant observation of his character, 
 and by the most industrious research, has done all that talent, 
 affection, and zeal could perform.* To this duty he was 
 called by the united voice, of the literary and scientific in- 
 stitution of which Clinton was so long the illustrious head ; 
 . of the fathers of our city, over whose deliberations Clinton 
 had long presided ; and of the citizens at large, who 
 mourned the loss of the most conspicuous of their number. 
 
 * David Hosack, M. D. F. R. S. whose memoir is already before the public. 
 
11 
 
 His family has conferred the appointment of Biographer of 
 Clinton, upon one distinguished alike hy station and by ta- 
 lent, with whose duties it would be improper in me to 
 interfere, with whose talents and opportunities it would be 
 presumption in me to compete.* 
 
 But although his literary and scientific fellows, his former 
 civic compeers, and the public in general, have paid their 
 tribute of remembrance through so appropriate a channel ; 
 although the affection of his family has named a biographer 
 to record those services which will form to his remotest 
 descendant an escutcheon of honour ; the Alumni of Co- 
 lumbia College have a duty to perform in their collective 
 capacity, and owe to their alma mater that they shall not 
 refrain from bearing their part in the general mourning at 
 his loss ; their testimony of regard for their illustrious 
 brother ; their assent to the general acclaim which pro- 
 nounces him first and worthiest of their members. 
 
 Like the beautiful and delicate insect, which for a single 
 day in each year whitens our trees with its pinions, and at 
 eve strews the ground with the snowy relics of its short-lived 
 happiness, our association has but an ephemeral existence ; on 
 but one day can it act or move, assume the livery of sorrow, 
 or bear the badges of joy. This short and fleeting life it 
 for the present year devotes to the remembrance of Clinton. 
 
 * The Hon John C. Spencer. 
 
12 
 
 Universal custom might lead me first to speak of his 
 descent and lineage. The industrious research of the author 
 of the memoir to which I have already referred, traces 
 these to an English gentleman who espoused the royal 
 cause, in the time of the first Charles, and losing his 
 property in the failure of the fortunes of that monarch, 
 sought new fields of enterprize in Ireland. Other circum- 
 stances would lead us to infer, that a heraldic antiquary 
 might deduce the line from those whom Englishmen con- 
 sider as the founders of their nobility, the conquerors of 
 Hastings. But our country admits no such titles to 
 honour, rarely can the merit of the progenitor advance the 
 interest even of a worthy descendant ; never can it be 
 permitted to palliate the failings, or cast a veil over the 
 vices and degeneracy of the unworthy. 
 
 Yet so far as our country will admit of pride of birth, 
 the family of Clinton was as illustrious as a republic can 
 know. His father, and still more his uncle, had distinguished 
 themselves in times of danger, difficulty, and dismay, as sol- 
 diers, patriots, and statesmen. In a country where'every man 
 must be the maker of his own character, and in most cases 
 the architect of his own fortune, one's immediate progeni- 
 tors are all that can influence his fate, or determine his use- 
 fulness. Thus far Clinton may have been considered for- 
 tunate, but far more so, in having been born soon enough 
 to enjoy the advantage of the example of these two illustrious 
 men, and in having witnessed their labours and exertions, 
 while the success of the honourable cause they had espoused 
 
13 
 
 was yet doubtful ; while their united energies of mind and 
 body were strained to the utmost, in order to obtain a 
 happy issue to the enterprize in which they were engaged. 
 
 If then the birth and connexions of Clinton had any 
 influence in determining his future usefulness, it was rather 
 by shewing him illustrious examples of devotion to the cause 
 of his country, and models of perseverance through good 
 and evil report, than by facilitating his introduction into 
 public life — Nay, had he entered it without the benefit of 
 such experience, his early attainment of office and honours 
 might have had the effect of blighting his talent, and ob- 
 scuring his fame. So far then from attributing the high 
 celebrity to which Clinton attained, to his early advantages, 
 we may rather ascribe to his great strength of mind the 
 merit of being able to withstand the dazzling effect of 
 premature success ; and in this very circumstance the 
 candid inquirer will find a full apology for the errors to 
 which he like all other mortals was sometimes exposed. 
 Of his errors, however, it is not my business to speak, nor 
 have they left any trace behind them, in the shape of per- 
 manent injury to his country. Whatever they were, they 
 recoiled upon his own head, and an impartial posterity will 
 not record them against him. 
 
14 
 
 Clinton received his early education at a period ex- 
 tremely unfavourable. The long revolutionary contest 
 had driven from their quiet occupations to take a share in 
 active struggles, on one or the other side, nearly all who 
 were eminent in the profession of instructers. Of the 
 ancient academies of the state, but one was kept even upon 
 a tolerable footing, and even this felt for a moment the 
 devastating effects of the struggle. In this, although 
 crippled of its means, was Clinton compelled to seek the 
 foundation of his future usefulness. His literary produc- 
 tions may, notwithstanding, be quoted as splendid instances 
 of the power, that genius and industry can exert in forming 
 the taste and improving the style ; yet, it must be admitted 
 that the critical eye will occasionally detect a want of those 
 graces, that an early and accurate acquaintance with classic 
 models can alone bestow. 
 
 If the subject of our eulogy, the near relative of the 
 chief magistrate of our state, and the son of one of its most 
 distinguished citizens, were thus condemned to suffer from 
 the want of sufficient means of elementary education, what, 
 may we stop to inquire, must have been the condition of 
 the mass of the people 1 How highly ought we to appre- 
 ciate the advantages we now enjoy, in means of instruction 
 diffused through every section of our state, and brought to 
 the doors and within the means of the humblest of our 
 citizens. To attain this happy state of things, Clinton lent 
 his powerful aid ; and if not the first to propose the present 
 system, his voice was not unimportant in obtaining the 
 
 
15 
 
 munificent endowments our common schools now enjoy. 
 It is, perhaps, to be lamented that the enlightened mind of 
 Clinton should not have entered more fully into the detail 
 of these establishments, for he would unquestionably have 
 seen and obviated the odious distinction that now exists 
 between those educated in them, and those taught in our 
 higher seminaries, in consequence of the exclusion of the 
 ancient languages from their course of instruction : a 
 feature, which it would take but little argument to show 
 to be pregnant with evil, and even subversive of the great 
 ends to which they might be rendered applicable. 
 
 If, however, the boyhood of Clinton were doomed to be 
 spent without a perfect enjoyment of all those aids and 
 facilities which experience has shown to be so important in 
 training the mind, brighter prospects dawned upon his 
 youth. The halls, in which we are now assembled, had 
 been closed to the student of literature and science during 
 the whole period of the revolutionary war. In the place 
 of the youthful aspirant for academic honours, the dormi- 
 tories and lecture rooms had been filled in turn, with the 
 wounds, the disease, and the misery of two contending 
 armies. But no sooner was the struggle at an end, than 
 the fathers of our freedom* turned their attention to the 
 
 * Among these it would be an act of injustice were I not to name par- 
 ticularly ; the late Hon. James Duane, then Mayor of the City of New- 
 York, whose services in the re-establishment of the College were all- 
 important. 
 
16 
 
 restoration of the building to its original purposes, and 
 strove to fill the vacant chairs with the ablest men within 
 their reach. The subject of our eulogy, burning with 
 honourable zeal, first presented himself to demand the privi- 
 lege of matriculation, and thus stands at the head of the cat- 
 alogue of the revived institution. To his successors he fur- 
 nished a most honourable example of diligence, industry, and 
 application. The influence of emulation, which is in many 
 minds almost essential, as a stimulus to exertion, was indeed 
 wanting, for the number of those who joined him in his 
 collegiate career was too small to call it forth ; yet this 
 was not necessary to excite him. He in consequence left 
 behind him a character for sedulous improvement of the 
 opportunities within his reach, that has never been sur- 
 passed by any of his successors. 
 
 The very atmosphere of an ancient seminary of learn- 
 ing, brings to a well regulated mind a series of associations, 
 that often conduce to eminence, even when the teachers 
 themselves have degenerated from the former glories of the 
 institution. But Clinton was fortunate in meeting with 
 instructers qualified to appreciate and cultivate his talent, 
 and to direct it to advantageous ends. The classical 
 department was directed by the Rev. Dr. Cochran, a ripe 
 and eminent scholar, who still fills the office of an instruc- 
 ter of youth in the honourable and elevated station of 
 President of King's College, Nova Scotia. Of another of 
 the teachers, it is in this building sufficient to mention the 
 name, to convey to all a clear idea of the advantages that 
 
17 
 
 must have been derived by his pupils from his instructions. 
 This was the late Rt. Rev. Benjamin Moore, whose services 
 to this institution every alumnus will at once appreciate ; 
 and who in a wider field of usefulness, diffused blessings 
 upon all who came within the sphere of his active 
 piety, and mild benevolence.* To these useful and 
 learned instructers Clinton was fond, to the latest period 
 of his valued life, of acknowledging his obligations. But 
 I cannot help believing that his own future character, 
 and that of his public services, were influenced in a greater 
 degree by another professor. One, who for a quarter of a 
 century filled with distinguished ability and usefulness, what 
 his powerful exertions finally rendered the most important of 
 the chairs. Many who hear me will at once recognize the 
 useful and valuable instructer to whom I allude — the late 
 Dr. John Kemp, to whom they, with myself and many 
 others, are under the deepest obligations. 
 
 Under the tuition of Dr. Kemp, Clinton laid the foun- 
 dation of that acquaintance with the true principles of 
 internal improvement, and I may add, acquired the basis 
 of those clear views of national policy, which he afterwards 
 so fully developed, and applied with such advantage to his 
 native state, and the Union at large. The capabilities of 
 the interior of this state for the opening of internal navi- 
 gable communications, early attracted the attention of this 
 able instructer, and were annually illustrated by him in his 
 
 * See Note A. 
 
 3 
 
18 
 
 courses of lectures. The author of the memoir of Clinton 
 has cited a letter written by Dr. Kemp to his friend and 
 instructer the celebrated Dr. Beattie, wherein these natural 
 facilities were described. At that early period, and with 
 anticipations of the rising prosperity of our country less 
 sanguine than one of her own sons would naturally have 
 felt, he probably did not proceed as far as a more developed 
 state of our resources, and a more enlightened view of the 
 progress of our state, enabled Clinton to do. But in the 
 general features of his opinions, there was a strong resem- 
 blance, as many who now hear me cannot fail to remember, 
 to those leading principles that were afterwards so ably 
 argued by Clinton in a more public manner. 
 
 With these enlightened ideas both of the value of 
 canals, and of the true means of providing for their con- 
 struction, Dr. Kemp took a most lively interest in the 
 measures adopted by the state for exploring the route of 
 the western navigation ; and in 1810, when the surveys 
 were in progress, his anxiety led him to make a tour to the 
 shores of Lake Erie,* the object of which was to ascertain, 
 for his own satisfaction, whether a direct communication 
 with that great inland sea, and the vast bodies of water 
 connected with it were practicable or not ; for he felt such 
 intense interest in the subject that he was not content to 
 wait, until the more slow progress of a regular survey, 
 should make the feasibility of this all-important feature of 
 
 * See Note B. 
 
19 
 
 the project known to the public. Of the practicability "of 
 this he was at once satisfied by the use of that tact which 
 is the characteristic of those who are habituated to examine 
 a country in reference to its physical geography.* 
 
 It is in truth the privilege of elevated science, to take in 
 at a single glance, circumstances and results, that the ordi- 
 nary observer only reaches through painful and laborious 
 examination. He returned with a conviction that the 
 scheme, such as his most sanguine hopes had depicted it, 
 was practicable, and rejoiced in the prospects he believed 
 to be opening to his adopted country. Hence he felt and 
 expressed in the strongest terms his disappointment at the 
 tenor of the report made by the commissioners to the 
 legislature in 1811 — a report which from the wildness and 
 extravagance of the plan it proposed, he considered as 
 likely to defeat the whole object, and fitted to postpone 
 for years a scheme he knew to be practicable. 
 
 This report was drawn up by Gouverneur Morris,f who, 
 by his age, his long public service, his talent, and his elo- 
 quence, exercised a sway among his colleagues that was 
 most unfortunate in its effects, and for a time caused the 
 utter abandonment of all hopes of uniting the lakes to the 
 Hudson. In this report the language of fancy and imagin- 
 ation was substituted for the cool course of argument which 
 can alone carry conviction to those who are qualified to 
 judge of the merits of such an enterprise ; and it pointed 
 
 * See Note B. t See Note C. 
 
20 
 
 out principles and modes of execution so erroneous, that 
 even the tyro in engineering could not fail to pronounce 
 them impracticable. 
 
 I may be thought to have digressed beyond the scope 
 of my present duty in dwelling upon the character and 
 views of Dr. Kemp. But as I am satisfied that his instruc- 
 tions had a most powerful influence in determining the 
 direction, in which the transcendent talent of Clinton 
 became at length most useful to his country, I could not 
 refrain from thus stating his merits. It is besides due to 
 you as alumni, and to your Alma Mater, that these circum- 
 stances should be made known. In thus naming, and 
 urging the merits of his teacher, I cannot depreciate the 
 merits of Clinton. These stand upon their own ground, 
 and are supported by the happy issue of his labours. 
 In the present state of the world, when the principle of the 
 division of labour is carried to such an extent, not only in 
 the works of body, but in those of mind, the most labo- 
 rious and successful teacher, can rarely be directly instru- 
 mental in the execution of any great work. It is enough 
 both of glory and reward to him, that his pupils shall, in 
 their future life, apply to valuable purposes the elementary 
 principles with which he has imbued them. Although he 
 may have struck the spark by which the future blaze has 
 been enkindled, no part of its brightness can illumine his 
 own humble and laborious path ; but in the fame and 
 honours of his pupils, he will feel himself rewarded in a 
 manner even more grateful than he could have been, had 
 
21 
 
 he himself achieved all which has been accomplished by 
 their separate labours.* 
 
 When Clinton, in the year 1816, was called upon to 
 draw the memorial of the citizens of New-York, and when 
 he assumed the responsible and active direction of the new 
 board of commissioners, which in compliance with the 
 request of that memorial was appointed, the value of his 
 correct and true view of the principles of internal commu- 
 nication, and his enlightened estimate of state policy 
 became apparent. His course was no longer shackled by 
 the preponderating influence of one to whose opinions, 
 although far less worthy of respect than his own, he had 
 with a characteristic modesty, I may almost say diffidence, 
 deferred on the former occasion. Deviating now, alike 
 from the bold and imaginative views of Morris, and the 
 timid policy of the engineers, the first report of this new 
 board, presented to the legislature a plan feasible and prac- 
 ticable in all its parts ; no prominent feature of which has 
 it been found necessary to alter. In spite of the vague 
 and crude notions that some entertained upon this subject, 
 nay, even of the clear and enlightened views of others, and 
 which are now brought forward in order to dim the lustre 
 of Clinton's actions, as the sources of his information and 
 the basis of his arguments, I cannot but see in that memo- 
 rial, and in this report, the application of correct and true 
 
 * See"NoteD. 
 
22 
 
 principles early implanted, in his rich and vigorous mind, 
 where by careful cultivation, and great labour on his part, 
 they finally produced ripe and glorious fruit. 
 
 Here let me again digress, to express the honest pride 
 I feel as an alumnus of Columbia College, when I reflect 
 that we can reckon among her sons those who have been 
 the principal instruments in completing the two improve- 
 ments that have done more for the prosperity of the United 
 States, than all the other and innumerable mechanical 
 inventions of which our country can boast. Need I say 
 that I mean the canal policy of the State of New-York, and 
 the application of steam to navigation. That the world will 
 ascribe the chief honour of the first of these to Clinton, 
 is a point I shall hereafter attempt to illustrate. The 
 second might still have been wanting, had it not been for 
 the liberal and enlightened views which directed the inqui- 
 ries of our departed brother Robert L. Livingston, and 
 which still animate our living associate John Stevens, of 
 Hoboken. To the first, Fulton was indebted for an oppor- 
 tunity, and the means of bringing his genius into useful 
 employment ; to the second, in addition to the most liberal 
 and spirited application of his private fortune to experi- 
 ments on steam navigation, we owe the devotion of the 
 rising talent of his son to the same great object ; and the 
 latter has carried the steam-boat to a state of perfection 
 that Fulton, in his most sanguine moments, never antici- 
 pated, and which the latest European book on the subject 
 has pronounced to be impossible. Between these two 
 
23 
 
 great schemes, there is this important difference, that the 
 one. was an application of ancient and well established 
 principles to new and valuable ends ; and hence the efforts 
 of the mere engineer can hardly be considered as having 
 had much influence upon the success of the project ; while 
 in the other, new and untried, the genius of the engineer 
 obscures the merit of those who had the intelligence to 
 foresee his success, and stimulate him to the enterprize. 
 Hence, in the former case, the name of Clinton will alone 
 be quoted in after ages ; while in the other, that of Fulton 
 may obscure the fame of Livingston, and that of the elder 
 Stevens merge in the honours of his son. 
 
 Emerging from our College with its highest honours, 
 and fraught with all the learning its then slender establish- 
 ment could furnish, Clinton entered, after no long interval, 
 into active life. His manhood was spent in public services 
 of the most varied and important character. We see him 
 by turns, the eloquent and enlightened legislator, the active 
 and zealous municipal officer, the learned and impartial 
 judge, the dignified and public-spirited chief magistrate. 
 We find him at every step, the advocate and supporter of 
 all schemes of charity and benevolence ; the promoter and 
 leader in works of internal improvement ; and by a rare 
 combination of pursuits, see him devoting his hours of 
 leisure, and the intervals, when by political vicissitudes he 
 was left out of the public service, to the cultivation of 
 science. In this, the mere solace and amusement of those 
 
24 
 
 hours not devoted to the direct service of his country, he 
 made a progress that raises him far beyond the herd of 
 amateur savans, and places him in the rank of the pro- 
 fessional naturalist. His success in this branch of knowl- 
 edge was such as to show, to what a high eminence he 
 might have attained, had he devoted himself entirely to 
 scientific investigations. But had he done so, his more 
 important labours would have been lost to his country. 
 Still he may be cited as an example of the value of a taste 
 for science, which forms a sure and safe resource for the 
 most active mind, in times of despondency, and the failure 
 of long cherished hopes. 
 
 No politician in truth ever experienced more of fluctu- 
 ating fortune in his career ; yet in the practice of a sound 
 philosophy he bore his successes and reverses with the 
 same equanimity : an equanimity the more remarkable 
 when we consider the aspiring ambition with which he was 
 actuated. 
 
 Ambition, even ill directed, has been well denominated 
 the infirmity of noble minds. But when it seeks its grati- 
 fication, by the promotion of measures, and plans, that 
 diffuse wealth and happiness throughout a whole nation, it 
 becomes a virtue of the highest description. Such was the 
 ambition of Clinton, which although urged against him by 
 his political opponents as almost a crime, has left indelible 
 traces of its happy influence upon the fate and fortunes of 
 a mighty nation. 
 
25 
 
 Next to his philosophic equanimity, would I commemo- 
 rate his disinterestedness. The era of Clinton's public 
 services was one, wherever mere party questions were not 
 concerned, as venal and corrupt as perhaps any age or 
 country has ever witnessed. In the schemes that inter- 
 ested men so frequently brought before our legislature, the 
 name and influence of Clinton might at all times, whether he 
 actually swayed a vast majority, or were merely supported 
 by a small band of devoted friends, have been of the utmost 
 value ; yet, while hardly any other prominent party leader 
 escaped the suspicion of acting from unworthy motives, 
 while several were actually proved to have been partici- 
 pators in gross and unprincipled corruption, no breath of 
 reproach tarnished the reputation of Clinton. His enemies, 
 and even the passive, but heated instruments of party vio- 
 lence, never ventured even to intimate that any act of 
 Clinton had ever been influenced by mercenary motives. 
 
 So also, the position Clinton so long held as a Canal 
 Commissioner, enabled him to have foreseen changes in the 
 value of property, before others could have anticipated 
 them, or to have been a hidden participater in lucrative 
 contracts. Yet there is no case where it can even be 
 suspected, that the idea of making an undue use of the 
 advantages of his position ever entered into his mind. 
 
 To those who know the weakness of our nature, the 
 readiness with which principle yields to temptation, and 
 the facility that often ^exists for hiding such yielding from 
 the world, no praise can be more exalted than that of a 
 
26 
 
 strict adherence to integrity in such cases, particularly when 
 the moral sense of the community appears, in some 
 measure, blunted by general corruption, and the tempta- 
 tion held out by opportunities is enhanced by the pressure 
 of pecuniary difficulties. To such difficulties, this very 
 disinterestedness had, we lament to say, exposed Clinton. 
 Although holding, at times, offices and perquisites, that in 
 the hands of a covetous person might have been made sure 
 sources of wealth, we find him, throughout his life despising 
 those gains which required a sacrifice of his lofty principles, 
 and devoting his whole energies of mind, in the midst of 
 honourable poverty, to the service of his country. 
 
 But the most remarkable and prominent feature in the 
 character of our late distinguished associate, and which 
 in truth separates him from nearly the whole tribe of pro- 
 fessional politicians, is this : in determining his plans and 
 fixing his principles of action, he always looked to the great 
 public ends of his measures ; canvassed their merits upon 
 a broad view of their relations to the general prosperity, 
 and left out of sight their immediate bearing upon mere 
 party questions. We hence find him pursuing in all cases 
 a steady and unvarying course to his purpose ; and while 
 the waves of party ebbed or flowed, alternately bearing 
 him forward with accelerated impulse, or retarding him with 
 impetuous resistance, straining with equal energy to the 
 accomplishment of his great and patriotic designs. A poli- 
 tician from his childhood, and engaged in some of the most 
 
27 
 
 desperate struggles for power, that have ever been witnessed 
 in our country, it would be arrogating to him a character 
 more than human, to say, that he never was compelled to 
 move with unworthy associates, never bore the badge of a 
 mistaken policy, or that his ardent and ambitious temper- 
 ament was never hurried into acts, that his own cooler 
 judgment would have disapproved. But this much can be 
 asserted without dispute, that whenever measures were 
 coolly planned by himself, they looked to no ephemeral or 
 party object, and were steadily pursued, to the loss fre- 
 quently of his popularity for the moment, and the temporary 
 distraction of his political influence. The same party which 
 in 1812 rejected him from their ranks, joined, in 1816, in 
 his almost unanimous election as governor ; again abandoned 
 and loaded him with contumely in 1818, and finally at the 
 close of his life, clustered around him as their leader and 
 most distinguished ornament. 
 
 In all these changes of popular feeling, there was no 
 change in the policy or practice of Clinton; the fickle 
 multitude, which, at one time lauded him as a god, and at 
 another covered him with obloquy, had leaders who directed, 
 and partizans who trimmed to the breeze of varying opinion ; 
 but Clinton had a soul too lofty, a spirit too independent 
 to barter priitoiple for .popularity. Had he been inclined to 
 suit his measures to the popular sentiment, to abandon his 
 own schemes upon the first breath of discontent, he might 
 have lived the idol of a party, spared himself many a shock 
 from the estrangement of those he fancied friends, and 
 
 
28 
 
 even bequeathed wealth to his family. But the more noble 
 inheritance of character, of the reputation of the first 
 citizen of the first state in the union, and made so princi- 
 pally by his own exertions, would have merged in the paltry 
 title of a successful demagogue, who had attained his ends 
 by pandering to the vitiated taste of the mob. 
 
 Brief as the time allowed me is, I cannot refrain from 
 illustrating this point of his character. The first instance 
 I shall choose is from the records of our own institution. 
 Many honourable men, some of whom perhaps now hear 
 me, were partakers in the generous but mistaken zeal, 
 by which a fancied case of oppression was met by a for- 
 cible resistance to the authority of the college, and an 
 interruption of its most solemn exercises. There was 
 something in the time and circumstances that made this 
 otherwise unjustifiable act, appear almost like a correct 
 expression of indignant public feeling. The high, and 
 no doubt honourable motives, that occasioned this distur- 
 bance have long since obliterated its memory as an offence ; 
 were it not so, I should not have ventured to mention 
 it here, even to enhance the character of the subject of 
 my discourse. It fell to the lot of Clinton to investigate 
 this matter as judge, and to take cognizance of it in his 
 official capacity. His sound reason stripped it of the 
 character of manly resistance to oppression, and left it 
 naked to view, a criminal and illegal attempt to interrupt 
 a necessary although painful act of discipline ; the tide of 
 
 
29 
 
 public sentiment was turned, and our discipline restored 
 to that standing in opinion which is its sole support. 
 
 I believe there is now no dissent to the views he took of 
 the merits of this case, even those who bore a part in the 
 act have made a manly acknowledgment of their error ; 
 yet during- the heat of the moment, and at a time when a 
 change in the government of the College had just occured, 
 which was felt as a wrong committed against those teachers 
 whom he, in common with all other alumni, venerated^ and 
 esteemed, it required, no small powers of discrimination to 
 see it in its proper light, no small force of character to act 
 in relation to it as duty and a just view of its merits dictated. 
 These powers of discrimination, and this force of character 
 enabled him to see and pursue the. proper course, but it 
 was at no small expense, causing the temporary rupture of 
 ties both private and political, which however he did not 
 hesitate to sacrifice to public duty. 
 
 Clinton had from his youth acted with a party, to which, 
 in the course of the charges, which were made mutually by 
 it and its opposing interest, the character of being more 
 particularly opposed to the measures of Great Britain was 
 ascribed. Nobody at the present day believes, but that the 
 leaders of these great bodies were actuated in their foreign 
 policy, merely by different estimates of the true interest of 
 the country. But this ascription of character to the party 
 in which Clinton was enrolled, drew to it vast accessions of 
 strength, from those in whom the wounds of the revolu- 
 tionary struggle remained unhealed. Of these all had 
 
 
30 
 
 suffered in various ways in that embittered contest, and 
 some bore upon their bodies the marks of the chains and 
 shackles of floating prisons. The same course of events 
 had thrown into the ranks of the opposite party, and even 
 made personally obnoxious to Clinton, a few individuals 
 who had borne office under the British government, during 
 the long occupation of our city. 
 
 On the breaking out of the late war these persons were 
 threatened in person and property, by those who desired to 
 avenge upon them the injuries received from the royal 
 arms. Threats and murmurs proclaimed the approaching 
 crisis, and an hour's supineness in the civil authority would 
 have seen the dwellings, and perhaps the persons of the 
 obnoxious, a prey to .popular fury. But the civil arm was 
 then wielded by Clinton, who on this occasion, forgetting 
 his early hostile impressions, the long continued struggle 
 for power, and the feeling of almost personal wrong, saw 
 in them only citizens of the same country, equally entitled 
 with those of the purest political faith, to protection from 
 all. penalties the law did not award. Thus, and entirely 
 through his energy and influence, the riots that disgraced 
 some of our sister cities, had here no parallel, although 
 here only were the still aching wounds of the revolution in 
 actual contact with the instruments by which they were 
 supposed to have been inflicted. Nor must it be forgotten 
 that temporary political purposes might have been sub- 
 served by yielding to the popular clamour, and permitting 
 the excitement to take its course. 
 
31 
 
 Another instance I may cite from my own corres- 
 pondence with the illustrious deceased. The revisers of 
 our laws had reported an amended system of weights and 
 measures. Any change in these, even for the better, would 
 be sure to meet with opposition ; and although in the sys- 
 tem proposed by the revisers, no alteration had been made 
 that was not imperatively called for, or could be avoided 
 without important sacrifices, still the opposition that has 
 since broken out, on the part of those who were gainers by 
 the uncertainty in which the question was involved, was 
 anticipated. To be prepared for meeting this, the powerful 
 aid of Clinton was sought, and immediately granted, in a 
 manner which showed how little he valued temporary 
 popularity, where great public interests were at stake. 
 Had he lived, we should probably now have seen our state 
 holding out its standards, for the imitation of the others and 
 of the Union in general, instead of being compelled to wit- 
 ness this system mangled, as it has just been, to make it 
 suit the private ends of interested individuals. Yet the 
 very proposal of this law had anticipated, and consequently 
 frustrated, a favourite scheme of Clinton ; and the revisers 
 who had reported it were all enrolled in the ranks of his 
 political opponents. 
 
 It is, however, in the case of the canal policy of our 
 state, that this feature of Clinton's character exhibits itself 
 in the boldest relief. From the time at which the question 
 was first started, until these great public works were fully 
 accomplished, he showed himself the steady friend of all 
 
32 
 
 the measures necessary to carry them into effect, and his 
 aid gradually became so important to the success of the 
 scheme, and his clear and enlightened views came to exer- 
 cise such a preponderating influence, not only upon the 
 great general principles, but even upon the minute details, 
 as to throw into the shade the most important services that 
 any other individual, or even that all the friends of the 
 canal system united, had rendered to the general cause. 
 In these exertions he persevered steadily, neither abating 
 his efforts when the credit of the canal system had sunk to 
 the lowest ebb, nor relaxing them when its universal popu- 
 larity seemed to remove the necessity of further watchful- 
 ness. Throughout the whole history of the canal system, 
 he seems to have considered it in its great general bearings 
 upon national prosperity; while some supported the project 
 in consequence of its being likely to benefit certain dis- 
 tricts, it was again opposed by others from local motives of 
 a contrary character ; while some rejected it as likely to 
 clog the state with a debt, to meet which, its income would 
 be far from sufficient, others urged its completion, as a 
 probable source of vast revenue; or converted by the grow- 
 ing popularity of the measure, rushed, from the extreme 
 of enmity, into that of injudicious and hasty friendship ; 
 Clinton looked upon it, independently of local circum- 
 stances, of questions of finance, or of party policy ; as the 
 surest bond of union between states, likely under other 
 circumstances to become estranged from each other ; and 
 as the means of promoting the wealth, the industry, and 
 
33 
 
 the general prosperity of the State of New-York. His 
 views are so clearly set forth in one of his messages to 
 the legislature, that I shall quote them instead of attempting 
 any illustration of my own. 
 
 " Considering the high reputation, and the great name, 
 
 this state has derived from her internal improvements, it is 
 
 equally astonishing and mortifying to observe elaborate and 
 
 systematic attempts to depreciate their utility or arrest their 
 
 progress. It is manifestly a superficial and uncandid view 
 
 of the subject, to confine an estimate of its benefits to an 
 
 excess of income over the interest of expenditure ; and yet 
 
 this standard of appreciation has been adopted. Artificial 
 
 navigation was established for public accommodation, for 
 
 the conveyance of articles to and from markets, and revenue 
 
 is a subordinate object. It was never intended as a primary 
 
 object to fill the coffers of the state, but to augment the 
 
 general opulence, to animate the springs of industry, and 
 
 to bring to every man's door an easy and economical 
 
 means of access to the most advantageous places of sale 
 
 and purchase. To narrow down this momentous and 
 
 comprehensive subject, to a mere question of dollars and 
 
 cents, is to lose sight of the great elements of individual 
 
 opulence, of public wealth, and national prosperity. It 
 
 excludes from consideration the hundred millions of dollars 
 
 which have, in all probability, been added to the value of 
 
 real estate, the immense appreciation of all the products of 
 
 agriculture, which were formerly shut out in a great degree 
 
 5 
 
34 
 
 from market, the solid and extensive establishment of inland 
 trade ; the vast accessions to our marketable productions ; 
 the unbounded augmentation of our marine navigation, 
 and external commerce ; the facility, rapidity, and economy 
 of communication ; the creation of a dense population, and 
 the erection and increase of villages, towns, and cities ; and 
 the most efficient encouragement of agriculture and the arts, 
 by a cheap supply of materials for fabrics, and of markets 
 for accommodation." 
 
 Actuated and animated by such views, need we wonder 
 that in distant parts of our country, and in foreign nations, 
 no other name is known in connexion with the canals of 
 the State of New-York, except that of Clinton ; and the 
 verdict of these remote districts, is the type of what will be 
 the sentence of posterity. Other men have no doubt been 
 eminently and especially useful ; their respective acts have 
 been ably set forth and impartially argued in the memoir to 
 which I have more than once referred, and among them all 
 no name appears more conspicuous than that of our vener- 
 able chairman.* It is fair and proper, nay, an act of duty 
 that their several merits should be commemorated ; but 
 although it may appear invidious — nay, even dangerous, to 
 celebrate the acts of the illustrious dead, when there are 
 many living who may claim a part of his honours, I must 
 not fail in my duty, nor refrain from boldly expressing my 
 
 * See Note E. 
 
35 
 
 conviction, that while the name of Clinton is united by- 
 bonds that no lapse of time can sever to the greatest public 
 work of modern times, those of all his coadjutors, however 
 meritorious, must gradually sink into oblivion. 
 
 Such is the course of things. In all great human 
 works, the physical strength, or mental energy of any one 
 individual is far from being competent to their successful 
 accomplishment, or even to their advantageous commence- 
 ment. There are innumerable instances, where, without 
 the most minute and extensive division of labour, the work 
 would be incapable of execution, yet in them all there is 
 some definite and distinctive action of some one superior 
 mind ; to this we on all occasions ascribe the credit, how- 
 ever laboriously or skilfully, the rest of the task may have 
 been performed. Of this truth we find innumerable 
 instances in every department to which human industry is 
 directed. A few will suffice for our purpose. 
 
 A chronometer is the perfection of human mechanical 
 skill. Not less than twelve different sets of artists are 
 employed in the original manufacture of its parts, each 
 being confined to one particular piece. More than thirty 
 different persons are afterwards engaged in fitting together 
 these isolated portions, taken promiscuously from as many 
 heaps, and in polishing and finishing them. Yet to none of 
 these is the epithet of maker applied, but to the directing 
 mind of the whole, to a person who may, perhaps, never 
 have taken a tool in his hand, or even touched any part of 
 
36 
 
 the mechanism. Yet the characteristic mode of his working 
 is so impressed upon the machine, that it is considered 
 unsafe to send it for repair to the workshop of any other 
 artist. 
 
 Those who have seen a splendid picture, which recently 
 and perhaps still decorates the gallery of the Luxembourg, 
 have, even if unskilled in the handling of great masters, 
 been compelled spontaneously to acknowledge in it, a grace 
 and ideal beauty, that of all the Flemish school Vandyck 
 alone could bestow ; a decided character in the animals 
 that are introduced in the composition, never attained 
 except by Snyders, a finish and labour in the execution of 
 many of the parts worthy of a Teniers. Yet to none of 
 these hands can be ascribed the entire work, in which 
 these varied excellencies appear as mere accessories to 
 the perfection of art it exhibits. Still each of these artists, 
 and others now nameless, have borne their share in the 
 labour ; upon none of them however, nor upon all united, 
 is the name of painter bestowed. This glorious epithet is 
 the attribute of Rubens alone, whose directing mind united 
 the various talents of his pupils, into one consistent and 
 harmonious whole— the Triumph of the Christian Faith— 
 but which may, even more justly, be entitled the triumph 
 of the pictorial art.* 
 
 * Sec Note F. 
 
37 
 
 In the hall of the Belvidere stands a statue, the admira- 
 tion of the civilized world. Scores of labourers toiled to 
 to extract the mass from the quarry, numerous stone cutters 
 united their exertions to dress it into a more shapely form, 
 and artists of enviable skill and talent must have borne their 
 share of labour, in fitting it for the last touches and finish of 
 the master. Yet to the last alone do we ascribe the honour, 
 and search with painful interest through the annals of 
 the ancient world, for the name of that unrivalled sculptor 
 who stamped the dignity of a deity upon the human form, 
 in the semblance of the Pythian Apollo. 
 
 A fire destroyed the ancient Basilic of the Vatican. 
 Successive popes and architects toiled among the ruins, 
 each with a different object, and their works were withont 
 any general plan, heterogeneous, and unconnected. At 
 length Michael Angelo, surveyed the incongruous mass, 
 and warmed by the contemplation of the finest remains 
 of Roman splendour, exclaimed "I will raise the Pantheon 
 upon the temple of peace !" From that instant, the discor- 
 dant parts combined in harmony, the varying and fluctuating 
 designs of his predecessors were made to unite in advancing 
 one common end ; and the bad taste, the vanity and the 
 presumption of succeeding architects, the caprice of an 
 ever-varying elective, yet despotic government, have failed 
 of depriving it of that grandeur of conception, which makes 
 the Church of St. Peters the most sublime edifice ever 
 erected by the hand of man. 
 
38 
 
 Parallel illustrations might be multiplied without number; 
 every branch of art or science would furnish them ; in every 
 case there is room for the preponderance of the mind of a 
 single individual — the Sun of the system, around whom 
 planets with satellites perform their regular course, and 
 comets wheel their eccentric orbs ; all conducing to advance 
 the great and single purpose, but with brightness dimmed, 
 or rendered invisible, by the presence of the central lumi- 
 nary. 
 
 Such, in the work which has illustrated the annals of 
 our state, and obtained for it a proud pre-eminence in the 
 confederation, was Clinton — the master-spirit who gave his 
 impress to the design, conceived in part by others, improved 
 and extended by men of the first ability and highest patriot- 
 ism ; but which in its finished aspect, its^national character, 
 and its paramount importance, will be known in after ages 
 by the name of our lamented brother. 
 
 Did not even-handed justice insure this, the very acts of 
 his enemies have fixed his fame in such intimate connexion 
 with the Canal that no effort can now separate them. 
 When Clinton was removed from the office of Canal Com- 
 missioner, and when his children were refused the compen- 
 sation justly earned by the labour of their father, the 
 jealousy that was evinced defeated its own object. 
 
 His envious countrymen subjected Aristides to the 
 ostracism, because they were tired of hearing him called 
 the just, and thus attached an epithet to his name that must 
 
39 
 
 descend with it until man ceases to read, or to seek for 
 knowledge ; and when an envious legislature, tired of 
 hearing Clinton's praises, as the great leader of the Canal 
 policy of our state, deprived him of any share in the man- 
 agement, they affixed a seal to his merit that ages cannot 
 efface. 
 

IVOTE S 
 
 A. 
 
 Benjamin Moore, D. D. Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal 
 Church in the State of New-York, an alumnus of our College, 
 graduated Batchelor of Arts in 1768, and Master in 1771 ; held 
 the office of President of the College ad interim, in 1775 ; was 
 appointed on the revival of the institution, in 1784, Professor of 
 Rhetoric and Logic, which appointment he held until 1787; 
 and was chosen President in the year 1801, which office he laid 
 down in 1811. Dewitt Clinton entered the Junior Class in 1784, 
 and graduated Batchelor in 1786 ; Bishop Moore was therefore 
 the only Professor in that department during the undergraduate 
 course of the former. 
 
 B. 
 
 Before that part of our state which lies west of the Genessee 
 river was explored, it might well have been doubted, whether 
 lake Erie were accessible by an artificial navigation, except 
 through the gorge worn by the Niagara river. The great 
 mountain ridges of our country run in four continuous chains, 
 nearly parallel to each other, through the States of North Caro- 
 lina and Virginia. The easternmost of these, a primitive range, 
 continues separate, and crosses the states of Pennsylvania and 
 New-Jersey to New-York, where it is pierced at a great depth 
 by the Hudson, forming what are called the Highlands of that 
 river. The other three ridges become intermingled in the 
 State of Pennsylvania, and assume the form rather of a vast 
 table land with deep vallies, and a few isolated peaks, than of 
 
42 
 
 distinct mountain chains. The Susquehannah alone pierces this 
 elevated region, but is so much embarrassed by rocks and rapids 
 as to be unfit for the purposes of navigation. This high table 
 land terminates to the northeast in the Shawangunk and Kaats- 
 kill mountains. The first finishes what is called in Pennsyl- 
 vania the Blue Ridge ; the second turns suddenly to the west- 
 ward, and is seen from the heights near Albany, extending in 
 a succession of lofty peaks as far as the eye can reach. But 
 one important spur is set off by them to the north, which is 
 pierced by the Mohawk at the Little Falls of that river. Thus 
 by the deep tide channel of the Hudson, a natural navigable pas- 
 gage is opened through the most formidable, if not the highest 
 of our mountain ridges, while the only remaining barrier 
 between the ocean and lake Ontario is pierced by the valley of 
 the Mohawk, and thus gives room for an artificial navigation. 
 But a person, who knows only the valley of the Hudson, and 
 has seen the Kaatskill range turning suddenly westward, might, 
 on inspecting the map, be led at first to infer that the Falls of 
 Niagara were caused by the continuation of this line of moun- 
 tains. But this is not the fact. The great Allegany range is 
 not seen to the westward of lake Canandaigua, and lake Erie 
 occupies a shallow basin in a great table land, through the edges 
 of which its waters have worn their way ; and thus the Niagara 
 river offers the rare spectacle of a fall far from any mountain 
 range. Other, but far smaller streams, fall from this table land 
 in the same manner ; and as a river which pursues, for a long 
 time, a level nearly the same with several of them, turns towards 
 the southwest, and runs into the Niagara above the falls, it was 
 not difficult to infer that there was more than one practicable 
 pass, wherein locks might be established, to permit a navigation 
 to pass eastward without entering into lake Ontario, or being 
 compelled to enter the chasm worn by the Niagara. Such on 
 on examination turned out to be the case ; and two practicable 
 routes were actually reported by the engineers, of which that 
 by Lockport was preferred. 
 
43 
 
 C. 
 
 Gouverneur Morris was also one of those alumni in whom 
 Columbia College takes a just and honourable pride. The 
 classmate of Benjamin Moore, John Stevens, Peter Van Shaick, 
 and Gulian Verplanck, he was the cotemporary at College of 
 Richard Harrison, John Jay, Egbert Benson, Robert L. Living- 
 ston, and Henry Rutgers, and even in such a constellation of 
 useful talent and brilliant genius, shone with no common splen- 
 dour. My remarks, it will therefore be at once seen, were 
 made with no view of derogating from his great and acknowl- 
 edged merit, as a scholar, an orator, a statesman, and diploma- 
 tist. He has in truth so much of honour, really and fairly 
 merited, that his fame can afford to part with the claims that 
 have been urged for him, in relation to the canal policy of our state, 
 without losing any of its splendour. At the time of his education, 
 Science had not yet taken its just and proper standing by the side of 
 Literature in Columbia College; it cannot therefore derogate from 
 his character, that he should have treated questions of internal 
 improvement, in strains of classic and almost poetic eloquence, 
 rather than in the cool method of philosophic discussion. 
 
 D. 
 
 As it appears that this part of my discourse was misunder- 
 stood by some of my auditors, some explanation may perhaps be 
 necessary. It certainly was not intended by me to arrogate for 
 Dr. Kemp honour other than that which any able teacher may 
 claim in the subsequent honours of his pupils. 
 
 The policy of opening a direct navigable communication to 
 lake Erie was spoken of by him as early as 1805, when I 
 attended his lectures on Geography, and probably before that 
 date. But this was accompanied by a strong expression of 
 doubt whether the face of the country would admit of it. When 
 he assured himself that his doubt was ill-founded, he commu- 
 nicated the fact, at the moment, to no other person but myself, 
 who had the good fortune to be his travelling companion. It 
 was no doubt communicated to his class in 1811, but before that 
 
44 
 
 time the report of the commissioners was made public, and his 
 conviction, however agreeable to himself, had no influence upon 
 the subsequent operations. No communication ever took place 
 on the subject with Dewitt Clinton ; for it unfortunately hap- 
 pened that these two men, who mutually esteemed each other, 
 had become estranged by the conflicts of party. For Dr. Kemp, 
 although he had, from personal attachment to Gov. George 
 Clinton, moved with the Republican party up to 1799, became, 
 in consequence of early impressions in favour of the policy of 
 maintaining a respectable military and naval force, and from 
 other predilections, that might now perhaps be called aristo- 
 cratic, a decided Federalist. 
 
 E. 
 
 Robert Troup, Esq. who at one period in the history of the 
 canal policy of the state, was second in the character of his 
 useful services to Clinton alone, having been the main instru- 
 ment in awakening the minds of the people of the Western 
 District of the state, to the importance of the work. For an 
 account of his valuable labours see the Appendix to Hosack's 
 
 Memoir. 
 
 F. 
 
 The fact that the Atelier of Rubens was a great workshop, 
 in which pictures were fabricated under his direction, receiving 
 frequently no more of their mechanical execution from his own 
 hand, than the mere finish, is too well known to need illustra- 
 tion. The picture which is here referred to was painted for 
 the Duke of Olivares, prime minister of Philip IV. of Spain, 
 and was originally placed in the Church of a Carmelite Convent, 
 built by him at Locches, near Madrid. During the occupation 
 of Spain by the French it was removed to Paris, and placed 
 beside the other pictures of Rubens, painted for Catharine of 
 Medicis, in the Gallery of the Luxembourg. Its merit, however, 
 far eclipses any of these, and of all pictures I have ever seen, it 
 is calculated to give the highest opinion of the skill and science 
 of the painter- 
 
DISCOURSE 
 
 ON THE 
 
 CHARACTER AND PUBLIC SERVICES 
 
 OF 
 
 DEWITT CLINTON, 
 
 DELIVERED 
 
 BEFORE THE ASSOCIATION OF THE ALUMNI OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE, 
 
 AT THEIR ANNIVERSARY, 6th MAY, 1829; 
 
 BY 
 
 JAMES RENWICK, M. A. 
 
 Professor of Natural Experimental Philosophy and Chemistr}'. 
 
 PUBLISHED AT THE REO.UEST OF THE ASSOCIATION. 
 
 NEW-YORK: 
 G. & C. & H. CARVILL. 
 
 1829. 
 
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