NOTE KK.-p. 124.

Meeting of the Bar in New-York.

Immediately after the death of Mr. Clinton, public meetings of the learned professions, and of almost every class of citizens, were called to express their sense of the loss sustained by his demise, and their respect for his memory. The members of the profession of the law in the cities of Albany, New-York, and other parts of the state, were severally convened to bear their testimony to the merits of the deceased.

Court of Common Pleas.

The court commenced its usual sittings to-day, and was opened at 11 o'clock by His Hon. Judge Irving, who addressed the gentlemen of the bar who were present, as follows:

As the bar of this city will assemble in this court room to-day, at twelve o'clock, to express their sense of the loss which this state has sustained in the decease of its late Governor, who has so suddenly been called from a life of great worth, and public usefulness; the court duly appreciating such services, and such loss, is adjourned until eleven o'clock to-morrow morning.

At a numerous meeting of the members of the New-York Bar, assembled in the Supreme Court-room of the City-Hall, on motion of Josiah Ogden Hoffman, Esq. Chancellor Kent was appointed chairman of the meeting, and Silvanus Miller, Esq. was appointed secretary.

Mr. Hoffman then moved the following preamble and resolutions.

The members of the bar of the city of New-York, assembled to express their sense of the public calamity occasioned by the death of DE WITT CLINTON, resolved unanimously

That they deeply unite in the voice of sorrow this afflicting dispensation has called forth, not only from the hearts of his family and friends, but from public bodies, scientific, religious and charitable institutions, the tribunals of justice, and the legislative councils of the state, who each felt a portion of its character and usefulness identified with his name, and each of which mourns the loss as peculiarly its own.

That the death of such a man in the fulness of his acquirements, the strength of his intellect, and when his country anticipated still further exertions for its welfare and happiness, of which the present and enduring monuments of his genius and constancy had afforded full assurance, is a bereavement greatly deplored by the state he exalted, and the age he adorned.

Resolved, That the bar of this city, as a tribute of respect to the memory of the deceased, and in testimony of their heartfelt regret, will wear mourning during the present session of the legislature.

Resolved, That the proceedings of this meeting be signed by the chairman and secretary, and published in the different newspapers.

Mr. Griffin seconded the resolutions, and in the following brief but eloquent address, adverted to the public and private virtues of his Excellency the Governor.

Mr. CHAIRMAN:-It is no ordinary death that has called us together. When such an individual as a Canning or a Clinton dies, we mourn, not as members of a particular profession, or a particular community, but as members of the great family of man. It is a bereaved world that feels the loss.

Our lamented Clinton was a character whom the worthies of antiquity would cheerfully have named as a brother. Possessed of a peculiarly commanding person, and a more commanding mind—a mind richly stored with the treasures of ancient and modern learning, and animated by an ambition lofty and inflexible, it is true, yet identified with the glory of his country,-wise in deliberation, unbending in purpose, determined in action,-nature and education formed him to be one of the master-spirits of the age in which he lived. The Pericles of our commonwealth, for near thirty years he exercised, without stooping to the little arts of popularity, an intellectual dominion in his native state scarcely inferior to that of the illustrious Athenian-a dominion as benignant as it was effective. He was the supporter of every charitable and religious institution—the encourager of every science and every art. Not confining his literary patronage to the artist and the scholar, he also devoted the powers of his mighty mind to the less brilliant, but not less useful, subject of common education. Feeling the truth of the great political axiom, that virtue and information, widely diffused, are the only sure pillars of a republican government, he zealously promoted every object calculated to meliorate the moral condition of the state, and laboured, with untiring assiduity, to irradiate the general mind with the light of knowledge.

About eighteen years ago, the then unformed project of our great canal, was whispered by some supposed enthusiast. The intimation reached the ear of our departed statesman. It was a subject worthy of his mind: his perception intuitive, bold, and comprehensive, saw it in all its bearings. If the enterprise should fail, it must, as he well knew, bring bankruptcy on the state, and ruin on its patron. Timidity bade him desist ;-cold and calculating policy cautioned him to stand aloof until the success of the experiment was tried. But he was not a timid, nor a cold calculating politician. He foresaw that the enterprise, if successful, would crown the commonwealth with unparalleled prosperity and imperishable glory. Knowing that nothing could give it a chance of success but the influence of his own great name, he cheerfully and cordially perilled his earthly hopes on the issue of the dubious undertak

ing. He became its avowed patron; and regardless of the despondency of the timid, and the cavils of the prejudiced, with an inflexibility of purpose, and a disinterestedness of motive, worthy of the proudest page of Roman story, he continued for fifteen years its indefatigable and efficient, though unremunerated, guardian and protector. But, thanks to the great Disposer of events, he lived to witness its complete success ;-to see, under his own auspices, in spite of the obstacles interposed by nature and the greater obstacles interposed by man, the inland oceans of the west, conducted in proud triumph to the bosom of the deep, and the prosperity of his country rendered as enduring as its rivers and its lakes.

Such is the man whom our state may well bewail. Such is the man who has sunk in the midst of his renown. But his fame survives; it belongs to posterity. The American historian will transmit it to succeeding generations, brightening as it descends, and encompassed with a blaze of glory, perhaps only inferior to that of the Father of his country. The resolutions were then put by the chairman, and unanimously adopted.

JAMES KENT, Chairman.
SILVANUS MILLER, Secretary.

NOTE. p. 125.

Upon no occasion were the sensibility and agitation of Mr. Clinton, in the delivery of his public discourses here referred to, more manifested than in his oration pronounced at the request of the Alumni of Columbia College in 1827. Having obtained an analysis of that Discourse, from the editors of the Commercial Advertiser, to whom, on the day of its delivery, Mr. Clinton loaned the manuscript, I have it in my power to present to the public the following outline of that production, and the remarks which accompanied it.

Analysis of Governor Clinton's Discourse delivered before the Alumni of Columbia College.

The third anniversary of the associated Alumni of Columbia College, was celebrated yesterday, (May 3.) The hour for the delivery of the address was twelve o'clock, and the chapel of the College, including the galleries, was punctually filled by a fashionable assemblage of ladies and gentlemen, including the faculty of the College, the trustees, students, residents, graduates, &c. The exercises were commenced with an appropriate prayer by the Reverend Professor M'Vickar.

His Excellency Governor Clinton then rose and pronounced a discourse which occupied nearly an hour, and was listened to with deep interest and uninterrupted attention. The subject of his address, was a rapid history of the rise, progress, and present condition of his Alma Mater, interspersed with notices of its officers and professors, and some of the more prominent men whose names adorn its catalogue of graduates, and concluding with some happy thoughts upon the state of education in our country, and suggestions for its extension and improvement.

In his preliminary remarks, the distinguished orator first adverted to the pleasures and advantages of intellectual communities, in the republic of letters; more especially of those votaries of the arts and sciences, disciples of the same great seminary, who have derived their mental aliment from a common parent, and who have received their education from the same source. Speaking of the present occasion, he said he knew of no assemblage better calculated so to awaken the enthusiasm of their youthful days, and to brighten the rays of their setting sun, than a convention of the members of three generations under the protecting roof of their Alma Mater, at the altars of science and literature-to recall to their recollections the transporting scenes of their youthful collegiate lives, and to realise and renew those friendships which were formed in youth, and will last as long as the pulsations of the heart, and the operations of memory.

In commencing the principal subject of the discourse, the orator quoted the continuation of Smith's History of New-York, which has lately been given to the world by the historical Society of this city. The germ of the college was a Free School, established in 1732, for teaching the Latin and Greek tongues, and the practical branches of mathematics, under the care of Mr. Alexander Malcolm, of Aberdeen. The enterprise was patronised by the Morris family, Mr. Alexander, and Mr. Smith, who petitioned the assembly upon the subject. Such was the negligence of the day, that the teacher could not find bread from the voluntary contributions of the inhabitants, although examples had been set in New-England, where colleges had been endowed early in the last century. The bill for founding this school was brought in by Mr. Delancey, and had this singular preamble:-" Whereas, the youth of this colony are found by manifold experience to be not inferior in their natural geniuses to those of any other country in the world, Therefore be it enacted," &c. From this the orator remarked that even at that early period it was thought necessary to vindicate our country against the degenerating and debasing qualities which have since been so liberally imputed to it by Buffon, Robertson, and others. In touching upon these puny efforts of flimsy philosophers, however, the orator wished permission to say that he could not reconcile the sensibility which we have manifested under such vituperations, with the respect which we owe to our country; charges so unfounded being beneath the dignity of refutation. The country which has been called the land of swamps, of yellow fever, and universal

suffrage, requires no advocate but truth, and no friend but justice, to place it at the highest elevation of triumphant vindication.

The school was the harbinger of more enlarged views, and more elevated establishments; and at length, in 1754, the charter of King's College was obtained. In four years afterwards it was sufficiently matured to confer degrees. The city then contained but 10,000 inhabitants, and the whole colony but half the population of the city of New-York at the present day. The faculty was composed of very able men; but after a brief career of eighteen years, during which about one hundred degrees were conferred, the college was broken up by the American Revolution. On a rapid inspection of the catalogue of this period, the orator said he was persuaded that the truth of the legislative preamble was clearly established, and that in no period of time, nor in any country, had an institution existed, so fertile of enlightened and able men, within so short a time, and among so small a population.

The orator next proceeded to notice some of the most prominent of these men, among whom were Samuel Provost, Samuel Seabury, Benjamin Moore, Isaac Wilkins, and others. The three first of these attained the honours of the mitre; and Wilkins was a distinguished writer at the commencement of the revolution. Among the enlightened jurists who sprung from this institution within the period before spoken of, the names of John Jay, Robert R. Livingston, Gouverneur Morris, Richard Harison, Peter Van Schaick, and Robert Troup, were mentioned" with pride and pleasure." The three first were distinguished in the public councils at the commencement of the revolution; Livingston was one of the committee which drafted the Declaration of Independence; Jay took a leading part in the celebrated state papers which emanated from the old congress, which drew forth the celebrated panegyric from the great Chatham, and which Johnson, the colossus of British literature, undertook to After paying a high tribute to the talents, learning, character and services of the great men above named respectively, the name of "that great man," Hamilton, was introduced, who was a student of this college before the revolution, but before he could obtain his academic honours it was broken up. In speaking of this distinguished patriot, the orator related an anecdote, at once illustrative of his amiable disposition, his firmness, and his independence. He was greatly attached to his preceptor, President Cooper, who favoured the royal cause. The peace of the city was troubled by the conflicts of contending parties. A mob collected before the college door, and had marked Dr. Cooper out as an object of aggression. Hamilton threw himself between the people and his preceptor, addressed the former from the vestibule of the building, and delayed their progress until his friend had time to escape from their fury.

answer.

Of learning, said the orator, it may be remarked as of law :-" Inter arma leges silet."— In the revolutionary conflict, the interests of education were almost entirely neglected. The