A Discourse on the Life, Character and Writings of Gulian Crommelin Verplanck

A Discourse on the Life,
Character and
by William
Cullen Bryant

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Title: A Discourse on the Life, Character and Writings of Gulian
Crommelin Verplanck
Author: William Cullen Bryant
Release Date: November 19, 2003 [eBook #10141]
Language: English
Chatacter set encoding: US-ASCII
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DISCOURSE ON THE LIFE, CHARACTER AND WRITINGS OF
GULIAN CROMMELIN VERPLANCK***
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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,