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De Witt Clinton.

COLUMBIA COLLEGE.

ADDRESS TO THE ALUMNI, MAY, 1827.

THE commune vinculum, as applied by the great orator of Rome to the liberal arts and sciences, may be properly extended to their votaries and cultivators, who, whenever they appear and wherever they exist, are combined by kindred ties and congenial pursuits, into one great intellectual community, denominated the Republic of Letters. If this alliance is cultivated with so much zeal and with such distinguished honor to its members, with how much ardor must its principles be cherished, on a more limited scale and with more concentrated power, by those disciples of the same great seminary, who have derived their intellectual aliment from a common parent, and who have received their education from the same source; all who are assembled at this place, and on this occasion must feel the full force and bow to the controlling ascendancy of this sentiment; and I know of no assemblage which is better calculated to awaken the enthusiasm of our youthful days, and to brighten the rays of our setting sun, than a convention of the members of three generations, constituted like

the present, and called to sacrifice under the protecting roof of our Alma Mater, at the altar of science and literature, to recal to our recollection the transporting scenes of our Collegiate lives, and to realize 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 making my appearance before this enlightened and respectable audience, I might with great truth find ample room for apology in suggesting the little time which my public avocations have left for suitable preparation, but I shall rely on your kind consideration, and I trust that you will judge of me by my motives, not by my performance; and when I assure you that nothing but an ardent desire to evince my respect and devotion to our Alma Mater could have induced me to comply with your request, I feel persuaded that you will overlook every deficiency, and that, in recognizing those delightful recollections and brilliant anticipations which surround her, I shall not be deemed in what I say, entirely undeserving of your regard.

The germ of our Alma Mater is noticed by William Smith in his interesting continuation of our Colonial History, which the public spirit of our Historical Society has given to the world. "This year" (1732), says the historian, "was the first of our public attention to the education of youth; provision was then made for the first time to support a Free School, for teaching the Latin and Greek tongues and the practical branches of the Mathematics, under the care of Mr. Alexander Malcolm, of Aberdeen, the author of a treatise upon Book-keeping. The measure was patronized by the Morris family, Mr. Alexander, and Mr. Smith, who presented a petition to the Assembly for that object. Such was the negligence of the day, that an in

structor could not find bread from the voluntary contributions of the inhabitants, though our eastern neighbors had set us an example of erecting and endowing colleges early in the last century."

The Bill for this school, drafted by Mr. Philipse, the speaker, and brought in by Mr. Delancey, had this singular preamble: "Whereas, the youth of this Colony are found, by manifold experience, to be not inferior in their natural geniuses to the youth of any other country in the world, therefore be it enacted, &c." It appears that at that early period, it was thought necessary to vindicate our country against the degenerating and debasing qualities which have been since so liberally imparted to it by Buffum, and De Rue, Raynal, and Robertson. A legislative declaration, however anomalous, was certainly a sufficient refutation of the flimsy philosophy that brought forward the accusation; and as manifold experience was opposed to visionary speculation, the capacity of the inhabitants of New York for education was put into a train of high probation, which has terminated in the most pleasing results. Permit me to say, that I cannot reconcile the sensibility which we have manifested under such vituperations with the respect which we owe to our country. Charges so unfounded are beneath the dignity of refutation; and 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 on the highest elevation of triumphant vindication.

This praiseworthy measure was the harbinger of more enlarged views and more elevated establishments after many struggles. After much controversy about the site and the organization of a college, involving sectional and

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SKETCH OF THE CLINTON FAMILY.

ting the State to the construction of the canals; and on the 4th of July following the work was commenced.

The star of Mr. Clinton's fortunes was again in the ascendant, and in the fall of 1817 he was elected Governor of New York. In 1815 he had been removed by his political opponents from the office of Mayor of the city of New York, and after the lapse of two years he was selected by the Republicans as their first man, and almost unanimously elected Governor of the Empire State. In 1820 Mr. Clinton was reëlected Governor, and during this and his previous term the prosecution of the works upon the canals was pressed with vigor and success.

In 1822 a Convention was called to form a new Constitution, and in that year Joseph C. Yates was elected Governor for the following two years. In 1824 Mr. Clinton was again elected Governor, and was retained in that high office to the period of his death. In his message of January, 1826, he refers to his message of 1818 when he congratulated the Legislature on the auspicious commencement of the canals, and he now announces their completion. In October, 1825, the work was completed, and Mr. Clinton passed in triumph from Lake Erie to the Hudson, and in alluding to it he says: "The auspicious consummation of the canals naturally called forth universal expressions of joy, not from a spirit of ostentation or vanity, but from a conviction that the moral impression would have a most felicitous effect in keeping alive a