At a special meeting of the New York Historical Society, held at SteinwayHall, on Tuesday evening, May 17, 1870, William Cullen Bryant delivered adiscourse on the Life, Character and Writings of Gulian C. Verplanck.
On its conclusion Hugh Maxwell submitted the following resolution, whichwas adopted unanimously:
Resolved, That the thanks of this Society be presented to Mr. Bryantfor his eloquent and instructive discourse, delivered this evening, andthat he be requested to furnish a copy for publication.
Extract from the Minutes,
Andrew Warner,
Recording Secretary.
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 prolongedto so late a period and to the last was so full of usefulness, that italmost seemed a permanent part of the organization and the active movementof society here. His departure has left a sad vacuity in the frameworkwhich he helped to uphold and adorn. It is as if one of the columns whichsupport a massive building had been suddenly taken away; the sight of thespace which it once occupied troubles us, and the mind wearies itself inthe unavailing wish to restore it to its place.
In what I am about to say, I shall put together some notices of thecharacter, the writings, and the services of this eminent man, but theportraiture which I shall draw will be but a miniature. To do it fulljustice 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 wayswith our literature, our legislation, our jurisprudence, our publiceducation, and public charities, that it would require a volume adequatelyto set forth the obligations we owe to the exertion of his fine facultiesfor the general good.
Gulian Crommelin Verplanck was born in Wall street, in the city of NewYork, on the 6th of August, 1786. The house in which he was born was alarge yellow mansion, standing on the spot on which the Assay Office hassince been built. A little beyond this street, a few rods only, lay theisland of New York in all its original beauty, so that it was but a stepfrom Wall street to the country. His father, Daniel Crommelin Verplanck,was a respectable citizen of the old stock of colonists from Holland, whofor several terms was a member of Congress, and whom I remember as ashort, stout old gentleman, commonly called Judge Verplanck, from havingbeen in the latter years of his life a Judge of the County Court ofDutchess. Here he resided in the latter years of his life on thepatrimonial estate, where the son, ever since I knew him, was always inthe habit of passing a part of the summer. It had been in the family ofthe Verplancks ever since their ancestor Gulian Verplanck with FrancisRombout, in 1683, purchased it, with other lands, of the Wappinger Indiansfor a certain am