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education. He especially excelled in the exact sciences, to which his attention had been particularly directed, and for which he had by nature a great predilection; he, at the same time, inherited the ardent passion for military life, that had distinguished his predecessors, and for which he was peculiarly qualified, by a vigorous frame of body, and the most intrepid courage.

In the war of 1756, he was appointed, by Sir Charles Hardy, the then Governor of the province, an ensign in the militia, for the County of Ulster. Afterwards remaining in the provincial army, under Lieutenant Governor Delancey, and Lieutenant Governor Colden, he was regularly advanced through all the grades of military promotion, and in 1774, he attained to the rank of a Lieutenant Colonel, in the second regiment of the militia of Ulster.

These successive appointments evinced his military merit, and the entire confidence reposed in his skill and bravery. After the termination of the French war, Mr. Clinton married Miss Mary De Witt, a young lady of extraordinary merit, whose ancestors had emigrated from Holland, and whose very name proclaims the high respectability of their connexions.

After this event, Mr. Clinton, for a season, retired from the camp to enjoy the repose of domestic life; but this suspension of public duty was but of short duration. The revolution having commenced, he resumed the character of the soldier, and was appointed by the continental congress, in 1775, colonel of the third regiment of the New-York forces. In the succeeding year, he was created a Brigadier-general in the army of the United States, and at the close of the war, was advanced to the rank of Major-general. During the war, in the several stations which he filled, he distinguished himself as the gallant and efficient soldier, performing several acts of the greatest heroism, and displaying the most perfect

self-possession in the midst of the greatest dangers. His gallant conduct at the storming of Fort Clinton, as well as that of his brother George at Fort Montgomery, in October 1777, will be ever memorable in the history of our revolution. At the siege of York Town, and at the capture of Cornwallis, General Clinton also displayed his characteristic intrepidity. His last appearance in arms, was upon the evacuation of the city of New-York by the British, when he took leave of the Commander-in-Chief, and retired to his estate in Orange County, with the view of enjoying that tranquillity, which was now called for by a long period of privation and fatigue, and that honour, which was the due reward of the important services he had rendered. After his retirement he was still frequently called upon for the performance of civil duties. At one period officiating as a commissioner, to adjust the boundary line between Pennsylvania and New-York; at another, employed by the Legislature to settle controversies relative to the western territories of the state; and at different periods, performing the duties of a delegate to the Assembly, a member of the convention for the adoption of the federal constitution, and afterwards a senator from the middle district, in the New-York Legislature, to which office he was elected without opposition. All these various trusts he executed with integrity, ability, and the entire approbation of his constituents and the public.

He died at his residence in Orange County, on the 22nd of September, 1812, the same year that terminated the valuable and eventful life of his venerable brother George-" par nobile fratrum." In the concluding language of the inscription upon his monumental stone, "performing in the most exemplary manner all the duties of life, he died as he lived, without fear and without reproach." Such

was the parentage of the man, whose virtues and character we are now assembled to commemorate.*

DE WITT CLINTON was born on the second day of March, 1769, at Little Britain, his father's residence in Orange County. He received his early education, at a grammar school in his native town, under the direction of a presbyterian clergyman, the Rev. John Moffatt. In 1782, in order to prepare him for college, young Clinton was removed to the academy at Kingston, then under the care of Mr. John Addison, who, by his learning, gave celebrity to that institution. During the revolutionary war, it may be remarked, few good seminaries for education existed in this country; the reputation of this school, necessarily drew to it most of the young men of the state of New-York, who were then engaged in their course of studies. In this academy, Mr. Clinton remained a pupil nearly two years, pursuing the ordinary routine of academical instruction.

In 1784, after passing an examination in the presence of the Board of Trustees of the College, and of the Regents of the University, he was admitted to the junior class, and was the first student who entered that seminary after the conclusion of the war. He was well grounded in the Latin and Greek languages, and in mathematics; for while at college, he enjoyed the advantages of being instructed in the classics, by that highly accomplished and elegant scholar, the Reverend Dr. William Cochrane, now Vice President of the college of Windsor, Nova Scotia, a graduate of Trinity college, Dublin; and in the mathematics, by John Kemp,

*See Appendix, A.

LL.D. an eminent mathematician, and a graduate of Marischal college, Aberdeen.

These gentlemen were, at that time, professors in Columbia college, in the zenith of their usefulness and reputation, and gave corresponding celebrity to that institution. Mr. Clinton was graduated a Bachelor of Arts in 1786. On that occasion he delivered the Latin salutatory, an exercise always assigned to the best scholar of the class. He was the first graduate of that college after the revolution.

In a recent communication received from his preceptor, the Rev. Dr. Cochran, whose valuable life and services are still continued, he expresses himself with great pride and affection, in relation to his pupil Mr. Clinton. The letter with which I have been favoured, conveying many interesting particulars, bears date the 9th of May last.

"I have seen by the public papers," says he, "that your State has suffered the loss of two eminent men since I visited you last summer; I mean Mr. Emmet and Governor Clinton. The first was my contemporary in Trinity College, Dublin. The other the first pupil I had in Columbia College. The event could not but awaken many interesting recollections in my mind.” After a brief and pathetic notice of Mr. Emmet, and of his family, he thus proceeds to speak of Mr. Clinton.

"I think him to have been, both for talents and patriotism, among the very first men of whom the United States could boast in his day. His conceptions were great, and his courage, perseverance, and resources of mind to effect them, were as great."

He continues-"It was, I may say, a mere accident that either that seminary or myself has had any share in educating so great and useful a man. In the summer of 1784, his father brought him

to New-York, on his way to Princeton College, to place him in that seminary. The Legislature had passed an act in the preceding winter, for restoring and new naming King's College; afterwards to be a University by the name of Columbia. But no final arrangement or appointments had been made; only a committee was empowered to provide, in a temporary way, for what might be most needful.

"The late Mr. Duane, then Mayor of New-York, was one of this committee, who hearing that the nephew of the Governor was going out of the state for his education, applied to me, to know if I would undertake the care of him, and such others as might offer, until the appointments for the college could be made. To which I readily agreed, and young Clinton, with half a dozen more, were put under my tuition." He proceeds, "I found Mr. Clinton apt to learn any thing that was required of him. He was clear in mathematics, and correct in classical knowledge. He did every thing well: upon the whole, he seemed likely to me to prove, as he did prove, a highly useful and practical man; what the Romans call 'civilis,' and the Greeks Tos, a useful citizen, and qualified to counsel and direct his fellow-citizens to honour and happiness. And now, in conclusion, I cannot but feel self-gratulation and pride, I hope a virtuous one, when I reflect on the number of eminent persons that have proceeded from the very cradle of Columbia College. Draw at a venture," continues Dr. Cochran, "from the old and illustrious seminaries of England and Ireland, the same number of names as we had on our books, and I will venture to affirm, that they would not be superior to such men as Governor Clinton, Chancellor Jones, the Rev. Dr. John M. Mason, and some others."

In the society, formed by the students for their improvement in composition and declamation, called the Uranian Society, and

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