spicuous, and will be recalled to mind by most of this assembly with pleasure and with gratitude.

The state of war in every country produces a set of men who, under the pretext of patriotism and of public good, excite to acts of riot and disorder, which they turn to the gratification of private resentment, or their own private emoluments. Disgraceful scenes of lawless violence and of bloodshed had occurred in a neighbouring city, and gave fearful omen of what might here be expected, unless restrained by the strong arm of the law. Mr. Clinton's intelligent mind foresaw the crisis, and his correct and intrepid spirit was prepared to meet it.

In an address to the grand jury, he alluded to the riotous scenes of Baltimore, and with the view to prevent a repetition of the same in the city of New-York, he digested and prepared a system of police regulations, for the preservation of the peace of the city, which was adopted by the common council. The result is well known; our city remained tranquil and undisturbed by tumult of any sort. The character of Mr. Clinton for energy and decision, was an assurance to the community, that these regulations would not remain a dead letter, but be faithfully and promptly executed. His well known firmness gave tranquillity to our city; the vicious were awed; the virtuous under his auspices felt additional confidence.

Another instance of Mr. Clinton's pure devotion to the interests of his country deserves to be recorded. Upon the declaration of war by the United States against Great Britain, it was well known that this important metropolis would be one of the first objects of attack by the enemy. The immense wealth of this city would awaken attention, and its importance as a military station pointed out its possession as of the greatest moment.

But the declaration of war found us wholly unprepared: the embarrassed situation of the finances of the United States is still remembered. The treasury was empty, and its credit, at that time, impaired. It was soon perceived, that if our city was to be defended, the funds for that purpose must be provided by ourselves. At this crisis, Mr. Clinton suggested to the common council to borrow the necessary funds on the credit of this city, and to loan the same to the United States. The plan was approved. An impressive address, drafted by Mr. Clinton, was made to our citizens, and a million of dollars raised, by subscription, for our defence.

Throughout the progress of the war, Mr. Clinton constantly associated himself with the committee of defence appointed by the corporation, and lent his powerful influence to the various measures which were then proposed.

When it is considered that Mr. Clinton's political advancement was then in opposition to the existing administration, and when it might have been expected that a political rival would have been pleased with this opportunity of rendering them unpopular with the people, it certainly redounds to his honour and patriotism, that he gave his undivided exertions towards carrying on the war to a successful issue.

His patriotism was also evinced in the tender of his services in his military character during the late war. At this moment of danger, having held the station of Major-general in the militia of the state, he considered it his paramount duty to offer to the Commander-in-chief his personal services for active operation in the field. These were preferred in a letter addressed to the late Governor Tompkins, by their mutual friend, Thomas Addis Emmet.

It ought to be remarked, as an evidence of his high sense of duty, and his disregard of personal danger, that during the visitations of the pestilence, of the peculiar character and contagiousness of which Mr. Clinton had the fullest conviction, while officiating as the chief magistrate of the city, he was ever present at the deliberations of the common council, and rendered his daily attendance in the city at the board of health, of which he was the presiding officer.

As a criminal judge, it is admitted even by those who had been his political opponents, that his vigilance, his able and impartial performance of his official duties, especially in those cases involving the life of the offender, furnished a model worthy of imitation by all who occupy that highly important and responsible situation: for in him were happily united a most strict attention to the merits of the case, with the most devoted leaning to the feelings of humanity. Mr. Clinton did not entertain the opinion expressed by some late philanthropists, that capital punishments are unnecessary or unjust. Believing with the most enlightened authorities, Beccaria, Blackstone, and the late Sir Samuel Romilly, that the certainty of punishment was the best security for the prevention of crime, our statute book bears witness to the wisdom of his counsels in mitigating the severity of the English criminal code; and during his performance of the duties of judge, as assigned to him in his office of mayor, the culprit was equally aware of the clemency of the magistrate, and of the certainty of punishment in the case of conviction: but while in his view the destruction of human life could only be expiated by the lex talionis, he was determined that the last punishment of the law should be inflicted on those who were the wanton instruments of its violation.

But even then no man was more willing to listen to, or eager to

discover any circumstance calculated to mitigate the crime that had been committed; to this purport we have the concurrent testimony of all who practised in the court in which the mayor presided, while he filled that honourable and responsible office. By a gentleman who many years held an official station at his side, and of opposite political sentiments, he is represented to have been "cautious, attentive, of kind temper, patient of investigation, and discriminating with great care; and in a word, that upon all occasions he acquitted himself as the pure, impartial, patient, and upright magistrate, one of the safest men that ever presided in a criminal court, and ever uniting mercy with justice."* It was also the remark of a late eminent† counsel, who was frequently engaged in his court as the favourite defender of that unfortunate class found at the bar of the court of criminal jurisprudence, that in any capital trial De Witt Clinton was, in his estimation, superior to any judge he had ever known. His charges to the Court of Sessions, of which, during his time, the mayor was the presiding judge, were marked with a sagacity and judgment that received the unanimous approbation of the bar.

In the cause of the Trinity Church riot, which many of this auditory may remember, his sternness and severity of rebuke towards some, whose rank in life would have awed the authority of a less firm magistrate, confirmed his character in the minds of all peaceable citizens, and had no inconsiderable influence on the conduct of the factious and the unruly. But there are other and more enduring monuments of his legal abilities.

* See Appendix, I.

+ Washington Morton, Esq.

At the same time that he presided over the police of our city, he frequently filled the station of a senator in our state legislature, where he distinguished himself not only by his able patronage of most of our literary and benevolent institutions, requiring legislative support,* but as an active and efficient member of the Court of errors, the ulterior tribunal of our judiciary, and for which his legal attainments and knowledge had peculiarly qualified him. This leads me to make a few remarks upon the character of Mr. Clinton as a jurist. It may appear presumptuous in me, a member of a profession, the pursuits of which are totally irrelevant, to attempt to delineate the legal acquirements and character of one so justly distinguished for the rare union of high attainments, both in jurisprudence and political science; but when my audience is informed, that in speaking of the legal qualifications of Mr. Clinton, I rely more on the information derived from his coadjutors and fellow-members of that learned and respectable profession, than upon my own competency to form a correct opinion, I trust I shall be acquitted of all vanity and unjust pretensions in attempting to delineate this part of his character.

Although Mr. Clinton, as has appeared, was at an early period after his admission to the bar called into political life, some opportunities had been afforded him of displaying his legal talents and acquirements, and which could not fail to have introduced him into a highly respectable scene of practice. Afterwards, when officiating as a member of our State Legislature, but more especially in the capacity of a member of the Court of Errors, and as the chief magistrate of this city, he was oftentimes called

* See Journals of the Legislature.