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progress of connected thought, surpassing, as I think, the best of his other writings, at the same time that they afford very favourable evidence of his character as a lawyer."

To no one in this country are we more indebted than to Mr. Clinton, for freeing us from those numerous and superfluous technicalities, which have for ages proved the source of inconvenience and expense in the adjudication of the rights of our citizens and of property, and which it is the boast of our state in some measure to have lessened or removed. His then is the great and permanent merit of having accommodated that system of English law to the genius of our republican institutions, of infusing into a code wise and well settled in its foundations and leading principles, but disfigured by too much technicality and refinement, a greater spirit of liberality and a more benignant feeling of philanthropy.

We do not pretend to trace any communication between the distinguished men of Europe and of this country, who have recently and simultaneously contemplated this great work of reform in jurisprudence as well as in civil government; but passing over the elaborate and able discourse on the subject pronounced before the Historical Society of New-York by Counsellor Sampson, and his correspondence with Governor Wilson of South Carolina, in 1824,* which is before the public, the coincidence between the views entertained and promulgated by the late lamented statesman of New-York, and the celebrated Henry Brougham, in the benign and salutary improvement he is now endeavouring to effect in the most enlightened of modern nations, is certainly

* See Appendix, L.

no less a matter of surprise, than it is an evidence of the importance and necessity of the changes that are contemplated.

It redounds greatly to the honour of Mr. Clinton, that from the care and distractions of public and political life, he snatched a portion of his time and devoted it, like Bacon, the great model of his imitation, and the object of his enthusiastic encomium, to the noblest of all occupations, intellectual cultivation; it may indeed be said of him, that "he is himself the great sublime he draws," that he belonged to that class of men so happily described by the illustrious Burke, in whom an acquaintance with the forms of the law does not impair the enlargement and liberality of their minds, which are happily sharpened and invigorated without injury to higher and loftier qualities.

It is well known that in the Court of Errors, he for many years by his influence and eloquence, nobly released our jurisprudence from many of those trammels by which it too often subverts the purposes of justice and equity, and prepared the public mind for those radical improvements in the statute law, which I trust we are now about to realize. In the language of the able editor of the American Annual Register recently published,—“It is but an act of justice to Mr. Clinton to state, that in official communications to the legislature, for years previously to the act of 1825, he had strenuously urged various important reforms in the laws of the state; and that these recommendations prepared the public mind, and in a great measure led to the important work of revisal now in progress. It constantly received his cordial approbation and vigorous co-operation, so far as his station afforded the

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Mr. Clinton's strong recommendation to the legislature of a review of our civil code, will be an enduring evidence to after ages of his liberal views and foresight; and if the execution of that great work shall correspond with the genius and spirit in which it was conceived, and of which the talents and learning of those engaged in its accomplishment afford every pledge, posterity will rank him with the Justinians and the Edwards of other nations.

From what has been stated it is manifest that he studied his profession in the spirit of liberality, and that he formed himself rather upon the model of Lord Bacon, than of his professional rival Coke; and it may not be irrelevant here to offer to my auditors his striking contrast between these two illustrious lawyers, as exhibiting in bold and masterly view the studies and character of an accomplished member of the bar. Doubtless but for the exigencies of the times, and the critical situation of our political affairs, he had followed, at no distant interval, the great original which he here so faithfully depicts.

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In his Discourse before the Literary and Philosophical Society of New-York, speaking of Bacon and Coke, he observes, "they were both eminent in their profession, and attained the highest honours and most lucrative emoluments. Bacon became Lord High Chancellor of England, and Coke a Chief Justice. former had ascended the empyreal heights of literature; the latter had plunged into the learning of Norman lawyers, and had become the oracle of the common law. The works of Bacon are referred to as the oracle of truth and knowledge, and as the revelation of genuine philosophy: while the black letter learning of Coke is an eleusynian mystery to all out of the pale of the profession.

The difference between a mere lawyer great in his profession alone, and a great lawyer eminent in literature and science, can never be more forcibly illustrated than in the exhibition of these celebrated men. Bacon enlivened, enriched, and embellished every subject upon which he wrote; even flowers sprang up under his feet in his journey through the thorny paths of legal investigation. But from Coke you must expect nothing but the dry barren weeds of scholastic subtlety and Norman chicanery."

In

In 1817 that popular leader, the late Daniel D. Tompkins, having been elected to the office of Vice President of the United States, De Witt Clinton was first called upon by the people of the state to preside over them as their chief magistrate. selecting him for this distinguished honour, there was a remarkable coalition amongst the principal parties which had previously been divided upon every political subject. But upon this occasion they all appeared to unite in the opinion, that his talents and zealous exertions in promoting the interest of the state, had merited the confidence they were now about to repose in him. He was elected with comparatively little opposition, and during the first year of his administration, nothing occurred to disturb the harmony of the state.

His republican opponents, who were then even more powerful as a party than they are at present, permitted to remain in oblivion the recollection that Mr. Clinton some years before had opposed Mr. Madison on his second election to the Presidency; the federalists were equally kind in blotting out the remembrance of some sentiments which had been expressed by Mr. Clinton, and which at the time they were uttered had given them such dire offence.

During the short tranquillity which succeeded his election, all

parties appeared anxious to sustain him in his exertions to advance the prosperity of the state, and those patriots who kept aloof from party conflicts, hailed the event as auspicious of future benefit; but the union of politicians, when based upon the expectations and hopes of personal advantages, is never lasting, and the first disagreement generally dissolves it. When the difficult task of filling up appointments was performed by the Governor, he very soon gave offence, and particularly to certain republican friends who alleged that he had not kept faith with them, but had gone over to their political adversaries; and strange to tell, many of the latter also took offence, and for a time he was openly opposed by some of the most distinguished federal leaders.

From this period a systematic attack was made against his administration: it was declared that they would never rest satisfied until he was displaced from office, as a punishment for what they considered and pronounced to be his "desertion of their standard." All the former acts of his political life were brought forward in array against him; he was abused without measure for his "unchastened ambition:" he was accused of having opposed the late war; he was charged with aiding in the persecution of Daniel D. Tompkins, whose accounts with the State Treasury were then about being settled; and worst of all, the merit of having been the most efficient friend to the grand canal, was unqualifiedly denied to him.

Whatever may have been his political errors connected with party politics, and however he may have offended those who had supported his first election, it cannot be denied that during the whole period of his administration, he never for a moment neglected the cardinal interests of the state; nor did any personal resentment prevent him from constantly urging upon the legislature,

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