JAMES RENWICK, LL.D.

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CHAPTER II.

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Birth of Dewitt Clinton. – His early Education. – He studies at the Kingston Academy. – He is present at the Evacuation of New-York. – He enters Columbia College. – Account of the Professors of that Institution. – Clinton distinguishes himself as a Scholar, and graduates with the highest honours.

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Dewitt Clinton was born March 2^d, 1769, at Little Britain, the residence of his father, General James Clinton. His early education was intrusted to the Rev. Mr. Moffat, the pastor of the Presbyterian church in that settlement. In 1782 he was removed to the Academy of Kingston, an institution at that time of high celebrity, under the direction of a Mr. Addison. It was, in fact, the only public school that had been able to maintain its usefulness unimpaired during the revolutionary war. The whole state, with the exception of a small part in the neighbourhood of Albany, had been the seat of active hostilities. The British armies had penetrated from the north as far as Stillwater, and from the south nearly to the present site of Hudson. Kingston itself had been sacked and burned, but this caused no long suspension of the operations of its academy, which an enlightened public spirit speedily re-edified. In the year 1784, having mastered all the subjects taught at the Kingston Academy, Dewitt Clinton was removed from it by his father, for the purpose of entering upon a more elevated course of study. For this purpose the college at Princeton was selected, and the son accompanied his father to New-York on their way to that institution. General Clinton had some months before taken part in the ceremonial of receiving possession of New-York from the British troops. His son had then visited the city, where he witnessed the final evacuation of that important position by those who had so long held it, and shared in the joy of those, who, after seven years of exile, were restored to their homes and household goods.

Thirty years before, a college had been established, by royal charter, in the City of New-York. This had been eminently successful in the production of sound and elegant scholars; and although its usefulness had been narrowed by the attempt to conduct it in conformity to the system of an established church, and for the propagation of royalist principles, it had, notwithstanding, trained some of the most eminent men who had taken the part of their country in the Revolutionary struggle. This institution had been almost ruined by the war. Its students and teachers had been driven out to make room for the sick of the American army; its president chased from his post by a mob, enraged at his warm and vigorous support of the British cause; its library, then the most complete on the Continent, wasted and dispersed; its apparatus and museum destroyed. The occupation of New-York by the British forces did not mend its condition. Thus, while Cambridge, Princeton, Philadelphia, and Williamsburg had in succession become the quarters of armies, or the actual seat of hostilities, without sustaining any injury to their well-endowed universities, that of New-York and been almost obliterated.

The circumstances in which young Clinton was placed were the direct means of reviving this decayed institution. The nephew of the governor of the state and the son of one of its most distinguished citizens, it appeared to be a public disgrace that he should be compelled to resort to another state for his education. It was therefore determined to attempt to reopen the deserted halls of the college in New-York. A lucky chance permitted this to be done under the auspices of men of no little training.

On the close of hostilities, the inhabitants of one of the counties of Virginia had resolved to restore a deserted academy of that state. For this purpose they had addressed themselves to Dr. Ogilvie, of Aberdeenshire, in Scotland; and, at his instance, two young men of high promise and much learning had crossed the Atlantic. On reaching Virginia, they found that the inducements which had been held out to them were unfounded, and that no provision had been made for their comfortable support. Thus disappointed in their expectations, they had reached New-York on their return to their native country, the one burning with indignation and disgusted with everything American, the other in sorrow at leaving a country for whose people and institutions he had conceived an attachment. In this state of mind they were found by Mr. Duane, the mayor of the city; and while the former not only declined for himself, but endeavoured to dissuade his companion, the latter joyfully accepted a call which promised the attainment of his desires.

This young Scotsman whom chance thus presented was the late John Kemp, LL.D., who for 28 years after was the soul of the institution, to which, in lieu of its former style of King’s, the name of Columbia College was now given. The son of a father who had lost his property by his adherence to the cause of the Stuarts, he had been brought up by an uncle. While a student in the University of Aberdeen, he had competed for, and, after three days of hard contest, gained the prize of mathematical learning. The most valuable part of this distinction was the right of receiving the instructions of the mathematical professor during the long vacations of seven months, which interrupt the courses of Scottish Universities.

The professor at that time was Hamilton, who outlived his pupil, and distinguished the close of his life by the publication of his celebrated argument against the popular belief, that a debt did not diminish the wealth of a nation. In this place we have only time to say, that this argument, which carried with it immediate conviction, may be considered as having been the distant cause of the long peace which has continued among civilized nations since the downfall of Napoleon.

Dr. Kemp was not unworthy of the privileges which his previous proficiency had gained for him, and left college one of the best mathematicians of the age. His other attainments were also great: he was an excellent classical scholar, and had mastered all the physical knowledge of the day.

Another fortunate chance secured to Columbia College the services of the Rev. Wm. Cochran, a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, a sound and excellent classical scholar. The revived institution had also the benefit of the services of Benjamin Moore, afterward the right reverend bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the state. This gentleman, distinguished for his sound learning, his fine taste, and his persuasive eloquence, was a model of mild courtesy, and often succeeded in enforcing discipline by an appeal to feelings of honour and sense of character, when harsh measures would have been unavailable. His important duties in the organization of his church, and the high responsibility of the station to which he was speedily elevated, withdrew him from the labours of education. After some years he was restored to the college in the capacity of its chief officer, but without any share in its active tuition; and under his rule the institution rose to a high degree of prosperity, from which it fell for a time under the administration of an officer, whose high abilities and learning were not tempered by the prudence and caution for which Bishop Moore was so eminent.

Dr. Moyes, who filled the chair of Natural History and Chemistry, had the misfortune to be blind; yet his lectures were popular and instructive. He had the high merit of being the first to introduce the latter science into the United States, freed from the dreams of alchymy. It was, however, still in its infancy, and the brilliant discoveries of Lavoisier were not yet received or even completed. Hence, in after life, Clinton found the necessity of keeping up with the progress of this science, of which even the language in which he had studied it was entirely changed. This labour, however irksome, he encountered.

The faculty of the college was completed by the appointment of Samuel Bard, M.D., to the chair of Natural Philosophy, and of Dr. Grose to that of Metaphysical Science.

Of this faculty, Messrs. Kemp and Cochran alone devoted their whole time to the business of their chairs. The other gentlemen had, in addition, other professional pursuits. This was for the moment favourable; for they were men of high eminence and learning, who were collected by the wants of the growing city, and were thus enabled to afford their valuable services, at a time when the dilapidated state of the finances of the college, and the limited number of the pupils, would not have permitted the call of persons of equal attainments for the specific duty.

The organization that was at this time attempted of a university, which, with the college of New-York as its centre, was intended to include all the public seminaries of the state, was a plan of much promise, and, had it been pursued in the spirit of those who proposed it, might have been attended with incalculable advantage. It is remarkable, that it seems to have been the model on which, some years later, the university of France was framed; and that has been pre-eminently successful. The two projects, however, differed in one essential feature. The central administration of the University of France is, indeed, presided over by a minister of state, but it includes in its body men who have risen to it by success as teachers; the board of regents of the University of the State of New-York is elected by the Legislature, and, from the first, all men of practical skill in instruction seem to have been carefully excluded.

We need only say, the scheme was not carried into effect. Columbia College was soon withdrawn from all but the nominal jurisdiction of the regents; and no unity of purpose or action exists among the colleges and academies of the state. Finally, on the establishment of the school fund, it was not considered expedient to vest its management in that board, which, had it been efficient, would have seemed to be the proper organ for dispensing the public bounty.

Dewitt Clinton was the first matriculated student of the college, re-established in the manner we have mentioned, and was admitted to the junior class. The instructions of the able teachers who have been named were not without their effect upon the future character and services of Clinton. In no well-conducted institution would he have failed to become a distinguished scholar; but there were certain views and principles which he could not, at that time, have heard discussed in any other institution. Dr. Kemp, the favourite pupil of Professor Hamilton, was in the habit, in his mathematical course, of enforcing the yet unpublished views of his master on the subject of public debts; and urging the necessity of providing for every debt contracted a sum sufficient not only to defray the interest, but to pay off the principal by an annuity. In his lectures in illustration of the mechanical part of natural philosophy, he prided himself on giving to every subject a practical bearing, and thus the principles and history of canal navigation formed a favourite theme. He, in particular, insisted on the necessity of abandoning all attempts to improve the navigation of small rivers, and of substituting canals for the whole distance; illustrating his position by the celebrated saying of Bradley, that such streams "were intended by the Almighty for feeding canals." At the time that Clinton was his pupil, his acquaintance with the topography of the United States would not probably have enabled him to have formed the clear and lucid views he was subsequently in the habit of expressing, in relation to the capacities of the State of New-York for inland navigation. These became afterward a matter of public record, in a letter he addressed to his friend, Dr. Beattie. In this he points out the possibility of a canal navigation from Oswego to Albany, and an extension to the West by the Seneca River to the heads of Seneca and Cayuga Lakes. Among the number of his pupils who were distributed throughout the State of New-York, these views had made a deep impression, and had a decided influence in preparing the public mind for the system which was finally adopted. In the mind of Clinton, the financial arguments and true principles of internal improvement enforced by his teacher, may naturally have formed the basis of the sound and enlightened views which subsequently directed his conduct. If they did no more, they must have had the effect of exciting his curiosity, and leading him to study for himself those principles of finance and systems of internal improvement to which his attention was directed by his instructor.

During the two years Clinton remained as a student in Columbia College, he distinguished himself by a marked superiority over all his fellows. This superiority has, with a pardonable pride, been alluded to by his instructor, Dr. Cochran, in a letter to Dr. Hosack, the eulogist of Clinton. "I found Mr. Clinton apt to learn anything that was required of him. He was clear in mathematics, and correct in classical knowledge. He did everything 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 p o l i t i k o V , 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, 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 will not be superior to such men as Governor Clinton, Chancellor Jones, the Rev. Dr. John M. Mason, and some others."

In conversation Dr. Cochran thus spoke of the early talent of Clinton. "I hear," said he, "that his political opponents call him, by way of reproach, magnus Apollo. If have not degenerated from what I knew his as a boy, he is well entitled to the appellation as a title of honour."

Clinton’s academic career closed in 1786, when he received the usual degree of bachelor of arts, taking, at the commencement, the highest honour which the institution could bestow. He left to his successors, as students in Columbia College, an example of steadiness, diligence, and moral excellence, which is the more meritorious, as many young men in his position might have been inclined to idleness, from the feeling that their family had already reached a station which would exempt them from labour; and to insubordination, from the knowledge that their teachers held office during the pleasure of their nearest connexions.

It is not to be concealed, that there was one occasion on which a dispute arose between the students and one of the professors of the college, and that Clinton was put forward as the champion of his associates, on whose behalf he wrote a complaint to the Board of Regents, by which the affairs of the college were then administered. This address is marked with precocious ability, but had no effect on the proceedings of that board, which sustained the professor in what the students considered an unwarrantable exercise of authority during hours not devoted to collegiate duty. It is mutually to the credit of the teacher and his pupil, that the prominent position in which Clinton was placed on this occasion had no effect upon his standing in his class. The collision had the effect of establishing the character of the teacher for fearlessness and decision; and so little was his course blamed by the friends and family of Clinton, that the immediate superintendence of the studies of his younger brothers, and of his cousins, the sons of the governor, was intrusted to the professor against whose conduct Dewitt Clinton had penned the remonstrance.

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Transcribed from the original text and html prepared by Bill Carr, last updated 12/10/99.