strict adherence to integrity in such cases, particularly when the moral sense of the community appears, in some measure, blunted by general corruption, and the temptation held out by opportunities is enhanced by the pressure of pecuniary difficulties. To such difficulties, this very disinterestedness had, we lament to say, exposed Clinton. Although holding, at times, offices and perquisites, that in the hands of a covetous person might have been made sure sources of wealth, we find him, throughout his life despising those gains which required a sacrifice of his lofty principles, and devoting his whole energies of mind, in the midst of honourable poverty, to the service of his country.

But the most remarkable and prominent feature in the character of our late distinguished associate, and which in truth separates him from nearly the whole tribe of professional politicians, is this: in determining his plans and fixing his principles of action, he always looked to the great public ends of his measures; canvassed their merits upon a broad view of their relations to the general prosperity, and left out of sight their immediate bearing upon mere party questions. We hence find him pursuing in all cases a steady and unvarying course to his purpose; and while the waves of party ebbed or flowed, alternately bearing him forward with accelerated impulse, or retarding him with impetuous resistance, straining with equal energy to the accomplishment of his great and patriotic designs. A politician from his childhood, and engaged in some of the most

desperate struggles for power, that have ever been witnessed in our country, it would be arrogating to him a character more than human, to say, that he never was compelled to A move with unworthy associates, never bore the badge of a mistaken policy, or that his ardent and ambitious temperament was never hurried into acts, that his own cooler judgment would have disapproved. But this much can be asserted without dispute, that whenever measures were coolly planned by himself, they looked to no ephemeral or party object, and were steadily pursued, to the loss frequently of his popularity for the moment, and the temporary distruction of his political influence. The same party which in 1812 rejected him from their ranks, joined, in 1816, in his almost unanimous election as governor; again abandoned and loaded him with contumely in 1818, and finally at the close of his life, clustered around him as their leader and most distinguished ornament.

In all these changes of popular feeling, there was no change in the policy or practice of Clinton; the fickle multitude, which, at one time lauded him as a god, and at another covered him with obloquy, had leaders who directed, and partizans who trimmed to the breeze of varying opinion; but Clinton had a soul too lofty, a spirit too independent to barter principle for popularity. Had he been inclined to suit his measures to the popular sentiment, to abandon his own schemes upon the first breath of discontent, he might have lived the idol of a party, spared himself many a shock from the estrangement of those he fancied friends, and

even bequeathed wealth to his family. But the more noble inheritance of character, of the reputation of the first citizen of the first state in the union, and made so principally by his own exertions, would have merged in the paltry title of a successful demagogue, who had attained his ends by pandering to the vitiated taste of the mob.

Brief as the time allowed me is, I cannot refrain from illustrating this point of his character. The first instance I shall choose is from the records of our own institution. Many honourable men, some of whom perhaps now hear me, were partakers in the generous but mistaken zeal, by which a fancied case of oppression was met by a forcible resistance to the authority of the college, and an interruption of its most solemn exercises. There was something in the time and circumstances that made this otherwise unjustifiable act, appear almost like a correct expression of indignant public feeling. The high, and no doubt honourable motives, that occasioned this disturbance have long since obliterated its memory as an offence; were it not so, I should not have ventured to mention it here, even to enhance the character of the subject of my discourse. It fell to the lot of Clinton to investigate this matter as judge, and to take cognizance of it in his official capacity. His sound reason stripped it of the character of manly resistance to oppression, and left it naked to view, a criminal and illegal attempt to interrupt a necessary although painful act of discipline; the tide of

public sentiment was turned, and our discipline restored to that standing in opinion which is its sole support.

I believe there is now no dissent to the views he took of the merits of this case, even those who bore a part in the act have made a manly acknowledgment of their error; yet during the heat of the moment, and at a time when a change in the government of the College had just occured, which was felt as a wrong committed against those teachers whom he, in common with all other alumni, venerated and esteemed, it required, no small powers of discrimination to see it in its proper light, no small force of character to act in relation to it as duty and a just view of its merits dictated. These powers of discrimination, and this force of character enabled him to see and pursue the proper course, but it was at no small expense, causing the temporary rupture of ties both private and political, which however he did not hesitate to sacrifice to public duty.

Clinton had from his youth acted with a party, to which, in the course of the charges, which were made mutually by it and its opposing interest, the character of being more particularly opposed to the measures of Great Britain was ascribed. Nobody at the present day believes, but that the leaders of these great bodies were actuated in their foreign policy, merely by different estimates of the true interest of the country. But this ascription of character to the party in which Clinton was enrolled, drew to it vast accessions of strength, from those in whom the wounds of the revolutionary struggle remained unhealed. Of these all had

suffered in various ways in that embittered contest, and some bore upon their bodies the marks of the chains and shackles of floating prisons. The same course of events had thrown into the ranks of the opposite party, and even made personally obnoxious to Clinton, a few individuals who had borne office under the British government, during the long occupation of our city.

On the breaking out of the late war these persons were threatened in person and property, by those who desired to avenge upon them the injuries received from the royal arms. Threats and murmurs proclaimed the approaching crisis, and an hour's supineness in the civil authority would have seen the dwellings, and perhaps the persons of the obnoxious, a prey to popular fury. But the civil arm was then wielded by Clinton, who on this occasion, forgetting his early hostile impressions, the long continued struggle for power, and the feeling of almost personal wrong, saw in them only citizens of the same country, equally entitled with those of the purest political faith, to protection from all penalties the law did not award. Thus, and entirely through his energy and influence, the riots that disgraced some of our sister cities, had here no parallel, although here only were the still aching wounds of the revolution in actual contact with the instruments by which they were supposed to have been inflicted. Nor must it be forgotten. that temporary political purposes might have been subserved by yielding to the popular clamour, and permitting the excitement to take its course.