DISCOURSE

ON THE

CHARACTER AND PUBLIC SERVICES

OF

DEWITT CLINTON,

DELIVERED

BEFORE THE ASSOCIATION OF THE ALUMNI OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE,

AT THEIR ANNIVERSARY, 6th MAY, 1829;

BY

JAMES RENWICK, M. A.

Professor of Natural Experimental Philosophy and Chemistry.

PUBLISHED AT THE REQUEST OF THE ASSOCIATION.

NEW-YORK:

G. & C. & H. CARVILL.

L.S

B

SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW-YORK, ss.

E IT REMEMBERED, That on the nineteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and twenty-nine, and in the fiftythir 1 year of the Independence of the United States of America, G. & C. & H. Carvill, of the said district, have deposited in this office, the title of a book, the

right whereof they claim as Proprietors, in the words following, to wit:

"A Discourse on the Character and Public Services of Dewitt Clinton, delivered before the Association of the Alumni of Columbia College at their Anniversary, 6th May, 1829; by James Renwick, M. A. Professor of Natural Experimental Philosophy and Chemistry, Published at the request of the Association."

In conformity to the Act of Congress of the United States, entitled, "An Act for the encouragement of Learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the time therein mentioned." And also to an Act, entitled, "An Act, supplementar to an Act, entitled an Act for the encouragement of Learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the authors and proprietors of such copics, during the times therein mentioned, and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints."

Ludwig & Tolefree, Printers.

FREDERICK J. BETTS,

Clerk of the Southern District of New-York.

DISCOURSE.

ANOTHER anniversary of our association has arrived. We are again assembled in these halls to renew the ties that bind us to our common Alma Mater, and those, not less dear that exist among us as alumni. The associations of our youth are here to be revived; and we here meet to hail as brothers, not only those who along with us pursued the paths of learning, or followed us in them, but those who held out the example our young exertions were once proud to emulate.

Here, at least, however varied may be our pursuits or opposite our callings-nay, although political opposition may divide, or rivalry separate us, we can unite in the feelings of a common interest, and congratulate each other on the return of the epoch of our union, and of the day whence our elder brethren date the commencement of their honourable and useful career. Permit me to join in

these friendly salutations, in the greetings of those who

often far estranged by the business of life, are yet happy to re-awaken the tender recollections of juvenile intimacy. Brother alumni, allow me to express the satisfaction I feel at seeing so many of my former associates, so many of my younger friends, so many, may I say it, of my affectionate pupils here assembled; while the venerable band of our elder brethren also appears to honour our celebration, undiminished in number since our last anniversary.

Such at least would have been my greeting, had this address been delivered a few hours sooner. But at this very moment, a train of mourners is conveying to the tomb of his ancestors, one of the few survivors of that venerable band, the last of a name illustrious in the ancient annals of our province, but in whom the conscious dignity of high birth, was tempered and illustrated by polished manners, and the graces which a finished education can alone bestow.

Gratitude that we count numbers but little diminished, is a feeling too earnest to be controlled; and, indeed, the pleasure we experience in saluting those whom we find present, is not more intense than the anxiety with which we inquire for the fate of those whom we miss in this. assembly. Have any of our number suffered in health or happiness since our last meeting? Has death called from the path of usefulness, the ripened growth of manly talent, or nipped the bud of youthful promise? If so, then before

*Frederick Philipse, Esq. of Philipstown.

we enter into the festivities of the day, is our tribute of mournful recollection, or of affectionate admiration due.

Of all the objects which an association such as ours can propose, none is more useful, none can be more interesting, than thus annually to commemorate the worth of the departed. Subjects of general and public interest are not indeed unsuited to the purposes of our meeting; our institution has produced those who have filled with honour to themselves, and advantage to the country, the most exalted stations of public life, or have risen to the height of reputation in those professions emphatically called the learned. Such men it is to be hoped will still continue to issue from these halls; and when they shall be called upon to address you, the scope of the institution admits-nay, their associates will expect, that they shall treat of subjects with which the business of their life has rendered them familiar. Instruction and eloquence have thus flowed from the discourses of my predecessors in the honourable appointment of orator of your anniversary. But to lament the untimely fate of youthful talent; to rescue from oblivion the deeds of modest and unobtrusive usefulness; to celebrate the praises of public benefactors; are topics which seem to be exactly suited to the day and its associations. It cannot in truth be a day of unalloyed pleasure. If it recall to our recollection the happy period when young, ardent, and impetuous, we entered the arena of the more than Olympian contest, where not only bodies but minds struggle for the honours and rewards, which