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Cornell University Library 1993.AN ADDRESS COMMEMORATIVE OF
GEORGE W. CLINTON.
READ BEFORE THE SOCIETY, MARCH 24, 189O.
BY DAVID F.JDAY.
I think it may be said, with perfect truth, that the ability to
mould the opinions of men and control the course of public
events is seldom inherited. The gift commonly dies with its
possessor. How soon the sceptre of Cromwell dropped from
the nerveless hand of his son and successor ! The names which
were the most conspicuous in English history during the last
century, are now the names of men who command no part in state
affairs; and other names, then unknown, are borne by those
upon whose shoulders rest the burthens of the empire. The
families, which were of influence and importance during the
colonial period of this country, are still, no doubt, respectable;
but they are not, today, speaking generally, of any extraor-
dinary prominence. To this rule, the families of those, who
were the leaders in the Revolutionary struggle, offer us few
exceptions. No descendant of Franklin, or Henry, or Hancock
can be said to have given any additional luster to the names
which they inherited.
Yet it must be confessed that to this rule there have been
two important exceptions :—the Adams family of Massachusetts
and the Clinton family of New York.
Charles Clinton, the ancestor of the Clintons of this State, a
native of Ireland, but of English descent, a man in whose veins
commingled the blood of Puritan and Cavalier, came to the
203204
AN ADDRESS COMMEMORA TIVE
province of New York, in 1731. He was born in 1690, and
lived to see his 83d year. At his home in Ulster County, in this
State, his two sons were born—James, in 1736, and George, in
1739. There is not a great deal of the history of Charles Clin-
ton recorded ;—but that he was a man of character and influence
in his locality is proved by the fact that he served in the French
and Indian War, with the rank of lieutenant colonel. He was
present with his two sons at the capitulation of Fort Frontenac,
in Canada. He was the great-grandfather of Judge Clinton.
In 1763, James Clinton, having the command of four regi-
ments of provincial troops, was engaged in the defence of the
frontier against the incursions of the Indians. At the beginning
of the Revolutionary War he received from Congress a commis-
sion of colonel, and in 1775 he accompanied Montgomery in his
disastrous campaign against Quebec. In 1777, having then the
rank of brigadier-general, he was in command of Fort Clinton,
when it was successfully stormed by the British. In 1779 he co-
operated with Gen. Sullivan in the expedition which broke the
power of the Iroquois in this State. He was afterwards in charge
of the defences of Albany, and, continuing in the service until
the close of the war, he witnessed the surrender of Cornwallis
and the evacuation of the city of New York.
Of George Clinton it may be said that he participated with
his father and brother in the French and Indian War; and that
in the year 1775 he was elected a delegate to the Continental
Congress, in Philadelphia, voting the following year in favor of
the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. Upon the
adoption of the Constitution of this State, in the formation of
which he had a most important part, he was elected Governor,
holding that office thereafter until 1795, and again from 1801
until 1804, when he was chosen Vice-President of the United
States. In the latter office, at the age of 73 years, he died, hav-
ing passed more than half his life in the most arduous as well as
the most honorable public service.
De Witt Clinton, the son of James Clinton and the father of
Judge Clinton, was born in 1769. In 1798, at the early age of
29 years, he was a Senator of this State. In 1802, being only 33,
he was chosen a Senator of the United States. He resigned thatOF GEORGE W. CLINTON.
205
office after the brief service of two years, and in 1804 was
appointed Mayor of the city of New York. In 1811 he was
elected Lieutenant Governor. In 1812 he was a candidate for
the Presidency of the United States. In 1817 he was elected
Governor of the State for the first time and in 1820 he was re-
elected. Serving in this exalted office until 1822, he declined a
re-election ; but in 1824 he accepted a nomination for the third
time and was elected. Again, in the year 1826, he was a success-
ful candidate. While holding the office of Governor, for the
fourth term, on the nth day of February, 1828, he died at what
may be justly called the early age of 58 years.
Thus have we seen that for a period of thirty years in the his-
tory of this State the chief executive office has been held by
descendants of Charles Clinton. But not upon the length of
service in this important position does their fame rest. The first
Governor Clinton was, without doubt, the foremost man of the
State, during the Revolution. He was also the foremost man
during the critical period when the institutions of the newly-
created State were in process of formation. To the second Gov-
ernor Clinton belongs the fame, almost entirely his own, of orig-
inating and carrying to completion the project of the canal
which unites the great lakes with the sea, and which, while it
gave to the State of New York its commercial supremacy, gave
also to the undeveloped West its first great highway to the mar-
kets of the East. Seldom, if ever, in ancient or modern history
have services of such value been rendered to any people as those
which were given to this State by De Witt Clinton, during his
nine years of administration in the office of Governor.
But it would be as foreign to my purpose as it would be to
your expectations if I should dwell at any length upon the history
of the family from which Judge Clinton sprung. I have, in fact,
referred to it only that I might show you how that history, for
the three generations before him, had been most intimately and
most honorably connected with the history of the State of New
York.
Belonging to a family so honorably distinguished in the
annals of the State, I can well understand how Judge Clinton,
justly proud of the name which he had inherited, felt also (as he206
AN ADDRESS COMMEMORATIVE
more than once declared) that it had been to him a burthen and
an embarrassment. He knew that great things were expected of
him, because he was the heir of such a name.
' It was not the lot of Judge Clinton to occupy so conspicuous
a place in the affairs of the State as was that of his ancestors.
“ The rod of empire ’’ was not committed to his keeping; nor
was it his “ the applause of listening senates to command.” Yet,
if he had been called to the high station which they had filled,
who of you can doubt that he would have given to the Common-
wealth an administration like theirs, free from all scandal and
reproach, pure, beneficent and honorable?
Among the treasures contained in the library of the Buffalo
Society of Natural Sciences is a little manuscript volume, in
which are recorded the observations and reflections of a young
man, during a journey on the packet-boat Lafayette, from
Albany to the village of Buffalo in the spring of 1826, by the
way of the Erie Canal. The party mainly consisted of students
of the Rensselaer School of Science (now the Polytechnic Insti-
tute) in charge of the principal, Professor Amos Eaton. It was
long before the day of the railroad, and even the packet-boat
was a great novelty. The excursion was avowedly for scientific
research. The young men who composed the party were all
students of natural history, and their leader was distinguished as
a man of science. The volume is the earliest record which I
have ever seen made by Judge Clinton’s hand. He was then of
the immature age of 19 ; yet anyone knowing Judge Clinton,
who should read this quaint and interesting itinerary, would not
fail to discover that even at that early period of his life the same
tendencies of his mind, which dominated him in after years, had
already asserted themselves. You will find in its pages, made
yellow now by more than half a century, proof of the same
assiduous seeking after truth, as after treasure, which distin-
guished him in riper years—the same careful winnowing of the
false reasons from the true ones given in explanation of any of
the phenomena of nature ; the same sincere acknowledgment of
ignorance whenever he passed beyond the boundary of his actual
knowledge. He had been graduated at Hamilton College the
previous year, where he had entered in 1821. Upon the occa-OF GEORGE W. CLINTON.
207
sion of the celebration of the opening of the canal, in 1825, he
had accompanied his father to this place. This, therefore, was
his second visit to Buffalo and Western New York.
Under the date of Monday, May 15, 1826, I find an entry
which, while it undoubtedly indicates the youth of the writer,
nevertheless, to me, has some suggestion of Judge Clinton in
his later years: “ Good resolutions are so easily forgotten that
we cannot take too numerous precautions to establish them in
our memories. Hoping, therefore, that if I neglect to fulfill
the intentions which I shall now record, this page may have the
effect of bringing me back to the path of improvement, I here
declare that I have been too remiss in taking notes, neglecting
to set down things of importance from sheer laziness, and that I
will reform in this particular.”
I am inclined to think that any young man, who is possessed
of a love of natural science, is apt to make choice of the pro-
fession of medicine, rather than any other, as his vocation in
life. Certain it is that Judge Clinton had at this time begun to
fit himself for that profession. The year 1826, after his return
to Albany, and the year 1827 were spent by him under the
direction of Dr. Theodoric Romeyn Beck, a distinguished prac-
titioner of the city of Albany. It is certain, also, that during
these years he attended two courses of instruction at the Medi-
cal School at Fairfield, where Dr. Beck had a professorship, and
in the city of Albany, where Doctors March and Tully were
already giving lectures to students. Possibly it was in associa-
tions like these that his great love for botanical science was
first stimulated into being. Professor Eaton, Dr. Lewis C.
Beck and Mr. Rafinesque, who were of the company of explor-
ers in the trip of 1826, were zealous botanists, and voluminous
writers on botanical topics. I have seen a bound volume of
letters, which Judge Clinton received at this period of his life,
which shows him in correspondence with all the leading botanists
of that day. Nor should I fail to mention that his father
himself had given much attention to the study of our flora, and
was the friend and patron of botanists. In recognition of his
love of the science, two genera of plants have had fhe name
Clintonia bestowed upon them. The leading botanical author-208
AN ADDRESS COMMEMORA TIVE
ities of that day stand upon the shelves of the Buffalo Society of
Natural Sciences, with the name of DeWitt Clinton inscribed
upon them, the gift of Judge Clinton to that institution.
At this period of his life Judge Clinton was an industrious
collector of the flora of our State, making exchanges with other
devotees of the science elsewhere. I have seen a letter of Pro-
fessor Asa Gray, of Cambridge, mentioning the fact that in his
herbarium at Cambridge, there were still specimens of plants
prepared at that early day by Judge Clinton’s hands. Nor did
the leaders in the science fail to discover his merits and recog-
nize his services as of value. In commemoration of him, though
still a youth, Dr. L. C. Beck gave his name to one at least of his
discoveries.
His adoption of the medical profession as his vocation in life
could not but have had the sanction of his father; and it seems
to me not unlikely that, but for events to which I shall pres-
ently refer, instead of an honorable career as a lawyer and a
judge, it would have been his lot, in the no less honorable ranks
of the rnedical profession, to have passed his life and earned a
different but perhaps as great a fame.
I have mentioned that in February, 1828, DeWitt Clinton
died. His death was sudden; and I cannot but think that it
changed the plan of life which Judge Clinton had chosen for
himself. There seems to be but little doubt, although I never
heard Judge Clinton say it, that Ambrose Spencer, then Chief
Justice of the Supreme Court (a name still beyond doubt the
most illustrious in the legal annals of the State), conferred with
him as to his purposes in life and advised him to enter the pro-
fession of the law. Whether he had become disinclined towards
a physician’s life, or whether the law seemed to offer to him a
field, in which he might win higher honor and a wider fame, I
do not know. But it is certain that he entered at once and earn-
estly into the study of the law, attending awhile the law school
of Judge Gould, at Litchfield, Conn., then, and for many years,
the leading one of the country. Subsequently he entered the
office of the Honorable John C. Spencer, at Canandaigua, where
his reading as a student seems to have been finished. And here
I may mention, that so complete was his determination toOF GEORGE W. CLINTON.
209
devote himself to his newly chosen profession, that he gave away
his collection of plants, with the resolution that thenceforth
the law only should engage his attention. How faithfully this
resolution must have been kept is well evinced by that abundant
knowledge of the law which ever afterwards distinguished him.
He was admitted to practice in 1831, and for some few months
afterwards kept an office in the city of Albany. The following
year, however, found him again in Canandaigua, a partner with
Mr. Spencer, whose daughter he soon after married. I find
that on the 19th day of May, 1835, being then of the age of
28, he was appointed district attorney of Ontario County; and
that after a few months’ service he resigned, his successor being
appointed on the 16th day of August, 1836.
This date fixes, as nearly as I think it well can be done, the
time when he came to this city to reside. He had just entered
his thirtieth year. I do not know that I ever heard him state
the especial reasons, if any there were, for his coming here.
But it is not at all improbable that the wider field, for the ex-
ercise of his abilities, which a new and growing city offered
him, was the chief reason. Speaking of this important epoch
of his life, I have heard him say, in public, that when he came
here, “ he was almost unknown ; he had done nothing to make
himself known; that he was acquainted with but very few, and
that he had to work his way.” Among these few were Dr.
Thomas M. Foote, for a long time the editor of the Commercial
Advertiser newspaper of this city, who had come to Buffalo in
February of the same year, and the Rev. Dr. John C. Lord, who
had already spent eleven years in this place. They had been
fellow-students with Judge Clinton at Hamilton College.
I cannot say that my acquaintance with Judge Clinton began
until after he was a Judge of the Superior Court of this city.
Likely enough I had spoken with him, t because he was always
affable, and yielded graciously to the approach of young people.
But I surely never saw him engaged as counsel in the trial of any
case, and therefore I can speak of him, while in the practice of
the law, only as I adopt the language of others. At the meeting
of the bar of Buffalo, called upon the occasion of his death, Mr.
Sprague stated that he could not remember that the reputation
14210
AN ADDRESS COMMEMORATIVE
of Judge Clinton, as a lawyer, had ever changed, from the be-
ginning to the end:
At 30 years, he was as eminent as at his death. At that period he
was already distinguished by his peculiar style of eloquence, a style,
not the result of education or training, but native and spontaneous. In
1840, there were three men in this city, who were endowed with marvellous
powers of speech, unequalled here, and unsurpassed in the State. These
were George P. Barker, Henry K. Smith and George W. Clinton. The
first two died early; the third lived to the ripeness of old age. Those who
heard him only in his last years cannot appreciate his powers as an orator in
his prime and ambition; but there are some, no doubt, who can recollect how
the fire flashed from his eye, and how his pointed gesture, his expressive coun-
tenance, and the brilliancy and beauty of his diction thrilled an audience.
After the lapse of thirty-six years (it is as long as that since
Judge Clinton was promoted to the bench), few indeed can
speak of him as an advocate or as counsel engaged in the trial of
causes. His toils, his triumphs, his defeats as a practitioner
(whatever they were) were closed before my time. I remember
only the traditions which speak of his uncommon ability as a
lawyer, his remarkable success as an advocate, and his industry
and fidelity in all professional trusts and responsibilities.
During the twenty years which he spent here in the practice
of the law, the bar of Buffalo could scarcely have been surpassed
by that of any other city of the State. Besides the distinguished
lawyers mentioned by Mr. Sprague, there were here Millard
Fillmore, Nathan K. Hall, Henry W. Rogers, Thomas T. Sher-
wood, Solomon G. Haven, and others, men of renown in their
profession. Among them, from the first to the last, Judge
Clinton seems to have been conceded a place in the foremost
rank.
In the law reports which cover the period of his life as a
practitioner, his name occurs with such frequency as clearly to
denote that he had his full share in the important litigations of
the day: and that his reputation as a lawyer was not confined to
this city, is shown by the fact of his appointment, in 1847, t0
the office of United States District Attorney.
The evidence of the favor of his fellow-townsmen towards
him will be found in his election to the office of Mayor, in the
year 1844. He was among the first of those who were called toOF GEORGE W. CLINTON.
211
the chief magistracy of the city, by popular vote. His residence
here, at the time of his election, covered only a little more than
seven years. He was not a party candidate, and the vote was
practically unanimous.
In 1854 he was elected a Judge of the Superior Court of Buf-
falo, and held that honorable position by repeated re-elections,
until the first day of January, 1878, when, having attained his
seventieth year, he gave way to his successor. Thus through the
long period of twenty-four years he occupied a seat upon the
judicial bench. During much the larger portion of that period
he had for his associates in that court Joseph G. Masten and
Isaac A. Verplanck: and surely I may say of them that not often
have jurists of such abilities been brought together in one court.
In the structure of their minds they were very dissimilar.
Yet it must be said of them that each brought to the service of
justice his full share of ability and aptitude for the judicial office.
Judge Verplanck, I think did not have the learning of either of
his associates, but his ready sense of justice, his rare common
sense, and his perfect fairness compensated for all deficiencies,
and made him most acceptable as an administrator of the law.
Judge Masten was doubtless better acquainted with the current
of judicial decisions, in this State and elsewhere, than either of
the others, and was prompt to apply the latest exposition of
legal science to the case before him. Curt he was, and at times
severe; and this occasionally brought dismay to the young and
inexperienced practitioner, and, without question, once in
awhile, embarrassed the meritorious side of the controversy.
Judge Clinton was, I think, more deeply read in legal principles
than his associates; and he was greatly their superior in general
learning. Whether on the bench or off, he was always courteous,
considerate and kind. He seemed never to forget that it is the
first duty of the court to find where the merits of the case lie.
Having become satisfied which side was right, that side, no
matter how ably opposed, no matter how poorly defended,
thereafter with him had an advantage because he thought it was
right.
I have no doubt that judges, as a rule, have carried with
them into their courts so much of the common weakness of212
AN ADDRESS COMMEMORA TIVE
humanity, as to be gratified to find their decisions affirmed by
the higher courts. Of that weakness, I think Judge Clinton had
as small a share as any judge I ever knew. I have heard him say
that having done his best to decide a case properly, his personal
interest in it ceased, except so far as he might wish to learn, in
case of a reversal, wherein it was thought he had erred. Let me
here repeat of him what I have already said upon another
occasion :—As a judge, I thought his self-control complete; that
he heard with untiring patience; that he was clear in his under-
standing ; industrious in the examination of the cause before
him; that he aimed at justice in his decisions; and that he was
fearless of consequences.
It has always been a regret of mine that a greater number of
the judicial opinions of Judge Clinton were not in print. It is
one thing to decide a case correctly; it is quite another to put
the reasons for the decision fairly on paper. The judge who
undertakes it must have some capability of concise and perspicu-
ous expression, or he will be likely to fail when he attempts to
formulate the reasons which have guided him to his conclusions.
That was never the case with Judge Clinton. He knew the full
extent of the meaning and the proper weight of every word
which he had occasion to use. For these reasons his judicial
opinions were as clear and elegant as any other compositions of
his pen.
Judge Clinton’s industry in his profession was very great, and
the ease with which he placed his thoughts on paper was most
remarkable. Hence I have always regretted that he did not
leave, as his contribution to the literature of his profession, some
work upon which his reputation, as a lawyer, could have
securely rested. The master of an English style, equal, if not
superior, to that of Chancellor Kent, I feel sure that if the labor
which he gave to the preparation of his digest of the decisions
of this State had been devoted to the discussion of some
important topic of the law, he would have left behind him a
memorial of his talents, which would have been treasured
among the classics of the profession.
Both before and after his elevation to the bench, in one
respect, Judge Clinton’s relation to the community was unique.OF GEORGE W. CLINTON.
213
Whenever the occasion happened that public opinion here '
demanded expression, how often it found that expression through
his lips. You will remember how happily, on such occasions,
he was accustomed to employ his rare natural gifts and his many
and varied acquisitions and accomplishments in the discharge of
the duty of the hour. Did we fully appreciate, while he was
with us, how greatly we were favored in the fact that he was our
fellow-townsman ? I fear that we did not. What other city, in
all the broad land, had his equal for such occasions? Surely,
while he was with us, although others attained to higher places,
or conducted greater enterprises, or filled for awhile a larger
space in the public eye, surely, I say, while he was with us, he
was our First Citizen..
My closer acquaintance with Judge Clinton began with the
foundation of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences. It is not
true that the first thought of the establishment of that institution
originated in the mind of Judge Clinton. That credit must be
given, I think, to the late Coleman T. Robinson. How many
meetings, preliminary to the organization of the Society were
held, I do not know. But I well remember that some time in
the early part of November, 18.61, I was invited to meet Mr.
Robinson and several other persons, whom he had called to-
gether, to consider the practicability of organizing such a society
in this city. Judge Clinton was one of the number who were
present. He was called to the chair; and it was determined that
the society should be established. I was not at all surprised to
meet Judge Clinton at the meeting, because I had long known
that he had been a devoted lover of nature, and that in early
life he had given some attention to several branches of science.
I was rejoiced that he proved to be the choice of the assembly as
the first President of the Society. The inaugural meeting was
appointed to be held on the 5th of December following. At
that meeting Judge Clinton, most felicitously, as I thought, out-
lined the work of the Society. He said :
It will bring together in its collections all the plants and animals of the
surrounding country, all its shells, insects, fishes, birds, beasts and animated
things. It will collect and bring together all our minerals and specimens of
everything that can show or illustrate the geology of that territory. It will214
AN ADDRESS COMMEMORA TIVE
arrange all its collections in the most perfect order for the inspection of an en-
lightened curiosity and for the uses of the student of nature. It will originate
and maintain a system of correspondence and exchange with similar societies
and with naturalists of eminence throughout our country and throughout the
world ; and so will afford to this community an eye-knowledge of the geology
and the faunas and floras of foreign lands as well as our own dear country. It
will form and open a library, embracing all books necessary to the attainment
of a knowledge of natural history and the prosecution of its study. Its pro-
ceedings will record the discoveries of its members and others, and diffuse
useful knowledge among men.
I had already been attracted to botany as a recreation, and
was acquainted, in some degree, with the characteristic plants
belonging to our flora. Upon an allotment of the several de-
partments of natural science among the members of the Society,
I found myself associated with Judge Clinton upon the Com-
mittee on Botany. It was our self-imposed task to collect and
preserve for the Society all the native and naturalized plants of
the neighborhood. No definite plan of action was then thought
of. What should be done, or what attempted, was left entirely
to the developments of time. I had no anticipation of the happi-
ness which was in store for me. It was not, I think, until April
of the following year, that either Judge Clinton or myself made
an excursion. Then, strangely enough, without any agreement
or knowledge of the purpose of the other, we met in a piece of
wood in the southeastern portion of the city. Each of us had
already collected something; and after comparing what we had
found, we spent the remainder of the day together, returning to
the city at nightfall. Thereafter for several years our journeys
together were very frequent. The counties of Chautauqua,
Cattaraugus, Wyoming and Niagara were brought within the
range of our investigations, and the region across the river fre-
quently visited. It is not true that we always went together.
Often our explorations were in fields widely apart; and Judge
Clinton’s excursions were certainly much more numerous than
mine. But I saw him frequently, and often for the whole day
together.
The beautiful and attractive scenery of Chautauqua and
Cattaraugus counties grew familiar, and the unfrequented nooks,
where strange plants nestled, the thick woods, the shaded dellsOF GEORGE W. CLINTON.
215
and the wild fastnesses about the Falls of Niagara and at Portage
became known to us as they had never been known before. It
was upon these occasions that I came to understand the depths
of Judge Clinton’s learning. In the lore which pertains to the
wilds I never knew his superior. He was a wonderful observer ;
and on such excursions as we made together, it seemed, greatly to
my pleasure, as though my own perceptions were multiplied and
that I was enabled to see with his eyes, as well as with my own.
I am sure that one of Judge Clinton’s chief characteristics, as
a naturalist, was his love of truth. The Fact, and the Fact alone,
was what brought him delight. He had no love for mere specu-
lative science. Indeed, to him, no speculation, however ingen-
ious or plausible, was science. He wanted demonstration, not
theory ; proof, not hypothesis. Fact to him was like money on
deposit. Speculation, like the discounted paper of a bankrupt—
the one always ready for immediate and constant use; the other
likely to return to its endorser, dishonored. His mental vision
was so undisturbed and unperverted by theory that, unlike many
other people of science, he was rarely or never in error in any
observation which he reported.
Whilst indeed he gave to the vegetable world so much of his
attention, the habits of our native birds and wild animals were
constantly observed ; and in the living creatures of our lakes and
streams, he always found a fascinating study. There was no one
in this region who knew our fish so well or could speak with such
intelligence of their habits and their haunts. Those of you
who can recall his contributions of some forty years ago to one
of our city papers, will bear witness to the grace with which he
spoke of our adjacent waters and of the tribes by which they are
inhabited. It is said that some English writer called him the
Izaak Walton of America. I do not know who made the remark,
but it seems to me that the appellation was bestowed upon him,
not because they were at all alike in style, but because their topic
was the same, and each possessed the rare art of making his
reader a companion. In English, pure and undefiled, Judge
Clinton was the equal of Walton ; but where in Walton is that
sweet play of fancy which irradiated, like a sunbeam, all of
Judge Clinton’s writing, and where that exquisite choice of216
AN ADDRESS COMMEMORATIVE
words which no one ever thought that he could improve ? I was
never with him in any one of his piscatorial excursions. Seldom,
I think, did he desire companionship on such occasions, and I
remember to have met him in his boat upon the river, when,
indeed, his friendly salutation was ready, but it was not difficult
to see that he had sought the solitude of the waters that he might
be alone. Surely a string of fish was the least return which he
obtained from his aquatic pursuits. I do not doubt that the clear
stream, the blue sky, the fresh, pure air and the opportunity for
undisturbed self-communion were by far the greater attractions.
But the frequency of his visits to the river made him an
authority in regard to its finny tribes, even among those who
were fishermen by profession; and I remember that once, while
he was a Judge of the Superior Court, he was called as a witness
before a justice of the peace to give testimony in a controversy
in which the specific identity of a certain kind of fish was the
important question. As I recall the case, no other witness
was examined.
I dare not say that Judge Clinton was the first discoverer of
many species of plants (the fungi excepted), which were before
unknown to science. I am not sure that he ever had that good
fortune in a single instance. In fact, such has been the labor
bestowed upon the botany of the eastern portion of the United
States, that the discovery of a new species is here scarcely to be
expected. The collector must visit new lands in order to bring
to light new species. But here, in Western New York and on
the opposite shores of Lake Erie, his assiduity was rewarded by
the discovery of many species, new to this region, the announce-
ment of which was often a sensation in the botanical world. He
collected largely, and thus was able to exchange the plants of
♦this vicinity for those of many other portions of the world. In
this enormous labor he was animated by a single thought—the
building up of a great herbarium in our Society of Natural
Sciences. He lived to see his design accomplished; and, whilst
it may be said that he had some help in the work of collection,
the still more onerous one of mounting and arranging them in
order, as well as naming and indexing them, was done by his
hand alone. It was the labor of years, a labor of love, which, IOF GEORGE W. CLINTON.
217
know, brought to him, during its performance, very much of
satisfaction. But it was a satisfaction purely unselfish, for the
work was one the usefulness of which had to be left in the
main to the generations which are yet to come. Upon his
departure from our city, to enter the service of the State, as the
editor of the Clinton Papers, the Society, in grateful recognition
of the value of his labors in its behalf, ordained that henceforth
his collection of plants should be known as the Clinton Her-
barium. And so it will be known forever.
Good citizens of Buffalo:	You may build for yourselves
monuments of marble or of granite, to mark your last resting-
places among the dead :—but it will be very hard for you to raise
any memorial stone for your graves, which shall outlast this
great, unselfish labor of Judge Clinton, or be more likely to
transmit your names to the grateful remembrance of those who
shall come after you.
I have asked the question, did we, while he was with us,
fully appreciate how greatly we were favored in the fact that
he was our fellow-townsman ? Had his home been in Boston,
with what elation and pride would the people of that city have
lavished their honors upon him, while he lived—with what
affection and reverence would they have embalmed his memory
when dead ! Be not offended when I hold the mirror up to
nature. But has this City or this State ever honored, as they
ought, the memories of the best and noblest of their citizens ?
Where, then, is the statue which perpetuates the face and
figure of the great statesman, who, regardless of obloquy and
ridicule and spite, carried to success the project of the Erie
Canal and placed forever in the hands of the people of this
State the keys of empire ? And if the good people of this
city were to cause the scattered writings of Judge Clinton to be
gathered up and be given again to the press, how could they, let
me ask, by one single act, do more honor to him and to them-
selves? Who will collect and reprint that most charming series
of papers, his “ Notes of a Botanist,” which so many of our
people looked for, every Sunday (during their publication) with
eagerness of desire, and read with constantly renewed delight ?
The literature of Buffalo has surely nothing better to exhibit.218
AN ADDRESS COMMEMORA TIVE
Judge Clinton was a learner to the last. “Life to him was
an unbroken lesson, pleasant with the sweets of knowledge and
the consciousness of improvement.” He was a teacher as well;
and he held it as a blessed office “ to pour into the souls of oth-
ers, as into celestial urns, the sweet waters of knowledge.”
One of your own number*—one, who knows himself full well
how to clothe good thought in good words—when speaking of
Judge Clinton, whilst his presence here still gladdened our
hearts, said :
He is our universal educator. Not to speak of his eminent professional
career, he has taught us the sweet humanities and that unbought grace of life,
which are the highest and the purest charm. Nature’s own child, he has un-
folded to us her mysteries, as she has revealed them to him, from tree and
shrub and flower and her myriad schools of life. For him, nature unveils her
face, and fills his ear with music and his soul with all-pervading harmonies.
It is a saying, which has been attributed to Judge Story, that
“ a man is to be measured by the horizon of his mind:—whether
it narrows itself to the village, the county or the State in which
he lives, or comprehends within its scope the continent or the
world.” Measured by a standard like this, how few there are
who are to be counted as great. Yet I think that Judge Clinton
would have borne the test. He loved this city with a true devo-
tion, but he loved the whole country also, and he loved his race.
The sentiment of Terence found a full response in his heart*
Nothing that was human was alien to his regard.
Judge Clinton was a man of strong religious feeling. His
faith in God and a future life was a matter of the most earnest
conviction. The unbelief, so prevalent in modern days, did not
affect him. I have no doubt that his rejection of the Darwinian
hypothesis was the more ready, because he saw, or thought
he saw, that it led to one inevitable conclusion—the uselessness
of a Creator.
But he placed his rejection of this popular doctrine upon
other grounds as well. I quote from an address of his which I
think has never been in type:
How difficult it must be to restrain the impatience of generous youth, and
train it to the slow and sure attainment of knowledge. It burns with desire
* The Hon. James O. Putnam.OF GEORGE W. CLINTON.
219
for absolute truth, where only probability is attainable, and too readily accepts
theory as fact rather than as an undisproven conjecture. True it is that no one
can verify all facts, and we must take many things on trust; but in investiga-
tions of any kind, it is dangerous to be wedded to a theory. The investigations
of a theorist are not to be trusted, and his physical as well as mental sight is,
colored by his wishes. Tropes and similes are but ornaments; and sad,
indeed, in an intellectual point of view, is the sight of that man who uses
them, whether wittingly or not, as arguments. Men often do so, and are sure
to go astray. I speak with great diffidence, but am very confident that Mr.
Darwin’s work, entitled “ The Origin of Species by Natural Selection,” is a
glaring example of the danger of such a course; and he, it is very evident, is a
diligent investigator, and a man of great learning; and, as I am assured, he is
also an amiable and modest gentleman, and means to be impartial and candid.
Collecting a few authentic, familiar facts, showing the metamorphoses of the
tame pigeon, and of some other domesticated animals and a few plants, and
the fact that most plants produce innumerous seeds, and in the same localities
and under special circumstances, displace each other, he adopts or invents a
trope, “ the struggle for life.” Plants are engaged in this struggle of life. As
things now are upon this earth, they were sown by God, like the dragon’s
teeth of the old fable, and spring up to battle with and exterminate each
other; and then, as it seems to me, he reasons from his trope. All his added
facts are exaggerated and distorted by it, and guesses become indisputable
truths; and so he invents a new demi-god, and calls it natural selection, and
sets up a shadowy doctrine of transmutation, and all his reasoning ends in this
grand conclusion : “ I believe that animals and plants have descended from at
most only four or five progenitors,.and plants from an equal number. Analogy
would lead me one step farther, namely: — that all animals and plants have
descended from the same one prototype.” Now, as this theory would permit
God as creator, it is really unnecessary. To infinite power, it was equally
easy to create one prototype, whether animal or vegetable, or of an interme-
diate nature, and enable it to vary into all the forms of life, whether past or
present, from the simple conferva to the oak, the apple and the palm; and
from the monad to man ; or to create all species, past and present, endowing
them with the capacity to vary with circumstances, even as they do, without
losing their identity. Its truth or untruth can in no way affect the firm foun-
dations of religion; and as the transmutation of a species requires vast spaces
of time, its truth can be of no immediate consequence. But with all deference
to that gentleman, I say—his trope is false. If one will consider how differ-
ent plants affect different climes, localities and seasons, and their orderly suc-
cession, he must reject the trope. Look, for instance, in earliest spring, upon
the low margin of that river, skirting the meadow. It is bare of all vegetation,
save a few clumps of willow and of alder, just beginning to hang out their
unopened catkins to the sun. Soon that naked space is sprinkled with the
Erigenia, the blue and yellow violets and the Erythroniums; and as they fade220
AN ADDRESS COMMEMORATIVE
and mature their seeds, upspring the Maypink, Jacob’s ladder, Solomon’s
seal, and I know not how many other. forms of grace and beauty, to be in
their turn succeeded by the cow-parsnip and the angelica, and they by others
and by others, until midsummer sends up her tall grasses, and autumn covers
the tangled mass of herbage with her gay asters, sunflowers and goldenrods;
and then comes winter to end the ever-varying and orderly display and close
it with her snowy pall. All have, without substantial interference, exhibited
their beauty to mankind, performed their offices of love to animals, to insects
and each other, and have matured their seeds and provided for the perpetua-
tion of their kinds. And so it is with our fields and forests. First outburst
from the teeming earth, amid the leafless trees, the modest spring beauty, the
sweet Mayflower, the white and blue hepaticas ; and when the trees have put
forth their foliage, then upspring, in succession, the long train of flowers and
fruit, which love the shade. There is no waste. Nature cares for the species
and for every species, and for the sum of all created things; and she inter-
connects them in such a manner and to such an extent as true science loves to
look into reverently. She has abundantly provided for the continuance of
every species; and, as to their surplus seeds, they are put by for exigencies
and given to unnumbered animals for food and those, not so used, decay, and
furnish pabulum for other and often nobler growths. When I regard these
manifest facts, if I must personify plants and use tropes, I am compelled to
say that the species of plants show all courtesy and kindness to each other,
and exhibit for each other the tenderest consideration. But it is pleasant to
accept the truth, that God’s glory is manifested in vegetation, and that in His
beneficence, He has clothed our earth with the ever-changeful beauty and
utility of innumerous species, not one of which, without good cause, shall be
permitted to perish, so long as seed-time and harvest shall endure.
I wish, since I have the opportunity, that I could say all
that I would like of the qualities of heart, as well as mind,
which characterized Judge Clinton. But I feel that with you,
who knew him so well, it is unnecessary, and I will not attempt
it. Let it be deemed enough that what I esteemed the best side
of his nature, was that which compelled the affection of all who
knew him. We could not but love him. His presence, wher-
ever he went, was felt as a blessing. Yet there was no ostenta-
tion in the display of his large-heartedness. He made no parade
of his kindness or humanity. There was no cant in his speech
or anything that resembled it. That he was kind, that he was
humane was proved by the constant, steady, unfailing tenor of
his life. Let me illustrate one aspect of his nature. In our
many wanderings together, you may well suppose, that often,
very often, men of every party and of every sect, their actionsOF GEORGE W. CLINTON.
221
and their utterances came up in conversation and were subjects
of discussion. Believe me that never at such times, or at any
time, was there uttered in my hearing by Judge Clinton any
remark which bordered upon uncharitableness or indicated
towards any one the smallest acerbity of feeling. He preferred
to look upon the better side of men, and rather than speak ill of
any one, he remained silent.
We all know how excellent was Judge Clinton’s professional
life, and how clear he was in the great office which he held so
long among us. Yet I have sometimes asked myself the ques-
tion, “ Would it not have been better for his fame if Providence
had led him into some different pursuit in life?” I have thought
what an admirable teacher he would have been in one of our
great institutions of learning. How grandly would he have
presided over the affairs of one of our universities. Why would
he not have ranked with Irving, if, like Irving, he had turned
his thoughts entirely to letters ? As an English writer, his style
was as sweet, as pure, as clear; but he would have graced his
theme with a learning of which Irving had, in comparison, but
little. If he had been called to minister at the altar, how
reverently and how impressively would he have interpreted the
oracles of God !
But such speculations are vain : and it is enough of praise, as
it is enough of fame, to say of him that he faithfully performed
the duties of the place to which Providence called him.
I have always deemed his death most happy. Glad, indeed,
and very thankful would I have been if his life and health could
have continued some years longer. But that was hardly to be
expected. Pie had already passed the age of his father and his
father’s father. A few more years, if he could have had them,
would, likely enough, have only proven years of physical
infirmity, suffering and decay. Better then, that it was, as from
the beginning, it was appointed to be.
On the 7th of September, 1885, he indulged himself in a
botanical ramble in the suburbs of Albany, visiting on his way
the Rural Cemetery. There, within a short time after he had
passed through the gates, he was found dead. Only a few
moments before he had been seen gathering botanical specimens,222
AN ADDRESS COMMEMORATIVE
apparently in as perfect health as usually attends upon old age.
Thus, at the very close of life, he was in the enjoyment of the
things which he had always loved—the green turf, the blue sky,
and the sweet, fresh air.
“ Then, with no fiery, throbbing pain,
No slow gradations of decay,
Death broke at once the vital chain,
And freed his soul the nearest way.”
If he had died of a lingering disease, such as often afflicts
aged men, better would it have been for him to have been
solaced, in the parting hour, by the loving presence of kindred
and of friends. But since the anguish of dissolution was but for
a moment, it was surely well that this venerable priest of nature
should give up his life in the open temple of the Most High,
where he had ministered so long, amid the quiring of the birds,
which he loved so much, and the incense of the flowers, which
he knew so well.
I presume it has seldom been the fortune of any one to gather
flowers for his own burial. Yet it is the fact that those, which
Judge Clinton held in his hand when he was found dead, were
encoffined with him. To me there seemed in this a great pro-
priety. They were the blossoms of the sweet clover. The plant
is one of little beauty and is very common. I never knew that
with him it was an especial favorite. In fact, I know of no
quality which it possesses that would naturally commend it to
his attention—save only this: when a branch is broken from
the parent stem and it begins to wither, it exhales a pleasant
odor and one which long continues. I have no knowledge that
Judge Clinton ever moralized upon the plant, but I know that
like it, “ he could translate the stubborness of fortune ” into the
sweetness of patience, submission and content.
The announcement of his death pierced, like an arrow, the
hearts of his many friends all over the State. The bar of Buffalo
met in its accustomed way; and those who had been associated
with him upon the bench, or in the walks of private life, laid on
his bier many sweet offerings of their respect and love. The
Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences, to whom his benefactions
had been so constant and valuable, placed on their records anOF GEORGE W. CLINTON.
223
expression of their deep-felt sorrow. The Board of Regents, of
which honorable body Judge Clinton was Vice-Chancellor, at
their next meeting after his decease, marked their bereavement
in eloquent words. Regent Curtis said :—
Sprung from men with a genius for public affairs and renowned in the
public service, a high political ambition would have been natural to Judge
Clinton. But a noble independence and candor of disposition and a deep
delight in simple and friendly intercourse with nature, made him a student
with Linnaeus, a loiterer with Izaak Walton, and a shrewd observer with
Henry Thoreau; and drew his heart away from the contentions of politics to
a more tranquil life, from which even the offer of a seat in the Cabinet of
President Buchanan could not divert him.
Judge Clinton was the founder of the Society of Natural Sciences in
Buffalo, and lectured frequently upon geology and botany; and the last study
was his special consolation and delight. Had there been in Buffalo, as in the
English Universities, the office of a public orator, Judge Clinton would have
worn its laurel, so constant and so various were his addresses upon all
occasions of public interest and ceremony.
In 1856, he was elected a Regent of the University, and in 1858, he
completed a Digest of the law reports to that date. After leaving the bench,
he was appointed to edit the Clinton Papers, a collection of great importance
to the State and country; and to this most fitting and congenial task the last
years of his life were devoted. His annual reports of progress in that work,
full of characteristic insight, of humorous appreciation and of patriotic
enthusiasm, were among the most interesting events of the annual meeting of
the board. His judicial and sagacious mind, his large knowledge of the
interests and activities of the University, and a gentle conservation of temper
gave to Judge Clinton’s views great and just weight. He had a certain
chivalry of nature, which, in moments of high excitement, inspired him with
fiery eloquence, to which his towering form, his flashing eye and swift,
impetuous speech lent great impressiveness. His kindly smile and courteous
dignity of manner reflected well the purity of his character and his peaceful
life, which his fond association with nature kept always fresh and unspoiled.
The end of this modest, serviceable life was as happy as it was sudden.
Already an old man, Judge Clinton walked out in the autumn afternoon, to
find the latest lingering flowers of the year, and in that search, which had been
the joy of his life, without warning or failure or decay of his faculties, his life
suddenly ended. Nature seemed to have reclaimed the old man, whose
heart the love of her had kept as warm and unwasted as a child’s. Like
Enoch, in that tranquil, beneficent, blameless life, he walked with God, and
God took him.224
AN ADDRESS COMMEMORATIVE
One glorious summer’s day in the year 1850, it was the office
of Judge Clinton to consecrate and solemnly set apart, for the
burial of the dead, that beautiful piece of ground where so many
of our friends are sleeping, known to us as Forest Lawn. I
esteem his discourse upon that occasion as one of the choicest
productions of his genius :—tender, eloquent and appropriate,
and animated throughout with the most exalted Christian feeling.
It closed with these words:
Mindful of the resurrection, in our climate annually typified by Nature,
we would place our dear ones to slumber among the flowers, by the running
streams, on the hillsides, among the monumental oaks, where the birds build
their nests and sing; where the zephyrs play, and all is peaceful beauty. We
would that the “first roses of the year” should shed their fragrance over
their tombs; that winter’s snow should lie lightly on them, and that returning
spring should “ deck their hallowed mould ” with a fresher and
“ a sweeter sod,
Than Fancy’s foot had ever trod.”
The proprietors of this most beautiful domain have sought to gratify these
natural and laudable feelings, and to supply what was, till now, the prominent
deficiency of Buffalo. For one, from the bottom of my heart, I thank them.
Here, in these “ arched walks of twilight groves and shadows brown,”
“ The rude axe, with heaved stroke,
Will ne’er be heard; ”
but the dead will repose in solemn quietude and safety. There is, too, in the
lawn above us, the rich fields and waving woods, a variety which can never
stale, and Taste has full scope to gratify Affection’s every wish. I cannot
assert that more beautiful grounds have nowhere been devoted to such sacred
purposes ; but will you not justify me in saying that there could not be, in the
vicinity of Buffalo, a more appropriate and precious offering to them than this
Forest Lawn ?
May it be ever sacred ! For here “the wicked will cease from troubling,
and the weary will find rest.” Here grief will experience comfort, and the
wounded soul find balm. Here careless sleepers will awaken from holy
dreams, exclaiming, “ Surely, the Lord is in this place.” May it be to them,
to us, to all, “ none other than the house of God,” and prove “ The Gate of
Heaven.”
In the name, and at the request of the proprietors, with your concurrence
in the presence of God and His good angels, I most prayerfully and reverently
sever this stream, these groves and gently-swelling knolls, these ample fields,
that smiling upland, and the deep-seated rocky ledge which skirts it, from all
ordinary uses, and dedicate and devote them to the dead, forever.OF GEORGE W. CLINTON.
225
On the nth of September, 1885, the loving hands of friends,
to whom his memory is‘precious, bore his lifeless body tenderly,
mournfully, reverently, to its last resting-place in the beautiful
grounds, which nearly forty years before he had thus consecrated
as a place of sepulture.
15