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 MEMORIAL 
 
DAY by day Death levels his unerring shaft and the victims 
 fall about us so rapidly in these populous cities, that we 
 become almost familiar with his visage, almost callous to his 
 blows. And it is the ruling law of humanity that only here and 
 there and at comparatively long intervals of time, one among 
 the many is stricken down, whose loss is not only a private, but a 
 public, calamity, whose place it is difficult, if not impossible, to 
 fill, and whose life and character stand forth in the blazing light 
 that falls upon us all in these modern days, with scarcely a visible 
 flaw ; a character so builded by himself and God's favor as to 
 command the respect, the homage, and the admiration of his 
 contemporaries. So the many must fall at the end of the race, 
 with their worthy deeds, numerous though they be, known only 
 to the limited circle wherein they were confined by the ordinary 
 character of their natural endowments and the circumstances of 
 birth and after-years ; while the few, the very few, coming before 
 the world blessed with God-given genius, talent, lofty purposes, 
 perseverance, strength of will, and all the noble attributes which 
 only can produce the perfect man, lay down their broken armor 
 
 5 
 
on the conquered field of life, and not only their near and dear, 
 but communities and their governing powers, the councils of the 
 State and the nation, all feel a heavier burden, the loss of the 
 guiding hand, the absence of the powerful yet benignant influ- 
 ence of the master-mind, and sorrow stretches abroad her som- 
 ber wings. 
 
 To this latter class belonged, in a pre-eminent sense, he to 
 whose memory the brief tribute of these pages is devoted — 
 Elias Warner Leavenworth. His was a mind so generously 
 endowed, his body so nobly constituted, his character so securely 
 founded on the best and broadest principles of humanity and 
 thereupon so moulded and builded by his own native powers and 
 high purposes, that the whole structure, in the ripeness of years, 
 was looked upon by all who knew him, with the highest respect 
 and esteem. 
 
 The record of his long and busy life- — a life filled to the fullest 
 measure with private and public duties ably and successfully 
 performed — can be easily written down ; but it is a far more 
 difficult task to so write of him that one may see and understand 
 and appreciate his nobility of character, the gentle traits of his 
 disposition, his broad unselfishness, the innate determination of 
 his soul to so act toward his fellows, whether high or low, as to 
 satisfy his own exacting conscience and entitle him to the proud 
 name of a good man. These attributes of his inner self were 
 best known, of course, only to those who enjoyed his confidence 
 and companionship to an unusual degree, and can not be ade- 
 quately described. But there is a cloud of witnesses, particularly 
 in the city of his home, who in very many ways felt the beneficial 
 influence of his wise counsel, his heartfelt sympathy in dark 
 hours, the rich benison of his kindness, his benevolence, gene- 
 rosity, and unfailing goodness ; these were the beautiful qualities 
 
 6 
 
qualities that seemed to imbue his every act and shed radiance 
 upon his daily life. To him the distinctions often recognized in 
 humanity were meaningless, when his good ofifices were required. 
 The step from the highest to the lowliest was insignificant to 
 him, and among the multitudinous duties of his daily life none, 
 however high and powerful, could so engross his time and 
 thoughts, that others, however poor and humble, would not 
 always find him with open ear for their needs and a hand ready 
 for their aid. This broad human sympathy was a prominent 
 trait in his character and extended into the dim by-ways of 
 charity in a thousand deeds that are almost, if not entirely, un- 
 known except to the recipients. 
 
 In close relationship with the characteristics mentioned, and 
 springing from his recognition of the universal brotherhood of 
 humanity, grew up his kindly tolerance of others ; but this tol- 
 erance was never so broad as to cover the willful commission of a 
 wrong of any kind. The soul of integrity himself, he could not 
 and would not patiently tolerate the slightest departure from it 
 in others. To him dishonesty of every description was crime, 
 and crime of every degree he condemned to the uttermost. Be- 
 tween right and wrong he ever saw the great gulf ; in his sight 
 right was absolute right, and wrong was absolute wrong, and he felt 
 that the dividing line between them was so clearly drawn that 
 only the wilfully blind could fail to see it under all circumstances. 
 His ideal of honor and justice between man and man was the 
 highest, and earnest effort on the part of others to live up to 
 such an ideal, whatever might be the results of such efforts, never 
 failed to command his respect and aid. Governed as he was by 
 a lofty creed of integrity, it is not a marvel that he was called by 
 his fellow citizens to many high positions, while in the city where 
 he lived, almost every public enterprise of any prominence and 
 
 7 
 
innumerable private trusts, were wholly or partially placed in his 
 hands. 
 
 Mr. Leavenworth's collegiate education, supplemented by his 
 natural tastes and liberal reading, gave him a decided love for, 
 and appreciation of literary work of a high order. His critical 
 judgment of such work was excellent, and outside of the busy 
 paths of his daily business and public life he found time to exer- 
 cise his mind and gratify his tastes in this regard in many ways. 
 Education he believed to be the keystone of character and the 
 only sure source of the highest achievements, and much of his 
 time and means were devoted to its advancement. So with his 
 love for the beautiful in nature and art — it was never chilled or 
 suffered to lie dormant through the almost incessant and engross- 
 ing practical demands upon his time. Through his marvellous 
 capacity and perfect method for accomplishing a vast amount of 
 labor, which to many would have been appalling, he was enabled 
 to fill out the aesthetic side of his life and gratify his artistic 
 instincts. He possessed a comprehensive knowledge of botany 
 and horticulture, and the adornment of his own home, especially 
 its surrounding grounds ; his devotion to beautifying the lovely 
 spot where his body was laid to rest ; his untiring efforts to add 
 to the attractiveness of the city where he lived, by the establish- 
 ment of parks, planting of trees, and in various other ways, all 
 testify to his love for the beautiful. 
 
 In the intimacies of love and friendship and in the bright circle 
 of social and home life, Mr. Leavenworth found, undoubtedly, 
 his happiest hours. His commanding presence, that any might 
 envy, was accompanied by that habitual courtliness, modest grace 
 and politeness that mark the refined and considerate gentleman, 
 not of the "old school" alone, but of every school; while his 
 ready flow of intelligent conversation upon a broad range of sub- 
 
 8 
 
jects, his interest in the passing affairs of others, all contributed a 
 charm to his personality that made him most welcome in every 
 social assemblage and drew across his own threshold the steps of 
 innumerable friends and acquaintances, as well as many who were 
 high in the councils of the country. 
 
 By the side of his own hearthstone Mr. Leavenworth's daily 
 life was the beautiful example of devotion, unselfishness, pa- 
 tience, and thoughtful care that would be expected from such a 
 character and that never fail to constitute the ideal home. No 
 detail of domestic duty was too insignificant to command his 
 attention if it was desired, and over and through all shone the 
 pure sunlight of an unfailing love. 
 
 In Mr. Leavenworth's nature was a strong religious element, 
 and thereupon was grounded a faith that remained unshaken by 
 any of the transitions and plausible theories of skepticism that 
 have disturbed the otherwise calm sea of Christianity in recent 
 times. For the greater share of his life he was an active officer 
 and member of the church he loved and helped to rear ; and, 
 moreover, it was his belief that a man's daily deeds should reflect 
 his religion and constitute a part of it, and while he shrank from 
 all ostentatious display of convictions and observances that he 
 held sacred, he was yet continually sustained by the unfaltering 
 faith that enabled him to serenely meet all of life's struggles, and 
 carried him down to the shores of the dark river in tranquility 
 and peace. 
 
 " \V hy weep ye thus for him who, having run 
 
 The bound of man's appointed years, at last. 
 Life's blessings all enjoyed, life's labours done. 
 
 Serenely to his final rest has passed ; 
 While the soft memory of his virtues yet 
 Lingers, like twilight hues, when the bright sun has set." 
 
^^.Oj^SffLlp^. ;e^ 
 
 .^^ 
 
 
 ELIAS WARNER LEAVENWORTH was born in Ca- 
 naan, Columbia county, New York, on the 20th day of 
 December, 1803. His ancestry is traced back to Thomas Leav- 
 enworth, of England, who emigrated to America a little before 
 1670. In the fifth generation from Thomas was born David 
 Leavenworth, who was the father of Elias Warner. David was 
 born in what is now Watertown, Conn., September 12, 1769, and 
 was married to Lucinda Mather, at Torringford, Conn., January 
 16, 1794. He was a physician in early life and, after two years of 
 practice, settled in New Canaan. Three years later, his large 
 practice having injured his health, he secured the appointment of 
 State printer and went to Albany and formed the firm of Leav- 
 enworth and Whiting, booksellers and stationers. In 1803 a 
 change in political affairs deprived him of the State printing and 
 he returned to New Canaan, whence he removed, in 1806, to 
 Great Barrington, Mass., and engaged in mercantile business 
 with his youngest brother, Isaac. The remainder of his life until 
 his death, on the 25th of May, 1831, was passed in Great Barring- 
 ton. In the family genealogy* it is recorded that "he was a man 
 of high personal character, an active and consistent member of 
 
 'Published by the subject of this sketch in 1S73. 
 
 10 
 
the Congregational church, of unquestioned integrity, great firm- 
 ness of purpose, and strong, active, and vigorous powers of mind. 
 He was energetic and public spirited, and took a prominent part 
 in every enterprise for the improvement of the town. He was 
 repeatedly a member of the Legislature, in the high political 
 time of 1 812-13, and for many years before his death was Mode- 
 rator of the town. On the i8th of June, 18 19, he was appointed 
 one of the Justices of the Peace within and for the county of 
 Berkshire for seven years from that date, * if he should so long 
 behave himself well in said office.' His life was one of great 
 activity and usefulness and he died in the full enjoyment of the 
 love and respect of his neighbors and fellow-citizens, and with 
 perfect trust in the mercy of his Savior." 
 
 The early life of Elias Warner Leavenworth, until he was six- 
 teen years of age, was passed, as he wrote, "among the beautiful 
 hills and valleys of Berkshire." During the year 1819 he attended 
 the academy at Hudson, N. Y., a reputable institution then 
 under the care of Rev. Mr. Parker, (whose son subsequently 
 became Judge Amasa J. Parker,) and in the fall of 1820 he 
 entered Williams College as a sophomore. At that time he was 
 prepared to enter Yale as a freshman and had intended to do so, 
 but was persuaded to give one year to Williams, which was then 
 passing through a critical period of her history. In the fall of 
 1 82 1 he entered Yale as a sophomore, graduated with honor in 
 1824, and took his second degree in 1827. Thus was fulfilled his 
 early determination to secure a thorough education, which he 
 always held to be the most valuable acquisition for a young man.* 
 
 * At a late year in his life Mr. Leavenworth wrote as follows: "A thorough 
 education is an almost indispensable requisite to any valuable success in life, and to 
 the accomplishment of any great good. It is an investment which its possessor can 
 never lose. It is an unfailing source of pride and perennial enjoyment, the founda- 
 tion for extended usefulness, the means through which an honorable support may be 
 secured, and which brings out into the fullest development all the latent powers and 
 energies of the man." 
 
 11 
 
Having decided to adopt the legal profession, Mr. Leavenworth 
 began its study on his twenty-first birth-day, December 20, 1824, 
 in the office of the late William Cullen Bryant, who was then 
 practicing in Great Harrington, and on the i6th day of May, 
 1825, he entered the law school at Litchfield, Conn., then under 
 direction of the Hon. James Gould. He remained there until 
 January, 1827, when he was admitted to practice in all the courts 
 of Connecticut. Too close application to study had at this time 
 affected Mr. Leavenworth's eyes, and he passed the spring, sum- 
 mer, and autumn of that year in the office of Increase Sumner, 
 giving little attention to his profession. 
 
 In the summer of the same year (1827) the late Hon. Joshua 
 A. Spencer, then of Utica, visited Mr. Leavenworth's father, in 
 Great Barrington, and under his advice Mr. Leavenworth deter- 
 mined to settle in Syracuse. Accordingly, on the 12th day of 
 November, 1827, he started for his new home. Means of travel 
 were not then what they now are, and it was only by exercising 
 diligence that he reached Syracuse a week later. He entered the 
 struggling village on a canal boat and found a hamlet of a few 
 buildings only, and giving very little promise of its subsequent 
 greatness. 
 
 On reaching Syracuse Mr. Leavenworth began study and 
 practice with Alfred Northram, which continued until February, 
 1829, when the late B. Davis Noxon removed to Syracuse in con- 
 sequence of the removal of the courts from Onondaga Hill. A 
 partnership was formed between him and Mr. Leavenworth, and 
 the latter was associated with some member of the Noxon fam- 
 ily until the year 1850. The successive firm names of which Mr. 
 Leavenworth was a member were : Noxon & Leavenworth, Nox- 
 ons, Leavenworth & Comstock (formed by the addition of Geo. 
 F. Comstock and Geo. VV. Noxon) ; then Noxon, Leavenworth 
 
 12 
 
& Comstock (George Noxon having died, his father having re- 
 tired, and James Noxon coming into the firm); and, lastly, of 
 Noxon & Leavenworth again. 
 
 Mr. Leavenworth's legal career was eminently successful and 
 extended down to the year 1850. It was marked by industry of 
 the most persevering character, while his power of impressing 
 courts and juries with his views of important cases, a power that 
 was continually strengthened with passing years, gave him early 
 prominence in the bar. Had he been physically able and in- 
 clined to follow the profession, it is quite safe to assume that he 
 would eventually have occupied a place among the foremost 
 legal minds of the time. But the state of his health in the year 
 1850 rendered it imperative that he should abandon practice. 
 In addition to his work in court, he labored arduously during the 
 great political campaign of 1840, speaking almost daily to large 
 audiences, which brought on an attack of bronchitis which, at 
 the time of his retirement, had rendered his condition some- 
 what critical ; and although then in the enjoyment of, perhaps, 
 a larger and more lucrative business in the courts of central New 
 York than any other attorney, he was forced to abandon it. It 
 had been his uniform practice to remain in his office until eleven 
 o'clock at night and he had taxed his energies to the utmost ; 
 but rest and care during the succeeding two or three years fully 
 restored his health and strength. 
 
 Mr. Leavenworth's twenty years residence in Syracuse had 
 already firmly established him in a foremost position in the con- 
 fidence and esteem of the community, and had long before been 
 the recipient of the first of that long series of public trusts and 
 offices which he was destined to fill. As early as January, 1832, 
 he was appointed a Lieutenant of Artillery in the 147th regiment 
 of infantry, and later in the same year was commissioned Cap- 
 
 13 
 
tain of Artillery in the same regiment. In 1834 he was appointed 
 Lieutenant-Colonel of the 29th regiment of artillery, and in the 
 following year was promoted to Colonel of the same regiment. 
 This rapid series of promotions was still farther advanced in the 
 year 1836, when he was appointed Brigadier-General of the 7th 
 brigade of artillery (thus acquiring the military title by which 
 he was almost universally known), which high military honor he 
 enjoyed until the year 1841, when he voluntarily resigned the 
 office. In a military capacity the same qualifications that gave 
 him success in other fields, combined with a lofty and dignified 
 bearing and the genius to command, made him a model and pop- 
 ular officer whose value was appreciated by the community and 
 the State. 
 
 In the fall of the year 1835, General Leavenworth was nomi- 
 nated by the Whig county convention as one of the four mem- 
 bers of Assembly from Onondaga; but, as he has naively record- 
 ed, "the county was hopelessly Democratic, or he would not 
 have consented to be a candidate." In 1837 he was appointed a 
 Trustee of the village of Syracuse, and in 1838 was elected 
 President of the village, which office he held until the spring of 
 1841. 
 
 General Leavenworth had by this time cultivated a rugged 
 faith in the future of his adopted home, and shown an interest in 
 everything that promised to advance its welfare, which inspired 
 his fellow citizens with the belief that they could find no fitter 
 person to head its government. While he was President of the 
 village, from 1838 to 1841, the Board of Trustees opened and 
 extended many of the streets which are now among the most 
 prominent in the city. Of these were Warren street, opened 
 from Jefferson south to Salina street, a substantial bridge being 
 built across the Yellow Brook at the point where Warren street 
 
 14 
 
is intersected by Madison. During the year 1838 the Syracuse 
 and Utica raih-oad company applied for the privilege of locating 
 their depot on Washington street, between Salina and Warren 
 streets, to cover a width of forty-nine feet. The Board declined 
 to grant the request, although favorable to it ; but a public meet- 
 ing was called for the action of the citizens, to be held at the 
 Syracuse House, on the 26th of December, 1838. On the even- 
 ing. General Leavenworth drew up the resolution, which was 
 adopted by the meeting, giving to the city what is now Vander- 
 bilt Square, the rows of trees which still line each side of the 
 railroad from Beech street to the heart of the city, and the first 
 public sewer that reached the Yellow Brook. It compelled the 
 railroad company to buy twenty-six feet off from the north end 
 of the block south of the depot, and four feet off from the north 
 
 end. 
 
 Previous to 1839 the Geneva turnpike ran diagonally from 
 northeast to southwest through the grounds now constituting 
 Fayette Park. General Leavenworth, while President of the vil- 
 lage, drew up and succeeded in obtaining the passage of a bill 
 discontinuing the road at that point and thus securing the beauti- 
 ful park which is now the especial pride of that portion of the 
 
 city. 
 
 These were the beginnings of that long series of public acts 
 performed by General Leavenworth, which contributed so much 
 toward making Syracuse what it is to-day. His watchful, ob- 
 servant eye seldom overlooked a needed improvement of any 
 description, and there was none more ready than he to devote 
 valuable time and money to any object that promised to benefit 
 or beautify the city. 
 
 In 1839 General Leavenworth was elected Supervisor of the old 
 town of Salina, then the largest town in the State and embracing 
 
 15 
 
the four incorporated villages of Syracuse, Salina, Liverpool and 
 Geddes. He was re-elected to that office in 1840. In 1846 and 
 1847 he was again chosen President of the village. During this 
 term the Board, at his suggestion, took possession of the two 
 pieces of ground, then unoccupied, now known as Warren and 
 Ashland parks, fenced them in and set trees about them.. 
 
 In the year 1849 General Leavenworth served his first term as 
 Mayor of the young city of Syracuse, and in this of^ce he exer- 
 cised the same wise foresight he had already exhibited for the 
 improvement of the growing place. The tract of land of which 
 Armory park is now the center, was laid out under his direction 
 on what was then State lands. A map of the tract was made, 
 which he took before the Land Commission at Albany, whom he 
 influenced to consent to a sale of the tract, upon certain condi- 
 tions favorable to the city, thus securing another park. 
 
 In the fall of 1849 General Leavenworth was elected to the 
 Legislature to represent the city district. He was there made 
 chairman of the committee on the manufacture of salt and a 
 member of the committee on railroads. The members of the 
 Legislature were at that time bitterly prejudiced against Onon- 
 dacra salt, chiefly through ignorance of its merits, and disposed to 
 remove the tolls from foreign salt when transported over the 
 canals. General Leavenworth threw the weight of his influence 
 and his most earnest efforts into the discussion of the subject and 
 finally had the satisfaction of seeing every vestige of prejudice 
 removed and the tolls allowed to remain. He drew a bill, (laws 
 1850, chap. 374, p. 794,) on the subject which was passed by the 
 Legislature. 
 
 The general railroad law of the State was reported from the 
 committee of which he was a member, but was violently opposed 
 by several of the ablest members of the Legislature. The chief 
 
 16 
 
support of this bill devolved upon General Leavenworth, he be- 
 ing the only ready debater on the committee. The bill was most 
 ably discussed, the Committee of the Whole holding nine separ- 
 ate sittings upon it ; but in spite of the able and active opposition 
 it received, its friends had the satisfaction of seeing it parsed. 
 General Leavenworth's influence also carried through the Legis- 
 lature the bill for the improvement of Seneca river (chap. 15:;, 
 laws 1850,) against two elaborate speeches by the late Gov. Ray- 
 mond, then the ablest speaker in the House, For his work in 
 favor of this bill General Leavenworth received the warmest con- 
 gratulations of his colleagues and constituents. These were 
 measures of great importance to the State at large and form a 
 conspicuous portion of the legislative labor accomplished by 
 General Leavenworth, the effects of which are still felt. 
 
 It was during this term in the Legislature, also, that General 
 Leavenworth was called upon by a delegation of gentlemen from 
 the village of Newburg, to lend his powerful aid in favor of the 
 bill for the preservation of Washington's Headquarters, it having 
 failed in the hands of the original Select Committee. He moved 
 the reference of the bill, which was still in existence, to a new 
 committee late in the session, the resolution was adopted, and a 
 committee of his own selection appointed. The bill was then 
 remodeled and objectionable parts stricken out, when General 
 Leavenworth, as chairman of the committee, reported it and it 
 passed without difficulty. This action preserves for all posterity 
 one of the most interesting historical landmarks in the country. 
 
 The celebrated "Mason Will Case" was also before the House 
 in that year. This long-contested case had passed through the 
 courts, which had sustained the will, the affirmation of the Su- 
 preme Court judgment being effected in the Court of Appeals by 
 a tie vote. The bill appeared to be an innocent one and on its 
 
 17 
 
face merely provided that the Court of Appeals should grant a 
 rehearing on all judgments by affirmance by a tie vote between 
 two certain dates. Upon examination, however, it appeared that 
 there was but one such case between the dates mentioned and 
 that was the Mason Will Case. It was, therefore, a law by 
 which a rehearing was to be granted by the Legislature in a case 
 finally decided by the Court of Appeals. We quote from Gen- 
 eral Leavenworth's record of the subsequent action on this bill 
 as follows : "It had passed the House without any notice or 
 any question being raised and the Governor had sent down his 
 veto. I had been urgently requested on both sides to take part 
 on the veto, and declined. But, to my utter astonishment, when 
 the question came before the house the veto had a z'crj' feeble 
 support and many of the best men and even the best lawyers in 
 the House attacked it. 1 sat quietly in my seat as long as it was 
 possible. But the bill seemed to me such an outrage, such an 
 usurpation of the province of the Court, that I could not remain 
 silent. I entered into the debate with all the zeal of my nature 
 and all the powers I could exert, and made speech after speech. 
 A large audience listened to the argument. After a long and 
 highly exciting debate the friends of the bill failed to over-ride 
 the veto by only a single vote." 
 
 Those who knew General Leavenworth's nature, his hatred of 
 wrong and imposition, and his manner of encountering them, will 
 readily bring to mind his probable appearance and action on that 
 occasion. It was possible for him, when required, to overwhelm 
 his antagonists with invective as well as logic, and to brush them 
 away by the mere force of his personality, and it may be imagined 
 that he did so in this instance. 
 
 There existed for many years a firm friendship between Gen- 
 eral Leavenworth and Thurlow Weed, the eminent politician, a 
 
 18 
 
friendship that was enhanced by the latter's earher relations with 
 Judge Joshua Forman, (Mrs. Leavenworth's father,) in whose 
 family Mr. Weed resided for some time when a boy. On several 
 occasions Mr. Weed used his great political influence in General 
 Leavenworth's interest, and after Gov. Fish had, in 1850, offered 
 the General the vacancy in the office of State Comptroller (occa- 
 sioned by the resignation of Washington Hunt) which offer Gen- 
 eral Leavenworth could not accept on account of his still being 
 a Member of the Legislature, he was tendered through Mr. Weed 
 the nomination for either Attorney-General or Judge of the 
 Court of Appeals. This flattering offer he declined, owing to his 
 firm determination to not again connect himself in any way with 
 the legal profession. 
 
 At the time this offer was made. General Leavenworth was 
 brought forward by his immediate friends, as candidate for the 
 office of Secretary of State. This action was independent of the 
 ruling political powers at Albany and of Mr. Weed's potent 
 agency, yet he lacked only six or eight votes of securing the 
 nomination. 
 
 In the fall of 1853 General Leavenworth was nominated for 
 Secretary of State, almost without opposition and probably at 
 Mr. Weed's suggestion. During his term in this high of^ce he 
 exercised his habitual industry and his efforts were, as usual 
 productive of a vast amount of good. For example, he and 
 Gen. James M. Cook were appointed a Building Committee by 
 the Commissioners of the Land Office, to take down the old 
 State Hall in Albany, and erect the building known as the State 
 Agricultural Rooms and Cabinet of Natural History. They 
 were also the Building Committee for the extension of the Cap- 
 itol and the extensive refitting and refurnishing of the Assembly 
 chamber. 
 
 19 
 
During the year 1855. with aid of Frankhn B. Hough, then 
 chief clerk of the Census Department of the State, General 
 Leavenworth superintended the taking of the census, personally 
 appointing about two thousand marshals, drawing up the blank 
 forms, superintending the printing and its distribution to every 
 part of the State, and giving the needed explanations and in- 
 structions to the marshals through the medium of from one hun- 
 dred and fifty to two hundred letters daily for several weeks— a 
 most arduous task, but performed with the accuracy and efficiency 
 that characterized his every public act. 
 
 During the period just referred to. General Leavenworth ac- 
 complished a service which conferred great benefit upon the citi- 
 zens of Syracuse, which he modestly described as follows : " The 
 State, in 1854, owned that part of the city of Syracuse lying west 
 of Plum street, north of the Erie canal, east of Van Rensselaer 
 street and south of the salt water reservoir, and a portion of On- 
 ondaga creek. These lands were then used for the manufacture 
 of solar salt. The removal of the coarse salt works having been 
 ordered by the Commissioners of the Land Office from those 
 portions of this tract lying on the east side of West Genesee 
 street, 16 rods in depth, the Commissioners, at my suggestion and 
 solicitation, resolved to survey out and map the whole tract and 
 appointed me to supervise and direct in regard to it. This was 
 done under and by virtue of chapter 391 of the laws of 1864, p. 
 986. I caused it to be laid out substantially as it now appears 
 on the maps, straightening West Genesee street, laying out the 
 lots on each side 100 feet front and sixteen rods deep, making 
 the second class streets 80 feet wide, instead of 66, as they are in 
 other parts of the city ; laying out a park near the center of the 
 tract just as large as the Commissioners would sanction, sur- 
 rounded by ample lots and with a broad avenue 120 feet wide 
 
 20 
 
leading from this park to the vacant and State lands near the 
 pump house. When the map of the tract was sanctioned by the 
 Commissioners and laid before the Common Council of the city, 
 they did me the honor to give my name to both the park and 
 the avenue." 
 
 Whatever public duties were pressed upon his attention (and 
 they were, for many years, too numerous to recount here) and 
 whatever the tax upon his time and his energies, it will thus be 
 seen that General Leavenworth never neglected or overlooked an 
 opportunity to serve the city of his home. It appeared to be 
 constantly in his thoughts and we can think of him in this regard 
 only as continually watchful and observant, not only that he 
 might be ever ready to do what it was generally acknowledged 
 should be done, but to discover opportunities for improvements 
 which had been entirely overlooked by others. 
 
 Another important service to the State (perhaps the most im- 
 portant single public act of his life as far as the State of New 
 York is concerned) was also performed in 1854 and resulted in the 
 final completion, through the labors of Prof. James Hall, of his 
 great work on our Natural History. When General Leaven- 
 worth entered upon the duties of his office on the first of Jan- 
 uary of that year the Natural History had been carried as far as 
 the second volume of the Paleontology and there it had been de- 
 cided to leave it, after an expenditure of about $6oo,oco. The 
 folly of such a course and its great injustice to Professor Hall, 
 deeply impressed General Leavenworth and he determined the 
 great work should be finished. He accordingly conferred with 
 the Hon. Samuel Blatchford, of New York, then Chairman of 
 the Committee of Ways and Means, in the House, and with the 
 Hon. Henry Raymond, then Lieutenant-Governor, who entered 
 into his views relative to the work and promised their aid. Ow- 
 
 21 
 
ing to the large amount of money already expended on the work 
 and the lack of popular appreciation of the scientific value of the 
 Paleontology, the subject was an unpopular one in the Legisla- 
 ture. With his accustomed foresight, General Leavenworth saw 
 that it would not answer to trust to a separate bill, and although 
 money was not immediately needed for the work he turned to the 
 appropriation bill as the surest avenue to success. A section 
 was therefore inserted in the bill, " appropriating $5,000 for the 
 payment of any expenses growing out of the Natural History of 
 the State, to be applied only on the certificate of the Secretary of 
 State and the Secretary of the Board of Regents, who are hereby 
 authorized and directed to take charge of all the matters apper- 
 taining to the compilation and completion of such Natural His- 
 tory, with power to make such contracts, limiting the number of 
 volumes, and fixing the compensation, and otherwise as they may 
 think proper." It will be seen that under the skillful wording of 
 this act the most sweeping powers were conferred, and in such a 
 way that the opponents of the Natural History saw nothing in it 
 to alarm them. The provision was passed without opposition. 
 Knowing the large interests involved and the subject embracing 
 so much of a technical character, General Leavenworth (upon 
 whom almost the entire responsibility of the arrangements fell) 
 invited Prof. Agassiz, Messrs. Gould, J3ana and Dr. Dewey to 
 meet him at Albany for a conference, an invitation which they 
 readily accepted. There and in General Leavenworth's active 
 brain at a subsequent time was completed every detail of the ar- 
 rangements and plans, which need not be entered into here, for 
 the completion by Prof. Hall of the great work which bears his 
 name. 
 
 By virtue of his office as Secretary of State, General Leaven- 
 worth was ex-officio visitor to the charitable institutions of the 
 
 22 
 
State. As he, in this relation, at once made himself more famil- 
 iar than he had before been with the condition of these institu- 
 tions, he saw the urgent need of some superior investigating and 
 supervising power which would of necessity visit and inspect 
 them annually, investigate the details of their management, the 
 expenditure of the appropriations made for them, and other kin- 
 dred matters, and report to the Legislature. For supply- 
 ing this need. General Leavenworth drew a bill, which was intro- 
 duced in the Senate on the 31st of January, 1855, entitled, "An 
 Act entitled an act in relation to charitable institutions supported 
 or assisted by the State, and to City and County Poor Houses, 
 and to create a Board of Visitors for the same." The bill was 
 favorably reported and sent to the Committee of the Whole, but 
 was not disposed of in that year, except by a resolution that the 
 president of the Senate should appoint a committee of three to 
 examine into the afTairs of all such institutions, obtain full infor- 
 mation, etc. In the Legislature of 1867 the subject was again 
 agitated and the Hon. Charles S. Hoyt, then Chairman of the 
 Committee on Charitable Institutions, applied to General Leav- 
 enworth for a copy of his original bill. With his customary 
 methodical care he had preserved it and it was sent as reciucsted ; 
 it became almost literally the law as it passed the Legislature of 
 that year. 
 
 It is a pleasure to record any of the public acts of General 
 Leavenworth, and especially those wherein he was able to exhibit 
 his loyalty and devotion to the city of his home. One of these 
 opportunities was offered him in the matter of the location of the 
 New York State Asylum for Idiots. In the year 1853 the 
 trustees of the asylum purchased five acres of land on the Troy 
 road near Albany, as a site for the institution. This site was so 
 undesirable that the Senator from Albany caused a provision to 
 
 23 
 
be inserted in the appropriation bill, authorizing the trustees to 
 sell or exchange the land. A committee was appointed under 
 this provision, consisting of General Leavenworth and two others, 
 to examine the vicinity of Albany for a more desirable site and 
 report. It was reported that no better site could be found in 
 that vicinity. General Leavenworth submitted, with the report, 
 a long and elaborate argument against any site near Albany and 
 accompanied it by an offer signed by about twenty citizens of 
 Syracuse to give without charge any ten acres of ground near 
 that city, or pay the trustees $7,500 in cash, provided the institu- 
 tion was located at Syracuse. This action on the part of the 
 twenty citizens, as may have been supposed, was brought about 
 solely by General Leavenworth, who had before invited them to 
 meet him at his office, where the matter was arranged. The offer 
 led to a very animated discussion in the Legislature. The re- 
 moval was favored by Gov, Seymour and also by Hon. John C. 
 Spencer, president of the board of trustees, who, with General 
 Leavenworth, were made the Committee to superintend the 
 erection of the new buildings. The removal was voted for by 
 almost every member of the House. 
 
 We have before briefly referred to General Leavenworth's cul- 
 tivated literary tastes and the high character of his purely intel- 
 lectual attainments. Throughout his life, although it seems 
 to have been filled with a continued succession of public and 
 private trusts requiring arduous labor and a large portion of his 
 time, he still found many hours which he devoted to a further 
 cultivation of his intellectual faculties, to extensive reading and 
 the studious ways of the scholar. His high intellectual rank was 
 not unknown far beyond the circle of his general acquaintance. 
 This is clearly indicated by his election on the 4th of January, 
 1855, as a Corresponding Member of the American Historical 
 
 24- 
 
and Geographical Society of the city of New York, and his 
 reception the same year of a similar honor by the New England 
 Historical and Genealogical Society of Boston ; also by his 
 subsequent appointment as one of the Regents of the University 
 of the State of New York, and his selection in 1864 to preside at 
 the meeting of the Alumni of Yale College. At its Commence- 
 ment in 1871, Hamilton College conferred upon him the honorary 
 degree of Doctor of Laws. These honors were, perhaps, as keenly 
 appreciated by him as any ever conferred upon him. 
 
 It will not be out of place here to mention the fact that Gen- 
 eral Leavenworth's researches in Genealogy had begun prior to 
 the date under consideration, especially in that of his own name 
 in this country. His labor in this direction continued with little 
 interruption down to 1S73, and involved the most extensive line 
 of correspondence, reading and compilation ever given, perhaps, 
 to the genealogy of any family. In 1873 he published the results 
 of his long and patient research in a volume of nearly four hun- 
 dred pages. 
 
 Returning to his public life in the order of its years. General 
 Leavenworth was again elected to the Legislature in 1856. The 
 position he then held in that body is shown by his appointment 
 as Chairman of the Committee on Canals, as a member of the 
 Committee on Banks, and particularly as Chairman of the Select 
 Committee of one from each judicial district, on the equalization 
 of the State tax. It is noteworthy that, in a large majority of 
 the many occasions where he served on committees, he was given 
 the chairmanship ; though a fact of minor importance, it shows 
 his natural capacity and fitness to lead, and that he was regarded 
 by his fellows as one whose general competency and integrity 
 deserved their highest recognition. This equalization committee 
 was appointed on the 27th of January, and on the 31st of the 
 
 25 
 
same month General Leavenworth reported a bill, which he had 
 himself drawn in the meantime, providing for the appointment of 
 a Board of three State Assessors to equalize the tax. So impor- 
 tant was this measure considered that it was discussed four suc- 
 cessive days in Committee of the Whole, where it was violently 
 opposed by representatives of the counties that would be most 
 affected by its provisions ; but it was sustained by a decisive ma- 
 jority, and on the 3d of April (as Chairman of a Committee to 
 report important bills which should have preference and receive 
 action before final adjournment) General Leavenworth reported 
 tliat bill and the report was agreed to. At this time his health 
 had become impaired by excessive labor and he was compelled to 
 absent hinasclf from his seat for several days, owing to which the 
 bill was not then acted upon ; but two years later it was again 
 introduced and passed. It has ever since then been of immense 
 benefit to the State. (Laws of 1859, chap. 312, p. 702, etc.) 
 
 During this session General Leavenworth also drew and intro- 
 duced bills providing for investigation into the origin of fires in 
 certain cases ; to remove an evil from which country banks were 
 suffering ; several local bills pertaining to matters in Syracuse, 
 but not of paramount importance, and a large number of others 
 in the general course of legislation, relating to the canals, banks 
 and other subjects. Such records of legislative labor performed 
 by one man are almost unparalelled, and with the diverse tasks of 
 many other public and private interests, it is not a wonder that 
 his health suffered at times. 
 
 In the winter of 1858, Gov. John A. King sent General Leav- 
 enworth's name to the Senate for the office of Auditor of the 
 State, but the then existing combination between the Democracy 
 and the so called Know-Nothings comprised a majority of the 
 members, and the nomination was laid over until the succeeding 
 
 26 
 
4th of July, when the Senate would not be in session. When 
 Governor Morgan came into office in the following January, 
 General Leavenworth withdrew in favor of Hon. Nathaniel S. 
 Benton. 
 
 Referring again to General Leavenworth's public life in the city 
 of Syracuse we must return to the year 1852, at which time the 
 citizens were holding meetings and actively discussing the estab- 
 lishment of a rural cemetery; but no suitable grounds could then 
 be decided upon and the undertaking languished until 1857, 
 chiefly because there had no one volunteered to place himself at 
 the head of the movement. In 1857 other meetings were held 
 in relation to the matter, but in consequence of the financial 
 trouble of that period, all efforts were again abandoned. Li 1858 
 General Leavenworth and Hamilton White, having decided for 
 themselves that a part of the present grounds was the most suit- 
 able to be obtained for a cemetery, they opened negotiations 
 with the owner of twenty acres in the front and seventy-five acres 
 in the rear part of the original purchase. The Syracuse and 
 Jamesville plank road ran through this tract, and extended ne- 
 gotiations with the directors became necessary, and also with the 
 Commissioners of Highways of the town and with David S. 
 Colvin for land for a new route for the road. At the end of a 
 year, and after many annoyances and the expenditure of much 
 time and labor, the preliminaries were all settled and the terms 
 agreed upon. It remained now to raise about $25,000 to fully 
 accomplish the first part of the undertaking. In this task the 
 aid of A. C. Powell was contributed and the necessary fund was 
 soon raised and on the 15th of August the Association of Oak- 
 wood was organized and trustees elected. The next day the 
 trustees chose General Leavenworth as president, A. C. Powell 
 vice-president, Hamilton White, treasurer and Allen Munro, 
 
 27 
 
secretary. The office of president was held by General Leaven- 
 worth as long as he lived and no one at all conversant with the 
 facts will need to be told of his untiring devotion, his watchful 
 care and oversight of every detail, and his faithful labor that 
 beautiful Oakvvood might be what it now is, one of the loveliest 
 of all the lovely resting-places for the dead in the country. 
 General Leavenworth loved its every pathway, mound and 
 spreading tree as he did the shrubs and flowers of his own home- 
 grounds and if he had never done a beneficent act other than 
 the part he took in the establishment of this cemetery, the citi- 
 zens of Syracuse would still be very deeply indebted to him. 
 
 In the spring of 1859 General Leavenworth was again elected 
 Mayor of Syracuse. It was in this year that he induced the 
 Common Council to order the sale of all that part of Rose Hill 
 Cemetery upon which there had been no burials, being about ten 
 acres. This tract was laid out under his direction, excepting a 
 portion at the intersection of three streets, which was reserved 
 and is now known as Highland Park — another of those play- 
 grounds of the poor as well as of the rich, for which the dwellers 
 in Syracuse are indebted to his foresight and cultivated taste. 
 This was the fifth park in Syracuse which was secured di- 
 rectly through his efforts, none of which, it may be reasonably 
 supposed, would have been otherwise provided ; and ten years 
 later he was instrumental in adding still another to the number 
 by influencing the owners of the Prospect Hill tract, who had 
 already filed their map, to so change it as to leave out to public 
 use the Square that now beautifies that locality. If a man with 
 such broad views can properly be said to have had a hobby, it 
 was the universal need and the wisdom of establishing parks at 
 every available spot in a city; and intimately associated with his 
 views on this subject were his love for broad streets and hisenthu- 
 
 28 
 
siasm in setting out trees and inducing others to follow his exam- 
 ple ; and he insisted upon setting none but elm trees. They are 
 more beautiful, longer-lived, cleaner, and more desirable every 
 way than any other variety, and it was one of his most absorb- 
 ing desires that every added street should be broad and lined 
 with the beautiful elms. It would be interesting to know how 
 many his own hands planted or helped to plant in the streets he 
 loved so well. 
 
 In the fall of 1859, General Leavenworth was again nominated 
 for the high office of Secretary of State ; but for reasons wholly 
 political he was destined to defeat. The same combination be- 
 fore alluded to, in opposition to the Republicans, was successful, 
 although he lacked less than 1,500 votes of election, in a poll of 
 about 600,000. 
 
 In the winter of i860, General Leavenworth was appointed by 
 the Legislature, one of the Board of Quarantine Commissioners, 
 and upon the organization of the Board was chosen its President. 
 Most of the following summer he passed on Staten Island in the 
 discharge of the duties of that office. In the summer of the 
 same year he was chosen President of the Republican State Con- 
 vention, then soon to assemble in Chicago. This high honor 
 was accredited by him, in a large measure, to the intimate and 
 friendly relations which had long existed between himself and 
 William H. Seward. 
 
 On the 5th of February, 1861, General Leavenworth was cho- 
 sen by the Legislature in joint ballot, one of the Regents of the 
 University, an office to which he gave his most earnest efforts 
 and with a degree of success that will be fully appreciated by 
 reading the tributes of his colleagues upon the announcement of 
 his death, which will be found on another of these pages. He 
 occupied this station with distinguished honor until his death. 
 
 29 
 
In March, 1861, General Leavenworth was nomhiated by the 
 President of the United States, and confirmed by the Senate, as 
 the Commissioner on the part of the United States, under the 
 convention with New Granada, in which capacity he served until 
 the commission expired in 1862. This appointment was one 
 calling for diplomatic skill of a high order, as well as far-seeing 
 financial judgment and sagacity. To the commission was re- 
 ferred all claims of American citizens and corporations from the 
 foundation of the government of New Granada down to the time 
 of the treaty, involving many millions of dollars. 
 
 In January, 1862, General Leavenworth was elected President 
 of the Syracuse Savings Bank. He may be said to have been 
 the founder of the savings bank business of Syracuse, as he as- 
 suredly was its most active promoter during the remainder of his 
 life. Into the methods of management of that very successful 
 financial institution he introduced the most perfect system and 
 over its every investment he exercised a watchful care that soon 
 gave it the confidence of the community and its business rapidly 
 increased. At the time of his resignation, in 1883, the deposits 
 of this bank had reached more than $2,000,000. Its magnificent 
 building was erected during General Leavenworth's administration 
 and is an object of just pride to all. 
 
 In the spring of 1865, General Leavenworth was made the 
 President of the Board of Commissioners appointed by the 
 Governor to locate the State Asylum for the Blind, which result- 
 ed in fixing on Batavia as the most eligible and desirable location 
 for that beneficent institution. In the fall of the same year he 
 was appointed by the Governor, a trustee of the State Asylum 
 for Idiots, in the place of Hamilton White, deceased, and in 
 January, 1866, was reappointed, with the concurrence of the 
 Senate; this office he held until 1885. 
 
 30 
 
In the summer of 1867, General Leavenworth was elected one 
 of the trustees of Hamilton College, but was reluctantly com- 
 pelled to decline the honor, as his ofifice of Regent rendered him 
 ineligible. In the same year he was also appointed by the 
 Legislature a member of the Board of Commissioners, consisting 
 of the Adjutant-General and the Inspector-General of the State, 
 with himself, for the further improvement of the State Armory 
 in Syracuse. 
 
 In May, 1868, General Leavenworth was appointed by the 
 Legislature a member of a Board of Commissioners, of which he 
 was chosen President, to establish a system of sewerage for the 
 city of Syracuse. This Board was engaged two years in per- 
 fecting the system and all their maps, plans, etc., were filed in 
 the city and county clerk's offices on the 7th of May, 1870. For 
 the completion of the system at that time the city is directly in- 
 debted to General Leavenworth. He had seen and fully appre- 
 ciated the necessity for the improvement, had often urged its 
 importance, and finally drew up a bill, procured the calling of a 
 public meeting and there submitted the bill, which was unani- 
 mously approved and finally became the law. 
 
 In the same year (1868) the Syracuse Home Association, an 
 organization dating back to 1852, at which time General Leaven- 
 worth, Hamilton White and Thomas B. Fitch had raised by sub- 
 scription between $12,000 and $15,000 as a partial endowment 
 for the institution, sold their old home on East Fayette street. 
 Moses D. Burnet had generously offered the Home a new site on 
 the corner of Hawley and Townsend streets, on condition that 
 the Board of Counselors should raise $25,000 for the construc- 
 tion of a new building. With his accustomed energy in all 
 good works. General Leavenworth, in connection with Mr. Fitch, 
 spent much of their time during several weeks and succeeded in 
 
 31 
 
raising more than the required sum. This, with various sums 
 raised by others, supplied a fund of more than $32,000. General 
 Leavenworth was, of course, on the Building Committee of the 
 new structure and was largely instrumental in giving to the city 
 the attractive, commodious and vastly useful institution known 
 as the " Old Ladies' Home." 
 
 On the 22d of November, 1872, General Leavenworth was 
 honored with the appointment by the Governor of the State and 
 the Senate as one of the thirty-two Commissioners (four from 
 each Judicial District,) selected to amend the State Constitution. 
 His colleagues in the Fifth District were Hon. Daniel Pratt, 
 Hon. Francis Kernan and Hon. Ralph Mcintosh. The commis- 
 sion met at Albany on December 4, 1872, and adjourned March 
 ^5' 1873, during which period the numerous important amend- 
 ments to the constitution with which the public were made famil- 
 iar at the time, were formulated and eventually became and now 
 are a part of the foundation of the State government. Two of 
 the more important amendments were introduced by General 
 Leavenworth and he was chiefly responsible for them. One of 
 them, the 14th section of the 7th article, applies to the statute of 
 limitations to all claims against the State. The other is contained 
 in the loth and nth sections of the 8th article and forbids the 
 giving or loaning of the credit or money of the State, or of any 
 city, town, or village, in a variety of cases specified. He was 
 also prominently active in the preparation of other sections, 
 notably that relating to savings banks and that limiting the 
 powers of the Legislature in certain cases. Though his health 
 was at that time delicate, he was more regular in attendance at 
 the sessions of the Commission than almost any other member. 
 
 The numerous political honors which had been bestowed upon 
 General Leavenworth culminated in the fall of 1874, when he 
 
 32 
 
received the nomination for Representative in Congress in the 
 Twenty-fifth District. His majority in the ensuing election was 
 most flattering to himself and his friends. Although now past 
 the allotted term of man's life, when the intellectual and bodily 
 powers of most men are seriously waning or beyond the capacity 
 for useful work, General Leavenworth's Congressional career 
 was of such a prominent and active character as to call for the 
 highest commendation from his constituents. It was said of him 
 by a prominent Republican journal near the close of his term 
 that, " it is gratifying to know that General Leavenworth has 
 taken a high position at Washington, that he is considered one 
 of the most industrious and useful members of the House, and 
 that no man in his first term could have a more honorable stand- 
 ing than that which he occupies. He has made a most excellent 
 impression by his speeches in that body. Besides several briefer 
 efforts he has spoken at length upon two subjects of general 
 interest, viz., the Hawaiian Treaty and the Geneva Awards, both 
 speeches being among the best delivered upon those subjects." 
 At a later date, (the 25th of January, 1877,) near the close of his 
 term. General Leavenworth made another lengthy and able 
 speech, upon the counting of the Electoral Votes, a power 
 which it was sought by his opponents to transfer from Con- 
 gress to the Vice-president of the United States, a change that 
 General Leavenworth and many other able men viewed as 
 dangerous in the extreme and wholly unwarranted by the Consti- 
 tution. His speech was a careful review of the constitutional 
 aspects of the matter and a scathing rebuke to those who were 
 seeking to effect a change for selfish purposes. 
 
 In the summer of 1876 it became known to General Leaven- 
 worth that his constituents desired to unanimously renominate 
 him, but his increasing years and the great burden of the diversi- 
 
 33 
 
fied interests that constantly called for his time and oversight 
 impelled him to write a letter declining a renomination, of which 
 the following is a copy : 
 
 Washington, D. C., July ist, 1876. 
 To the liejmhlican Electors of the Twenty-Jifth Cunyres.iional District : 
 
 Gentlemen :— The time is now rapidly drawing near when you will again be called upon to select a 
 candidate for the position which I now occupy. It is, therefore, proper that 1 should announce to you, 
 as I now do, a decision of many months' Standing- that I am not a candidate for the honor of a re- 
 nomination. It has been an immemorial custom with each of the political parties to renominate mem- 
 bers of Congress who have satisfactorily performed their duties, 'i here has been no departure from 
 this rule in the Twenty-fifth District during the last fifty years, if at any time, and probably would not 
 be in the present instance. I am by no means insensible to the honor which it was your pleasure two 
 years since, to bestow upon me, nor to that of the various important positions which have been con- 
 ferred upon me during the last fifty years. For all these manifestations of kindness and confidence of 
 the public, I must ever carry in my bosom feelings of the warmest gratitude It may, therefore, be a 
 matter of surprise to many of my friends that I should decline a renomination, and they may possibly 
 feel desirous to k-now the reasons for so unusual a step. 
 
 It i? well known to all my intimate friends, that I was reluctant to become a candidate for the nom- 
 ination in 1874, and that I finally consented to do so at the urgent solicitation of the leading gentle- 
 men of the Republican party in the district. 
 
 1 he same reasons which then influenced me still connue, and with undiminished force. The vari- 
 ous responsible positions which I hold in the city and in the State, demand all my time, and the duty 
 which I owe to those interested in the subjects committed to my care forbids that I should further 
 neglect them. My duty requires me to relinquish those positions, or to relinquish the oflice which I 
 now hold. This seems to me a sufficient reason for the course I now pursue, and here I might rest. 
 l!ut there are others not less potent. 
 
 At my time of life, I can not reasonably hope to enjoy miny more years devoted to active and labo- 
 rious duties. Those years, if allowed to me by an indulgent Providence, I desire to give to other and 
 different pursuits. I am fully persuaded that I can be more useful at Syracuse than at Washington. I 
 have in ray mind desirable objects to be accomplished there, and they may be within my power. I am 
 doing little here for tlie benefit of my constituents or the great public. Of the three committees on 
 which I have been placed, not one of them during the last seven months has reported a bill, or done 
 anything but "investigate." The investigations have disclosed nothing worth the paper which we 
 have used in making them, unless, possibly, in one case of no public interest, and which was made at 
 the suggestion of a Republican member. But all of them have been expensive and laborious, con- 
 suming much of our valuable time and drawing witnesses from remote parts of tlie Union, greatly to 
 their inconvenience and at a heavy expense. I am not willing to waste more years in matters so unim- 
 portant and of so little value to my constituents, or the public, or myself. 
 
 There is also another reason which is quite as potent with me as the foregoing. I could under the 
 most favorable circumstances hope to remain here but four years. This brief period of Congressional 
 life scarcely suffices to educate a member for the duties he is called upon to perform. The great busi- 
 ness of the House is always in the hands of the older members. They are the only persons who are 
 fully advised in regard to most of the matters presented for our consideration. Most of the subjects 
 presented, come before the House in some form each year. Old members become familiar with all the 
 details, and it would be sheer impertinence for a new member to offer advice when surrounded by a 
 large number of able members of large experience, each of whom is more competent to advise the 
 House than himself. The House must first know a member — his integrity, his capacity, his fitness to 
 advise on the great and intricate subjects committed to their care. The confidence of the House can 
 be won only by slow degrees. Any attempt to force it will prove a failure, and one ordinarily fatal. 
 Four years even would give a member but a partial education. Were I to remain so long, I should 
 then begin to be useful, to be able to do something for my constituents and the country, and become 
 more and more useful each year thereafter. I think it would not be extravagant to say that a single 
 
 34 
 
member from the State of Massachusetts has had more influence on the legislation of this country for 
 the last fifteen years, than the entire thirty-three members from the State of New York. It is most 
 humiliating to visit the Capitol and witness our insignificance. Not that we lack talent, or education, or 
 knowledge of various and important kinds, but we have not that particular branch of knowledge that 
 can only be acquired on the floor of the House, but which is absolutely indispensable to any extended 
 usefulness there. Other States are wiser. States with not a quarter of our number of members, have 
 ten times our infliJtnce. and will continue to have, until we bring to the discharge of our political du- 
 ties the same sagacity and wisdom which we so abundantly possess and make use of in our private 
 affairs. 1 his is our great, pressing, and paramount want. 
 
 Why have the Republican party of the Union just now honored the State of New York by selecting 
 one of our fellow citizens for the second position of dignity and honor in this nation of fifty millions 
 of people ? Only because the Republican electors of the Nineteenth District have had the wisdom 
 Jive times to select the Hon. \Vm. A. Wheeler for the distinguished position which he now occupies 
 1 hese ten years have made him well known in every State of this Union, his strong, vigorous common 
 sense, his entire devotion to his duties and to the public good, his great abilities, his unimpeachable 
 WK^"'u' ^"'^ ^^^ ^'°^^ ^""^ comprehensive knowledge of our public affairs and of the country's wants, 
 When the electors in other districts shall imitate the wisdom of those of the Nineteenth, and only 
 then, shall we perform the duty that we owe to the country and to ourselves. Then, and only then 
 when we visit the proud capital of this great Nation, shall we have occasion to feel a just pride in the 
 position which our State occupies in the Legislature of this Union. Whether that auspicious dav shall 
 ever come ; whether we shall in the future, as in the past, condemn ourselves to an ignominious and 
 contemptible mediocrity, or rise to a position of honor and dignity and power worthy of our great 
 btate and of its position in the Union, depends as much upon the gentlemen whom I now address as 
 upon those of any other district in the State. 1 express myself upon this subject with perfect free- 
 dom, because, at my time of life, I cannot be suspected, even, of having any thought of myself in the 
 above remarV_ 
 
 For these reasons, thus freely and frankly expressed, I must decline to be a candidate for renomina- 
 tion and will close this communication by expressing the hope that you will find in my successor a gen- 
 tleman mail things fitted to adorn and dignify the ofl^ice which I now hold, far better than I have been 
 able to do, and that when such an one is found, you will permit no warring, mousing politicians to de- 
 prive you of his valuable services, but will retain him in his position while he is willing to hold it and 
 give to the country the great benefit of his large experience, his varied knowledge and the influence 
 which he will necessarily acquire. eLIAS W. LEAVENWORTH. 
 
 General Leavenworth now found himself free from public 
 ofifice, strictly speaking, yet the incumbent of so many positions 
 of trust in civil life that his time was still greatly occupied. He 
 still retained the of^ce of president of the Syracuse Savino-g 
 Bank, which he held until 1883, when he tendered his resignation ; 
 was president of the Syracuse Water Works Company, a position 
 he had held since 1864; president of the Syracuse Gas Light 
 Company, to which he was elected in 1872, though he had per- 
 formed the duties of the office for fifteen years previous; presi- 
 dent of Oakwood Cemetery; Regent of the University; and a 
 trustee of half a score of prominent institutions and associations, 
 
 35 
 
most of which positions he had held for many years and con- 
 tinued to occupy until his death. But in comparison with former 
 years he was freed from arduous tasks and active labor. He felt 
 that he could give more time to the pleasures of home and its 
 social connections, to travel within the limits of his country, and 
 to the completion and arrangement of his affairs preparatory to 
 the great change that he realized could not be far in the future. 
 His health, as far as related to organic disease, remained uni- 
 formly good and it was his pride and comfort that at eighty 
 years of age he " felt none of the aches and pains of old age." 
 The failure of his powers was gradual and natural, confining him 
 to his bed for a few weeks at the close of his life, and on the 25th 
 of November, 1887, ^e quietly passed to another life, his spirit 
 serene and sustained by a trust in the mercy of his Creator and 
 in an eternity of peace. 
 
 General Leavenworth was twice married; first on the 21st of 
 June, 1833, to Mary Elizabeth Forman, daughter of Joshua 
 Forman. Judge Forman has been accorded the honor of having 
 been the founder of Syracuse. He was born in Duchess County, 
 N. Y., September 6th, 1777, and graduated from Union College, 
 after which he studied law in Philadelphia and New York. At 
 the completion of his studies, he married Margaret Alexander, 
 daughter of Boyd Alexander, M. P. for Glasgow, Scotland. In 
 the spring of 1800 he removed to Onondaga Hollow. Here he 
 soon acquired a large legal practice and in 1807 was elected to 
 the Assembly, chiefly because of his ardent support of the Erie 
 Canal scheme. From that time until the completion of the 
 canal in 1825, he was, perhaps, more prominently instrumental in 
 advancing its progress than any other man. In 18 19, he took up 
 his residence in Syracuse, prophecying against the opinion of all 
 his friends, that a great city would arise where there was little 
 
 36 
 
else than forest and swamp. During the succeeding seven years 
 he not only contributed more than any other person in laying 
 sound and solid the foundation of the now thriving city, but also 
 filled several public stations with marked ability. In 1829-30, 
 Judge Forman removed to North Carolina, where he died on the 
 4th of August, 1848, and his remains now rest in beautiful Oak- 
 wood. 
 
 His daughter, (Mrs. Leavenworth) inherited many of the traits 
 of character of her distinguished father, which fitted her in a 
 peculiar degree for the companionship of such a man as General 
 Leavenworth. During his long public career she was his constant 
 companion and shared alike his struggles and triumphs. She 
 died at the family residence in Syracuse on the i8th of April, 
 1880. 
 
 On the 1 2th of November, 1884, General Leavenworth was 
 married to Mrs. Harriet Townley Ball, of Bergen, N. J., who 
 survives him. 
 
 In the comments of prominent newspapers, his colleagues in 
 the Board of Regents, and of the various representatives of the 
 institutions with which he was intimately connected, a still fuller 
 estimate of the character and great usefulness of General Leav- 
 enworth's life may be formed. 
 
 37 
 
BURIAL SERVICE. 
 

 THE Burial Service of General Leavenworth was held in the 
 afternoon of November 28th, 1887. The service began at 
 the Leavenworth residence, on James street, at 1:30 o'clock ; it 
 was simple in character and attended by the family and nearest 
 friends. Prayer was offered by the Rev. Dr. Spalding, after 
 which the casket was borne to the hearse, followed by these gen- 
 tlemen as pall bearers : George F. Comstock, Charles Andrews, 
 Alfred A. Howlett, Wm. Brown Smith, Edward B. Judson, 
 Nathan F. Graves, Daniel P. Wood, Andrew D. White, Carroll 
 E. Smith, Robert G. Wynkoop, J. B. Moore, and Henry L. Du- 
 guid. In the funeral concourse were delegations from all the 
 various organizations with which the deceased had been con- 
 nected, the Chancellor of the Board of Regents, State Geologist 
 James Hall, and a great number of private citizens. Arrived at 
 the First Presbyterian church, the casket was borne into the 
 enclosure by employees of one of the institutions with which the 
 deceased had been identified, and placed upon a catafalque strewn 
 with flowers, which stood in front of the pulpit. The choir then 
 sang the beautiful hymn, "Like as a Father Pitieth hi=; own Chil- 
 dren," following which, prayer was offered by Rev. Dr. Codding 
 
 41 
 
ton. A selection from Scripture was then read by Rev. Dr. 
 Spalding, at the close of which Rev. Dr. Coddington delivered 
 the following tribute to the deceased : 
 
 We are this day, dear friends, called to carry to burial the mortal remains of one 
 who has been, perhaps, the most conspicuous personage in the history of Syracuse. 
 The strength of this statement is, moreover, much emphasized by the fact that our city, 
 both in its earlier and in its later days, has been blessed with not a few whose great 
 eminence has been recognized far beyond its limits. Elias Warner Leavenworth goes 
 to the judgment day with vastly larger responsibilities to answer for than the great 
 majority of his fellow men. f^rovidence endowed him with a magnificent natural 
 equipment, and the people gave to him the grandest opportunities for the beneficent 
 use of his powers. Coming to this city shortly after his admission to the bar in 1827, 
 he had completed sixty years of continuous professional and public life in this commu- 
 nity. That alone is a privilege and a source of power accorded to but few individuals 
 in a generation, while, on the other hand, it is a severer test of personal character than 
 the vast majority of our mobile American people are ever subjected to. From the 
 year 1837, in which Mr. Teavenworth was elected a Trustee of the village, for the 
 major portion of a half century, he was actively engaged in public affairs, his fellow 
 citizens honoring his talent and his official integrity by repeated elevations to positions 
 of trust in city, county. State and national affairs, 'i'he records tell us that in 1838, 
 '39, and '40 he was made President of the village; in 1839 and '40 he served as Super- 
 visor in the town of Salina ; in 1849 he was chosen Mayor of the city of Syracuse, 
 and again ten years later elected to the same office ; twice was he sent to represent 
 his fellow townsmen in the Legislature of the State ; in 1S53 he was elected .Secretary 
 of State ; in i860 he was appointed one of the Board of (Quarantine Commissioners 
 and served as President of that Board ; while as late as the year 1S74, at the ripe age 
 of seventy, when most men would be both disinclined and, by the infirmities of age, to 
 a large extent incapacitated, to assume the severe labors and responsibilities of public 
 service, Mr. Leavenworth was again called forth by his fellow-citizens, this time elect- 
 ing him to a seat in the National Congress. Here he at once took rank among the 
 leaders of the House, serving with his usual assiduity and efficiency for a single term, 
 after which he positively declined a renomination. At these various posts of power 
 Mr. Leavenworth was able to leave a positive impress not only on the current social, 
 civil, political and charitable interests of his generation, but also to leave monumental 
 evidences of his best thought in the very structure of the city and State governments. 
 
 42 
 
As late as 1872 he was appointed by the Governor and Senate of this State one of the 
 thirty-two Commissioners to revise the Constitution of the State, and it is safe to say 
 from the records of debate in that distinguished body, that none brought to its delibe- 
 rations a broader understanding of the subject in hand, and none exerted a profounder 
 influence upon its action. Under his official direction as Secretary of State, the census 
 of 1855 was taken, the Capitol enlarged, the State Hall at Albany rebuilt, the publica- 
 tion of the Natural History of the State vigorously carried on, and the present super- 
 vision of State and local charitable institutions established. To his sagacity, also, we 
 are to attribute the legislation creating a State Board of Assessors, and providing for 
 the equalization of State ta.xes. In 1865 he served as President of the Board which 
 placed at Batavia the institution for the blind, while it was chiefly through his influence 
 that the State Asylum for Idiots was located here. 
 
 Such a brief review of some of the more important public ofl^ces held by the departed 
 during his lifetime, must impress us with the fact that General Leavenworth was emi- 
 nently a man of affairs. In these numerous and varied positions of responsibility he 
 clearly evinced capacities and character qualifying him for the highest public trust, 
 either at home or abroad, within the gift of the people. There is not a court in Europe 
 which he would not have adorned in the service of his country. 
 
 A signal evidence of the largeness of the man is to be noticed in two facts of his 
 history. The first was his capacity to impress himself on other men, men of the high- 
 est station and intelligence. Three different times was he taken from private life and 
 appointed by the Governor of the State to the management of important and delicate 
 public interests, and once was he thus called by the President of the United States, 
 President Lincoln, in the year 1861, nominating and the Senate of the United States 
 confirming him, as a Commissioner to adjust claims against New Ciranada. The sec- 
 ond feature of his public history, evidencing his born leadership, is the remarkable 
 fact that he was so generally chosen as president of the commissions, conventions, and 
 other organizations of which, from time to time, he was a member. Vet, while a man 
 of affairs, taking broad and general views of national policy, and in his plans even for 
 city improvement, looking into the far future, he was also singularly accurate in mat- 
 ters of detail and of much narrower compass. Mr. Leavenworth had somewhat the 
 instincts of the ancient scribe. The chronicles of family and town, of church and 
 state, were all alike very sacred in his esteem. This has manifested itself in the gene- 
 alogy of the family, so laboriously and e.xcellently accomplished under his supervision, 
 his unfaltering interest in the landmarks of local history, his prosecution of the work 
 of publishing the Natural History of New York, while Secretary of State, and his 
 successful effort while in the Legislature to secure the purchase by the State of Wash- 
 
 43 
 
ington's headtiuarters at Newburg, and an appropriation for its continued preservation. 
 His capacity to grasp a multitude of details and his very accurate memory of names 
 and dates, a faculty continuing with unwonted power up to the last day of life, con- 
 spired with his love of family and country to make the study of history with him an 
 increasing delight. 
 
 Standing by the bier of our departed friend and fellow-townsman this hour, we may 
 well ask what lessons has that long and eminent public life for us who tarrv yet a few 
 days on the earth? To what may we attribute (leneral Leavenworth's success in life? 
 P'irst, we would say to his industry, unremitting from his earliest studies of the law to 
 his latest laboring day. Mr. Leavenworth was no idler in the tield. Those who in his 
 earlier years were intimately associated with him, as well as those who worked side 
 by side with him in his later public life, all bear this unvarying testimony to his untir- 
 ing industry. Clreat talent he undoubtedly possessed, but it was great talent utilized 
 and enlarged by unceasing work. Such industry, however, was only possible to one 
 who, at the beginning of his career, had been endowed with a sound bod\- and had pre- 
 served it from organic disease up to the age of eighty-four by an abstemious mode of 
 life. That on P'riday morning last the dissolution of soul and body should come with- 
 out a groan or the slightest contortion of a muscle, and that during all these weeks of 
 decline not a pain should be experienced, argues that Mr. Leavenworth, from the be- 
 ginning to the end, possessed a splendid bodily organism with which to do life's work. 
 Since his decease we have been informed from sources which we deem entirely credible, 
 that he never knew the taste of either whisky or tobacco, a most singular fact to be 
 recorded of one who has been in American public life for more than half a century. 
 A third prominent feature was to be found in his rigorous system. He knew where to 
 find things, because he had a place for each and each in its place. This was as char- 
 acteristic of his mental inventory as of the articles in his office desk. His'precision of 
 statement was only indicative of the clear order of his thought. ( leneral Leavenworth 
 had a grasp and command of detail possessed by few men. We attribute this largely 
 to his patience in labor, even to plodding, and to his rigorous system carried into every 
 hour and into the least matters, even of domestic management. Above all, we may 
 add, as the secret of his promotion, his proven integrity and efficiency in the perform- 
 ance of public duties committed to him. To-day no taint or corruption clouds the 
 long continued official service of this man. 
 
 And, withal, (leneral Leavenworth was a man of the people. (Jifted with a com- 
 manding presence, his erect and graceful figure and his features of classical cast and 
 strongly marked, made him a conspicuous center in any assemblage. Courtl)' in man- 
 ners, but not statuesque, he commanded attention from the highest, while yet the hum- 
 
 44 
 
blest approached him without fear. The courtesy of his nature, mindful of the least 
 things, was a rare virtue needing to be much cultivated in our loud and brusque 
 American society. 
 
 You will pardon me as I now, for tile last time, stand in the presence of this vener- 
 able form, if I feel constrained to bring my little tribute of gratitude to the kindly 
 spirit of the departed. Well do I remember seventeen years ago coming into this city, 
 young and a stranger, with what courtesy and many unmerited attentions Mr. Leaven- 
 worth made me at home by his own fireside. During all the intervening years such 
 kindness has been e.xperienced in more ways than it would be proper for me to men- 
 tion in this presence. They ceased only with that solemn hour, when, a few days ago 
 we were permitted to bow at the bedside of the dying, and there unite in prayer to 
 God for forgiveness of sin, and commit the departing spirit to the mercy of fJod, 
 through our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 After the singing of the beautiful hymn, "Thine Earthly Sab- 
 baths," Rev. Dr. Spalding paid the following tribute to the de- 
 ceased : 
 
 The picture which I have in my mind is that of a well-born, well-bred youth who, 
 having received the culture which New England institutions and influences could give 
 to him, came to this place sixty years ago this very month to begin his struggle for suc- 
 cess. That large foresight which has signally characterized him at many a point in his 
 brilliant career must have asserted itself at the beginning, enabling him to see beyond 
 the poor, scanty settlement and the low, swampy site, the possibilities of a vigorous, 
 beautiful city with its prosperous industries and its luxurious homes. With the ambi- 
 tion and energy which belong to youth, and with the sagacity and calculation which so 
 often await our maturer years, this young lawyer entered at once upon a course of un- 
 usual good fortune. Rarely has there been a man who won for himself .so many civic 
 honors, so many offices of public trust, so large and continuous a material prosperity. 
 
 In reviewing this life, which has thus heen so con.spicuously passed before the eyes of 
 successive generations, there is one feature of it most prominent of all, and well 
 worthy of our contemplation. 
 
 We can easily picture to ourselves this young man of sixty years ago, keen-eyed, 
 attractive in person and manners, energetic and yet methodical, so fully equipped for 
 the struggle for fortune-we can easily picture him, or another like him, growing up 
 with the growth of the community, eager to absorb unto himself a full share of its 
 prosperity, engrossed wholly in building up a splendid success for himself alone. For- 
 
 45 
 
tune is so won, success is so achieved by this intense, persistent application of all one's 
 powers to the one object. But there is a nobler spirit than this, a larger success than 
 this. There is such a thing as a strong, brilliant man plying with steadiness of pur- 
 pose the conditions of his personal advantages, and winning his own individual 
 triumphs, and yet, at the same time, with no less activity and wisdom, working for the 
 general good of his community, contributing of his foresight and his culture for the 
 increased intelligence, prosperousness and beauty of the town or city in which he 
 lives. 
 
 To a very marked degree this has been an element in the career and fortune of him 
 who lies before us to-day. Just as soon as Mr. Leavenworth had established his law 
 firm and had opened his office to his clients, just so soon he began to work and plan 
 for the enlargement and ornamentation of the village of Syracuse. His vision was 
 broader than its broadest growth. He foresaw a great inland city, which would stretch 
 through these valleys and crown the surrounding hills. He anticipated and hastened 
 its wide expansion by a large system of conveniences and adornments which his vigor- 
 ous, persistent will and his consummate taste were ever executing. For these three 
 score of years, while busy in amassing his own fortune and gathering in his almost 
 boundless official honors, and discharging with utmost diligence and fidelity all his 
 public trusts, State and municipal, he has been equally busy in laying out and widening 
 streets, opening parks, planting trees — making every highway and square of the city 
 to respond to his most exquisite sense of the becoming and the beautiful. 
 
 There are those who will carry to their graves the picture of an old man, graceful 
 in form and iranners, alert in every movement, superintending the placing of tree after 
 tree whose spreading verdure and shade make up the chief glory of our finest streets. 
 Sometimes in the drouth of summer, it has been his own hands that have watered their 
 parched roots, and so preserved for generations the grateful coolness of these umbra- 
 geous walks. They will long stand as living monuments, their every leaf as they 
 rustle in the summer's breeze, telling to every passer-by of the beneficence and munifi- 
 cent public spirit of General Leavenworth. We all have a great pride in this city. 
 Strangers who visit us extol its beauty. Let us not forget the hand that, during all 
 this formative period, has shaped its loveliness. 
 
 During these years there have been springing up great banking institutions whose 
 chief blessings have fallen upon the laboring classes. It was the ever restless brain of 
 this man which projected the first of these savings banks. He knew that such institu- 
 tions are indispensable to a growing city, opening up new resources of wealth to the 
 wealthy, but more than this, securing comfort and independence to the vast number 
 who without these would become wasteful and impoverished. He no more planted 
 
 46 
 
these trees for his exclusive benefit than he reared these banks for his own enrichment. 
 The same pubHc spirit, the same noble sense of the common weal ruled in both 
 actions. We rejoice to-day in the prosperity of these great moneyed institutions. 
 Other cities acknowledge their superior excellence. Let us not forget whose far-sighted 
 enterprise and generous method led the way to their establishment. 
 
 Along these streets, upon many a crowning site, there are homes for the aged and 
 asylums and hospitals for the unfortunate. They attest to the Christian kindness, to 
 the humane compassion of the city's inhabitants. They are among our chief glories. 
 Let us not forget that the very existence of some of them is owing to the generosity 
 and the personal guardianship of him whom we mourn to-day. 
 
 For months after I came to this city I wondered, as T looked up at the grand, massive 
 spire of this church, and marked the fine propoitions of wall and buttress, and walkmg 
 within, gazed with such perfect satisfaction at its stately columns, its waving arches, 
 and its far-off embracing roof, every part of the noble edifice meeting my sense of 
 beauty and filling my soul with worship. I for a long time wondered how it could be 
 that so far back in the history of this city, when its wealth must have been small, and 
 its taste crude, such a temple of fitness and beauty could have been erected. It de- 
 tracts nothing from the full meed of praise which even to-day we would give to those 
 other noble men, who forty years ago were associated with General Leavenworth in 
 planning the new church, to say that it was his far-sighted wisdom, and his refined 
 ai'Sthetic nature and his overmastering will that determined the fair and stately forms 
 that arise around us here to-day. His own dream of beauty at last crystalized into 
 this faultless structure which age has touched only to make it more beautiful. This 
 church through these many years, has been the pride of this man's heart. He served 
 it long and well. The last smile that broke upon his face as I stood with him in the 
 presence of death, was evoked by my announcement to him that that very day the last 
 burden of debt was raised from it, and it was left free to go on its way rejoicing. He 
 loved this church. .\s long as its spire and its arches point upward, and congregations 
 crowd its walls, it will stand a monument of the cultured taste, the far-reaching, 
 sagacious perception and public spirit of this band of men who generously accepted 
 his leadership. 
 
 General Leavenworth during these two last years of his extreme age, the only time I 
 have ever known him, has been exhibiting, to my surprise and admiration, the same 
 large, broad view of affairs, the same onward looking, the same wondrous energy that 
 characterized him so grandly in the days of his youthful fervor, and in the years of his 
 manhood's devotion. He has given largely and inspired others to give largely for the 
 extension of Presbyterianism in this city, so that since he passed the line of his four 
 
 47 
 
score years of life, two commodious and elegant churches have arisen to gather worship- 
 ers within their walls. And already, even before the sound of the hammer had ceased 
 to ring within the last of these churches, he was busy in projecting another to meet the 
 growing religious wants of the city. 
 
 And now, you, who have for so many years been associated with this man in his 
 busy work, applauding his wisdom and fruitful activities, enjoying with us the results 
 of his affluent taste and creative culture, with reverent step will bear him to his last 
 resting place. But even there, at his and your own journey's end, you will behold on 
 every side in that city of the dead the same evidences of his far-reaching vision, cease- 
 less industry and transforming grace. So many years ago, nearly thirty, (ieneral 
 Leavenworth was leading the way for the purchase of this tract of land, which nature, 
 as if for this special purpose, through the slow ages, had been molding into fullest 
 shape. During all these ^-ears since the artist's taste and the deft hand of Mr. Leaven- 
 worth have been steadily at work, until Oakwood cemetery has become a place of all 
 others the most beautiful as the sleeping place of our dead. There you will with 
 tender hands lay him down amidst the scenes of quietude and loveliness which his 
 genius has evoked. 
 
 For weeks past, this man who has conquered so much in life, has been lying face to 
 face with Him who is the conqueror of us all. With open eyes he has been peering 
 into the grave and into the eternity beyond. I have beheld his great serenity, his un- 
 ruffled peace. In humble tones^he spoke, to the last, of his defects and faults. With 
 trustful soul he cast himself where we must all find our only safe rest, upon the abound- 
 ing mercies of our Ciod in Jesus Christ. 
 
 The service closed with a benediction pronounced by Rev. 
 Dr. Spalding. 
 
 The interment was made on the beautiful spot which was 
 
 selected by the deceased at the time of the dedication of the 
 
 cemetery. 
 
 ' ' And when the stream 
 Which overflowed the soul was passed away, 
 A consciousness remained that it had left, 
 Deposited upon the silent shore 
 Of memory, images and precious thoughts 
 That shall not die, and cannot be destroyed." 
 
 4-8 
 
TRIBUTES. 
 
ALTHOUGH General Leavenworth reached a ripe old age 
 and his earthly labor may be said to have been well done, 
 yet his death caused a feeling of sadness throughout the State 
 and even beyond its boundaries, while in the city of Syracuse the 
 evidence of sorrow was universal. It found expression in many 
 ways, and it is appropriate that the more public tributes offered 
 to his worth while living and to his memory when dead shall find 
 a place in these few pages. 
 
 ■ A Special meeting of the Common Council of Syracuse was 
 called to take action on the death of General Leavenworth at 
 which a Committee was appointed who reported the following, 
 which was unanimously adopted : 
 
 Elias Warner Leavenworth died at his late residence in the city of Syracuse, Novem- 
 ber 24th, 1887, having nearly completed the S4th year of his a^'e. 
 
 Upon the completion of his education at ^'ale college and the Litchfield law institu- 
 tion, twenty years before Syracuse became a city, he identified his life and his interests 
 with the life and interests of this community. Li the thirty-fourth year of his age he 
 became a trustee of the village and several years thereafter served it in the capacity of 
 President of the Board of Trustees. He was the second Mayor of the city of Syra- 
 cuse, and again in 1859 occupied that honorable and responsible position. 
 
 During the earlier years of his residence here he established a large and lucrative 
 
law practice. Two years he represented his town in the Board of Supervisors. Twice 
 he was elected Member of Assembly. In 1853 he was elected Secretary of State, and 
 thereafter rendered important public services for the State at lar^e. He served as 
 President of the first Board of Quarantine (^'onnnissioners. For more than twenty-five 
 years he served as a Regent of the State University. For many years as a Trustee of 
 the State Idiot Asvlum, the location of which in this city was largely due to his efforts. 
 During his voung manhood he Un>k active interest in the organization and develop- 
 ment of the State militia service, in which he rose to the rank oi brigadier-general. 
 
 In 1S72 he was appointed one (jf the thirty-two Commissioners t<i revise the Consti- 
 tution of this State. He served one term as Representative of this district in Con- 
 gress, and declined a renomination. As President of the Commission to establish a 
 sewerage system he rendered important service to the city. For many years he served 
 as President of the Syracuse Water Company, Syracuse (ias Works, Oakwood Ceme- 
 tery Association, and of the Syracuse Savings Hank, He also rendered important 
 service as trustee of many of imr charitable instituti<ins. 
 
 r:)uring his first term as Mayor, the Syracuse Water Works L'onipany and the Syra- 
 cuse Savings Institution were organized and incorporated. During that term was 
 enacted the law ;uUhorizing the reclamation and improvement <>( a tract ot low and 
 marshy land bordering upt)n Onondaga creek, which was thereby restored to healthful- 
 ness and rendered an important acqui.sition to the city. 1 )uring his second term as 
 Mayor the various independent fire companies theretofore existing were consolidated 
 and incorporated into the "Fire Department of the City of Syracuse." Many other 
 public services were rendered by him during these sixty years of ceaseless activity. 
 
 IMore than of an\- other one man it may be truthfully said that the development of 
 the little village community of sixty \ears ago, into the vigorous and progressive mu- 
 nicipalitv, embracing the manifold institutions and enterprises of to-day, is the product 
 of his brain and of his enterprise. 
 
 The list of citizens who, at an earl\- date, contributed largely to the development and 
 improvement of this connnunit) inchn-les such names as Forman, Uurnet, Xoxon, Law- 
 rence, Baldwin, Smith, (iranger, Forbes, Burt, Teall, and \'an liuren. All of these 
 we remember with gratitude. To-day we add an<ither name to the roll ot our honored 
 dead. With reverent hearts we l)ow before the shrine of our Past, made earnest, made 
 strong, made progressive bv the memory of those nances that are written in the marble. 
 
 To no one of these names will the mind oftener recur than to his we mourn to-day, 
 as an exponent of the sagacity, probity, and energy of the pioneers who organized, 
 nurtured antl firmly established this beautiful and prosperous city. 
 
 With larger opportunities and improved facilities, it will be well if the present gen- 
 eration shall do its work upon the superstructure as they did theirs upon the founila- 
 tions. 
 
 Res(ii,\ Kii, That as we bow submissive to the divine decree, we desire to testify in 
 behalf of the citv of Svracuse, our acknowletlgement of the important services to this 
 communilv in the life just closed. That we tender to the family of the deceased our 
 respectful sympathv in their bereavement. That the clerk be directed to enter this 
 testimonial upon the official records of the city. That as a turther testimony of 
 respect we will attentl the funeral in a body. 
 
 52 
 
A meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Syracuse Savings 
 Bank was held on the 29th of November, 1887, at which the 
 following resolutions were adopted : 
 
 ResoiA'EH, That the trustees have heard with profound sorrow of the death of Elias 
 W. Leavenworth, the former president of this bank. He was a trustee from the 
 organization of the banl<, for more than a quaiter of a century its president, and con- 
 tinued from year to vear imtil increasing years led him to resign the office and seek 
 repose from the more actixe duties of life. 
 
 That during the long time he occupied the position of president he discharged all 
 the duties of the office with distinguished ability. He was always faithful and vigilant 
 in the discharge of his duties and always maintained the most exalted integrity. 
 During his administration the bank grew from a very small beginning to be one of the 
 strong and established institutions of the country. 
 
 That for more than half a century he has been identified with Syracuse and with all 
 its best interests. He was a trustee of the village and for several years its president, 
 and was twice the mayor of the city, and has held many offices of trust and import- 
 ance, and has always exercised an influence for gi>od in every position that he has held. 
 He was positive, vigorous and courageous, and never shrank from any duty. He was 
 a friend of e\ery good cause, and dealt out with a liberal hand to any object of charity 
 and to all works of public beneficence. He hail a distinguished ancestrx* and added 
 greatly to the renown of the town. 
 
 He was a member of the First Presbyterian church. He reached a great age and 
 has been brought gradually to ills end. He was perfectly resigned and entered into 
 rest in a good old age in his own lieautiful house, surrounded by those whom he loved, 
 with all the consolations of the religion that he professed. 
 
 Resol\'EIi, That we will, as a boily, attend the religious services of his funeral, and 
 that we tender a copv of these resolutions to his family as a feeble expression of our 
 sympathy and regard, and that these resolutions be pulilished in the journals of the 
 cit\'. 
 
 At a meeting of the Board of Trustees of the First Bresby- 
 terian Society of Syracuse, of which General Leavenworth was 
 for many years a member and officer, held on the 26th of Novem- 
 ber, 1887, the following memorial and resolutions were unani- 
 mously adopted : 
 
 Elias W. Leavenworth died at his late residence in the city of Syracuse, November 
 24th, 18S7. His connection with this society covers almost the entire period of its 
 corporate existence. For nearly or quite fifty years he has been a member of this 
 board, and almost the same length of time he has been its clerk. Within the period 
 during which the oldest of us has been associated with this society there has been no 
 time that he failed to occupy a position of commanding influence in its affairs. During 
 almost the entire history of the society his active mind and liberal hand and intelligent, 
 
 53 
 
far-sighted purpose have to a large extent made its history. During the fifty years 
 past many a large enterprise has been undertaken and accomplished, and in all of these 
 he was a leader. Identified with the early days of the village of Syracuse, his keen 
 vision foresaw the development <if our growth and resources, and from those early days 
 his determined purpose to Iniild up a religious society commensurate in its capacity and 
 undertakings with the future growth of the town has been uniformly manifest. Public- 
 spirited and liberal-handed, vigilant, energetic and persistent, he has done more than 
 any one now living to secure the high vantage ground now occupied by this church. 
 To the very last his sympathies and energies were largely enlisted in our behalf. His 
 death so swiftly following that of his life-long friend and co-worker, our late associate, 
 Harmon W. Van Buren, removes almost, if not quite, the last survivor of the first 
 period of our church history. The passing away of these, who by their labors secured 
 for us the blessed heritage we now enjoy, admonishes us not only of the mortality of 
 man, but cf his duty to work while the day lasts. By their departure we enter into the 
 solemn obligation to defend and perpetuate in all its capacity for usefulness the noble 
 society which they founded, nurtured and firmly established. 
 
 Resolved, That we mourn the death of Elias W. Leavenworth as the removal of 
 one with a sagacity so far-sighted, a personality and history so filled with useful power, 
 always possessed of a purpose so large-minded and liberal-spirited that we feel it im- 
 possible to fill his place. 
 
 That the clerk be directed to inscribe this tribute to his memory upon the records of 
 the society and express to his family our heartfelt sympathy in their bereavemeut. 
 
 That we attend the funeral of our associate in a body. 
 
 At a meeting of the directors of the C.as Light Company, held at its office in Syra- 
 cuse on Saturday, November 26, 1SS7, it was resolved, that it is a rare occurrence in a 
 community so young as the city of our home, for the demise of one for sixty years a 
 resident within its borders— honored and respected, entering in the quest of objects 
 that might minister to its general welfare, and giving freely of his time and abilities, 
 in their inception, prosecution and maintenance, and in which he has drawn to hmiself 
 the respect and esteem of his fellow citizens. 
 
 (ieneral Leavenworth came into the councils of the ( ias Light company in the fourth 
 vear of its existence and was, at his decease, its third president, succeeding the late 
 lames Lynch, who was the successor of Moses I). Burnet, its first president. As 
 "such he has been uniformly present at its meetings, active in the promotion of its inter- 
 ests, uniformlv courteous and genial in his intercourse with his fellow directors. 
 
 Li the close bv death of this long period of mutual labors, we record a distinct 
 recognition of his activeness and zeal in its management and our deep regrets at its 
 termination, and we tender his family our warmest sympathy in their bereavement. 
 
 Resolved, That the directors and officers of this company will attend his funeral 
 in a body. 
 
 At a meeting of the trustees of Oakwood held on Saturday, 
 November 26, 1887, the following resolutions were adopted : 
 
 54 
 
Resolved, That we mourn the loss of our president, Elias W. Leavenworth, and 
 tender to his family and friends our condolences in deep sympathy with their and our 
 great loss. 
 
 Resolved, That the trustees of Oakwood will attend his funeral in a body. 
 
 Resolved, That the following memorial, adopted and spread upon our minutes, 
 shall be presented to his family by our secretary : 
 
 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 The remains of our venerable president, Elias W. Leavenworth, will soon be laid to 
 rest in the beautiful cemetery over the affairs of which he has long and ably presided. 
 For several years before the organization of Oakwood his attention was directed to- 
 wards the grounds selected in 1859. The officers first elected were ; E. W. Leaven- 
 worth, president ; A. C. Powell, vice-president ; Hamilton White, treasurer ; and 
 Allen Munroe, secretary ; all now departed, our worthy chief the last to lay aside the 
 office which he had continuously and honorably held from the beginning. In the ever- 
 recurring cycles of time and the ever-changing seasons, twenty-nine times have the 
 flowers withered and the leaves fallen since our beloved preside'nt took charge of the 
 laying out and beautifying the lands of Oakwood. The results of his labors are too 
 well known and appreciated to need recapitulation. 
 
 Thou faithful servant, the dignified and courteous gentleman, rest in peace ! The 
 winds of November, now passing mournfully through the leafless branches, will be 
 forgotten when the soft air of spring shall clothe in verdure the hill-sides and trees of 
 our beautiful cemetery, and with every blade of grass and every bursting bud and 
 opening flower thy memory will remain with ever-pleasant thoughts. 
 
 The following tribute of respect and affection was proposed 
 and adopted by the Board of Counselors of the Syracuse Home 
 Association : 
 
 The Syracuse Home Association and Board of Managers are called upon to-day to 
 record the departure from this life of the oldest member of the Lk.ard of Counselors. 
 
 We find that General E. W. Leavenworth became a member of the Board at the 
 seventh annual meeting in 1859. In i36o, he was made secretary of the Board and 
 retained that position until his death. His name is therefore conspicuous through the 
 greater part of the history of the association. 
 
 He bore an active part in all the duties of that Board and we cannot know how much 
 we are indebted to his wisdom in council for the present prosperous condition of the 
 Association. He was one of the early and regular contributors to its funds ; was one 
 of the building committee for erection of the Home, and we are indebted to him for 
 the original furnishing of one of the rooms. We always e.xpected to see him at the 
 annual meeting and on New Year's day. 
 
 He and his contemporaries have all passed away and their places are now filled by 
 others who, we trust, will be as firm and true to the interests of the Association as they 
 were. We shall miss him who so long filled a prominent and responsible position, and 
 while we feel that he had lived to see more than all the good of life, yet we know he 
 will be greatly missed in his home, and we would tender our warmest sympathies to 
 
 55 
 
the several members of his family and pray that the consolation of the Gospel of our 
 Lord and Saviour may be theirs in an especial measure at this time. 
 
 The following was adopted at a meeting of the Board of Di- 
 rectors of the Syracuse Water Company : 
 
 Resoi,\'ED, That the following tribute tothe memory of Gen. Elias W. Leaven- 
 worth be spread upon the minutes of this meeting of the Board of Directors of the 
 Syracuse Water Company, and that a copy thereof be properly attested and sent to his 
 family ; It is but seldom that death gathers in men of such fruitful lives as was the 
 life which General Leavenworth has just closed, one which distinguished him as a 
 scholar, a business man and a gentleman. He was the city's foremost citizen, and its 
 most enterprising, public-spirited, and energetic benefactor. In his professional life 
 he earned honors ; his business career w-as no less successful, and political preferment 
 came to him of right. Genial in his social relations, his acquaintance was wide and 
 among leading minds ; generous and kindly toward all, all alike mourn his death, 
 though he goes down to his grave with the golden sheaf of age upon his casket. He 
 was the oldest member of this company, for many years its able president, and for half 
 a century a most influential director ; and in both capacities his ability and fidelity 
 were never questioned, his keen foresight never doubted, and his almost unequaled 
 energy never spent in vain. While we shall mourn the absence and miss the wise 
 counsel of our friend and associate, we shall remember with pleasure and gratitude his 
 most valuable services and the uniform courtesy and urbanity with which they were so 
 faithfully performed. As the great oak is among the forest of oaks, so was General 
 Leavenworth among men. As the great oak falls by reason of the lapse of time, so 
 fell our friend — his duty done. We tender our heartfelt sympathy and offer condolence 
 to the mourning family, and in token of the earnestness of our expressions we will at- 
 tend the funeral in a body, and be it ordered that the office of the Water Company be 
 closed on the afternoon of the funeral. 
 
 The trustees of the Onondaga Orphan Asylum met and 
 adopted the following resolutions of respect to General Leaven- 
 worth, who was at his death the oldest member of their Board : 
 
 Whereas, We are once more called upon as a board of trustees of the Onondaga 
 County Orphan Asylum, to bury from our number Cieneral E. W. Leavenworth, the 
 oldest member of our board, both by reason of age and continuity of service in behalf 
 of the asylum. For forty-one years has our departed friend and co-associate given us 
 the benefit of his valuable services and judicious counsel. By more than ten years 
 does his membership antedate that of any member of this board, and of those who 
 were associated with him in the early history of the asylum as trustees, all have laid 
 down their burden and gone to their reward. 
 
 Resolved, That in the death of General E. W. Leavenworth this board has lost 
 one to whom it has looked for counsel ; one who was deeply interested in the welfare 
 
 56 
 
and success of the asylum, and one who amid the cares and anxieties of business was 
 ever ready and willing to give of his time and means to promote its interests. 
 
 We shall miss his genial presence and kindly greeting and wise counsel, while the 
 orphans have lost a friend and benefactor. We tender to his bereaved and sorrowing 
 family our heartfelt sympathy ; that we will attend his funeral in a body, and that this 
 expression of our feelings be entered at large upon the minutes of our Board and a 
 copy be sent to the family of our deceased friend and late associate. 
 
 The following memorial and resolutions were adopted at a 
 meeting of the Onondaga Coarse Salt Association : 
 
 This Association is called to mourn the loss of one of its oldest members. A resident 
 of this city for sixty years, has passed away in the fullness of his years and in the midst 
 of a community where, in the vigor of his young manhood, his active and professional 
 and business life commenced and where it is now closed. To mention the various du- 
 ties that he has performed and the many public trusts that have been committed to his 
 charge by his fellow citizens, would be to recite the history of the village and the city 
 of Syracuse. He was proud of our growth and prosperity, and prophesied still greater 
 increase for the future, and he inspired in others the sentiments that he so fondly 
 cherished. 
 
 Resolved, That the death of Hon. E. W. Leavenworth leaves a void in this com- 
 munity and a loss that we cannot estimate, and now that his name has been added to 
 the long list of early settlers that have passed away, may we, the survivors, strive to 
 fill their places with equal usefulness and honor. 
 
 Resolved, That we herewith tender to the family and relatives our condolence and 
 our sympathy. 
 
 Resolved, That as a further mark of our regard we will attend the funeral in a 
 body from the First Presbyterian church this afternoon. 
 
 At the annual meeting of the Board of Regents of the Uni- 
 versity, held on the I2th of January, 1888, the Chancellor an- 
 nounced the death of General Leavenworth and paid a feeling 
 and highly eulogistic tribute to the deceased, in which he said : 
 
 In this Board he was vigilant and sagacious, full of wise and generous suggestions. 
 Of a masterful temperament, he was tenacious of his own views and he maintained 
 them with great independence and ability, but his mind was open and hospitable to 
 every form of progress, and he bore himself always with unfailing courtesy. To the 
 last he was singularly alert and energetic, health unbroken, his interest untiring. In 
 old age he was still young, and by his public activities and his personal character, his 
 associates of this Board gratefully feel themselves cheered and stimulated. The State 
 loses in him one of the men who make the strength of States, and his immediate com- 
 munity a citizen most worthy of emulation. 
 
 57 
 
Regent Bostwick offered the following tribute to the memory 
 of his deceased colleague : 
 
 Mr. Chancellor : There are but few men living to-day who have been so long 
 and intimately connected with the various departments of our State government as was 
 the late General Leavenworth. He was better informed on the legislative, political 
 and educational history of the State than any man I have ever met. For more than 
 forty years he has been the direct representative of the people, and whether as Presi- 
 dent of his village. Mayor of his city, in the State Legislature, Secretary of State, or 
 Representative in Congress, his influence was felt in every position he occupied. 
 
 He was a man of broad views, and thoroughly practical in his ideas. General 
 Leavenworth was always on the side of progress and good government. He possessed 
 an intense State pride, and promoted many of the enterprises which have given glory 
 and honor to the State. He was ever foremost in matters of education, as his record 
 in the Board of Regents for more than a quarter of a century attests. He was gener- 
 ous and patriotic, and of him it may be truly said : "He loved his country and his 
 fellow-man." 
 
 We shall miss his genial presence and wise counsels in this Board. He left the im- 
 press of his character upon the works he had in hand. His labors never ceased until 
 his great heart ceased to pulsate. He died in the fullness of mental vigor, at an age 
 beyond the allotted three score and ten. His life was full of good works, and his 
 memory will be cherished for the many noble traits of character which were exempli- 
 fied in his long and useful life. 
 
 The following eloquent tribute was then pronounced by Re- 
 gent Watson : 
 
 Mr. Chancellor : After the very eloquent tribute to which we have listened this 
 evening, I trust that it may not be considered unbecoming in me (representing with my 
 distinguished colleague, e.x-Senator Kernan, as I do, the city where Regent Leaven- 
 worth commenced the practice of his profession, and from which, on the suggestion of 
 that eminent advocate of Utica, Joshua A. Spencer, he removed to Syracuse, his future 
 home, where for sixty yeai-s he remained one of its most conspicuous citizens) to make 
 a few brief remarks upon the life and character of our lamented associate. 
 
 The senior member of this Board, by his devoted attention to its interests, his never- 
 failing attendance upon its meetings, and his uniform urbanity of manner, conjoined 
 with many other eminent qualities of minri and heart, greatly endeared himself to 
 all his associates. 
 
 Comparatively few, indeed, Mr. Chancellor, even among those who have had oppor- 
 tunity for the highest culture in their earlier years, are the men, eminent in business, 
 politics, law or medicine, who, amid the hurry, the bustle and confusion, the ceaseless 
 push and wear and tear of our modern life, resolutely and daily snatch a few brief 
 moments from the rapidly fleeting hours to return to those studies which, in the language 
 of the greatest of Roman orators, "are the ornament of prosperity, the comfort and 
 
refuge of adversity, and the solace and delight of old age." Such a man, however, 
 was our lamented colleague. 
 
 Amid the engrossing cares and wearing anxieties of even the most active period of 
 his busy political and professional life, he yet found time to make not infrequent ex- 
 cursions into the realms of literature and art and to gather thence those flowrets of 
 culture and of taste, the sweet perfume of which will ever linger in the memory of 
 those who were so fortunate as to have enjoyed his intimate acquaintance. 
 
 Mr. Chancellor, as well as in many other traits of character, he was a bright and 
 shining exemplar for the younger men of his generation. 
 
 The white snow of mid-winter (fit emblem of the purity of character of him who 
 sleeps beneath) rests gently upon his recent grave, in that beautiful cemetery of which 
 he was the originator and the greatest benefactor, of the fair city of Central New York 
 which was his home, and which his wonderful energy, his great business enterprise and 
 untiring industry, his " affluent taste and creative culture " had done so much to enrich 
 and to adorn ; and we may not inappropriately apply to our late associate the words 
 inscribed upon the tomb of the great architect of St. Paul's Cathedral, Sir Christopher 
 Wren, who, at the age of ninety (but six years older than our departed friend), was laid 
 at rest in the crypt of his own beautiful church, '' Si monunientnin irqiiiris circinnspice." 
 
 Bis vixit, qui bene, was the saying of a most distinguished moralist of antiquity. 
 Tried by this test, how far prolonged and how fruitful in good works appear the more 
 than fourscore years of our departed colleague. 
 
 Vice-Chancellor Curtis then delivered the following tribute to 
 his deceased colleague : 
 
 Mr Chancellor : Our little circle, although always complete, is always changing. 
 Time may creep on with petty pace from day to day, but it surely brings to-morrow, and 
 to-morrow and to-morrow, with the only foot that never tires, and never reaches a 
 bourne. It seems to me but yesterday that I was the youngest member of this Board, 
 and now the death of Mr. Leavenworth leaves me, in date of election, the senior mem- 
 ber. In the French academy each newly elected member, upon taking his seat, delivers 
 an eulogy of his predecessor, and it is but a fitting duty to which you summoned me in 
 asking me to prepare a brief minute upon our late associate. But it is not a ceremony 
 only ; it is an act of cordial friendship and high respect. 
 
 The distinguishing trait of Mr. Leavenworth seems to me to have been his public 
 spirit. From his removal to Syracuse to his death, he was always conspicuous in its 
 good works of every kind. His untiring energy, his quick intelligence, his warm sym- 
 pathy and firmness and urbanity, were qualitities of the utmost service in the rapid 
 growth of the city. There are certain characteristics which mark the English gentle- 
 man, and Tennyson, as you remember in the familiar lines, says of his friend, Arthur 
 Hallam, that he 
 
 " bore without abuse 
 The grand old name of gentleman." 
 
 The poet does not define the word. He appeals to the universal consciousness of 
 
 59 
 
the English-speaking race. In the same way Mr. Leavenworth's peculiar qualities and 
 interests and devotion were such as distinguished the American citizen. He was in no 
 sense a servile flatterer of the mob, nor in any way a panderer to vulgar prejudice. He 
 did not hold mere popularity to be the evidence of genuine patriotism or effective pub- 
 lic service. The test of sincere Americanism is not deference to the views of others. 
 It is the unquailing courage of your own opinions. 
 
 During the later years of his life in which I knew him, Mr. Leavenworth signally 
 illustrated the difference between public service and political ambition. I do not mean, 
 of course, that they are incompatible. Mr. Leavenworth had strong political convic- 
 tions and warm party feeling. But his public interest and activity did not depend upon 
 official position. As a private person he would have been a benificent force in any 
 community. He belonged to that class of Americans who by their characters and 
 abilities are necessarily public men. Their views are sought ; their counsels are heeded ; 
 their integrity commands confidence ; their judgment molds local public opinion, and 
 their practical sagacity directs public action. 
 
 How well we recall, Mr. Chancellor, his vigorous good sense in the deliberations of 
 this Board, his wide intelligence, his sound discretion. That hale and heartj^ figure, all 
 unbowed by the snowy years, rises before me as I speak and that kindly courtesy 
 seems almost impatiently to deprecate my words of praise. I saw a letter from our 
 friend during the summer, in which he said, " at eighty-four I feel none of the aches 
 and pains of age." That tranquil citizen, persistent in good deeds, discredited Words- 
 worth's lines: 
 
 " The good die first 
 
 And those whose hearts are dry as summer's dust 
 
 Burn to the socket." 
 
 But how nobly at the end he illustrated those other lines of Wordsworth : 
 " But an old age serene and bright 
 And lovely as a Lapland night 
 Shall lead thee to thy grave." 
 
 The press of Syracuse, as well as generally throughout the 
 State, published extended biographical sketches of General Leav- 
 enworth, the matter of which is embodied in preceding pages of 
 this Memorial. In addition to the editorial expressions incorpo- 
 rated in such sketches, several prominent journals made separate 
 editorial comment upon his long and useful life and the great 
 public loss caused by his death. From those comments are se- 
 lected the following brief extracts : 
 
 60 
 
FROM THE SYRACUSE STANDARD. 
 
 Yesterday the slow sinking away of General E. W. Leavenworth's bodily powers 
 ended in death. The event removes from the city a long familiar figure and a mind 
 active to the last in all its operations and sympathies. He had held important offices 
 in the State, discharging each responsibility with energetic fidelity, and he had served 
 the nation ; but, when compelled by accumulated years to contract the circle of his 
 activities, he continued to maintain important relations with the people of Syracuse 
 and interest himself warmly in whatever interested them. The younger generation of 
 Syracusans did not often think of him, probably, as one who had served the common- 
 wealth in places of dignity, and had engaged in the conferences of the State's political 
 chiefs. To them the old man who sank into his last sleep yesterday at the age of 
 almost four score years and four, was an ancient landmark, one of the first citizens of 
 the town in age, intelligence, wealth, social rank and public spirit. Moving among us 
 with stateliness and courtliness, still bearing traces of his comely prime, he has long 
 been the most prominent person connecting the Syracuse of to-day with the little vil- 
 lage out of which it has risen. He has watched with keen pleasure every movemerlt in 
 its expansion, every undertaking for its adornment, and has been, himself, a leading 
 contributor to its prosperity and beauty. 
 
 Elias W. Leavenworth identified himself most intimately full sixty years with this 
 community, and the monuments of his intelligent zeal are visible on every hand. 
 These pronounce a better eulogy than will be written or spoken, and they will arrest 
 attention after the voice of praise is stilled, and the city which he saw with pride rise 
 to new estates of dignity, shall have outstripped his fondest dreams of greatness. 
 
 FROM THE SYRACUSE COURIER. 
 
 Very closely interwoven with the history of Syracuse is the story of the life that, 
 like a candle, flickered out yesterday in a stately James street mansion. Coming to 
 Syracuse sixty years ago, fresh from Yale college and the Litchfield law school. Gen- 
 eral Leavenworth early took a deep interest in all that concerned the growth and pros- 
 perity of our then village— an interest which never waned during his long career as a 
 citizen. Fifty years ago he was village Trustee and for several years thereafter the 
 village President. Forty years ago, less two, he was Mayor of the city, and again 
 thirty years ago, less two. Twenty-five years ago he was candidate for Congress be- 
 fore the Republican convention, which sat five days before it made a choice, the other 
 candidates being Charles B. Sedgwick, Thomas T. Davis, and I'l. Holland Duell. 
 The three Onondaga candidates, Sedgwick, Davis and Leavenworth, are now num- 
 bered with the dead, f General Leavenworth's single term in Congress was an eventful 
 period, and he occupied a conspicuous position in that body. 
 
 General Leavenworth's ideas in relation to city affairs were, as a rule, of an advanced 
 order. Fie believed in broad streets, in shade trees, and especially in systematized 
 improvements. He advocated for years the creation of a Board of Public Works, 
 clothed with full supervision and authority over our streets, and particularly over the 
 laying out of new streets and parks. Our narrow streets, often laid out regardless of 
 system, gave him great distress. The city would have been vastly the gainer if it had 
 
 61 
 
followed General Leavenworth's wise suggestions. In his death the city loses one of 
 its most public-spirited and far-sighted citizens, one who has made a deep impress on 
 its history. 
 
 FROM THE SYRACUSE JOURNAL. 
 
 At the close of a lengthy sketch of General Leavenworth's life, the editor wrote: 
 " No more active man has ever resided here, and his busy life has borne valuable re- 
 sults in many directions. While a person of infinite detail, yet he was naturally a 
 strong executive and guided with intelligence and firmness. He habitually impressed 
 his views upon those with whom he was associated, and most excellent judgment was 
 shown in his practical methods of carrying them into execution. There were few pub- 
 lic enterprises in this community, in the first half century of our city's existence, that he 
 was not a foremost figure in shaping, and probably no more public spirited and useful 
 citizen has ever resided in Syracuse. 
 
 FROM THE SYR.A.CUSE HERALD. 
 
 The death of General E. W. Leavenworth removes one of the foremost citizens of 
 Syracuse. He had been so long identified with the city's interests that his absence will 
 be everywhere a source of sorrow and loss. He had rounded out a full measure of 
 years, and had lived to see his struggling and straggling town become a large and 
 prosperous city. 
 
 NEW YORK TRIBUNE. 
 
 General E. W. Leavenworth, ex-Secretary of State, and ex-member of Congress, 
 died in Syracuse this morning. He was born in Canaan, N. Y., December 20, 1S03, 
 graduated at Yale in the class of 1S24, and came to Syracuse to live three years later, 
 having in the meantime studied law witli \Villiam Cullen Bryant, and at the Litchfield 
 (Conn.) Law School. In 1S41 he became Brigadier-General of the State militia ; he 
 was member of Assembly in 1S50 and 1856, Secretary of State in 1854-5, and Mayor 
 of Syracuse in 1849 and 1859, having also held prominent offices there before the city 
 was incorporated. 
 
 Gen. Leavenworth was elected Secretary of State by the Whig party, and was very 
 prominent and active in that office. The State Asylum for Idiots was located in Syra- 
 cuse by his efforts. He presided over the Republican State Convention that sent a 
 delegation of friends of William H. Seward to the National Republican Convention of 
 i860. In 1861 he was nominated by President Lincoln Commissioner to adjust claims 
 against New Granada. Membership in the State Constutional convention (1S67), in 
 two State Boundary Commissions, in Congress (1874-5), and for the last twenty-six 
 years in the Board of Regents, indicate some of his other public services. With local 
 business institutions he was also closely identified. 
 
 FROM THE NFW YORK TIMES. 
 
 Elias Warner Leavenworth was born in Canaan, N. Y., December 20, 1803, but his 
 early childhood was passed in Great Barrington, Mass., where he received an academic 
 
 62 
 
education. After a short time spent at Williams College he entered Yale, from which 
 institution he was graduated in 1824. Subsequently he studied law, first with William 
 Cullen Bryant, and later at the once famous law school at Litchfield, Conn. After 
 being admitted to the bar in 1827, he settled in Syracuse and followed his profession 
 until compelled by ill health to abandon it in 1S50. Mr. Leavenworth first entered 
 public life in 1835, when he was elected member of the Assembly. The following year 
 he was made Brigadier-General in command of the State artillery. He was President 
 of the village of Syracuse in 1839, 1840, 1841, 1846, and 1847, anti its Mayor in 
 l849andl85g. He was continually a member of the Assembly from 1850 to 1857, with 
 the exception of two years' service in 1854 and 1855, as Secretary of State. He was 
 a Regent of the State University, and so was unable to accept the office of Trustee for 
 Hamilton College, to which he was elected in 1867. Five years later the college con- 
 ferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws. Gen. Leavenworth held a number of 
 minor offices under the State and United States government, and was one of the com- 
 missioners under the convention with New Granada. He was a member of the Forty- 
 Fourth Congress from the Syracuse district. 
 
I 
 
LETTERS. 
 
oi: 
 
WHEN the news of the death of General Leavenworth 
 came Hke a dark shadow into the homes of the innume- 
 rable friends of the family, and to the knowledge of his former 
 ofificial associates and his wide circle of acquaintances, there came 
 to his remaining household, numberless personal missives of condo- 
 lence and sympathy, all deeply expressive of the high appre- 
 ciation in which the writers held their deceased friend. Most 
 of these letters had an almost sacred personal and private char- 
 acter, intended only for the family circle. The few that follow, 
 however, may properly be placed in these pages : 
 
 FROM \VM. H. WATSON, UTICA, N. Y., RF.CENT OF THE STATE UNIVERSITY. 
 
 I was shocked and deeply grieved to hear of the death of General Leavenworth. 
 The senior member of the Board of Regents, your distinguished husband, by his de- 
 voted attention to the interests of the Board, his never-failing attendance at its meet- 
 ings, and his uniform urbanity of manner, conjoined with many other eminent qualities 
 of mind and heart, had rendered himself greatly endeared to all his associates in that 
 body. 
 
 Amid the engrossing cares and wearing anxieties of even the most active periods of 
 his busy political .and professional life, he yet found time to make not infrequent excur- 
 sions into the realms of literature and art and to gather there those flowerets of culture 
 
 67 
 
and of taste, the sweet perfume of which will ever linger in the memory of those who 
 were so fortunate as to enjoy his intimate acquaintance. 
 
 The many and varied public offices which he so acceptably filled, attest alike the 
 versatility of his talents and the exalted estimation in which he was held by his fellow 
 citizens of Syracuse, as well as by the people of the State. * « # 
 
 FROM HENRY R. PIERSON, CHANCELLOR OF THE BO.\RD OF REGENTS. 
 
 When I received your telegram announcing the death of the dear old man to whom 
 I owe so much and whose memory is embalmed in my heart, I thought of sending an 
 immediate telegraphic answer of sympathy, and then decided to wait until I could 
 write. I was not surprised. I was as well prepared as I could be when not confronted 
 with death itself, for which there is no complete preparation ; but now I am not sur- 
 prised, and I beg to share in your sorrow, even a little. He was a noble man ; so 
 genial and so just ; so thoughtful and so true ; so faithful and so trusting ; so dear a 
 friend and so guileless. I loved the dear man, and I am so glad I knew him. He has 
 added greatly to my pleasure and helped me to be a wiser and a better man. I sorrow 
 with you, but he has left us a rich inheritance in a noble life. 
 
 FROM B. n. SILLIMAN, BROOKLYN, N. Y. 
 
 On returning to town this evening, I am met by the sad, sad telegram from Syra- 
 cuse. I need not — I can not — tell you how deeply I sympathize with you in this great 
 affliction — the death of my dear, constant friend from boyhood to our old age. But 
 his has been a long, a good, a useful, a noble, a distinguished, and a very honored life, 
 and his death peaceful and painless. What a grand career — what an enviable death ! 
 I should, were I able, be with you on Monday, but am hardly adequate to the journey. 
 I shall, in heart, be among the mourners who will linger at his grave. 
 
 FROM E. A. DICKINSON, SECRFHARY BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF ONONDAGA COUNTY 
 
 ORPHAN ASYLUM. 
 
 The sad intelligence of the death of your husband was received by the managers of 
 the Onondaga County Orphan Asylum with feelings of sorrowful regret. Mr. Leaven- 
 worth has been for nearly two decades a valued member of the Asylum's Board of 
 Trustees, and in all deliberations of the united boards, the wisdom of his counsels 
 was unquestioned. His life has been prolonged until he has seen nearly all the early 
 workers with whom he was associated in this charity pass away ; and now, burdened 
 with years, and having long stood upon the border land, he, too, has joined the innu- 
 merable throng. Accept the earnest sympathy of our Board in your bereavement. 
 
 FROM \V. S. LE.A. YEN WORTH. 
 
 I was surprised and pained to learn of the death of General Leavenworth. Allow 
 me, as one who has received many benefits at his hands, to express mv svmpathy for 
 
 68 
 
you all in this time of sorrow. He was a noble man and has set a bright example to 
 all those who bear or may bear the name of Leavenworth. I shall always be proud 
 that I have known him, and grateful to him for his interest in me. I shall do my best 
 and endeavor to be a worthy representative of the name which General Leavenworth 
 has done so much to honor. 
 
 FRO.\I EZEKIEL W. MUNDY. 
 
 It is a pain to me to-day to learn of the death of your honored husband. He has 
 been a most valuable man in public life and a most kind and agreeable one in private 
 life. When I came to Syracuse twent\--five years ago, a young man and a stranger. 
 General Leavenworth sought me out and without introduction in\-ited me to his house, 
 and introduced me to the people of Syracuse. And from that time onward his house 
 was always open to me, and special invitations to meet friends there were frequent. 
 And this kindness to me, as I know, was but a specimen of his natural courtesy. 
 You will see, therefore, that it is but human for his friends to mourn his loss. He has, 
 however, done much, and we should be thankful as well as sad. 
 
 
 i^ 
 
BINDERY