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1toqrI  tinrg |onr, t,..
A MEMOIR.
By Rev. HOWARD CROSBY. D. D.
MORRISANIA, N. Y.
1870.








The following Memoir, prepared for THi HISToRIcA
MAGAZINE and originally published in that work, has been
re-produced in this form, m an edition of thirty copies, exclusively for private circulation among the personal friends
of Mr. Moore.
MorMIBAIA, N. Y., 1870.                 H. B. D.








MEMOIR.








MEMORIAL.
Men of worth shrink from notoriety. They
live for their work; not for themselves. Their
ambition is to do; not to appear. Idlers and
adventurers will climb up dizzy heights, to
carve their names in the rock; but the true
man cuts down the forest, builds the house,
and tills the soil, leaving something better
than an empty name for the generations to
come. The heroes of the world have never
been mustered by History; it is only the Divine roll-call, at the great consummation, that
can select those modest souls. Where one
great man escapes into fame, a hundred enclose
themselves in their cocoons of industry, fond of
concealment and all unconscious of their coming colors.  If one wishes to see the good, the
useful, and the true, amon' men, he must look
beneath the surface, or he will make a defective
estimate. Some good grows up into visibility;
but a vast amount lies as gold in the mine;
and when the wealth of virtue that the world
possesses, is to be reckoned, the jewels that
hide from the public gaze are to be remembered as forming the largest portion of the whole
amount.
It is a very refreshing experience to the
1




2
healthy mind to turn from the crowded highway, where merit is disfigured with dust and
tinsel, and clamorous applause marks alike the
good and evil, and find, in calmer scenes, the
contented spirit, a reward to itself, achieving
its progress, not by the guidance of popular
impulse, but by the inward promptings of
the truth. It is principally through such laborers that the world moves; and it is around
such that true happiness gathers.
For many years, it has been our good fortune to watch the busy life of a toiler of
this sort; and, if we regarded only his personal peace, we should not now mention his
name; but, for the encouragement of others
and a protest against the noise, and bluster,
and sensation of the day, we must wound his
feelings for this once.
GEORGE HENRY MOORE was born in Concord, New  Hampshire, on the twentieth of
April, 1823.
His father was well known in his native
State, for his high political and literary abilities; and, toward the close of his life, filled
the onerous and responsible position of Postmaster at San Francisco, where he lent his
energies to the growth of that Pacific metropolis. Mr. Moore's uncle, Governor Isaac Hill,
had a national fame.
George, the oldest of four sons, came to
New York, in 1839, at the age of sixteen




3
and, by a course of resolute self-denial, made
an honorable way for himself and his three
brothers, through a collegiate education, at
the New York University, his youngest brother being graduated i'rom that institution in
1851. George himself was graduated in 1843.
His fellow-students of that day love to testify to his untiring perseverance and genial
disposition, throughout his college course, in
which he mingled the devotion of the scholar
with the instincts of generous friendship.
In 1841, while a Sophomore in College, he
entered the service of the New York Historical Society, as Assistant Librarian, George
Folsom being the Librarian.
The Historical Society, at that time, was a
quiet potentiality, a respectable egg, over
which the influences of Washington Irving,
George Bancroft, and other such were brooding with faint hopes of a hatch. It was
stowed away in a corner of the University
Buiiding; and led a very dingy life. From
tie start, Mr. Moore, as Assistant Librarian,
became the chief workman in the concern,George Folsom, and afterwards, George Gibbs,
and then Mr. Moore's venerable father, who
were Librarians, wisely acting as figure-heads
to the office; and allowing the genius and
industry of the Assistant to be untrammelled.
A new life entered the old bones. Growth,
order, thrift, were the magical results of




4
young Moore's energy. In 1849, the Historical
Society did not know itself. It had become a
power in the community. The best men of the
City thronged its seances, (where portly Janitor
Smith de:lt out the chocolate); papers of
highest interest were read in its rooms; its patronage was sought by the historical explorers
of the land; and rich men were honored by
contributing to its resources. While all this
was ('one, the cunning workman who had
wrought the change remained in obscurity as
the Assistant Librarian.
When Mr. Moore's father resigned his post
as Librarian, Doctor Edward Robinson, who
always had an eye to the fitness of things, proposed the son as the rightful successor.
From that day to this, a period of twenty
years, Mr. Moore, if we may be classical and
not jocose, has been the Atlas of the Historical
Society. To change the figure and conform
the better to modern science, Mr. Moore has
been the central Sun of the Historical Society's
system, around which Preside nt, Vice-president,
and all the other officers and members, have
most becomingly pursued their orbits. Whenever any one thinks of the Historical Society,
GEORGE H. MOORE appears at once to his imagination. He is the Historical Society, in its
walking, talking avatar. While the Society
has taken the first rank among kindred institutions in this country, and appropriately moved




5
itself out of the University garret into a neat
and beautiful house of its own, it would foil a
cynic to seek the first error of management in
design or execution on the part of the ruling
spirit of the noble enterprise.
In that fine edifice, on Second Avenue, within th.- classic purlieu of St. Mark's, is gathered
the richest material for our country's history;
while Nineveh and Egypt are represented to
the undoubted satisfaction of the bust of
Herodotus, over the main door. No visitor in
New York is guiltless who has failed to enter
this shrine of Clio and lulled his spirit in its
quiet, historic atmosphere. No man can say
that he knows the institutions of New York, if
he does not know GEORGE H. MOORE.     The
hearty welcome, the kindliness of soul, overflowing in voice and manner, the genial greeting of
eye and hand, which Clio's high-priest accords
to devout worshippers, are worth a long journey
of themselves.
Off the main Library hall is Mr. Moore's laboratory. Here, his untiring industry has accomplished its successes. When he had completed the years of detail that were necessary
to syst matize the literary property of the
Society and had reduced a very dismal chaos
to cosmical order, he turned his attention to
utilizing his large information and mature
judgment, for the benefit of the historic world.
In 1860, Mr. Moore published an octavo of




one hundred and fifteen pages, on the Tlreason
of Charles Lee,* a work which excited deserved
interest and showed the accurate analysis and
scholarly abilities of its author. In 1862, he
published his Historical Notes on the employment of Negroes in the American Army of the
Revolution,t a most opportune and influential
publication, when the negro-soldier-question
was pressing itself on the Nation, in the fearful scenes of civil strife; and, in 1866, he
aroused (rather than excited) public attention
by his Notes on the History of Slavery in Massachusetts,; an octavo of two hundred and fifty-six pages.    This work fairly startled the
Pharisees, who had smoothed their paunches
with a comfortable feeling of their own       immaculateness, and put a valuable foot-note to
some loose pages of history.
* " Mr. Lee's Plan-March 29, 1777." I The I Treason of
Charles Lee I Major General I second in command in the
American Army I of the Revolution. I By George H. Moore,
| Librarian of the New York Historical Society. I [Read
before the Society, on Tuesday evening, June 22, i 58.] 
cc The evil that men do lives after them." I New Xork: 
Charles Scribner, 1'-4 Grand Street. I M.DCCC.LX I
Octavo pp. xii, 115. Portraits and fac-similes.
t Historical ~Notes I on the i Employment of Negroes I in
the I American Army of the Revolution.. By I George H.
Moore, I Librarian of the New York Historical Society. I
New York: I Charles T. Evans, 532 Broadway. 1 1862.
Octavo, pp. 24.
t Notes [ on the I History of Slavery I in I Massachusetts
I By George H. Moore I Librarian of the New York Historical Society and Corresponding I Member of the Massachusetts Historical Society. I Quis nescit, primam esse historite legem, ne quid falsi I dicere audeat? deinde ne quid
falsi I dicere andeat? deinde ne quid veri non audeat? I -
Cic. de Orat., II., 15. I New York: I D. Appleton & Co. 443
& 445 Broadway I M.DCCC.LXVL I
Octavo, pp. iv, 256.




7
This was followed by a tract, entitled Additional Notes on Slavery in Massachusetts,* a
clincher to the former. Mr. Moore has also been a
frequent contributor to The Evening Post, Commercial Advertiser, Journal of Commerce, and
the HISTORICAL MAGAZINE, where his signature
of E. Y. E. is widely-known throughout the
historical world.
A more valuable work than these, and one on
which Mr. Moore's fame will chiefly rest, as an
accurate, laborious, and scholarly writer and
historian, is the History of the Jurisprudence of
New York, still incomplete and unpublished;
but which is, and has been, for a long time, engaging his faitl.ful energies.
In 1860, Mr. Moore was called to the Chair <.f
Legal History, in the New York University; but
he declined this fitting tribute to his worth. From
the same institution, he subsequently received
the degree of LL.D.
We wish that we felt at liberty to introduce
our readers within the sacred circle of Mr.
Moore's home. Of course we cannot. We can
only say that the home is all that could be expected from such a man. Mr. Moore was married,
on the twenty-first of October, 1850; and with a
wife who appreciates him and children of peculiar promise, his lot is to be envied, furnishAdditional Notes I on the I Ratory of Slavery in
Massachusetts, I G. H. f. 
Small quarto, pp. 16.




8
ing a fair model of the unostentatious, literary,
useful, upright, and contented life-the life to
which "fides et ingeni benigna vena" ale of
higher value than the "e ebur " and " aureum',
and * trabes Hymettiae."
NEW YORK CITY.                  H. C.