USA > New York > Portrait gallery of the Chamber of Commerce of the state of New-York : catalogue and biographical sketches > Part 7
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Here was a field for his abilities altogether new. The war had come, and there was great need of money, in large sums, while the Treasury was entirely bankrupt ; not even the $12,000,000 left of the $20,000,000 loan, offered in Mr. BUCHANAN's administration, could be placed at any reason- able rate. Trade was at a standstill, and no revenues coming in, yet hundreds of millions of dollars were needed at once. Mr. CHASE was a financier of extraordi- nary ability, but he felt relieved to find in the Senate, some strong counsellors on whom he could lean. Foremost among these were Senators SHERMAN and FESSENDEN, both subsequently Secretaries of the Treasury. Mr. SHERMAN, thoroughly trained by his Congressional experience and his previous studies in financial matters, was ready to pro- pose and carry through great and bold, but judicious action. SHERMAN and FESSENDEN were in perfect har- mony ; the latter was Chairman of the Finance Committee at this time, but SHERMAN was his prompt and able lieu- tenant. A bill authorizing "the issue of United States notes, and for the redemption and funding thereof, and for funding the floating debt of the United States," was brought forward, ably advocated by Mr. SHERMAN, and passed. A bill for issuing National Bonds and Treasury Notes followed ; then a bill for creating National Banks,
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based on United States Bonds, and furnishing all the cur- rency for the country ; and a bill for taxing all bank bills, the issues of State banks, till they were taxed out of exist- ence. These great measures, proposed and perfected by a, single Congress, were a sufficient task for the powers of any three men ; but they were completed, and the gigantic machinery of a great war kept in motion by them.
It is not necessary that we should make any comparison between the three financial giants by whom this work was accomplished ; no abler financiers have appeared in modern times, or achieved a greater measure of success ; but each worked in his own field, though in perfect harmony with the others. As the war went on, and the expenses increased from $2,000,000 to $3,000,000 a day, and yet no attempt was made to place these gigantic loans abroad, but our own people absorbed them rapidly, other nations looked on with amazement, and asked, where all this would end. Two years later our national debt had reached about $3,000,000,000 ; gold had touched 285; Mr. CHASE had resigned, and accepted a seat on the Supreme Court Bench as Chief Justice, and Mr. FESSENDEN had taken his place ; Mr. SHERMAN was Chairman of the Finance Committee, and indisputably the ablest financier under the Government. The problems to be solved were the funding of our bonds at lower rates of interest, the paying off of the debt, or at least reducing it more rapidly than any nation had ever done; the enforcing of an income tax and internal revenue duties, and, though yet in the somewhat dim distance-a matter to be considered and prepared for-the resumption of specie payment within a reasonable period. To these tasks the Secretaries of the Treasury, FESSENDEN and MCCULLOCH, addressed them- selves, but without the aid of Mr. SHERMAN in the Senate they would have been powerless. It was thought a master stroke when the 7.30 notes were paid off from the proceeds of Five-Twenty six per cent. bonds at par ; but the changing of the latter into Five per cents (the Ten-forties,) 4} per cents, 4 per cents and 3 per cents, caused great astonish- ment abroad, while the steady reduction of the debt from its
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maximum of $2,756,431,371 ascertained debt (and over $500,000,000 of unfunded debt, ) to $1, 700,000,000 before the resumption, and to $1,150,000,000 since, have surpassed any- thing the world has ever seen. When, after sixteen years of service in the Senate, Mr. SHERMAN took his place as Secretary of the Treasury, in March, 1877, the measures look- ing to resumption, which he had carried through Congress for fifteen years, were all working perfectly, and the way was, in most respects, prepared. The paying off of the debt and the reduction of the interest on the bonds had reduced the price of gold to 103, and now it remained that there must be a sufficient amount of gold coin and fractional silver coin in the Treasury, to meet the demands upon it under the Resumption Act, passed in 1875, which provided for actual resumption January 1, 1879. This Act had been drawn and passed under Mr. SHERMAN's own eye. It was necessary, or at least desirable, that no bonds should be issued to purchase specie, and that no purchases of specie should be made from foreign countries to facilitate resump- tion. Mr. SHERMAN managed the whole business admirably. It was one of his maxims, that "the quickest way to bring about resumption was to resume," and that there would not be required a very large amount of specie for this purpose, inasmuch as most persons would prefer paper to gold, as more portable, if they were convinced that the paper could be converted into gold, anywhere and at any time, without loss. Confidence was a much larger element in resumption than coin. Still, it was desirable to have such an accumu- lation of specie in the Treasury as to prevent all possi- bility of any panic. He had accumulated in this way by the close of 1878 a coin reserve to the amount of $138, 000, 000. The precautions were more than sufficient. Very little coin was drawn from the Treasury, and even that little was speedily returned and deposited in the Treasury, so that in January, 1880, there was $135,436, 474 of gold coin in the Treasury, only about $2,564,000 less than before resump- tion, while the silver coin had increased from $1,697,338 to $28,147,351 in July, 1879. But this great work of resump- tion, the greatest ever attempted by mortal man, was not
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accomplished without great labor, much violent opposition, detraction and abuse, such as few men could have withstood. Now, everybody rejoices at it. And it is worthy of remark, that during all this struggle, Mr. SHERMAN was working steadily to reduce taxation, by the repeal of the internal revenue taxes, except on liquors and tobacco, and by such modifications of the tariff as were possible. No man ever deserved more fully than Mr. SHERMAN the honors conferred on him by the Chamber of Commerce in 1879, in giving to his beautiful full-length portrait of life size, the place of honor in their collection of eminent statesmen and mer- chants.
In March, 1881, Mr. SHERMAN retired from the Treasury, having been previously re-elected a member of the Senate, in which he took his seat. Upon the death of Vice-Presi- dent HENDRICKS, in 1885, Mr. SHERMAN was elected Presi- dent pro tem. of the Senate, which position he resigned in March, 1887. He was re-elected to the Senate in January, 1886, for the term commencing March 4, 1887, and ending March 4, 1893, and is now in vigorous health and strength a member of that body.
DE WITT CLINTON.
IT is over sixty years since DE WITT CLINTON, the most distinguished scion of the CLINTON family, passed away ; and while New-York has lost and still retains many statesmen and scholars, whose names will be illustrious while the world stands, on no one of them have more honors been bestowed, and not one of her sons has better deserved them than DE WITT CLINTON. Yet Mr. CLINTON was not, at any time in his career, a popular man. He had no personal magnetism; he had the reputation of being proud, cold and vindictive, and even his kindliest deeds were thought to be accompanied with a reserve and reluctance which robbed them of half their virtue. In the lapse of years, since his death, we have learned that many of these charges were made from partisan rancor ; that a part of the
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allegations were the result of a personal diffidence and reticence which he had tried in vain to overcome; and that while he had cause for pride in his lineage, and in his own attainments, he was, beneath the outer shell of his reserve, a man of very kind heart and genial disposition. But he owed his success in public life-a success which, perhaps, no other man in this country has surpassed-to his extraordinary merits, in a greater degree than to his lineage.
The CLINTONS were a distinguished family. The family name was that of the Earls of Lincoln, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries ; and the first Governor GEORGE CLINTON, Chief Magistrate of the Colony of New-York from 1743 to 1753, was the youngest son of FRANCIS, sixth Earl of Lincoln ; his son, Sir HENRY CLINTON, was the British general who commanded the English army here, during a part of the Revolutionary war. It was another branch of the CLINTON family, though still connected, at an earlier date, with the Lords of Lincoln, from which DE WITT CLINTON was descended. WILLIAM CLINTON, a royalist of note in the civil war in England, was an officer in the army of CHARLES I., and after the death of that monarch, for a long time an exile on the continent. He subsequently went to Scotland, where he married, and later removed to Ireland, where he died, leaving one son, JAMES CLINTON, who spent some time in England, but returned to Ireland, after his marriage with the daughter of a captain in CROMWELL's army. The son of JAMES, CHARLES CLINTON, the grandfather of DE WITT CLINTON, was a man of influence, property and character, in County Longford, Ireland, and at the age of thirty-nine, determined to emigrate to America, and establish a colony of his friends and neighbors in some of the newer sections of the Province of New-York. This was in 1729. There were ninety-four persons in his colony, for whom he paid passage money. They fell into bad hands. The captain of the vessel robbed them of all their goods which he could seize, and, though New-York was the destination contracted for, landed them on the coast of Massachusetts, and left them there. In 1731, Mr. CLINTON removed to
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Little Britain, now within the bounds of Orange County. This was then on the frontier of civilization. The inhabi- tants of Little Britain were obliged to fortify their houses against the raids of the savages. Mr. CLINTON took an active part in the subsequent Indian and French war. In 1758 he was colonel of a regiment of provincial troops in the Valley of the Mohawk, and soon after joined the main army under General BRADSTREET, and assisted in the capture of Fort Frontenac. He died at his residence, in 1773, in the eighty-third year of his age, leaving four sons : ALEXANDER and CHARLES, both eminent as physicians and surgeons ; JAMES, the father of DE WITT, a general in the Revolutionary war, and GEORGE, a soldier and statesman, also a general, the first Governor of the State of New- York, and who continued in that office for twenty-one years, and was subsequently Vice-President of the United States from 1804 to 1812.
JAMES CLINTON was an ensign in the Provincial Army in 1757, at the age of 21 years, lieutenant in 1758, captain in 1759, took part with his father and brother in the capture of Fort Frontenac, in the same year, and continued in ser- vice till the close of the French war in 1763. He then returned to his farm in Little Britain, where he married Miss MARY DE WITT, by whom he had four sons, ALEX- ANDER, CHARLES, DE WITT and GEORGE, all of whom were bred to the law, and all but one obtained high posi- tions. The father entered with great zeal into the war of the Revolution, as did his brother GEORGE. In 1775, JAMES CLINTON became Colonel of the Third Regiment of New-York troops, and in 1776 was promoted to the rank of Brigadier-General. In 1777 and 1778, he was sta- tioned on the banks of the Hudson, and, in the latter year, threw the gigantic chain across the Hudson, to prevent the British squadron from ascending the river. In 1779, Gen. CLINTON, with his detachment of 2,000 men, joined Gen. SULLIVAN in traversing the Indian country in Western New-York, and effectually broke up the Indian raids on the white settlements. He was called by Gen. WASHINGTON, to take the command of the Northern army, after ARNOLD'S
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treason in 1780, a difficult and important command, in which he acquitted himself with honor. He retained his connection with the army till the peace, was present at the evacuation of New-York in 1783, and then retired to his farm at Little Britain. After the war, he was a member of the State Convention to ratify the Constitution of the United States, a State Senator, a member of the Constitutional Convention of the State, and held other important offices. He died in 1812. His eldest son was private Secretary to his uncle, Governor GEORGE CLINTON ; the second son was a lawyer in Orange, and the third, DE WITT, was the sub- ject of our sketch.
DE WITT CLINTON was born at Little Britain, March 2, 1769. His early education was obtained at the Grammar School of his native town, and he fitted for College at Kings- ton, where was then the best Academy in the State. He entered the Junior Class in Columbia (previously King's) Col- lege, in the spring of 1784, the first student under the new title, graduated at the head of his class in 1786, and com- menced the study of law with SAMUEL JONES, then an emi- nent lawyer in New-York. The Convention which met at Poughkeepsie, June 17, 1788, to decide whether New-York would accept and ratify the Constitution of the United States, which had just been promulgated, was, perhaps, the most important Convention ever held in the State. If New- York refused to accept it, the Constitution could hardly be adopted, and chaos would come again; yet there were features in it which the New-York Republicans did not approve. Prominent among its members were : Governor GEORGE CLINTON, its President, and Gen. JAMES CLINTON, the father of DE WITT, both strongly opposed to the Con- stitution, and men of great influence and power. DE WITT was also present, though not a member; he was nineteen years of age, and a law student. ALEXANDER HAMILTON and JOHN JAY, R. R. LIVINGSTON and JAMES DUANE, all among the framers of the Constitution, were its able defenders. The battle was long and fierce, the debates lasting for six weeks, and each party brought to them all the ability, eloquence and learning they possessed ;
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in the end, HAMILTON and his friends secured the adoption and ratification of the Constitution, which took place July 26, 1788. The CLINTONS voted against it steadily, but when it was adopted they ceased their opposition, and supported it right loyally. To DE WITT CLINTON this Conven- tion was an event of great importance. He watched all its debates with the greatest interest, and reported them in the columns of a New-York journal, and when the Con- stitution was adopted, gave it his unqualified support.
On the death of his brother ALEXANDER in 1789, he was appointed his successor, as Private Secretary of Governor GEORGE CLINTON, which post he filled till Governor CLIN- TON's retirement, in 1795, advocating the Republican doc- trines, and his uncle's administration, vigorously, in the New-York press. In 1797, he was elected to the New-York Assembly, and in 1798, to the State Senate, and was very active as a leader in both bodies. He was a member of the Council of Appointment, and, differing from the Governor on the question whether the sole power of nomination was vested in the Governor, or whether it inhered in all the mem- bers of the Council, a convention was called, and CLINTON'S construction was adopted. He afterwards doubted the wisdom of that decision, and, in 1822, it was reversed.
In 1802, DE WITT CLINTON, then only thirty-three years of age, was elected United States Senator, and in that body delivered several speeches, which showed a profound know- ledge of international law, and vast research. The speech delivered on the Mississippi question, on a resolution to take possession of New-Orleans, because the Spanish intendante had prohibited the free navigation of the Mis- sissippi, was so masterly an argument, that it elicited the highest commendation from the ablest jurists in Washington, and defeated the resolution. In the summer of 1803, Mr. CLINTON was elected Mayor of New-York City, resigning his seat in the Senate to take the position. He was Mayor, by re-election, from 1803 to 1807, from 1809 to 1810, and from 1811 to 1814; and though able men have sat in the Mayor's chair, it is not too much to say that, in careful regard for all the interests of the City, in wise measures for
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its development, in pushing forward as rapidly as possible the action for the construction of the Erie Canal, to bring the products of other States and sections to its markets, and in the promotion of its educational, benevolent and re- ligious interests, the City has never had a Mayor who approached him in excellence. With the same official powers, and an equally long term of office, one or two of his successors might have come nearer to him than they have done-but these factors were wanting. During six years of this time, Mayor CLINTON was also a State Senator, and during that time, proposed and advocated laws covering almost the whole scope of State and City legislation. In the summer of 1810 he, with his associates, the first Canal Commissioners, examined the Mohawk Valley, and the route now occupied by the Erie and Oswego Canals, for the purpose of ascertaining the practicability of construct- ing a canal from the Hudson to the Lakes. The journal which he kept during that journey, is still in print, and is full of interest, for its exposition of the condition of those sections of the State, nearly eighty years ago. In 1811 Mr. CLINTON was elected Lieutenant-Governor of New- York, and in 1812, was nominated for the Presidency, in opposition to JAMES MADISON. The contest was very bitter. Mr. CLINTON was unsuccessful, receiving 89 electoral votes, while Mr. MADISON had 128.
For some years after this defeat, he withdrew himself very much from political affairs, and entered with greater zeal and zest into literary pursuits, while he continued his advocacy of the Erie Canal and other internal improvements for the benefit of commerce. He was, from 1811 to 1814, again Mayor of New-York, and wide awake to its interests. In 1815 his enemies defeated him as Mayor and Canal Com- missioner. His address before the New-York Historical Society, in December, 1811, on the Iroquois, or Six Nations of Indians, is justly regarded as one of the ablest and most learned of his orations. He was one of the earliest and most efficient friends of the New-York Historical Society, which he aided largely, both personally and officially. Soon after the termination of the war of 1812-14, Mr. CLINTON
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again began to urge upon the people and the Legislature, the necessity of the construction of the Canals. A large meeting of influential citizens was held in New-York in 1816, and a memorial of great ability, drawn up by Mr. CLINTON, was submitted, adopted and presented to the Legislature. On the 15th day of April, 1817, a bill committing the State to the construction of the Canals was passed, and July 4, 1817, the work was commenced.
In the fall of 1817 Mr. CLINTON was elected Governor of New-York, almost unanimously. In 1820 he was re-elected, and during both terms, aside from his other duties, the prosecution of the Canals to their completion was pressed with vigor and success.
In 1822, a Convention was held to frame a new Constitu- tion ; the term of the Governor's service was made two years, (it had previously been three, as it is now, ) and in the autumn of that year, JOSEPH C. YATES was elected Governor for the following two years. In the autumn of 1824, Mr. CLINTON was again elected, and held the office till his death, which occurred on the 11th of February, 1828. In October, 1825, the work on the Canals was com- pleted, and Governor CLINTON passed in triumph from Lake Erie to the Hudson, greeted all along the route with the greatest expressions of joy, at the new impulse thus given to the State and national commerce. His message of January 1, 1828, breathed a spirit of the highest patriot- ism, and closed with this eloquent and impressive perora- tion : " We are inhabitants of the same land, children of the same country, heirs of the same inheritance, connected by identity of interest, similarity of language and community of descent, by the sympathies of religion, and by all the ligaments which now bind man to man in the closest bonds of friendship and alliance. Let us, then, enter on the dis- charge of our exalted and solemn duties by a course of conduct worthy of ourselves and our country ; which will deserve the applause of our constituents, insure the appro- bation of our own consciences, and call down the benediction of the Supreme Ruler of the Universe." His death, six weeks later, was very sudden, and called forth the warmest
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expressions of admiration and sympathy, from all parts of the State and the United States.
The Chamber of Commerce testified its respect for his memory in a series of resolutions, adopted at a special meeting, held on the 18th of February, one of which we here quote, as comprehending, in a brief summary, the out- line of an illustrious life :
" His devotion to the cause of science and literature, and to the benevolent institutions which distinguished the present day-his successful efforts to promote schools among the great body of our citizens, whereby nearly half a million of our youth receive the benefit of education- his genius in projecting, and his untiring zeal and energy in carrying into effect, the great scheme of internal navi- gation, which has already united the Hudson with the inland seas of the North, and will soon lead to a similar union with the immense waters of the West, and lay open to the commerce of this City fertile countries, whose shores are not inferior in extent to the shores of Europe-all show the superiority of his mind-that it was directed to the most patriotic objects, and that its efforts have been crowned with the most splendid success."
DE WITT CLINTON will be known in the history of our country as the promoter of education and science, the efficient organizer of measures for the development of the City and State, the patron and helper of every form of benevolent action, and the founder and creator of the Canal system of New- York.
JOHN A. KING.
JOHN ALSOP KING, the eldest son of RUFUS and MARY KING, was born in New-York, on 3d January, 1788, where he passed his early years until the appointment of his father as Minister to the Court of St. JAMES. During the residence of the latter in London, his two eldest sons, JOHN and CHARLES, were pupils in the public school at Harrow, under Dr. DRURY, where they acquired a good
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classical education, and improved the vigorous constitution they inherited, in the manly exercises and sports of this celebrated school. After the return of his father to America in 1803, JOHN passed over to Paris, where he was instructed in the French language and mathematics. Re- turning home the next year, he continued his education, and, in due time, engaged in the study of law under ED- MUND PENDLETON, being admitted to practice in the then Court of Chancery in 1809. In 1810 he married MARY, the daughter of CORNELIUS RAY, an honored merchant of New-York, and at that time President of the Chamber of Commerce. Mr. KING made his residence in this City. While pursuing his profession, the war with England was declared in 1812, and although he disapproved of such a declaration, he felt that he had but one duty, as a good citizen, to sustain his country, and asked for and obtained from Governor TOMPKINS a commission of Lieutenant of Cavalry, in which capacity he served in New-York until the close of the war.
Possessed of but moderate means, he decided, in 1815, to remove to the country, where he bought a farm at Jamaica, L. I., near his father's residence, upon which he lived many years of his life, surrounded by the influences of a happy home, with an increasing family, and with the sincere respect and kindly feeling of his neighbors. He was a laborious and active farmer, raising large crops by his own exertions, and by the introduction of the best processes, as they were suggested by the improving know- ledge on farm matters. A lover of good stock and of thorough bred animals, he was interested especially in the improvement of horses, a fact which showed itself in his efforts to promote the formation of a Jockey Club on Long Island, of which he was for many years President, and in which many of his friends were practical members, both as breeders and owners of celebrated horses. His deep inter- est in the political questions of the day, and his earnest and manly advocacy of the measures he deemed best for the interests of the country, soon won the confidence of his neighbors, and he was called by them to represent them
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