USA > New York > Albany County > Albany > The annals of Albany, Vol. III > Part 24
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In regard to the enterprise, which he actually attempted, and which formed only a part of the original design, there is little hazard, at this time of day, in saying, that it was perfectly feasible, well devised, and skillfully executed. It was, moreover, as an enterprize, completely successful. With a mere handful of men, the heights were carried carly in the morning, under the direction of his aid, the brave Col. Solomon Van Rensselaer; and they remained in his possession till late in the afternoon of that day. The po- sition was one that was easily defensible, and he had within trumpet-call men enough, twice or thrice over, to have maintained it, and put at defiance any force with which the enemy might or could have assailed him. And yet, after all this, he must see his victory turned into de- feat and his triumph into disaster, by the shameful refusal of his yeoman soldiery, under the plea of constitutional scruples, to march into the safe camp that had already been won for them on the other side of the lines!
The official account of this affair, furnished by the com- manding general the next day after its occurrence, was strongly characteristic of the man. It was a simple and unvarished relation of facts and events; the truth was
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plainly told; but no complaint was made, no reproaches were uttered. His own duty had been done, and fear- lessly and faithfully done; and with perfect equanimity and confidence he submitted himself to the judgment of his country. He expressed regrets on her account, but he intimated none whatever on his own.
In the sequel of this severe and sanguinary conflict, the general found occasion for the exercise of that sym- pathizing and generous kindness by which he was so much distinguished; and he seems to have met in the British General Sheaffe, a corresponding temper. On one side, General Brock had fallen; on the other, Col. Van Rensse- laer was desperately wounded; and there were other brave spirits on both sides, who had shared the fate of one or the other of these. A cessation of all hostile demonstrations was agreed upon. For six days, the throat of brazen war was closed, while, with the tender of mutual services, the parties on either side proceeded to discharge the offices of humanity due to the living, and pay to the dead the appropriate tribute and ceremonies of respect. General Sheaffe offered every thing his camp could afford to promote the comfort of the wounded Colonel Van Rensselaer. General Van Rensselaer in- formed his antagonist that he should order a salute to be fired at his camp, and also at Fort Niagara, on the occasion of the funeral solemnities of the brave and la- mented Brock. "I feel too strongly," said the stern but afflicted Gen. Sheaffe, " the generous tribute which you propose to pay to my departed friend and chief, to be able to express the sense I entertain of it. Noble-minded as he was, so would he have done himself."
With the campaign just referred to, closed the services of Gen. Van Rensselaer in the field. The next spring, 1813, the gubernatorial election was to come on, when the contest for power in the state between him and Gov. Tompkins, or rather between their respective parties, was to be decided. The General's friends shewed that, in his brief military career, he had lost none of the high consi- deration and confidence with which they had been used to regard him by placing him promptly, and with great
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unanimity, in open nomination as their candidate for the chair of state; and when the time came, they gave him a hearty support. But his party was found to be, as it had long been, in a minority. He was defeated, but with a majority against him of only 3600, out of eighty-three thousand votes which had been cast in the canvass.
With no disquieting ambition for political distinction, and a candidate for high office at any time, only by a re- luctant submission to the will and judgment of his friends, Gen. Van Rensselaer was not a man to feel any regrets on his own account, for defeat at an election canvass. In his own affairs, in his own family, and in the secret oppor- tunities which he was always seeking for the practice of benevolence, he had resources enough for the agreeable and useful occupation of all his time.
During all the period of the war, it should be remem- bered, that the commission which had been instituted for the promotion of internal improvement, by a great canal, and of which he was a member, continued in existence, the war was no sooner ended, than measures were taken to revive the subject, and the interest which had been felt in it. A memorial, on the subject, of great ability, drawn by Mr. Clinton, was presented to the legislature of 1816, and in March of the same year, the commissioners, with Mr. Van Rensselaer at their head and acting as chairman, presented their report, setting forth the difficulties which had been interposed to prevent the execution of the trusts confided to them four years before, and urging the legisla- ture to renew the authority, to adopt immediate measures for the prosecution of the enterprise. In April, 1816, the law was passed by the legislature, which authorized and directed this great work to be entered upon; and the ma- nagement and execution of it were committed to a board of canal commissioners, of whom-as usual-Gen. Van Rensselaer was one. From that period down to his death, he was a member of that body, and he was the president of the board for nearly fifteen years-from April, 1824, when the name of his friend, the great Clinton, was struck from the roll of commissioners. In the spring of 1816, he was again, and for the last time, elected to the assembly
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of the state; and his presence and influence in that body in the session of 1817, were especially useful as affecting those immense interests-as yet but little understood, much abused and contemned, and most violently opposed -which belonged to the canals, and the system of inter- nal improvements, then in the extremest weakness of their infancy.
I shall have occasion directly to advert more particu- larly to the important services rendered by General Van Rensselaer to the cause of learning and education; and I will simply refer, therefore, in this place, as being in the proper order of time, to the official connection which he had with our state system of public instruction. In March, 1819, he was elected by the legislature a regent of the State University, and at the time of his death he was the chancellor, having been elevated to that station, on the decease of the late venerable Simeon De Witt, in 1835.
In 1821, the present constitution of this state was formed. In the progress of time, since the old constitu- tion was framed, ideas were found to have advanced also. Changes were deemed necessary, as well to meet a con- dition of things in some respects new, as to satisfy the demands of a generation which thought itself-and should have been, if it was not-wiser than that which had pre- ceded it. But wherever the spirit of reform is abroad and active, and speculations and theories in matters of government are broached freely, and councils are to be held with a view to giving body and effect to the concep- tions of ardent minds, it is not unimportant to secure the presence and assistance of a few men of conservative tempers and habits, in order to make sure, if possible, that the deep foundations of things shall not be wholly broken up, nor the moral elements of society utterly dis- sipated and destroyed. In the convention of 1821, a few spirits of this sort were gathered, and of these, by no means the less valuable among them, was Stephen Van Rensselaer. He brought with him there, his character- one of uncommon purity ; his experience-not now incon- siderable; his steadfastness of principle; his notions of men and things-descended from old schools, but fashioned
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and modernized in the new ; his excellent strong sense, and his judgment of almost intuitive accuracy and sound- ness; and with such qualifications, without being accus- tomed either to write much or debate much, it would be hard to say if there was another member of the conven- tion, among all the great and good names that belonged to it, who was more valuable, or more indispensable than himself, if the business of that body was to be brought to a safe and happy conclusion.
In considering the doings of that convention, it is evi- dent that nothing, in all the various business undertaken by it, was equal in magnitude of interest to the single question in regard to the right of suffrage. Here the firm foundations both of government and of freedom were to be laid; while the danger was that, at this very point, if not sufficiently guarded, a flood might be let in to sweep both government and freedom away in ruins. Mr. Van Rensselaer was one of the committee appointed to consider and report on this momentous subject. He dis- sented from the report made to the convention by a majority of the committee, and he submitted to the con- vention a proposition of his own, as a substitute for the report, which he accompanied with some remarks, briefly explanatory of his views and apprehensions on this great question.
It must be remembered, that up to this period, none but freeholders had been allowed to vote for the higher offi- cers of government. Not only had a property qualification been adopted, but retaining the old notions, evidently of feudal origin, respecting the superior value and sacred- ness of landed possessions, the former constitution of the state had thrown the higher and most important branches of the government exclusively into the hands of the landed interest. Mr. Van Rensselaer was the largest: landed proprietor in the state, and he had inherited his. interest in the soil originally from a feudal source, and held it by a feudal title; but he was an enlightened and patriotic citizen of a free state, and, as such, he was, ready to take his chance with others under the protection of a government essentially popular and free. He had no
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difficulty whatever in agreeing to the propriety of at once abolishing the old distinctions between landed and personal property as affecting the higher rights of citizenship, and making the qualification of electors for all the officers of government equal and uniform. And he was equally ready to abandon the notion of a property qualification of any sort for electors. He agreed perfectly to the prin- ciple-which was the one professedly adopted by his col- leagues of the committee-that those who really contribute to the support and the defence of the government, should make the government. So far he was willing and anxious to go; but here he would stop. He insisted upon guard- ing the principle strictly, by limiting the privilege to such as should seem to have something of the character and fixedness and stability in their residence, and their attach- ment to the state, and he was entirely unwilling to extend this privilege-to use his own expression-to "a wander- ing population, men who are no where to be found when the enemy, or the tax-gatherer comes." Believing that, in pushing a theory into details, the committee would violate the maxims of a sound and practical policy, by some of their propositions, he felt himself bound to dis- sent from the conclusions of their report. He conducted his opposition, before the convention, as he had done in committee, in his own direct and manly way; and pre- senting a distinct amendment of his own, he exerted him- self to induce the convention to place the right of suffrage on a ground, at once, according to his opinions, of great liberality and of perfect safety. But his opinions were not the opinions of the majority of the convention, and his efforts, and the efforts of those with whom he was more immediately associated, though not without their strong and salutary influence, were in the main unsuccess- ful. After a long and laborious session, the new consti- tution was adopted by the convention. There had been other subjects of disagreement, of great magnitude and importance, among the members ; and Mr. Van Rensselaer with twenty-two others, declined to give their assent and sanction to the instrument, by putting their names to it.
In 1819, the legislature of this state was induced,
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through the exertions of a number of disinterested and patriotic gentlemen, among whom was Mr. Van Rensse- laer, to pass an act for the encouragement and improve- ment of agriculture. A sum of money was appropriated, to be divided rateably among the several counties of the state; county societies were to be formed with the proper officers ; and the presidents of these societies, or delegates instead of the presidents from such of them as should choose to elect them, were to form a central board of ag- riculture. Such was the outline of the proposed organ- ization. In January, 1820, the presidents, or delegates, from twenty-six county societies, already organized, met at the Capitol in Albany, and elected Stephen Van Rens- selaer president of the board. The life of this board of agriculture was made a very brief one by law, and when the legal limit was out, it was suffered to expire. It lasted long enough, however, to demonstrate the inappreciable value of legislative aid and encouragement to the agricul- tural interest; and it raised to itself an enduring and no- ble monument, by the publication of three very valuable volumes of Transactions and Memoirs.
Each of the first two volumes of the board, contains, amongst other things, a very curious and remarkable pa- per. These papers present a complete view of the geolo- gical and agricultural features of the counties of Albany and Rensselaer, as gathered from accurate and minute surveys, and from actual and extensive analyses. They are the reports of distinguished scientific gentlemen, em- ployed, exclusively at the expense of the president of the board of agriculture, to make the examinations and sur- veys, the results of which are here embodied. It was be- lieved then, and it is believed now, that these were the first attempts made in this country, "to collect and arrange geological facts, with a direct view to the improvement of agriculture." The time, perhaps, has not even yet come, when the incalculable advantages of such a labor are generally appreciated ; but I express only my humble and sober conviction, when I say, that in the example of these attempts, and their success followed up as they will be in time, to swell the profits and increase the business and the
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benefits of agriculture, and withal to connect this em- ployment with better knowledge, and a competent degree of scientific attainment, in the cultivators of the soil-he has rendered a higher service to his country, than if he had been the man to win twenty hard-fought battles for her in a just and necessary war.
The laws for the encouragement of agriculture expired, as I have said, by their own limitation ; and all attempts to revive them from that day to this-strange that it should be so-have proved utterly unavailing. But Mr. Van Rensselaer, though without any convenient society, or board of agriculture, under cover of whose name he might pursue his plans for the benefit of the state, had only just now entered on a series of extraordinary efforts and experiments for the advancement of science, of educa- tion, and the public prosperity, which he afterwards pro- secuted with equal perseverance and effect. After the surveys of the counties of Albany and Rensselaer had been completed, under his direction, presenting, besides a view of their geological formation, a thorough analysis of their soils, in all their principal varieties-on a plan new at the time, and since extensively approved and employed-and accompanied, particularly in the survey of Rensselaer county, with a view of the proper methods of culture adapted to the various soils ; and after he had caused the surveys to be published, at his own cost, in a separate and convenient form, for extensive and gratuitous distribution ; he next turned his attention to a more extended scientific survey to be carried through the entire length of the state on the line of the Erie canal. This was commenced and prosecuted, under his orders, in the fall of 1822, by Pro- fessor Amos Eaton, aided by two competent assistants. The next year, by the direction of his patron, the work was resumed, and the survey greatly extended. The truth seems to be, that, although the surveys of Albany and Rensselaer counties were made, at the time, with an avowed and more immediate reference to the interests of agriculture, yet they were not, even then, unconnected with a plan which had been formed for offering a large and generous contribution to the science of geology. This
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plan embraced a particular examination of the strata and formation of American rocks, by the survey of a transverse section, running across the great primitive ranges of New England, and the transition and secondary ranges of eastern and western New York. With the experience ob- tained in the local examinations already referred to, and a partial review of the Erie canal line, Professor Eaton. completed, in 1823, his grand survey. His section extend- ed from Boston to Lake Erie, a distance of about five hundred and fifty miles, stretching across nine degrees of longitude, and embracing a belt about fifty miles wide, At the same time, Prof. Hitchcock was employed to make a similar survey of a section across New England, a few miles north of that taken by Prof. Eaton. In 1824, a publication was made, containing the results of these sur- veys, with maps exhibiting a profile view of the rocks in each of the sections. It is not, I believe, to be doubted, that this work presents a connected view of mineral mass- es, with their nature and order, taken from actual in- spection and survey, of greater extent than had ever before been offered to geology. Discoveries were made, and a mass of facts was gathered, which could not fail, as they did not, to arouse and quicken enquiry and investigation, and contribute essentially and largely to advance geologi- cal science. Attention was strongly attracted, both in this country and in Europe, to the very creditable and faithful labors of Prof. Eaton, prosecuted under the direc- tion of his munificent patron ; and this example it was, unquestionably, which has led, at last, to the adoption in several of the states, and this among the number, of plans for exploring their territories at the public expense, in search of scientific facts, and of the mineral riches, and other substances of economical value, to be found upon or beneath the surface of their respective portions of the earth.
But the crowning effort of this good man's life-whom we have now followed on, in his career, to his three score years-remains to be noticed. It was an effort in behalf of the dearest interest of his country, and of mankind; it was an effort to advance the cause of education, and hu.
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man improvement. He had satisfied himself that there were great defects in the ordinary and prevalent systems of instruction; at any rate he saw that some of the most useful subjects of human knowledge were scarcely com- municated at all, in quarters where they seemed most needed for the practical purposes of life ; and he determined that the proper remedy, if possible, should be applied.
His first movement was to employ Prof. Eaton, with a competent number of assistants, to traverse the state, on or near the route of the Erie canal, with sufficient appa- ratus, specimens and the like, and deliver, in all the prin- cipal villages and towns where an audience of business men, or others could be gathered, familiar lectures, accom- panied with experiments and illustrations, on chemistry, natural philosophy, and some or all of the branches of natural history. This scientific and educational progress through the state, was made in the summer of 1824, at the patron's cost; inconsiderable contributions only having been made in the villages where lectures were delivered. The experiment was entirely successful ; a prodigious in- terest in behalf of natural science had been excited; and the patron was encouraged to prosecute a plan of opera- tions which he had meditated for a considerable time.
He had long been accustomed to send the schoolmaster abroad among the poorer portions of his numerous tenant- ry; and he had been led to observe, as the result of these experiments-having been obliged to employ persons, for this service, of very slender qualifications, for want of better-that the improvement of the masters, as a general thing, was much more considerable than that of their pu- pils. It was from this hint, that he was led to consider, and finally to digest, a plan for a school, the leading fea- ture of which should be, that the learner should himself take the place, and perform the regular duties, of teacher or instructor, in all the business and exercises of the school. Securing, in this way, as he believed he should, the most ready and thorough improvement of the students, he proposed that the chief business of the school should be to furnish instruction " in the application of science to the common purposes of life." He declared one of his
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principal objects to be " to qualify teachers for instructing the sons and daughters of mechanics, in the application of experimental chemistry, philosophy, and natural histo- ry, to agriculture, domestic economy, and the arts and manufactures."
On the 5th of November, 1824, having provided a suita- ble building at Troy, and employed an agent to procure the necessary apparatus and library, he enclosed to the Rev. Dr. Blatchford, a set of orders for the govern- ment of the school, and requested him to proceed to its organization, and act himself as president of a board of trustees, whom he named. He named, at the same time, a senior and a junior professor, whom he endowed with liberal salaries. The senior professor was Mr. Eaton, who had already been engaged to take the charge of in- struction in the institution. The school was soon after organized, and put into successful operation. In 1826, it was incorporated, and is now known as the Rensselaer Institute. Its success, under the care of the veteran Eaton, has been complete-but with a very heavy and continued outlay on the part of its generous patron. In- struction in the sciences is wholly experimental and de- monstrative, and it is always, therefore, practical and thorough.
In 1828, the patron, after having, at his own cost, es- tablished and liberally endowed this school, and while he was, then as since, bearing from his own purse, not less than one half of its current expenses, caused an invitation to be given to each county in the state, to furnish a stu- dent, selected by the clerk of the county, for gratuitous instruction at the Institute .* The invitation was accept- ed in nearly all the counties, and that large number of persons, within less than three years, was sent forth from the Institute, with a complete practical education, obtain- ed without the cost of a dollar to them for tuition. Other instances of instruction there, wholly gratuitous, have not been wanting.
*The patroon, however, imposed on these students a condition-the benefits of which would of course go to the community-that they should instruct in their own counties for one year, on the experimental and demonstrative method.
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The patron first proposed to himself to sustain this school, as an experiment, for three years, with a reason- able expectation certainly, that at the end of that time, if successful at all, public attention would be sufficiently attracted towards this novel method, to enable him to hand it over to the community, with a confident reliance on the patronage of the public to support and perpetuate it. But all observation shows that no improvements are so slow in gaining adoption and support at the hands of the community, as improvements in the methods of education. In this case, almost of course, while the patron saw at the end of three years, that the advantages secured by his methods and course of instruction were great, beyond all his original expectations, he yet saw that the public must continue to enjoy them, if at all, for years to come, chiefly at his cost. He submitted to the sacrifice, and thus has this invaluable institution been continued for upwards of fourteen years.
The course of instruction in this institution has been considerably enlarged since its organization, by the direc- tion of the patron. It may be described as a school for thorough and complete instruction in the circle of the natural sciences, applicable in any way, to the economy or the business of life, in all its civil departments-not, however, including those usually denominated profession- al. The peculiarity in the mode of instruction, originally introduced, has been adhered to; and the distinguishing and eminent advantage gained by this peculiarity of method has been, not only that the students themselves have been thoroughly taught, and are ready, at all times, professionally or otherwise, to make a practical and high- ly useful application of their knowledge, for their own benefit or the benefit of others, but that, whether such is- their occupation and business, or not, they go out to the world as an army of teachers, so familiar with the vari- ous subject of their knowledge, and so fitted and accus- tomed, from long habit, to impart it, that they become involuntarily the school-masters and instructors of every circle into which they enter. They are lights and lumi- naries to the prevalent darkness that may surround them,
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