Gulian Crommelin Verplanck (August 6, 1786 – March 18, 1870) was an American attorney, politician, and writer. He was elected to the
New York State Assembly
The New York State Assembly is the lower house of the New York State Legislature, with the New York State Senate being the upper house. There are 150 seats in the Assembly. Assembly members serve two-year terms without term limits.
The Assem ...
and Senate, and later to the
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the Lower house, lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States Senate, Senate being ...
from New York, where he served as Chairman of the influential
House Ways and Means Committee.
He served in a number of appointed positions of major institutions in New York: governor of
New York Hospital
Weill Cornell Medical Center (previously known as New York Hospital or Old New York Hospital or City Hospital) is a research hospital in New York City. It is part of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and the teaching hospital for Cornell University.
...
; regent of the
University of the State of New York, where in 1858, he became its Vice Chancellor, serving until his death more than a decade later; and President of the Board of Commissioners of Immigration for more than two decades.
Verplanck published articles and poetry in the ''
North American Review,'' and was counted among the "
Knickerbocker group The Knickerbocker Group was a somewhat indistinct group of 19th-century American writers. Its most prominent members included Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper and William Cullen Bryant. Each was a pioneer in general literature— novels, p ...
". As a young man, he was among the organizers of the
American Academy of the Fine Arts in New York City, which opened in 1802. It was intended to promote the study of classical art and help establish the city as a center of art. With tastes changing, it closed in 1840.
Early life
Gulian Crommelin Verplanck was born on August 6, 1786, in the family mansion at 3
Wall Street
Wall Street is an eight-block-long street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs between Broadway in the west to South Street and the East River in the east. The term "Wall Street" has become a metonym for t ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. He was the son of Elizabeth Johnson (d. 1789) and Congressman
Daniel C. Verplanck (1762–1834), descendant of Dutch colonists. In 1789, his widowed father remarried to Ann Walton, and thereafter Gulian was brought up by his paternal grandmother, Judith Crommelin Verplanck. His great-uncle was
Gulian Verplanck
Gulian Crommelin Verplanck (August 6, 1786 – March 18, 1870) was an American attorney, politician, and writer. He was elected to the New York State Assembly and Senate, and later to the United States House of Representatives from New York, whe ...
(1751–1799), two-time
Speaker of the New York State Assembly. His maternal grandfather was
William Samuel Johnson
William Samuel Johnson (October 7, 1727 – November 14, 1819) was an American Founding Father and statesman. Before the Revolutionary War, he served as a militia lieutenant before being relieved following his rejection of his election to the Fir ...
(1727–1819), the
3rd President of Columbia College and a
U.S. Senator
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States.
The composition and powe ...
from Connecticut, and his great-grandfather was
Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. The ''Oxford ...
(1696-1772), the
1st President of Kings College.
[The Crommelin Family Foundation, NL]
/ref>
In 1801, he graduated from Columbia College with a B.A. and then proceeded to "read law" with Edward Livingston
Edward Livingston (May 28, 1764May 23, 1836) was an American jurist and statesman. He was an influential figure in the drafting of the Louisiana Civil Code of 1825, a civil code based largely on the Napoleonic Code. Livingston represented both ...
.[Daly, Charles P., ''Gulian C. Verplanck: His Ancestry, Life, and Character'', D. Appleton & Co., New York, 1870]
/ref>
Career
Verplanck was admitted to the bar in 1807, and had a law office at 51 Wall Street.
/ref> In 1811, he was fined $200 for inciting a riot at a Columbia College commencement at Trinity Church when the presiding officer declined to confer a degree upon a student who had made political statements with which the faculty disagreed. Mayor DeWitt Clinton
DeWitt Clinton (March 2, 1769February 11, 1828) was an American politician and naturalist. He served as a United States senator, as the mayor of New York City, and as the seventh governor of New York. In this last capacity, he was largely res ...
presided over the trial, and as he was seeking Federalist support against President James Madison
James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father. He served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for hi ...
in the upcoming election, it was thought that this may have influenced his conduct of the trial.[
]
Political career
Verplanck was elected as a member of the New York State Assembly
The New York State Assembly is the lower house of the New York State Legislature, with the New York State Senate being the upper house. There are 150 seats in the Assembly. Assembly members serve two-year terms without term limits.
The Assem ...
in 1820–21, 1822 and 1823. He was elected as a Jacksonian to the 19th
19 (nineteen) is the natural number following 18 and preceding 20. It is a prime number.
Mathematics
19 is the eighth prime number, and forms a sexy prime with 13, a twin prime with 17, and a cousin prime with 23. It is the third full re ...
, 20th
20 (twenty; Roman numeral XX) is the natural number following 19 and preceding 21. A group of twenty units may also be referred to as a score.
In mathematics
*20 is a pronic number.
*20 is a tetrahedral number as 1, 4, 10, 20.
*20 is the ba ...
, and as a Democrat
Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to:
Politics
*A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people.
*A member of a Democratic Party:
**Democratic Party (United States) (D)
**Democratic ...
to the 21st
21 (twenty-one) is the natural number following 20 and preceding 22.
The current century is the 21st century AD, under the Gregorian calendar.
In mathematics
21 is:
* a composite number, its proper divisors being 1, 3 and 7, and a defici ...
and 22nd United States Congress
The 22nd United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, consisting of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from March 4, 1831 ...
es, holding office from March 4, 1825, to March 3, 1833. He was Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means
The Committee on Ways and Means is the chief tax-writing committee of the United States House of Representatives. The committee has jurisdiction over all taxation, tariffs, and other revenue-raising measures, as well as a number of other program ...
(22nd Congress).[ While there one of his leading acts was to secure the extension of the period of copyrights.][ In 1833, when President ]Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was an American lawyer, planter, general, and statesman who served as the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before being elected to the presidency, he gained fame as ...
began his quest to suppress the Second Bank of the United States, Verplanck left the Democrats.
In April 1834, at the first popular election for Mayor of New York City
The mayor of New York City, officially Mayor of the City of New York, is head of the executive branch of the government of New York City and the chief executive of New York City. The mayor's office administers all city services, public property ...
, Verplanck was the candidate of the emerging Whig Party but was narrowly defeated (sources range from 181 to 213 votes) by Cornelius Van Wyck Lawrence
Cornelius Van Wyck Lawrence (February 28, 1791 – February 20, 1861) was a politician from New York. He became the first popularly elected mayor of New York City after the law was changed in 1834.
Early life
Lawrence was born in Flushing, New Yo ...
. Afterwards Verplanck kept his own counsel in politics and supported William Henry Harrison
William Henry Harrison (February 9, 1773April 4, 1841) was an American military officer and politician who served as the ninth president of the United States. Harrison died just 31 days after his inauguration in 1841, and had the shortest pres ...
(Whig), James K. Polk
James Knox Polk (November 2, 1795 – June 15, 1849) was the 11th president of the United States, serving from 1845 to 1849. He previously was the 13th speaker of the House of Representatives (1835–1839) and ninth governor of Tennessee (183 ...
(Dem.), Zachary Taylor
Zachary Taylor (November 24, 1784 – July 9, 1850) was an American military leader who served as the 12th president of the United States from 1849 until his death in 1850. Taylor was a career officer in the United States Army, rising to th ...
(Whig) and James Buchanan
James Buchanan Jr. ( ; April 23, 1791June 1, 1868) was an American lawyer, diplomat and politician who served as the 15th president of the United States from 1857 to 1861. He previously served as secretary of state from 1845 to 1849 and repr ...
(Dem.) for President, remaining a Democrat thereafter.
Verplanck was a member of the New York State Senate
The New York State Senate is the upper house of the New York State Legislature; the New York State Assembly is its lower house. Its members are elected to two-year terms; there are no term limits. There are 63 seats in the Senate.
Partisan com ...
(1st D.) from 1838 to 1841, sitting in the 61st, 62nd, 63rd and 64th New York State Legislatures.
He was appointed as the President of the Board of Commissioners of Immigration, serving from 1846 until his death in 1870. He was a delegate to the New York State Constitutional Convention of 1867-68.
Writing career
In his literary life, Verplanck was a contributor to the '' North American Review'', perhaps best known for his denunciation of ''Knickerbocker's History of New York'', by Washington Irving
Washington Irving (April 3, 1783 – November 28, 1859) was an American short-story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He is best known for his short stories "Rip Van Winkle" (1819) and " The Legen ...
. In 1819, he wrote verse satires against Dewitt Clinton
DeWitt Clinton (March 2, 1769February 11, 1828) was an American politician and naturalist. He served as a United States senator, as the mayor of New York City, and as the seventh governor of New York. In this last capacity, he was largely res ...
; these were generally known as ''The Bucktail Bards''. On the request of Harper Brothers
Harper is an American publishing house, the flagship imprint of global publisher HarperCollins based in New York City.
History
J. & J. Harper (1817–1833)
James Harper and his brother John, printers by training, started their book publishin ...
, he edited a set of Shakespeare.[Bergen, Tunis Garret. "Verplanck", ''Genealogies of the State of New York'', Vol. 2, Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1915]
/ref>
Through his writing, he was considered part of the so-called "Knickerbocker group The Knickerbocker Group was a somewhat indistinct group of 19th-century American writers. Its most prominent members included Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper and William Cullen Bryant. Each was a pioneer in general literature— novels, p ...
", which included Irving, William Cullen Bryant, James Kirke Paulding
James Kirke Paulding (August 22, 1778 – April 6, 1860) was an American writer and, for a time, the United States Secretary of the Navy. Paulding's early writings were satirical and violently anti-British, as shown in ''The Diverting History of ...
, Fitz-Greene Halleck
Fitz-Greene Halleck (July 8, 1790 – November 19, 1867) was an American poet and member of the Knickerbocker Group. Born and raised in Guilford, Connecticut, he went to New York City at the age of 20, and lived and worked there for nearly fo ...
, Joseph Rodman Drake
Joseph Rodman Drake (August 7, 1795 – September 21, 1820) was an early American poet.
Biography
Born in New York City, he was orphaned when young and entered a mercantile house. While still a child, he showed a talent for writing poems. He wa ...
, Robert Charles Sands
Robert Charles Sands (May 11, 1799 – December 16, 1832) was an American writer and poet.
Biography
Robert Charles Sands was born in Brooklyn, New York on May 11, 1799, the son of Auditor-General Comfort Sands. He was a scholar and a writer of ...
, Lydia Maria Child
Lydia Maria Child ( Francis; February 11, 1802October 20, 1880) was an American abolitionist, women's rights activist, Native American rights activist, novelist, journalist, and opponent of American expansionism.
Her journals, both fiction and ...
, and Nathaniel Parker Willis
Nathaniel Parker Willis (January 20, 1806 – January 20, 1867), also known as N. P. Willis,Baker, 3 was an American author, poet and editor who worked with several notable American writers including Edgar Allan Poe and Henry Wadsworth Longfello ...
.
Personal life
On October 2, 1811, he married Mary Elizabeth Fenno, a daughter of Mary Curtis and John Fenno (1751–1798), a Federalist Party
The Federalist Party was a Conservatism in the United States, conservative political party which was the first political party in the United States. As such, under Alexander Hamilton, it dominated the national government from 1789 to 1801.
De ...
editor and publisher of ''Gazette of the United States
The ''Gazette of the United States'' was an early American newspaper, first issued semiweekly in New York on April 15, 1789, but moving the next year to Philadelphia when the nation's capital moved there the next year. It was friendly to the F ...
''. One of her sisters married Josiah Ogden Hoffman (1766–1837), the New York Attorney General, and another married John Rodman (1775–1847), the New York County District Attorney. Together, Verplanck and Mary Eliza had two sons:
* William Samuel Verplanck (1812–1885), who married Anna Biddle Newlin (1816–1883), daughter of Robert Newlin (1770–1840) and niece of Maj. Gen. Jacob Brown
Jacob Jennings Brown (May 9, 1775 – February 24, 1828) was known for his victories as an American army officer in the War of 1812, where he reached the rank of general. His successes on the northern border during that war made him a national ...
, on November 17, 1837.
* Gulian Verplanck (1815–1845), who died unmarried
While traveling abroad, Mary Verplanck died in 1817 in Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
. She was buried there at the Père Lachaise Cemetery. Verplanck died at his residence in 14th Street in New York City on March 18, 1870. He was buried at the Trinity Churchyard in Fishkill, New York
Fishkill is a village within the town of Fishkill in Dutchess County, New York, United States. The village is in the eastern part of the town of Fishkill on U.S. Route 9. It is north of Interstate 84. NY 52 is the main street. It is part of the ...
.
Descendants
Through his eldest son William, Verplanck was the grandfather of:
* Eliza Fenmo Verplanck (b. 1838), who married Benjamin Richards;
* Mary Newlin Verplanck (1840–1881), who married her cousin Samuel William Johnson
Samuel William Johnson (3 July 1830 Kingsboro, New York – 1909) was a U.S. American agricultural chemist. He promoted the movement to bring the sciences to the aid of American farmers through agricultural experiment stations and education in ...
(1830–1909);
* Robert Newlin Verplanck (1842–1908), who married Katharine Van Bensehoten (b. 1857);
* Daniel Crommelin Verplanck (1845–1854);
* Anna Verplanck (1846–1891), who married Samuel Hicks Clapp;
* Jeannette Verplanck (b. 1849), who married Theodore M. Etting;
* Gelyna Verplanck (b. 1852), who married Louis Fitzgerald;
* William Edward Verplanck (1856–1928), who married Virginia Everett Darby.
Verplanck is the ancestor of William Samuel Verplanck, Jr. (1916–2002), a psychologist who conducted a series of significant experiments in the fields of ethology
Ethology is the scientific study of animal behaviour, usually with a focus on behaviour under natural conditions, and viewing behaviour as an evolutionarily adaptive trait. Behaviourism as a term also describes the scientific and objectiv ...
, experimental psychology
Experimental psychology refers to work done by those who apply experimental methods to psychological study and the underlying processes. Experimental psychologists employ human participants and animal subjects to study a great many topics, in ...
, and especially in the field of radical behaviorism
Radical behaviorism is a "philosophy of the science of behavior" developed by B. F. Skinner. It refers to the philosophy behind behavior analysis, and is to be distinguished from methodological behaviorism—which has an intense emphasis on ...
.
Memberships and organizations
Verplanck spent the greater part of his life in New York City and in 1820, he was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society
The American Antiquarian Society (AAS), located in Worcester, Massachusetts, is both a learned society and a national research library of pre-twentieth-century American history and culture. Founded in 1812, it is the oldest historical society in ...
.American Antiquarian Society Members Directory
/ref> He served as a professor at the General Theological Seminary
The General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church (GTS) is an Episcopal seminary in New York City. Founded in 1817, GTS is the oldest seminary of the Episcopal Church and the longest continuously operating Seminary in the Anglican Communi ...
in New York City from 1821 to 1824.[ He was one of the governors of the ]New York Hospital
Weill Cornell Medical Center (previously known as New York Hospital or Old New York Hospital or City Hospital) is a research hospital in New York City. It is part of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and the teaching hospital for Cornell University.
...
from 1823 to 1865. In 1826, he was elected a regent of the University of the State of New York, and in 1858 became its Vice Chancellor, remaining in office until his death. Verplanck was one of the founding members of the Century Club and was its President at the time of his death.
See also
* Mount Gulian
Mount Gulian is a reconstructed 18th century Dutch manor house on the Hudson River in the town of Fishkill, New York, United States of America. The original house served as the
headquarters of Major General Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben during th ...
References
;Notes
;Sources
* Robert W. July, ''The Essential New Yorker: Gulian Crommelin Verplanck'', Duke University Press, 1951.
''The New York Civil List''
compiled by Franklin Benjamin Hough (pages 71f, 93, 131ff, 147, 197ff, 313, 338 ; Weed, Parsons and Co., 1858)
''OBITUARY; Hon. Gulian C. Verplanck''
in NYT on March 19, 1870
''GULIAN C. VERPLANCK.; His Life, Character and Writings''
in NYT on May 18, 1870
{{DEFAULTSORT:Verplanck, Gulian C.
1786 births
1870 deaths
People from Manhattan
American people of Dutch descent
Columbia College (New York) alumni
Members of the New York State Assembly
Politicians from New York City
Regents of the University of the State of New York
New York (state) state senators
Jacksonian members of the United States House of Representatives from New York (state)
Members of the American Antiquarian Society
19th-century American politicians
Knickerbocker Group
General Theological Seminary faculty
Presidents of the Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York
Members of the United States House of Representatives from New York (state)