Gulian C. Verplanck | |
|---|---|
 Portrait of Verplanck byJohn Wesley Jarvis, ca. 1811 | |
| Member of theNew York State Senate from the 1st District (Class 3) | |
| In office January 1, 1838 – 1841 | |
| Preceded by | Charles L. Livingston |
| Succeeded by | Isaac L. Varian |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromNew York's3rd district | |
| In office March 4, 1825 – March 3, 1833 | |
| Preceded by | Peter Sharpe John J. Morgan |
| Succeeded by | Dudley Selden Cornelius Van Wyck Lawrence |
| Member of theNew York State Assembly fromNew York County | |
| In office July 1, 1820 – December 31, 1823 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Gulian Crommelin Verplanck (1786-08-06)August 6, 1786 |
| Died | March 18, 1870(1870-03-18) (aged 83) Manhattan, New York, U.S. |
| Resting place | Trinity Churchyard inFishkill, New York |
| Party | Dem.-Rep./Bucktail (Assembly) Jacksonian (US Congress) Whig (NY Senate)[1] |
| Spouse | |
| Children | William Samuel Verplanck Gulian Verplanck |
| Parent(s) | Daniel C. Verplanck Elizabeth Johnson |
| Relatives | Samuel Verplanck (grandfather) William Samuel Johnson (grandfather) |
| Alma mater | Columbia College |
Gulian Crommelin Verplanck (August 6, 1786 – March 18, 1870) was an American attorney, politician, and writer. He was elected to theNew York State Assembly and Senate, and later to theUnited States House of Representatives from New York, where he served as chairman of the influentialHouse Ways and Means Committee.[2][3]
He served in a number of appointed positions of major institutions in New York: governor ofNew York Hospital; regent of theUniversity 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.[2]
Verplanck published articles and poetry in theNorth American Review, and was counted among the "Knickerbocker group". As a young man, he was among the organizers of theAmerican 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.[2]
Gulian Crommelin Verplanck was born on August 6, 1786, in the family mansion at 3Wall Street inNew York City. He was the son of Elizabeth Johnson (d. 1789) and CongressmanDaniel 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 (née Crommelin) Verplanck.
His paternal grandfather wasSamuel Verplanck and his great-uncle wasGulian Verplanck, two-timeSpeaker of the New York State Assembly. His maternal grandfather wasWilliam Samuel Johnson, the3rd President of Columbia College and aU.S. Senator from Connecticut, and his great-grandfather wasSamuel Johnson, the1st President of Kings College.[4][5]
In 1801, he graduated fromColumbia College with aB.A. and then proceeded to "read law" withEdward Livingston.[6]
Verplanck was admitted to the bar in 1807,[5] and had a law office at 51 Wall Street.[7] In 1808, he was the first secretary for the newly formedWashington Benevolent Society, a Federalist-affiliated club that engaged in political activity and electioneering.[8] An 1809 speech in front of the club members, which was then meeting at the old North Dutch Church, was considered "his entrance into public life."[9] In 1811, he was fined $200 (~$3,780 in 2024) for inciting a riot at aColumbia College commencement atTrinity Church when the presiding officer declined to confer a degree upon a student who had made political statements with which the faculty disagreed.[9] MayorDeWitt Clinton presided over the trial, and as he was seeking Federalist support against PresidentJames Madison in the upcoming election, it was thought that this may have influenced his conduct of the trial.[6]
Verplanck was elected as a member of theNew York State Assembly in 1820–21, 1822 and 1823.[5] Although he had earlier been a Federalist,[9] he was elected as a Jacksonian to the19th,20th, and as aDemocrat to the21st and22nd United States Congresses, holding office from March 4, 1825, to March 3, 1833. He was Chairman of theCommittee on Ways and Means (22nd Congress).[7] While there one of his leading acts was to secure the extension of the period of copyrights.[10] In 1833, when PresidentAndrew Jackson began his quest to suppress theSecond Bank of the United States, Verplanck left the Democrats.[11]
In April 1834, at the first popular election forMayor of New York City,[1] Verplanck was the candidate of the emergingWhig Party but was narrowly defeated (sources range from 181 to 213 votes) byCornelius Van Wyck Lawrence.[12] Afterwards Verplanck kept his own counsel in politics and supportedWilliam Henry Harrison (Whig),James K. Polk (Dem.),Zachary Taylor (Whig) andJames Buchanan (Dem.) for president, remaining a Democrat thereafter.[11]
Verplanck was a member of theNew York State Senate (1st D.) from 1838 to 1841, sitting in the61st,62nd,63rd and64th New York State Legislatures.[11]
He was appointed as the President of the New York State Board of Commissioners of Emigration, serving from 1846 until his death in 1870. TheState Emigrant Hospital onWard's Island, which he helped to establish in this capacity, was eventually renamed in his honor.[13] He was a delegate to theNew York State Constitutional Convention of 1867–68.[11]
In his literary life, Verplanck was a contributor to theNorth American Review, perhaps best known for his denunciation ofKnickerbocker's History of New York, byWashington Irving. In 1819, he wrote verse satires againstDewitt Clinton; these were generally known asThe Bucktail Bards. On the request ofHarper Brothers, he edited a set of Shakespeare.[10]
Through his writing, he was considered part of the so-called "Knickerbocker group",[3] which included Irving,William Cullen Bryant,James Kirke Paulding,Fitz-Greene Halleck,Joseph Rodman Drake,Robert Charles Sands,Lydia Maria Child, andNathaniel Parker Willis.[14][5]
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On October 2, 1811, he married Mary Elizabeth Fenno, a daughter of Mary Curtis andJohn Fenno (1751–1798), aFederalist Party editor and publisher ofGazette of the United States. One of her sisters marriedJosiah Ogden Hoffman (1766–1837), theNew York Attorney General, and another marriedJohn Rodman (1775–1847), theNew York County District Attorney. Together, Verplanck and Mary Eliza had two sons:[11]
While traveling abroad, Mary Verplanck died in 1817 inParis. She was buried there at thePère Lachaise Cemetery.[11] Verplanck died at his residence in 14th Street in New York City on March 18, 1870.[1] He was buried at the Trinity Churchyard inFishkill, New York.[11][3]
Through his eldest son William, Verplanck was the grandfather of:[11]
Verplanck is the ancestor ofWilliam Samuel Verplanck, Jr. (1916–2002), a psychologist who conducted a series of significant experiments in the fields ofethology,experimental psychology, and especially in the field ofradical behaviorism.[17][18]
Verplanck spent the greater part of his life in New York City and in 1820, he was elected a member of theAmerican Antiquarian Society.[19] He served as a professor at theGeneral Theological Seminary in New York City from 1821 to 1824.[7] He was one of the governors of theNew York Hospital from 1823 to 1865. In 1826, he was elected a regent of theUniversity 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 theCentury Club and was its president at the time of his death.
| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives fromNew York's 3rd congressional district 1825–1833 withChurchill C. Cambreleng 1825-33,Jeromus Johnson 1825-29 andCampbell P. White 1829-33 | Succeeded by |
| New York State Senate | ||
| Preceded by | New York State Senate First District (Class 3) 1838–1841 | Succeeded by |
