For the English by honorable means, sent a commis-expedition so unwarrantable in all its arrangesion to Sir William Berkley, governor of Virgin-ments and purposes. The command of the fleet, ia, proposing a commercial treaty. This treaty and the government of the province, were given was formed, but Berkley carefully avoided the to Colonel Nichols. The fleet touched at Bos recognition of the territorial pretensions of the ton, where an armed force had been ordered to Dutch, which Stuyvesant hoped to obtain. join it, and immediately proceeded to New Am When Charles II. was restored after the down-sterdam. Governor Winthrop of Connecticut, fall of Cromwell, the colonists of New Nether-and others, joined the king's standard, and the lands hoped for a different policy to be exercised armament that appeared in New York (then New toward them by the crown; and Stuyvesant seiz- Amsterdam) bay, consisted of three ships, one ed every opportunity to propitiate the English hundred and thirty guns, and six hundred men. court. When the pursuers of Goffe and Whal- Governor Stuyvesant was anxious to offer resistley, the judges who condemned Charles I., re-ance, notwithstanding the force was superior to quested Stuyvesant not to offer them protection, his own; but the peaceful inhabitants regarding he readily acquiesced, and agreed to prohibit all the terms of capitulation as exceedingly favoravessels from transporting them beyond the reach ble were disposed to surrender at once. of pursuers. But this policy had no effect, for sometime Stuyvesant kept up a negotiation, but Charles, from the moment of his restoration, de- to no purpose; and at last an honorable surrentermined to bring the Dutch colony in America, der was made. The capitulation was signed by under subjection to the British crown. Added the Commissioners on the twenty-seventh of Auto this determination, Charles viewed the New gust, 1664, but the governor could not be brought England colonists, the puritans, with hatred, for to ratify it by his signature, until nearly two days they seemed to him a remnant of that faction, afterward. Fort Orange surrendered to Colonel who had murdered his unhappy predecessor, and Cartright on the twenty-fourth of September, driven himself into exile; and he determined to who confirmed the title of Jeremiah Van Rensteach them, also, that they were not beyond his selaer, to the manor of Rensselaerwicke. The reach, even in the new world. Stuyvesant saw name of Fort Orange was changed to Albany, the storm that was gathering, and made an un- and that of New Amsterdam to New York, in successful attempt to engage the New England honor of the proprietor. colonies in an alliance with the Dutch, against a common enemy. While he was personally engaged in this business, an English fleet approached the coast of the New Netherlands, and the governor was obliged to return in haste to the defence of his province. As an excuse for commencing hostilities, Charles had endeavored, but unsuccessfully, to provoke the States general. His only excuse left was, that the English first discovered and landed upon various parts of the American shore, and laid claim by this priority, to exclusive jurisdiction over the whole. In pursuit of his purpose, he gave to his brother, the Duke of York, a grant dated 1664, entitling him to the whole region from the Delaware to the Connecticut river, without any regard to the Dutch settlements, or the previous charter granted to the Connecticut colony. Upon this unjust ground, did the English monarch found his excuse for commencing hostilities against the New Netherlands. As soon as Stuyvesant heard of the preparations for conquest making by England, he communicated the alarming intelligence to the States general; but the only aid they sent him, was the original grant, which they had before denied him. But this was entirely inefficient in combating an Governor Stuyvesant made a voyage to Holland, and on his return, retired to his estate in the Bowery, in the city of New York, where he spent the remainder of his life. At his death, he was interred within a chapel which he had erectcd upon his own land. He left behind him an untarnished reputation, and his descendants now enjoy the same honorable name and vast possessions, bequeathed by this illustrious ancestor. AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. The following brief memoir of GEORGE CLINTON, Covernor of New York, we copy from a late number of the New World. It is from the pen of William W. Campbell, Esq. GEORGE CLINTON. the Highlands in the county of Ulster, near New George Clinton was born in the precincts of Windsor, now in the county of Orange, in 1739. His father, Colonel Charles Clinton, was a gentleman of a highly cultivated mind, and by personally superintending the education of his children, supplied that defect of schools which then existed in that sparsely peopled section of country. In early life, George Clinton evinced that spirit of enterprise and energy which characterized his after history. During the French war, and before he had arrived at his majority, we find him at one time on board a cruiser, and at another filling the station of Lieutenant in a regiment commanded by his father upon the extreme northwestern boundary of the state. In the latter capacity he was at the capture of Fort Frontenac. Soon after he entered as a student at law in the office of William Smith, distinguished as the historian of New York, and afterward chief-justice of Canada. In 1767 he was admitted to the bar and commenced the practice of his profession with great success in Ulster, his native county. Public attention was drawn to him, and in 1768, after a formidable opposition from all the influence of the Crown, he was elected a member of the Colonial Assembly from that county. On the twenty-seventh day of October, he appeared and took his seat, and immediately espoused the colonial cause in that body. On the thirty-first day of December thereafter, the Assembly passed several spirited resolutions, asserting the rights of the Colonial Legislature, and that those rights could not be lawfully abridged by any other power. They were accompanied by petitions, memorials and remonstrances, and led to the dissolution of the Assembly by the Governor, Sir Henry Moore, on the second of January following. On the fourth of April, 1769, George Clinton again appeared and took his seat as a member of the new House of Assembly, then convened; having again been returned by the inhabitants of Ulster. He continued a member of this Assembly, which was continued by various adjournments and prorogations, down to March, 1775, when on the third of that month, after a warm and animated debate upon the great questions then agitating the country, the Colonial Legislature of New York closed its existence. During all this time he was usefully and actively engaged on the side of the people, and took a large share in the bold and vehement discussions of the times. In May following he appeared as a delegate to the General Congress assembled at Philadelphia, and in January, 1776, he attended an adjourned meeting of that body, having been reappointed a member by the Provincial Convention of New York. On the memorable fourth of July, in that year, he was present and supported by his vote the Declaration of Independence; but having then recently been appointed a Brigadier-General, he was ordered to the North before that instrument was engrossed, and his name does not therefore appear among the signers. On the twentieth of April, 1777, the State Constitution of New York was adopted, and at the first election in the summer following, he was elected its first Governor. It was a handsome and a merited tribute to his talents and patriotism, and drew forth warm congratulations from his friends and co-workers in the great cause of civil liberty. But the office, to which the partiality and confidence of his fellow-citizens had elevated him, was one of great difficulty and responsibility, and was perhaps the most arduous and important of any in the new Empire, with the exception of that of the commander-in-chief. When the first Legislature convened at Kingston, the whole of the southern part of the State was in the possession of the enemy. The people in the northeastern section, now the state of Vermont, were distracted by treasonable operations among them. A numerous army under General Burgoyne was entering the state upon the north, and large bodies of soldiers and Indians were endeavoring to force their way down the valley of the Mohawk. Under such circumstances the Legislature convened and the Supreme Court held its first regular term. In a letter dated September the eighteenth, in that year, Governor Clinton in writing to the delegates in Congress, says "our Legislature have been upon business for a week past-both houses are pretty full, and I have the greatest hopes that the new machine will work well. The first term of our Supreme Court ended last week, on Saturday. It was held with great order and decorum, and I have the pleasure to assure you that the people seem happy under a properly or ganized government." A part only of the plan of the enemy in the campaign of 1777 had developed itself at the assembling of the Legislature. While Burgoyne was endeavoring to force his way from Canada, Sir Henry Clinton, with a strong force, left New York with a view of passing up the Hudson and forming a junction with him at or near Albany. Such a junction would have severed the Union and jeoparded the liberties of the country. It was a critical period for the state, and called for all the energy and firmness of him who had been elected its Chief Magistrate. Governor Clinton immediately, upon learning the designs of the enemy, prorogued the Legislature, and issuing orders for the assembling of the militia, threw himself with a handful of men, into the forts which commanded the passes of the Highlands. The actual as well as the nominal head of the militia, he considered the post of danger as his own. The militia had, however, been harassed and worn out with the fatigues of the summer. Many of them had gone to the north, and others had returned to their homes; so that on the sixth of October only six hundred men, continentals and militia, were in the forts Montgomery and Clinton. The On that day an attack was made upon both of these forts by the army under Sir Henry Clinton, numbering by estimate four thousand men. attack lasted from ten o'clock until dark. About an hour before sunset Governor Clinton was summoned to surrender fort Montgomery in five minutes, "but his gallant spirit sternly refused to obey the call." An incessant fire was then kept up until dark, when as the night closed in, a violent assault was made, which was received by the Americans with undismayed courage. But their resistance was in vain. Overpowered by numbers, they were forced to yield, and the lines and redoubts were carried by the enemy, at the point of the bayonet. Many of the Americans fought their way out-others mixed with the enemy and escaped by reason of the darkness. Governor Clinton, availing himself of his knowledge of the country, succeeded in crossing the river and retiring to a place of safety. No one regretted the loss of these important scenes which have been rendered memorable by the contests and privations and trials of the war which had then recently terminated. They were everywhere received with the attention and respect to which their eminent stations and distinguished virtues entitled them. During that tour, the capabilities of New York for inland navigation formed a prominent subject of investigation and inquiry. They examined the carrying places between the Mohawk and Wood Creek, and between the former river anu the sources of the Susquehanna. Even then may have been shadowed to their minds the dim outline of that great enterprise which has identified the illustrious nephew of Governor Clinton with the internal improvement of the state. posts more than Governor Clinton himself. In aj in company with General Washington, made a letter to General Washington, dated October the tour through the State of New York, and, passing ninth, 1777, after adverting to the ineffectual up the valley of the Mohawk, visited some of the efforts which he had made to collect the militia, and stating that he had not been properly reinforced, he concludes by saying:-"I have only to add that where great losses are sustained, however unavoidable, public censure is generally the consequence to those who are immediately concerned. If in the present instance this should be the case, I wish, so far as relates to the loss of Fort Montgomery and its dependances, it may fall on me alone, for I would be guilty of the greatest injustice, were I not to declare that the officers and men under me, of the different corps, behaved with the greatest spirit and bravery." No censure, however, rested upon him or upon the men under his command. Under all the circumstances, the defence was considered a brave and gallant one, and drew from General Gates and other officers, letters of high commendation. Immediately after the loss of the forts, Governor Clinton collected together the scattered troops and militia and watched the movements of the enemy until their return to New York. He wrote to General Gates desiring him to order down some part of the army under his command to form a junction with him, by which he might prevent the advance of Sir Henry Clinton upon Albany. The subsequent events of the campaign rendered such a movement unnecessary. During the remainder of the war, Governor Clinton continued at the head of the State of New York as its chief magistrate, and divided his time between the discharge of his duties to the State and to the Union. He enjoyed, in an eminent degree, the confidence and friendship of General Washington. In May, 1779, the latter in writing to him says: "The readiness with which you comply with all my requests in prosecution of the public service, has a claim to my warmest acknowledgements." In 1788, George Clinton was unanimously chosen president of the convention which met to deliberate upon the new Constitution of the Union. He was six times elected Governor, and filled that office for eighteen years. In 1804 he was elected Vice-President of the United States, in which distinguished station he continued until his death, which took place on the twentieth of April, 1812, at the city of Washington. While Governor, his administration was characterized by integrity, energy, and a vigilant attention to the public interests. As Vice-President he presided with dignity and firmness, and in all his relations in life sustained the character of an excellent man and a good citizen. The few aged people who yet survive, and who shared with him the toils and trials of war, and the perplexities and difficulties attendant upon the organization of a new government, still hold him in fond remembrance. The pioneers to the western part of the State shared largely in his kindest sympathies and good wishes, and were often the objects of his benevolence and care. ROBERT FULTON. After the war, when General Washington had In the words of De Witt Clinton, "As a public retired to his seat at Mount Vernon, he continued character, he will live in the veneration of posa correspondence with Governor Clinton, in which terity, and the progress of time will thicken the he manifested anew his warm regard for him. In laurels that surround his monument. The chara letter, dated at Mount Vernon, December twenty-acteristic virtues which distinguished his life apeighth, 1783, he says:-"I am now a private citi-peared in full splendor in the trying hour of death, zen, on the banks of the Potomac, where I shall be and he died, as he lived, without fear and without happy to see you if your public business would reproach," ever permit, and where, in the meantime, I shall fondly cherish the remembrance of all your former friendship. Although I scarcely need tell you MR. FULTON is acknowledged to have been how much I have been satisfied with every inamong the most distinguished men of his age. His stance of your public conduct, yet I could not successful exertions to furnish a means of transsuffer Colonel Walker to depart for New York, without giving your Excellency one more testi portation which "brings the inhabitants of the world nearer each other," have shed upon his name a lusmony of the obligations I consider myself under, tre that must be visible to the latest posterity. We for the spirited and able assistance I have often do not propose here to examine how closely the efderived from the state under your administration. forts of his genius are connected with the happiness The scene is at last closed. I feel myself eased of mankind, even where they seem most remote, of a load of public care. I hope to spend the re- but simply to afford a brief sketch of his life as an mainder of my days in cultivating the affections of good men, and in the practice of the domestic virtues. Permit me still to consider you in the number of my friends, and to wish you every felicity." In the following year, Governor Clinton, accompaniment to his portrait. Robert Fulton was born in the town of Little Britain, in the county of Lancaster, state of Penn- ROBERT FULTON. From a Painting by Inman. of experiments with his torpedoes. He found Ma Madison, then secretary of state, and the secretary of the navy, Mr. Smith, much disposed to encourage his attempts, the success of which Mr. Fulton, by his ingenious models and drawings, with his lucid and engaging mode of lecturing upon them, made appear so probable. The government authorized a certain expenditure to be made, under the direction of Mr. Fulton, for this purpose. In the mean time, anxious to prepossess his countrymen with a good opinion of his project, he invited the magistracy of New York, and a number of citizens, to Governour's Island, where were the torpedoes and the machinery, with which his experiments were to be made; these, with the manner in which they were to be used, and were expected to operate, he explained very fuily. While he was lecturing on his blank torpedoes, which were large empty copper cylinders, his numerous auditors crowded round him. At length he turned to a copper case of the same description which was placed under the gateway of the fort, and to which was attached a clockwork lock. This, by drawing out a peg, he set in motion, and then he said to his attentive audience, Gentlemen, this is a charged torpedo, with which precisely in its present state, I mean to blow up a vessel; it contains one an early age, in an irrepressible taste for drawing hundred and seventy pounds of gunpowder; and if and mechanism. At the age of twenty-one he was I were to suffer the clockwork to run fifteen minutes, intimate with Franklin. He had previously painted I have no doubt but that it would blow this fortificaportraits and landscapes in Philadelphia, and deriv- tion to atoms.' The circle round Mr. Fulton was ed considerable profit from it. Soon after he sailed very soon much enlarged, and before five of the fif for England, with the view of seeking Mr. West's teen minutes were out, there were but two or thre assistance in the prosecution of his art. That great persons remaining under the gateway; some, indeed, painter took him into his family, where he remained lost no time in getting at the greatest possible dis several years. In 1793, Mr. Fulton was actively en-tance from the torpedo, with their best speed, and gaged in a project to improve inland navigation. Even at that time he had conceived the idea of propelling vessels by steam. In 1804, he had acquired much valuable information upon the subject, and written it down, as well as much concerning his own life, and sent many manuscripts from Paris to this country, but the vessel was wrecked and most of the papers destroyed. About this period the subject of canals seems to have been the principal object of his attention, although he made many valuable inventions, and wrote numerous essays, characterized by strong talent and deep knowledge. His works were not indeed confined to scientifick tópicks, but he furnished other essays which were greatly praised. At what time Mr. Fulton's mind was first directed The characteristick features of his mind were ardour to steam navigation, is not distinctly known, but even and perseverance. When Napoleon held the power in 1793 he had matured a plan in which he reposed of France, Mr. Fulton engaged in several schemes under the auspices of the first consul, for an account of which, we refer the reader to the Memoir of Mr. Cadwallader D. Colden. In 1806, Mr. Fulton embarked at Falmouth, and arrived at New York, by way of Halifax, on the thirteenth of December. Upon his arrival in this country, he immediately commenced his arduous exertions in the cause of practical science, and among other subjects which occupied his mind, was that of steam navigation. He had been long engaged in Europe in an attempt to introduce a vessel or torpedo to be used in war, for the purposes of destroying the marine enemy. Here is a curious anecdote of him at this time : "He had not been landed in America a month, before he went to the seat of government, to propose to the administration to enable him to prosecute a set did not again appear on the ground, till they were assured it was lodged in the magazine, whence it had been taken, and did not seem to feel themselves quite safe, as long as they were on the island. The conduct of Mr. Fulton's auditors was not very extraordinary or unnatural; but his own composure indicated the confidence with which he handled these terrible instruments of destruction, and the reliance he had on the accuracy of the performance of his machinery. The apprehension of the company sur prized, but amused him, and he took occasion to remark, how true it was, that fear frequently arose from ignorance." great confidence. No one previously to Mr. Fulton, had constructed a steam-boat in any other way than as an unsuccessful experiment. Although many dispute his right to the honour of the discovery, none have done so with any semblance of justice. Among those of his own countrymen who had previously made unsuccessful attempts to render the force of steam subservient to practical and useful purposes, was Mr. Livingston. "While he devoted much of his own time and talents to the advancement of science, and the pro motion of the public good, he was fond of fostering the discoveries of others. The resources of his ample fortune were afforded with great liberality, whenever he could apply them, to he support and encouragement of genius. "Ile entertained very clear conceptions í what would be the great advantages of steam-boats, on the was, among other things, agreed, that a patent should "The legislature in March, 1798, passed an act vesting Mr. Livingston with the exclusive right and privilege of navigating all kinds of boats which might be propelled by the force of fire or steam, on all the waters within the territory or jurisdiction of the state of New York, for a term of twenty years from the passing of the act; upon condition that he should within a twelvemonth build such a boat, the mean of whose progress should not be less than four miles an hour. "In the American Medical and Philosophical Register, there is a piece published under the title of An Historical Account of the Application of Steam for the Propelling of Boats.' This was drawn up by Mr. Livingston, and addressed to Doctors Hosack and Francis, the editors of that journal. He very candidly acknowledges that all his efforts had been unavailing. He explains the nature of the connexion between him and Mr. Fulton, and shows what part that gentleman performed in the experiments which led to the accomplishment of their object. As this account, from Chancellor Livingston himself, must be very satisfactory, we shall present a part of it in an extract from the learned and valuable work we have just mentioned. "The bill was introduced into the house of assembly by Dr. Mitchell, he then being a representative from this city. Upon this occasion,' says Dr. Mitchell, in a letter with which he has favoured me, the wags and the lawyers in the house were generally opposed to my bill. I had to encounter all their jokes, and the whole of their logick. One main ground of their objection was, that it was an idle and whimsical project, unworthy of legislative attention.' “A venerable friend, who was a member of the senate at that time, has described the manner in which this application from Mr. Livingston was received by the legislature. He said it was a stand-scale, on models of his own invention, it was undering subject of ridicule throughout the session, and whenever there was a disposition in any of the younger members to indulge a little levity, they would call up the steam-boat bill, that they might divert themselves at the expense of the project and its advocates. “Mr. Livingston, immediately after the passage of this act, built a boat of about thirty tuns' burden, which was propelled by steam; but as she was incompetent to fulfil the condition of the law, she was abandoned, and he for the time relinquished the project. "Though Mr. Livingston, previously to his connexion with Mr. Fulton, had done more than any other person towards establishing steam-boats, and though his experiments had been more expensive, and more successful, than any we have heard of, yet he was not among those who founded, on their fruitless attempts, a claim to be the inventors of navigation by steam, and whose opposition to Mr. Fulton has been very generally in proportion to the variety and ill success of their schemes. The worst project has generally been the most expensive, and on that account the worst projector seems to have considered his claim as the highest. "On the contrary, Mr. Livingston availed himself of every opportunity of acknowledging Mr. Fulton's merits; and when he was convinced that Mr. Fulton's experiments had evinced the justness of his principles, they entered into a contract, by which it "Robert R. Livingston, Esq. when minister in France, met with Mr. Fulton, and they formed that friendship and connexion with each other, to which a similarity of pursuits generally gives birth. He communicated to Mr. Fulton the importance of steam-boats to their common country; informed him of what had been attempted in America, and of his resolution to resume the pursuit on his return, and advised him to turn his attention to the subject. It was agreed between them to embark in the enterprise, and immediately to make such experiments as would enable them to determine how far, in spite of former failures, the object was attainable: the' principal direction of these experiments was left to Mr. Fulton, who united, in a very considerable degree, practical to a theoretical knowledge of mechanicks. "After trying a variety of experiments on a small stood that he had developed the true principles upon which steam-boats should be built, and for the want of knowing which, all previous experiments had failed. But as these two gentlemen both knew, that many things which were apparently perfect when tried on a small scale, failed when reduced to practice upon a large one, they determined to go to the expense of building an operating boat upon the Seine. This was done in the year 1803, at their joint expense, under the direction of Mr. Fulton; and so fully evinced the justness of his principles, that it was immediately determined to enrich their country by the valuable discovery, as soon as they should meet there, and in the meantime to order an engine to be made in England. On the arrival at New York of Mr. Fulton, which was not till 1806, they immediately engaged in building a boat of, what was then thought, very considerable dimensions. "This boat began to navigate the Hudson river in 1807; its progress through the water was at the rate of five miles an hour. "In the course of the ensuing winter, it was enlarged to a boat of one hundred and forty feet keel, and sixteen and a half feet beam. The legislature of the state were so fully convinced of the great utility of the invention, and of the interest the state had in its encouragement, that they made a new contract with Mr. Livingston and Mr. Fulton, by which they extended the term of their exclusive right, five years to every additional boat they should t |