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On the twenty-fifth of August in the above year, he covered, with his company, a party of citizens engaged in removing the ordnance from the Battery Arsenal at the city of New York.

In the following month of November, the Provincial Congress organized into regiments the New York militia, and he was commissioned as first major in the second regiment of foot, of which John Jay was colonel. Mr. Jay not joining the regiment, from the pressure of his duties in the Continental Congress, the command devolved upon Mr. Lewis.

In June, 1776, he was made chief, with the rank of colonel, of General Gates' staff, and accompanied him to the northern frontier. On the return of the army from Canada, he was appointed Quarter-Master-General of the Northern Department, and continued till the close of the Revolution in that office.

He was present when Ticonderoga was evacuated by General St. Clair, and aided efficiently in the transportation of the munitions and supplies thence to the sprouts of the Mohawk.

On the 7th of October, 1777, at the second battle of Bemis Heights, General Lewis was in command of a party of videttes, close to the enemy's lines, and communicated every movement to General Gates.

At the capitulation of Burgoyne on the seventeenth of October, he conducted the British troops to the field of Fort Hardy, where they piled their arms, and thence through the line of the American forces, drawn up to witness the spectacle.

In the autumn of 1780, he accompanied the expedition of Governor George Clinton and General Robert Van Rensselaer against Sir John Johnson and the Indian Chief, Brandt; had command of the advance and was present at the head of his men in the successful engagement of Stone Arabia.

Subsequently, in the same year, he accompanied Governor Clinton and his expedition to Crown Point, to cut off the retreat of the invaders of the Mohawk valley.

At the close of the Revolution he was admitted to the bar, and commenced practice in the city of New York. He was appointed Colonel of a volunteer corps of militia, and as such, at the head of his men, escorted Washington on his first inauguration as President.

In 1784 he was appointed one of the additional Regents of the University, under the act of November twelfth of that year.

In 1789-90 he was a member of the New York Assembly (13th session) from the city of New York, and elected to the fifteenth session, of 1792, from the county of Dutchess, he in the interim having removed to that county.

He was appointed, about this period, one of the judges of the Dutchess Common Pleas.

On the 8th of November, 1791, he was appointed AttorneyGeneral of the State of New York, on the resignation of Aaron Burr; on the 21st of December, 1792, was made a fourth Justice of the New York Supreme Court (the number of justices having been limited previous to this year to three) and on the 28th of October, 1801, Chief Justice.

In 1804 he was elected Governor of the State over Aaron Burr, and appointed Chancellor of the Board of Regents of the University, on the 4th of February, 1805.

On the 5th of February, 1805, Governor Lewis, in a a special message to the Legislature, recommended that the proceeds of the public lands of the State, amounting to one and a half millions of acres, be exclusively appropriated to the purposes of education. An act was, on the second of the following April, accordingly passed, setting apart the net avails of the first five hundred thousand acres that should be sold, and three thousand shares of bank stock, as a fund for the use of common schools, to accumulate till the interest amounted to the sum of $50,000 per annum; when that sum was to be annually distributed for the object in view, as the Legislature might direct. This act was the foundation of our present Common School Fund.

In 1807, Governor Lewis was a candidate for reëlection, but was defeated by Daniel D. Tompkins.

In 1811, 1812, 1813 and 1814 he was a member of the New York Senate (34th, 35th, 36th and 37th sessions) from the middle district, and on January twenty-fifth of the latter year, was chosen to the Council of Appointment.

In May, 1812, he was appointed Quarter-Master-General of the United States army, with the rank of Brigadier-General, and in March, 1813, was made Major-General.

He accompanied General Dearborn to the Niagara frontier, and was present at the capture of Fort George. He was second in command to Wilkinson in the expedition down the St. Lawrence, and commanded at Chrystler's Field.

In 1814, he was appointed to the command of the forces destined to the defense of New York.

During the war he advanced and contributed about $21,000 of his own private funds toward the objects connected with it; viz., upwards of $14,000 advanced for the relief of the American prisoners in Canada, in the summer of 1812, and upwards of $7,000 in remissions of rent to his tenants, serving in the company raised by General Leavenworth in the county of Delaware, at the commencement of the war.1

In 1828, he was one of the Electors for President from the fifth district.

In 1835, he was elected President of the New York Historical Society, and in 1838 chosen presiding officer of the Cincinnati State Society, which office he held till his death.

He died in the city of New York, on the 7th of April, 1844, in the ninetieth year of his age.

In 1779, he was married to Gertrude Livingston, sister of Robert R. Livingston, by whom he had a large family.

Mr. Lewis was a gentleman of kind and courteous demeanor, and of scholarly attainments; amiable in private life, and of warm, active and effective patriotism.

DANIEL D. TOMPKINS,

SON OF JONATHAN G. TOMPKINS,

Was born in the present town of Scarsdale (formed in 1788), Westchester county, New York, on the 21st of June, 1774.

In 1795, he graduated at Columbia College, city of New York; in 1796, was admitted to the bar, and immediately commenced the practice of the law in said city.

1 Jenkins' Life of Lewis.

In 1801, he was appointed a delegate from the city and county of New York to the State Convention of that year, which assembled at Albany, October thirteenth (ending October twentyseventh), and altered the Constitution of the State relative to the Senate and Assembly, so as to fix the number of the former at thirty-two and the latter at one hundred, to be increased after each census, at the rate of two yearly, till it equaled one hundred and fifty. The members of the Council of Appointment were also declared to have equal powers of nomination to office with the Governor.

In 1803, Mr. Tompkins was a Member of the Assembly (26th session) from New York city and county.

In 1804, he was elected a Representative to the ninth Congress (1805-7) from the second and third Congressional districts, but did not take his seat, in consequence of his appointment, on the second of July in the above year, as Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York. He was then but thirty years of age.

In the April election of 1807, he was elected to the Governorship of the State, over Morgan Lewis, and (resigning his Justiceship) on the first of July following was inducted into the office.

In 1807, Albany became the seat of the State Government. On the 3d of February, 1808, Governor Tompkins was chosen Chancellor of the Regents of the University, he being a member of the board by virtue of his office.

In his annual speech to the Legislature, at the commencement of the session, 30th January, 1810, he recommended encouragement, by legal enactments, to domestic manufactures, now springing up all over the Union, consequent upon the restrictive system adopted by Jefferson, and continued by Madison. He also called the legislative attention to the Common School Fund, and suggested carrying into immediate effect the law of 1805, establishing that fund.

In April, 1810, he was reëlected Governor over Jonas Platt. In his speech to the Legislature, at its commencement, on the 29th of January, 1811, he again urged encouragement of domestic manufactures, and attention to the Common School Fund. There He accompanied General Dearborn to the Niagara frontier, and was present at the capture of Fort George. He was second in command to Wilkinson in the expedition down the St. Lawrence, and commanded at Chrystler's Field.

In 1814, he was appointed to the command of the forces destined to the defense of New York.

During the war he advanced and contributed about $21,000 of his own private funds toward the objects connected with it; viz., upwards of $14,000 advanced for the relief of the American prisoners in Canada, in the summer of 1812, and upwards of $7,000 in remissions of rent to his tenants, serving in the company raised by General Leavenworth in the county of Delaware, at the commencement of the war.1

In 1828, he was one of the Electors for President from the fifth district.

In 1835, he was elected President of the New York Historical Society, and in 1838 chosen presiding officer of the Cincinnati State Society, which office he held till his death.

He died in the city of New York, on the 7th of April, 1844, in the ninetieth year of his age.

In 1779, he was married to Gertrude Livingston, sister of Robert R. Livingston, by whom he had a large family.

Mr. Lewis was a gentleman of kind and courteous demeanor, and of scholarly attainments; amiable in private life, and of warm, active and effective patriotism.

DANIEL D. TOMPKINS,

SON OF JONATHAN G. TOMPKINS,

Was born in the present town of Scarsdale (formed in 1788), Westchester county, New York, on the 21st of June, 1774.

In 1795, he graduated at Columbia College, city of New York; in 1796, was admitted to the bar, and immediately commenced the practice of the law in said city.

1 Jenkins' Life of Lewis.

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