Albert Gallatin

Ninth President of New York Historical Society, 1843-1850.

talker of the century, at home on all topics, with a wonderful memory for facts and dates. His intellectual charms were such that after he took up his abode permanently in New York, in 1827, the Gallatin Club was formed for the sole object of listening to his conversation. He was mainly instrumental in founding the Ethnological Society, of which he became the first president. He was also president of one of the New York banks from 1831 to 1839; and he wrote and published many works of great value. He is best remembered as the Secretary of the Treasury from 1801 to 1813, where he exercised a potent influence in other departments of the Government and in the politics of the country. But his diplomatic services-at St. Petersburg, in 1813, at Ghent, in 1814, when the treaty of peace was concluded, and in France where he remained eight years-were of no less consequence to America. On his return home from these various missions, he declined a seat in the cabinet, and also to be a candidate for VicePresident. He had resolved to devote himself chiefly to literature, science,

and historical and ethnological researches. His whole history, from the time he reached this country from Switzerland, in 1780, at nineteen years of age, reads like a veritable romance. Few instances grace our annals where an adventurer in a strange land raised himself by simple force of energy and talent to such a pinnacle of distinction and usefulness, or where perfect purity was balanced in a political character with so much of genius and culture.

Luther Bradish was the tenth president of the society, taking the chair in January, 1850. He was re-elected annually for thirteen successive years, and died in office, August 30, 1863. In elegance of scholarship, and in

the numberless graces that combine to make the perfect presiding officer, he was unrivaled. He was a native of Cummington, Massachusetts, and a graduate of Williams College in 1804; had studied law, traveled extensively abroad, served six years in the legislature and fourteen years as lieutenant-governor of New York, and was Assistant Treasurer of the United States at New York during Fillmore's administration, a position which he filled with great satisfaction to all parties. He occupied his spare moments with many educational, charitable, and reformatory projects, and commanded universal admiration and esteem. He was president, also, of the American Bible Society.

His immediate successor in the Historical Society was Frederic De Peyster, who was president from 1864 to 1867, and again from 1873 until his death, August 17, 1882. Mr. De Peyster had been forty years an active member of the institution, and was its corresponding secretary from 1827 to 1837, its foreign secretary in 1844, and one of its vice-presidents from 1850 to 1853. He had also been the envoy of the society in 1827 to the legislature at Albany, and, with great tact and discretion, succeeded in convincing the hostile legislators of the importance of preserving perishable papers and fugitive pamphlets; and obtained the substantial grant of $5,000 for the aid of the society. He was chairman of many important committees, not least of which was the building committee when the present edifice was erected. He opened his purse liberally on all occasions, and his various gifts reveal his genuine taste for history, art, and archæology. He was the representative of one of the oldest and best families in New York, where he was born in 1796, was a graduate from Columbia College, had studied law, and at one time was Master in Chancery. He was connected with more social, learned, literary, and philanthropic societies than any other man of his time. He was one of the founders of the St. Nicholas Society, president of the St. Nicholas Club, vice-president of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, trustee of the Deaf and Dumb Asylum, manager of the Home for Incurables, for fifty years clerk of the board of trustees of the Leake and Watts Orphan House, and president of the New York Society Library, besides holding positions of honor in many other noteworthy organizations. He was the author of several historical monographs of special value. He was a large-hearted Christian gentleman of the old school, of ripe culture, large wealth, high social position, and kindly, courteous manners.

Hamilton Fish, the honorable Secretary of State during President Grant's administration of eight years, was made the twelfth president of the society, elected in 1867, and resigned in 1869 to take his seat in the

Minition Airl

Twelfth President of New York Historical Society, 1867-1869.

councils of the nation. It was through his suggestion that the joint high commission between the United States and Great Britain met in 1871, to settle the various difficulties between the two nations, including the famous Alabama claims. His career of public usefulness commenced early. He was doing duty in 1837 in the legislature of New York, was in Congress from 1843 to 1845; was elected lieutenant-governor in 1847, was governor of the State from 1849 to 1851, and was United States senator

from 1851 to 1857. He is the son of Colonel Nicholas Fish, of old New York memory, and through his mother a direct descendant of the famous Governor Peter Stuyvesant. Peter Gerard Stuyvesant, president of the society from 1836 to 1840, was the uncle of Hamilton Fish. As a citizen no New Yorker occupies a more enviable place. He has been invited to the presidency of numerous clubs, societies, and institutions; and in 1872 was made president of the Order of the Cincinnati. He is now the first vicepresident of the New York Historical Society; and William M. Evarts, the honorable Secretary of State during President Hayes' administration, and at present United States senator, is its foreign corresponding secretary.