other commissioners being Adams, | satisfactory that he was elected for a Franklin and Laurens. The treaty was effected on November 30, 1782. Ther returning to the United States he held for two years the post of Secretary of Foreign Affairs. Upon the election of Washington as President he tendered the office of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States in September, 1789, to Mr. Jay and the latter accepted it. second term. At the end of this term Washington again offered him the post of Chief Justice but he declined the office and retiring to an estate he had bought at Bedford, in Westchester county, he lived there in retirement the remainder of his life; dying there in 1829 in the 84th year of his age. 82 MORGAN LEWIS. MORGAN LEWIS, the third Governor of | County Court of Common Pleas. In New York, was born in New York in 1754, and was graduated at Princeton College. He shouldered a musket when the Revolutionary war broke out in 1775 and marched with other members of a New York militia regiment to Boston. Returning home after a few months stay 1791 he was appointed Attorney-General MORGAN LEWIS. in the American entrenchments at Clinton to Vice-Presidency in 1804, led to the election of Mr. Lewis as his successor as Governor. Mr. Lewis' first act was to strongly recommend to the Legis. lature that a permanent provision be made for the support of the State's schools, and on February 5, 1805, he sent a special message to the Legislature recommending that the proceeds of he was appointed by the council of appointment. He served with such distinction as judge that in 1807 he was nominated for Governor, although only thirty-three years of age, and was elected. His administration was charac. terized by a sturdy upholding of the national policy of President Madison in resisting the encroachments of Great Britain. In the course of his third term as Governor, in 1812, he exercised his right to prorogue the Legislature, the only time the right has been exercised in the history of the State, the occasion being the threatened passage by the Legislature of a bill incorporating the Bank of North America, of which the Governor disapproved. The Legislature obeyed the Governor and dissolved, but upon reassembling passed the bank bill. 'The declaration of war against Great Britain in 1812 met with his hearty approval, and he labored energetically to send the State's militia to the scene of hostilities. In 1813 Governor Tompkins was renomi. nated and re-elected. In 1816 he called the attention of the Legislature loudly to the need of connecting the waters of the Hudson with Lake Erie and Lake Onta. rio. Mr. Tompkins steadily advanced in popularity, and finally in 1816 was nominated and elected as Vice-President of the United States. Almost the last act of Governor Tompkins as Governor, on January 27, 1817, was to send a special message to the Legislature recommend. ing the abolition of domestic slavery in the State. A law was passed in compli ance with this recommendation, abolishing slavery in the State on July 4, 1827. Mr. Tompkins took the oath of office as Vice-President on March 4, 1817, and again on March 4, 1821, being re-elected. He died on June 11, 1825. DEWITT CLINTON. DEWITT CLINTON, the fifth Governor | member of the council of appointment. of New York, was born at Little Britain, Orange county, on March 2, 1769. He was a nephew of George Clinton, the first Governor of the State, and his father was likewise an eminent citizen of New York and prominent member of the Legislature of 1801. DeWitt Clinton was graduated at Columbia College in 1786 at the head of his class, and was always a devoted student. He began public life by acting as the secretary of his uncle, Governor Clinton, from 1789 to 1795. There could be no fitter place in which to get an insight into the government of the State and to become acquainted with its public men. Retiring from public life for two years, he returned to it in 1797, being elected a member of the Assembly from New York city. As an Assembly man he was one of the most efficient members and became at once so prominent that the following year he was elected a Senator. In 1801 he had still further advancement, being appointed a It is an interesting fact that as Senator he offered a resolution, which was adopted, proposing an amendment to the Constitu. tion of the United States, providing for a division of each State into single dis. tricts, each one of which should be entitled to choose an elector of President and Vice-President, and for the designa. tion by every voter on his ballet, of the candidates whom he preferred. So rapidly did he advance in the esteem of his fellows that on February 4, 1802, he was elected a United States Senator to fill the vacant place of General Armstrong, who had resigned his office. As a member of the Senate he strenuously opposed a proposed invasion of Louisiana, then a province of Spain, to right the wrongs suffered by American citizens there. In his speech against this proposition he dwelt upon the large increase of the public debt which would follow a war; declaring that "our annual expendi tures over and above our surplus order of talent." In 1805 he was again | with his fellow Commissioners, explored elected a State Senator and continued a member of that body up to 1812. It was during this period that he threw himself into that scheme for internal improvements, the construction of great State canals to unite the great lakes with the Hudson, which was to make himself famous and his State the most prosper. the valley of the Mohawk river, of the Oswego river, and Western New York. His conclusions were that a great canal could be built and should be built between the Hudson and the great lakes and he devoted his life to the accomplishment of the great project. But before the consummation of this |