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Winter 1803

King's Record

William Cochran
Excerpt from "The Life and Writings of DeWitt Clinton"
by William W. Campbell 1827

... De Witt Clinton was born on the second day of March, 1769, at Little Britain ... In 1784, after passing an examination in the presence of the Board of Trustees of the College, and of the Regents of the University, he was admitted to the junior class, and was the first student who entered that seminary after the conclusion of the war. He was well grounded in the Latin and Greek languages, and in mathematics; for while at college, he enjoyed the advantages of being instructed in the classics, by that highly accomplished and elegant scholar, the Reverend Dr. William Cochrane [Cochran], now [1827] Vice President of the college of Windsor, Nova Scotia, a graduate of Trinity college, Dublin; and in the mathematics, by John Kemp, LL.D. an eminent mathematician, and a graduate of Marischal college, Aberdeen.

These gentlemen were, at that time, professors in Columbia college, in the zenith of their usefulness and reputation, and gave corresponding celebrity to that institution. Mr. Clinton was graduated a Bachelor of Arts in 1786. On that occasion he delivered the Latin salutatory, an exercise always assigned to the best scholar of the class. He was the first graduate of that college after the revolution.

In recent communication received from his preceptor, the Rev. Dr. Cochran, whose valuable life and services are still continued, he expresses himself with great pride and affection, in relation to his pupil Mr. Clinton. The letter with which I have been favoured, conveying many interesting particulars, bears date the 9th of May last.

"I have seen by the public papers," says he, "that your State has suffered the loss of two eminent men since I visited you last summer; I mean Mr. Emmet and Governor Clinton. The first was my contemporary in Trinity College, Dublin. The other the first pupil I had in Columbia College. The event could not but awaken many interesting recollections in my mind." After a brief and pathetic notice of Mr. Emmet, and of his family, he thus proceeds to speak of Mr. Clinton.

"I think him to have been, both for talents and patriotism, among the very first men of whom the United States could boast in his day. His conceptions were great, and his courage, perseverance, and resources of mind to effect them, were as great."

He continues - "It was, I may say, a mere accident that either that seminary or myself has had any share in educating so great and useful a man. In the summer of 1784, his father brought him to New-York, on his way to Princeton College, to place him in that seminary. The Legislature had passed an act in the preceding winter, for restoring and new naming King's College; afterwards to be a University by the name of Columbia. But no final arrangement or appointments had been made; only a committee was empowered to provide, in a temporary way, for what might be most needful.

"The late Mr. Duane, then Mayor of New-York, was one of this committee, who hearing that the nephew of the Governor was going out of the state for his education, applied to me, to know if I would undertake the care of him, and such others as might offer, until the appointments for the college could be made. To which I readily agreed, and young Clinton, with half a dozen more, were put under my tuition." He proceeds, "I found Mr. Clinton apt to learn any thing that was required of him. He was clear in mathematics, and correct in classical knowledge. He did everything well: upon the whole, he seemed likely to me to prove, as he did prove, a highly useful and practical man; what the Romans call 'civilis,' and the Greeks p o l i t i c o V , a useful citizen, and qualified to counsel and direct his fellow-citizens to honour and happiness. And now, in conclusion, I cannot but feel self-gratulation and pride, I hope a virtuous one, when I reflect on the number of eminent persons that have proceeded from the very cradle of Columbia College. Draw at a venture," continues Dr. Cochran, "from the old and illustrious seminaries of England and Ireland, the same number of names as we had on our books, and I will venture to affirm, that they would not be superior to such men as Governor Clinton, Chancellor Jones, the Rev. Dr. John M. Mason, and some others." ...

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