Gulian C. Verplanck

Gulian Crommelin Verplanck was born on August 6, 1786, in the family mansion at 3 Wall Street in New York City. He was the son of Elizabeth Johnson (d. 1789) and Congressman Daniel C. Verplanck (1762–1834), descendant of Dutch colonists. In 1789, his widowed father remarried to Ann Walton, and thereafter Gulian was brought up by his paternal grandmother, Judith ({{nee}} Crommelin) Verplanck.

His paternal grandfather was Samuel Verplanck and his great-uncle was Gulian Verplanck, two-time Speaker of the New York State Assembly. His maternal grandfather was William Samuel Johnson, the 3rd President of Columbia College and a U.S. Senator from Connecticut, and his great-grandfather was Samuel Johnson, the 1st President of Kings College.[http://www.crommelin.org/history/Biographies/Verplanck/Verplanck-Crommelin.htm The Crommelin Family Foundation, NL]{{cite news|title=OBITUARY.; Hon. Gulian C. Verplanck--Action of the Board of Commissioners of Emigration.|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1870/03/19/archives/obituary-hon-gulian-c-verplanckaction-of-the-board-of-commissioners.html|access-date=22 February 2017|work=The New York Times|date=19 March 1870}}

In 1801, he graduated from Columbia College with a B.A. and then proceeded to "read law" with Edward Livingston.[https://archive.org/stream/cu31924022207454#page/n51/mode/2up Daly, Charles P., Gulian C. Verplanck: His Ancestry, Life, and Character, D. Appleton & Co., New York, 1870]

Verplanck was admitted to the bar in 1807, and had a law office at 51 Wall Street.[http://library.syr.edu/digital/guides/v/verplanck_gc.htm "Gulian C. Verplanck Letters", Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Libraries] In 1808, he was the first secretary for the newly formed Washington Benevolent Society, a Federalist-affiliated club that engaged in political activity and electioneering.{{Cite journal |last=Butterfield |first=Kevin |date=2010-01-01 |title=Unbound by Law: Association and Autonomy in the Early American Republic |url=https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/etd/50 |journal=All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) |doi=10.7936/K7XW4GWJ}} An 1809 speech in front of the club members, which was then meeting at the old North Dutch Church, was considered "his entrance into public life."{{Cite book |last=Daly |first=Charles P. (Charles Patrick) |url=http://archive.org/details/cu31924022207454 |title=Gulian C. Verplanck; his ancestry, life, and character |date=1870 |publisher=New York, D. Appleton & company |others=Cornell University Library}} In 1811, he was fined $200 (~${{Format price|{{Inflation|index=US|value=200|start_year=1811}}}} in {{Inflation/year|US}}) for inciting a riot at a Columbia College commencement at Trinity Church when the presiding officer declined to confer a degree upon a student who had made political statements with which the faculty disagreed. Mayor DeWitt Clinton presided over the trial, and as he was seeking Federalist support against President James Madison in the upcoming election, it was thought that this may have influenced his conduct of the trial.

Verplanck was elected as a member of the New York State Assembly in 1820–21, 1822 and 1823. Although he had earlier been a Federalist, he was elected as a Jacksonian to the 19th, 20th, and as a Democrat to the 21st and 22nd United States Congresses, holding office from March 4, 1825, to March 3, 1833. He was Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means (22nd Congress). While there one of his leading acts was to secure the extension of the period of copyrights. In 1833, when President Andrew Jackson began his quest to suppress the Second Bank of the United States, Verplanck left the Democrats.

In April 1834, at the first popular election for Mayor of New York City,{{cite web|title=VERPLANCK, Gulian Crommelin - Biographical Information|url=http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=V000089|website=bioguide.congress.gov|publisher=Biographical Directory of the United States Congress|access-date=22 February 2017}} Verplanck was the candidate of the emerging Whig Party but was narrowly defeated (sources range from 181 to 213 votes) by Cornelius Van Wyck Lawrence.[https://books.google.com/books?id=5Xycg_URdTgC&pg=PA334 A Political History of the State of New York] by DeAlva Stanwood Alexander (Vol. 1, pages 334ff) Afterwards Verplanck kept his own counsel in politics and supported William Henry Harrison (Whig), James K. Polk (Dem.), Zachary Taylor (Whig) and James Buchanan (Dem.) for president, remaining a Democrat thereafter.

Verplanck was a member of the New York State Senate (1st D.) from 1838 to 1841, sitting in the 61st, 62nd, 63rd and 64th New York State Legislatures.

He was appointed as the President of the New York State Board of Commissioners of Emigration, serving from 1846 until his death in 1870. The State Emigrant Hospital on Ward's Island, which he helped to establish in this capacity, was eventually renamed in his honor.{{cite book |last1=Bryant |first1=William Cullen |title=A Discourse on the Life, Character and Writings of Gulian Crommelin Verplanck |date=1870 |publisher=New-York Historical Society |location=New York |page=44}} He was a delegate to the New York State Constitutional Convention of 1867–68.

File:GCVerplanck.jpgFile:Gulian Crommelin Verplanck by Mathew Brady.jpg]]

In his literary life, Verplanck was a contributor to the North American Review, perhaps best known for his denunciation of Knickerbocker's History of New York, by Washington Irving. In 1819, he wrote verse satires against Dewitt Clinton; these were generally known as The Bucktail Bards. On the request of Harper Brothers, he edited a set of Shakespeare.[https://books.google.com/books?id=wekpAQAAMAAJ&dq=Daniel+Crommelin+Verplanck.&pg=PA747 Bergen, Tunis Garret. "Verplanck", Genealogies of the State of New York, Vol. 2, Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1915]

Through his writing, he was considered part of the so-called "Knickerbocker group", which included Irving, William Cullen Bryant, James Kirke Paulding, Fitz-Greene Halleck, Joseph Rodman Drake, Robert Charles Sands, Lydia Maria Child, and Nathaniel Parker Willis.Nelson, Randy F. The Almanac of American Letters. Los Altos, California: William Kaufmann, Inc., 1981: 30. {{ISBN|0-86576-008-X}}

File:Eliza Fenno Verplanck-Edward Greene Malbone (page 197 crop).jpg]]

On October 2, 1811, he married Mary Elizabeth Fenno, a daughter of Mary Curtis and John Fenno (1751–1798), a Federalist Party editor and publisher of Gazette of the United States. One of her sisters married Josiah Ogden Hoffman (1766–1837), the New York Attorney General, and another married John Rodman (1775–1847), the New York County District Attorney. Together, Verplanck and Mary Eliza had two sons:

• William Samuel Verplanck (1812–1885),{{cite news|title=Obituary 1 -- No Title|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1885/12/24/archives/obituary-1-no-title.html|access-date=22 February 2017|work=The New York Times|date=24 December 1885}} who married Anna Biddle Newlin (1816–1883), daughter of Robert Newlin (1770–1840) and niece of Maj. Gen. Jacob Brown, on November 17, 1837.{{cite book|last1=Bergen|first1=Tunis Garret|title=Genealogies of the State of New York: A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Making of a Commonwealth and the Founding of a Nation|date=1915|publisher=Lewis Historical Publishing Company|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wekpAQAAMAAJ&q=Robert+N.+Verplanck&pg=PA749|access-date=22 February 2017|language=en}}
• Gulian Verplanck (1815–1845), who died unmarried

While traveling abroad, Mary Verplanck died in 1817 in Paris. She was buried there at the Père Lachaise Cemetery. Verplanck died at his residence in 14th Street in New York City on March 18, 1870. He was buried at the Trinity Churchyard in Fishkill, New York.

Through his eldest son William, Verplanck was the grandfather of:

• Eliza Fenmo Verplanck (b. 1838), who married Benjamin Richards;
• Mary Newlin Verplanck (1840–1881), who married her cousin Samuel William Johnson (1830–1909);
• Robert Newlin Verplanck (1842–1908), who married Katharine Van Bensehoten (b. 1857);
• Daniel Crommelin Verplanck (1845–1854);
• Anna Verplanck (1846–1891), who married Samuel Hicks Clapp;
• Jeannette Verplanck (b. 1849), who married Theodore M. Etting;
• Gelyna Verplanck (b. 1852), who married Louis Fitzgerald;
• William Edward Verplanck (1856–1928), who married Virginia Everett Darby.{{cite news|title=WILLIAM E. VERPLANCK.; Retired Lawyer and Member of Old New York Family Dies.|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1928/12/19/95682466.html?pageNumber=24|access-date=22 February 2017|work=The New York Times|date=December 19, 1928|language=en}}

Verplanck is the ancestor of William Samuel Verplanck, Jr. (1916–2002), a psychologist who conducted a series of significant experiments in the fields of ethology, experimental psychology, and especially in the field of radical behaviorism.{{cite journal | pmc=2733434 | pmid=22478061 | volume=13 |issue = 2| title=The history of behavior analysis: Some historiography and a bibliography | year=1990 | journal=Behav Anal | pages=131–58 | last1 = Morris | first1 = EK | last2 = Todd | first2 = JT | last3 = Midgley | first3 = BD | last4 = Schneider | first4 = SM | last5 = Johnson | first5 = LM|doi = 10.1007/BF03392530}}{{cite web |url=http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/amp/58/6-7/491/ |title=APA PsycNet |website=psycnet.apa.org |access-date=February 21, 2013}}

Verplanck spent the greater part of his life in New York City and in 1820, he was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society.[http://www.americanantiquarian.org/memberlistv American Antiquarian Society Members Directory] He served as a professor at the General Theological Seminary in New York City from 1821 to 1824. He was one of the governors of the New York Hospital from 1823 to 1865. In 1826, he was elected a regent of the University of the State of New York, and in 1858 became its Vice Chancellor, remaining in office until his death. Verplanck was one of the founding members of the Century Club and was its president at the time of his death.

{{Portal|Biography}}

• Mount Gulian

;Notes

{{Reflist|30em}}

;Sources

{{Commons category|Gulian Crommelin Verplanck}}

• Robert W. July, The Essential New Yorker: Gulian Crommelin Verplanck, Duke University Press, 1951.

{{CongBio|V000089}}

• [https://books.google.com/books?id=E3sFAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA71 The New York Civil List] compiled by Franklin Benjamin Hough (pages 71f, 93, 131ff, 147, 197ff, 313, 338; Weed, Parsons and Co., 1858)
• [https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1870/03/19/80219988.pdf OBITUARY; Hon. Gulian C. Verplanck] in NYT on March 19, 1870
• [https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1870/05/18/87588676.pdf GULIAN C. VERPLANCK.; His Life, Character and Writings] in NYT on May 18, 1870

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Category:1786 births

Category:1870 deaths

Category:Politicians from Manhattan

Category:American people of Dutch descent

Category:Columbia College (New York) alumni

Category:Members of the New York State Assembly

Category:Politicians from New York City

Category:Regents of the University of the State of New York

Category:New York (state) state senators

Category:Jacksonian members of the United States House of Representatives from New York (state)

Category:Knickerbocker Group

Category:General Theological Seminary faculty

Category:Presidents of the Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York

Category:19th-century members of the New York State Legislature

Category:19th-century members of the United States House of Representatives