16 



Annual Address. 



ter, while preserving the two original departments, author- 

 ized the creation of a third for history and general 

 literature. This last department was afterwards organized 

 and has already made valuable contributions to that branch 

 of knowledge, and is, I trust in the future, to be of grow- 

 ing interest and importance. The history of the Institute 

 has been not less marked than was that of the parent 

 society, by men distinguished for their labors in the inter- 

 ests of science, of education, and of all that could promote 

 public welfare. And here, at its head and as its first 

 president, we meet the elder Stephen Van Rensselaer, 

 familiarly known as the old Patroon — the head of another 

 old manorial family — one who if not the equal of Chan- 

 cellor Livingston in genius and intellectual endowments, 

 was not inferior to him in social position and influence, 

 in personal virtues, and in his deep and conscientious 

 feeling of the obligations of public duty, which his 

 high position and great wealth imposed. Those who 

 remember him presiding over the Institute, will not forget 

 his tall and graceful figure, his simple but carefully 

 appointed dress, his powdered head and the air of high 

 distinction that so eminently marked him, and still less 

 will they forget the moral and religious traits of his cha- 

 racter, and the usefulness and benevolence of his life. 

 He was one of the earliest and most persevering advocates 

 of the canal system of the state, and as early as 1810 he, 

 with Gouverneur Morris and DeWitt Clinton as state 

 commissioners, made a journey on horseback attended by 

 surveyors, from the Hudson to Lake Erie, for the purpose 

 of exploring a suitable route for a canal. He was con- 

 tinued as a member of all subsequent commissions on the 

 subject until 1816, when the act was finally passed author- 

 izing the construction of the Erie canal, and he was 

 appointed one of the commissioners charged with its 

 construction. The laborious duties of this important 



