226 On the Correspondence of Governor D. D. Tompkins. 



the formation of two regiments, of 1,000 men each, of colored men, to 

 serve during the war. And they were, accordingly, organized, and 

 served at Sackett's Harbor, among other places. 



And five years afterward, when peace had been declared two years, 

 and after he had been chosen Vice-President of the United States, and 

 twenty-five days before resigning his office of governor, viz., on Jan- 

 uary 28, 1817, lie evinced f he high moral tone of his nature, by sending 

 a special message to the legislature, urgently recommending the en- 

 tire abolition of slavery in the State, and that after 1827, there should 

 not remain a slave within its limits; thus, in his own language, "eman- 

 cipating from bitter servitude that portion of his fellow-creatures who 

 continue to be held in unjust and cruel bondage, by civilized and inde- 

 pendent freemen." 



After his resignation, and though he was no longer an officer of the 

 State, the legislature at that session, on March 31st, unanimously 

 and promptly enacted the law which he had requested. There is no 

 doubt that it was done at that time largely in deference to his request 

 and out of love to him. It was the era of good feeling in politics, the 

 days of President Monroe, when Governor Tompkin's chances for the 

 pre>idenc\ denied a- good as those of Monroe himself. Hammond. 



personally more popular than any man the State has ever produced." 

 page 532. 



His message of February 24, 1817, in which he sends in his resigna- 

 tion of his office of governor, expresses in most touching language his 

 consciousness of the degree to which he had the love and confidence of 

 the people, and of what he calls "the paternal solicitude" with which 

 they had all sustained him, officers, legislators and citizens, during the 

 war and amid violent party collisions, national difficulties and distress- 



In the clear light of the coming centuries with what pride will every 

 New Yorker point to the volumes containing Governor Tompkins' 

 messages and correspondence on the library shelves, as the memorials 

 of the man who was the leader in accomplishing the abolition of slavery 



Besides this most honorable action he was persistent in favor- 

 ing popular education, the amelioration of the Criminal Code, and he 

 once, which was a mo-r extraordinary proceeding, prorogued the legis- 



tution, which law he believed would be obtained through bribery and 



