Mr Lawrence remarked that it was within the recollection of the members, that a committee had been appointed some time since to report upon the value of the documents collected by Mr. Broadhead, and the general merits of the Historical agency. The Society had felt it incumbent upon them to vindicate the enterprise from the aspersions which had been cast upon it, in a report presented to the higher branch of our Legislature by an honorable Senator. And the Hon. Mr. Bleecker, of Albany, had been applied to for the purpose, both by letter and through Mr. Schoolcraft, and that gentleman had promised to the committee his invaluable assistance. It was soon afterwards understood that Mr. Broadhead was about returning from Europe, with all the remaining documents he had succeeded in procuring, and the committee had determined, therefore, to await his coming. But he had the pleasure of assuring the members, on their behalf, that their report would in no case be delayed beyond the first meeting of the Society, after the summer vacation.

Mr. John W. Edmonds read an historical sketch, entitled "Some passages in the life of Governor Tompkins."

The paper was confined principally to the events of 1814-a very gloomy and anxious period of the late war with England. It commenced by describing the state of things at the beginning of that year. The Lake Champlain frontier was threatened with a powerful army under Sir Geo. Provost, and Sacketts Harbor, Oswego, and the mouth of the Genesee river, by a combined land and sea force under Sir James Yeo. On the Niagara frontier the American army had been driven out of Canada, and Lt. Gen. Drummond had crossed the lines, burned Lewiston, Schlosser, Buffalo and Black Rock, and driven our forces and the inhabitants far into the interior. Sag Harbor on Long Island was also threatened, and Lord Hill was assembling a large force at Halifax destined to the attack of New York; the enemy intending by simultaneous attacks to form a junction by the Hudson river and cut off all communication between the Eastern States and the rest of the Union At this time Gov. Tompkins, with the House of Assembly and the Council of Appointment opposed to him in politics-with little aid from the

The consequence of his measures was, that the enemy were beaten at Plattsburgh, and their fleet on Lake Champlain destroyed, were driven from the Niagara frontier, and the threatened attack on New York was directed to New Orleans, where the war terminated with the victory of the 8th of January, 1815.

Mr. Edmonds had selected an interesting period for his paper, and he made it the more interesting by filling it principally with the correspondence of the prominent men of that day.

Among that correspondence was one between the Governor and a Clergyman, the Rev. Benjamin Wooster, Fairfield, Vermont, from which it appeared that when Sir George Prevost with his army invaded our Champlain frontier, the Militia of Vermont were called out. When the alarm reached Fairfield, Mr. Wooster was just preparing to preach to his people, preparatory to the sacramental supper; without a moment's delay, his people turned out en masse, chose their pastor to be their leader, under his command, reached Plattsburgh in season, and fought bravely through the whole of that successful battle.

The Governor commenced these services by a present of a superb copy of the Bible, which was accompanied, and its r ceipt acknowledged, by letters, which proved a very interesting portion of the paper read to the Society.

On motion of Prof. Mason, the thanks of the Society were returned to Mr. Edmonds for the interesting paper read by him, and a copy requested for deposit in the archives.

The President appointed Mr. W. W. Campbell to fill the vacancy in the committee of publication, caused by the resignation of Mr. Gibbs.

The Society then adjourned to meet on the first Wednesday in October, unless sooner called together by the Executive Committee.

The close of the evening was pleasantly passed by the members and visitors in the gallery, where a simple repast awaited them.

3d. Statistics of France, Exterior Commerce. Paris, 1838.

4th. Statistics of France, Agriculture, 4 volumes. 1840-42.

5th. Statistics of France, Public Administration. 1843.

SPECIAL MEETING-Tuesday evening, June 18.-The First Vice President, WM. B. LAWRENCE, Esq., in the Chair.

Mr. Folsom stated that the statistical reports which were referred to in the letter of Mr. Walsh, of Paris, read at the last meeting, had been received; and on his motion it was

Resolved, That the thanks of this Society be given to the Minister of Commerce, of France, for the very valuable and most acceptable donation of eight volumes of the Statistique de la France to this Society; and that the Foreign Corresponding Secretary be instructed to communicate this Resolution to that distinguished functionary.

A duplicate set of these reports has been received for the National Institute at Washington; and Mr. Walsh's letter mentioned that the Minister of Commerce had promised to give the whole series, which will amount to eighty-six volumes. The admirable arrangement and fulness of detail which characterize these volumes give to them great interest and value. They are briefly as follows:

1st. Statistical documents upon France, published by the Minister of Commerce. Imperial quarto, Paris, 1835, 1 volume.

This constitutes the introductory volume to the collection, the publication of which was commenced in that year, and contains a sketch of the system proposed. The general divisions are as follows:

1st, Territory; 2d, Population; 3d, Agriculture; 4th, Mines; 5th, Industry; 6th, Commerce; 7th, Navigation; 8th, Colonies; 9th, Internal Administration; 10th, Finances; 11th, Military Force; 12th, Marine; 13th, Justice; 14th, Public Instruction.

These general divisions are further subdivided, and the plan of statistical inquiry illustrated.

2d. Statistics of France, Territory and Population, vol. Paris, 1837.

The Chairman of the Executive Committee presented a report upon the nominations which had been referred to them at the last meeting, and the gentlemen recommended were unanimously elected.

Mr. Jay gave notice of a proposed amendment to the 7th section of the Constitution, to restore the former rule of electing members at a meeting subsequent to the one at which they have been nominated.

The gentlemen e'ected are as follows:

Resident Members.-John C. Greene, George C. Griswold, Waldron B. Post, George Potts, D. D., Rev. Gorham Abbot, Rev. Jacob Abbot, Wm. E. Wilmerding, Dr. Richard S. Kissam, Benjamin H. Field, John L. Mason, Cambridge Livingston, Henry Hall Ward, Rev. Wm. Adams, D. D., Charles F. Hunter, Charles E. West, Elisha P. Hurlbut, Hon. Wm. Inglis, Joshua M. Van Cott, George W. Morrell, Pliny Earle, M. D., Francis W. Edmonds, John R. Peters, Esqrs.

Corresponding Members.-Jared P. Kirtland, M. D., of Cleaveland, Ohio; Hon. John Law, Vincennes, Ind.: Henry Brown, Esq., of Chicago, Ill.; Giles F. Yates, Esq., of Schenectedy, N. Y.; Thomas Colley Grattan, Esq., Her Britannic Majesty's Consul at Boston; Wm. B. Sampson, Esq., of London (author of Criminal Jurisprudence, &c. &c.); Rev. Dr. Wm. Scoresby, of England.

Honorary Members.-Thomas Clarkson, the Philanthropist, of Playford Hall, Ipswich, England; Hon. Charles Augustus Murray, of England.

The Chairman submitted an interesting document of the period of the Revolution, presented to the Society by Jonathan Edwards, Esq., of this city. The original commission of the Traitor Benedict Arnold, as commander of the Expedition against Ticonderoga, in July, 1775. This document passed into the hands of the donor from the papers of his late grandfather, the Hon. Pierpont Edwards, of Connecticut.

On motion of Mr. Gibbs, it was resolved that the Library be closed from and after the 1st day of July proximo, during such time as the Librarian may deem necessary. The Society then adjourned.

THE Whigs have assumed the right to sneer, with very sarcastic exultation, over our Presidential nomination, in contrast with their own, with respect to the alleged personal calibre of the two candidates. Clay is what is commonly called a "great man,”—in every sense they claim the title for him, and in some we freely concede it. Lucifer once held his head among the highest in the angelic host. Polk is indeed a much younger man, and that he has heretofore filled a much less extensive and brilliant space in the public eye, is undeniable. The same might once have been said of a certain giant whose spear was a weaver's beam, and a shepherd boy whose sole weapon was a sling and three pebbles from the brook by which he had been wont to tend the flocks of Jesse. Mr. Polk has, indeed, never had the opportunity of placing himself in the "line of safe precedents" for the Presidential succession as Secretary of State, under circumstances still unforgotten, and never to be forgot, -and if he had enjoyed a similar opportunity, we fear we must concede the confession that he most assuredly would never have made a similar use of it. He has never been thrice beaten as a candidate for the Presidency,-nor, as we must again needs confess, is he ever likely to be, even once. He has never been a great, bold and high gambler at the roulette table of political ambition (nor at any other)-and, therefore,

he has never made himself the representative of special interests, powerful though partial, great though unjust and unconstitutional, so as to be an author of "systems" misnamed "American," and to be looked up to by vast interests, pecuniary and sectional, as their special hope and delight ;-or so as to be taken up by a large corporate moneyed power to head its forces in a campaign of extermination against the government of the country. None of these, Mr. Clay's unchallenged claims to greatness, it must be admitted, can be pretended for Mr. Polk. On the strength of these and other similar titles, our opponents are welcome to all their pride in their chief as a "great man," we are content with ours as a good one, and great enough for all practical purposes.

The two candidates indeed, with a felicity of adaptation and correspondence, which is no mere accident, may be said in a remarkable manner to represent, respectively, the spirit and character of the two great parties by whom they have been chosen. As a general rule, though liable to accidental exception, this must usually be

cording to the Anglo-aristocratic sense of the word, as employed by those who were wont so to apply it to him, so is Mr. Clay the pattern and perfection of a Whig-in the modern degenerate meaning of the term. As the profligate prince was "the first gentleman in England," so is the profligate politician fitly the first Whig in America. A second-rate man in point of eloquence, intellectual force, and eminence of rank, would never have answered-could never have been adopted-as the head of such a party. We concede them this credit. They are naturally fond of splendor and strength-large and sweeping action-bold and brilliant energy of enterprise. Such is precisely the character their instinct has ever tended and striven to impress upon the government. Aristocracies generally require high personal qualifications in their leaders and their instruments, as the most brilliant talent at the bar is usually feed highest in cases of the most equivocal morality. Your Pitts and Peels, your Clays and Websters, are the statesmen for them.

The Democratic party on the other hand care much less for " great men,' -great men, we mean, by this standard of estimation. We prefer a Lafayette to a Bonaparte. We care little for gold or gem on the hilt, if the simple blade be but trusty and true. The glitter of greatness has little charm in it to dazzle our eyes. True, firm, honest and consistent men are, if not all we want, yet what we want first and most. Hence it is that we never take up the deserters from the other side to officer our troops; the Whigs always do. Our eyes, our thoughts, our hearts, are more steadily, more devotedly, more confidently, fixed on our principles, than on the personal parade of our politicians. We rarely give large latitude of discretion, in reliance on personal character and power of intellect. Our public men never think of asking a generous confidence at our hands. We are the party that give instructions to our representatives, and never forgive their violation of them. Our opponents are avowedly the party that discountenances the former, while it applauds and welcomes to its highest rewards those who from our side can bring the latter title to their favor. Representatives of our principles are what we want-men of a per

sonal morality suitable to them, and of a political integrity reliable for their faithful and firm support. These conditions secured, that of the very highest intellectual eminence, though not to be disregarded, is but secondary in our care.

us as our

And these conditions are by common consent admirably united in Mr. Polk. He would, therefore, have been perfectly satisfactory to party candidate for the presidency, even if he had possessed in a far less degree than he has already amply proved, the further addition of the lat ter qualification, for the high office to which he is about to be called. Instead of being cooled in the zeal of their support of him, for the sake of the cause represented in his person and name, by all the Whig sneers of depreciation, the Democracy would have been perfectly content had he indeed been less of a great man,' than they already full well know him to be. His purity of private life no tongue even of partisan slander ventures to assail. He is not merely the reformed penitent of past habits of vice and degradation— (the best that can be even pretended for his competitor)--but he has been consistently and conscientiously a moral and religious man from his youth. The firmness of his political integrity has been proved by an undeviating consistency of principle and conduct through all his past political life, together with an energetic zeal and ardor in the support of his opinions and his party, best attesting the source from which they spring. He has come into his present position, too, in a mode not only disproving any possible charge of the employment of intrigue or effort to attain it, but denying to his worst enemy the very possibility of insinuating the charge. He had not aspired to it

had not desired it—had not dreamed of it. He was at a distance, and had taken no part in it-had had no knowledge of the agitations which so long reigned in the Convention. At a moment when the dissensions by which that body was distracted were at their height-when, in the contest between the friends and the opponents of Mr. Van Buren, the latter being for the most part united on an individual who was thus made the representative of the movement of opposition to him, a state of feeling had gradually de

veloped itself which would probably have made it extremely dangerous to nominate either-at that moment when matters had reached that crisis in nominating bodies when the selection of a third man, mutually acceptable, affords the only means of reuniting the alienated and embittered sections, Mr. Polk was brought forward without agency of his own or of his special friends, simply by the force of circumstances, cooperating happily with his own personal qualifications and position. It was no mere accident, how ever. It could not have happened to an inferior or an unworthy man. If a crown was floating in the air uncertain on what head to settle, none but a high one, of dimensions to fit and strength to wear it, could attract it to itself. On the morning of the day on which the nomination was made, the proposition was urged on the friends of Mr. Van Buren, from those Southern members of Congress whose organized and active opposition had matured his defeat, to take up either Mr. Wright or Mr. Polk. None but a man in the highest degree possessing, by having deserved, the confidence of all, both in his talents and his integrity, was likely to have been proposed at that time, or would have been accepted. The union of the latter name with the former, shows at once the calibre and the character that were looked for-that were felt to be demanded by the crisis-and that were known to meet in the person of either of these two. It was one of those occasions on which the spontaneous choice of multitudes constitutes the highest evidence of the natural "right divine" for command, of those on whom the honor of its instinctive selection fixes itself. When men need a leader, they rarely fail to choose one from their number best entitled to the post because best qualified for it. The quick enthusiasm with which the choice of Mr. Polk was received by all sections in the Convention, and all sections of the Democracy out of it, alone constitutes a sufficient proof of the eminent and firmly-founded position, even though not in the first fore-ground of national politics, which he already occupied in the respect and confidence of all.

Some reader may, possibly, so far misconceive the spirit of the foregoing remarks, as to read in them some con

cession to that Whig imputation against our candidate to which we have alluded. Nothing can be further from our intention-nothing further from our opinion

nothing further from the truth. Indeed, we have no doubt that Mr. Polk will retire from the Presidency followed by the concurrent testimony of all candid and liberal men of all parties, that the office had lent him no honor which he did not return to it. He is a "firstrate" man-first-rate in ability-firstrate in dignity of character and conduct

first-rate in political and personal integrity-first-rate in purity of constitutional principles, according to the fundamental doctrines of the Republican Party. He has already been amply tried, and those who were present to behold with their own eyes, know best how admirably he has passed through some of the severest ordeals by which the highest qualities of statesmanship can be tested. We refer to his parliamentary career in the House of Representatives-and especially to his leadership of the Democratic Party in the memorable panic period, together with his subsequent stormy and arduous speakership. By his conduct on those occasions Mr. Polk placed himself on an eminence, in the judgment of all by whom it was witnessed, not below the level of any political duty or rank to which the circumstances of the country might at any day afterwards call him. "Faithful over a few things," he well proved himself fit and worthy to be a "ruler over many things." Bonaparte, whose power of judging men was one of the greatest of his qualities, did not wait for men to have consumed half a life in the tactics of the higher strategy at the head of armies, before he entrusted the destinies of nations to their hands. In a comparatively narrower and less elevated sphere, they might afford abundant evidence of their capacity for all the duties of the broadest and the highest.

Yet why do we so far yield to the common modes of estimation, as to refer to Mr. Polk's celebrated "leadership

" of the House of Representatives, as having been enacted on a stage 66 narrower and less elevated," than any other that can be afforded by our institutions for the display of what is in a man and what a man is? In England that post is one, during its occupancy by a prime minister, sec