object of this memoir is to reflect a life rather than its fairer side alone, is here given entire :

COLUMBIA COLLEGE, December 19, 1829.

TO MR. WILLIAM DUER, President elect of Columbia College. DEAR SIR, I have to acknowledge the receipt of yours of the 15th, and in reply to state that the trustees had anticipated the request it contained of my continuing in charge of the college until your actual entrance on the duties of your new station. I have also to thank you for the assurances it contains of unchanged sentiments towards me. Which, while I fully reciprocate, permit me to observe that I am not aware of anything during the late contest that could make such assurance necessary. My college course has ever been an open one, and in appearing as a candidate for the presidency, I but pressed a claim which all admitted to be a natural and obvious one, and which for years had been kept before me by more than one leading member of the board of trustees. Permit me, therefore, to say that we stood in such different relations to this object as scarcely to admit that reciprocity of reasoning you apply to it. With you it was but one prize out of many to which talents might aspire,your one external to your profession and brought before you but at the moment of decision. To me it was the only prize which was or could be offered in life, one for which I thought myself fitted by natural talent, for which I knew myself qualified by long experience; - one which had been kept in view during twelve years of unremitted

exertion, and in some measure, I might say, earned by years of voluntary labor far beyond the requirements of my professorship, and by means of which the college was allowed to go on unembarrassed during the almost continued indisposition of the late president. These are circumstances which make the question to me a singular one, such as no other man's feelings are likely rightly to appreciate, and the decision of it to be felt by me as a hard, I could almost say, an ungrateful one, since my zeal was turned to my condemnation.

Such are my feelings on this subject, and I think that you will agree with me that no man in my situation, conscious of the fair claims which spring from undivided faithfulness, and a long course of honorable exertion, could think or feel otherwise. Still it is a question remote from personal feeling, and as it is now decided, I feel it to be my duty not merely to submit, but, both as a man and a Christian to turn from all fruitless speculation on the past, and in the duties which lie before me, and in the thankful enjoyment of the domestic blessings by which I am surrounded, to forget the only disappointment, I may say, which life has yet taught me.

With renewed assurances that my best counsel and advice shall ever be at your service and in the interests of the college,

Believe me, etc., etc.,

J. McVICKAR.

It is but fair to the trustees of the college to state

that they were not forgetful of these extra services. On the 2d of February, 1830, the board of trustees passed resolutions handsomely acknowledging the same, and appointing a committee to procure and present a testimonial in the shape of books. These, large and rare illustrated volumes, with the imprint of the college, are still preserved as cherished heirlooms.

My father was true to the resolve expressed in the conclusion of the above letter. He indulged in no vain regrets. He showed no diminution of zeal, and we quickly find him as much interested as ever in all that tended to advance the usefulness or reputation of the college.

A memorandum in his handwriting, dated a month later than the above letter, gives a sketch of a proposed plan, which was only partially carried out, for enlarging the influence of the college under a modified university system: The subject being one of present interest, I subjoin the chief points of the proposed plan, which was in accordance with a statute then recently passed by the board of trustees.

In addition to the regular classes which were entered for the course of arts, admission was to be granted to those who might desire to attend any part of the scientific, literary, or classical courses of instruction, upon the payment of fifteen dollars per annum for each department thus attended. As soon as numbers justified it, they would be formed by the board into classes according to their respective proficiency. Also, beside the regular instruction in the

lecture-room, courses of lectures, accommodated to the wants of the public, were to be delivered in the various branches of literature and science. Applications were to be in order at once for each or all of the following courses, dependent for their delivery on the public demand, namely, Political Economy, Greek Literature, Practical Mechanics, Astronomy, Italian and French Literature, to be delivered by Professors McVickar, Moore, Renwick, Anderson, Dupont, and Verren. After which, other and fuller courses were promised, according to the demand.

Columbia College, while slow to be making tentative experiments in education, had always shown herself willing and able to meet all the legitimate demands of New York city and its neighborhood for high education. The closeness, however, and conservative character of her corporation, her high appreciation of classical learning, and her churchly origin, for hardly anything more denominational than that was ever charged against her, created enemies, and at this time they all combined in the attempt to give her a secondary position, by establishing in New York a great university of practical science, which should unite in itself all the literary and scientific bodies in the city.

The effort failed, and Columbia was none the worse for the attempt she had made to meet what had been claimed to be this large unsupplied demand for a wider university course. The demand, however, was a fictitious one; but few of the outside lectures were called for, and but a small number of students availed

themselves of the scientific or voluntary courses which were from that time, by statute, allowed.

The course on Political Economy was the first one delivered. The following from the "New York American" of February 23d and 25th, 1830, is interesting, as probably coming from the pen of its editor, Charles King, afterwards himself president of the college, and as adding some little touches of information respecting the subject of our memoir:

"On Thursday evening Professor McVickar will deliver in the hall of Columbia College, a lecture introductory to the open course of Political Economy, which, in pursuance of the late statute of the trustees of Columbia College, he is about to give. Of his ability in this branch, our community needs no new assurance, for he has, on several occasions of deep interest to the business and pursuits of the great mass of our citizens, made his voice heard, and proclaimed sound doctrine in plain and forcible language. This is a course which will, we presume, test pretty decisively the extent of that desire and thirst for instruction in useful knowledge which is supposed to exist: in this city."

In the same journal, two days later :

"We attended at the college lecture-room last evening to hear Professor McVickar's introductory lecture, and were more than gratified with the enlarged views and elegant illustrations of the science of political economy which we heard from the professor.

Mr. McVickar's voice and manner are particularly