Gulian C. Verplanck

Verplanck was elected as a member of the New York State Assembly in 1820–21, 1822 and 1823.[5] Although he had earlier been a Federalist,[9] 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).[7] While there one of his leading acts was to secure the extension of the period of copyrights.[10] In 1833, when President Andrew Jackson began his quest to suppress the Second Bank of the United States, Verplanck left the Democrats.[11]

In April 1834, at the first popular election for Mayor of New York City,[1] 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.[12] 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.[11]

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.[11]

He was appointed as the President of the Board of Commissioners of Immigration, serving from 1846 until his death in 1870. He was a delegate to the New York State Constitutional Convention of 1867–68.[11]

Photograph of Verplanck taken between 1855 and 1865

Portrait of Verplanck by Mathew Brady

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.[10]

Through his writing, he was considered part of the so-called "Knickerbocker group",[3] 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.[13][5]

Through his eldest son William, Verplanck was the grandfather of:[11]

• 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.[14][15]

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.[16][17]

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.[18] He served as a professor at the General Theological Seminary in New York City from 1821 to 1824.[7] 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.