Cadwallader Colden (19 page)

His attempts to expand Newton's contributions to physics, optics, and, most critically for Colden, to provide an explanation for the cause of gravitation, were purely literal expressions, devoid of mathematical references and equations. His words presented what was considered to be philosophical ruminations on matter, which he considered to be active and unintelligent, and mind, which he proposed as being extended, active, and intelligent. Colden was a Deist, but the Diety or Spirit did not nor could it act in opposition to the actions of material beings. Colden's writings
along these lines were diffuse and his “philosophy” is now rarely invoked.

Colden's appellation of “the most learned man in the Colonies”
²¹
and Franklin's deference to Colden's knowledge
²²
was based mainly on Colden's ventures into Newtonian science. There is no question that Colden had little expertise in mathematics or physics, and no understanding on Newton's concepts. As the justifiable criticism from the most highly regarded mathematicians of the time indicated, Colden's interpretations and proposals were “absurd!”
²³
For anyone with less self-assurance, this would have been an embarrassment. But his dogmatism and perseverance remained unfettered.

To Colden's credit, throughout his political career, he never wavered from his oath to serve the king, the Crown, and the laws enacted by the Parliament. At the beginning of his political career, he emerged as a polarizing personality. His most outspoken opponent described Colden as “quick and subtle, conceited and fond of Disputation, easily flattered, and anxious for preeminence in all Topics of Conversation, and rather disgustful than insinuating for he was hot, coarse & assuming.” The descriptive nouns assigned to Colden were, “Duplicity, Pride, Craft, Obstinacy, Vanity, Petulance, Ambition, vindictive Spirit and Avarice.”
²⁴

More analytic and less biased evaluations of Colden's political activities ascribed to him a naivety and a lack of tact. He stood out in New York as the figure who bore the most responsibility for endorsing royal authority. A modern historian wrote, “It would not be unfair to call him an unwitting provocateur of the early revolutionary movement in New York.”
²⁵

Almost fifty years after his death, a brief biographical memoir of Cadwallader Colden appeared. In a most complimentary fashion the author pointed out: “Among those to whom this country is most deeply indebted for much of its science, and for very many of its most important institutions, Lieutenant-Governour Colden
is very conspicuous; and it is much to be regretted that as yet we have no more ample detail of his character, studies, and public services, than is contained in a brief memoir in a medical journal, and a meager article of a biographical dictionary…. With all this propensity to abstract speculation he was remarkable for his habits of dexterity in business and attention to the affairs of ordinary life. A mind thus powerful and active could not have failed to produce great effect on the character of that society in which he moved; and we doubtless enjoy many beneficial, although remote effects of his labours, without being able to trace them to their true source.”
²⁶

The same anonymous writer opined in another journal: “When it is considered how large a portion of his life was spent in the labours or the routine of public office, and that, however great might have been his original stock of learning, he had, in this country, no reading public to excite him by their applauses, and a few literary friends to assist or stimulate his inquiries, his zeal and success in his scientific pursuits will appear deserving of the highest admiration.”
²⁷

More recently, two graduate students were more critical. One biographer notes that “the moment he touched politics…his sympathy, his plasticity, his humanity even, dropped from him and he became a martinet, an intolerant theorist, an implacable stickler for the letter of the law, while tact and common sense became qualities to him unknown.”
²⁸
The other scholar determined that Colden failed “to perceive the temper of the times” and provided evidence that age intensified his antagonistic and adversarial nature. As one of Colden's contemporaries stated, “the Old Gentleman, tho Eighty-five years old, does not dislike a little controversy, which he has been engaged in for the greatest part of his life.”
²⁹

What would Colden think today if he had the opportunity for retrospective analysis of his life and the ensuing years? For Colden, the consistent and dedicated loyalist, the outcome of the
American Revolution would represent a severe disappointment. The disappearance of his estates at Coldengham and Spring Hill would evoke sadness. Some pleasure would be generated by the course and accomplishments of members of subsequent generations of his family. Particular pleasure would be afforded by the political contributions of his grandson, Cadwallader David. In that regard, the development of the Erie Canal, as evidence of the practicality of his early visionary proposal, would provide personal satisfaction.

Cadwallader Colden would question whether his contemporaries and subsequent critics were prejudiced in their focus on his frailties, his political problems, and his intellectual inadequacies. He would be devastated to learn that Benjamin Franklin, his intellectual compatriot, did not mention him in an autobiography, which was started while Colden was still alive. His ego would gain satisfaction with the nine volumes of his correspondence and notes that the New York Historical Society published. But this would be offset by the realization that his life and contribution excited the scholarly interest of only two historians, and that the two scholars' concern with him was a vehicle to satisfy the requirements for a graduate degree. Finally, almost 240 years after his death, he could have to evaluate whether this, the first formal biography of him, was appropriately balanced.

INTRODUCTION

1
. Alice Mapelsden Keys,
Cadwallader Colden: A Representative Eighteenth Century Official
(New York: self-published), 1906.

2
. Alfred R. Hoermann,
Cadwallader Colden: A Figure of the American Enlightenment
(Westport, CT: Green Press, 2002).

CHAPTER 1: BEFORE TAKING ROOT: 1688–1718

a
. This is in accordance with The New York Historical Papers. The
American National Biography
lists the date as February 7, 1689; the
Dictionary of National Biography
indicates the date to be February 17, 1688; the
Genealogical Notes of the Colden Family in America
by Edwin R. Purple, privately printed in New York in 1873, offers a date of February 7, 1687, O.S.

1
.
American National Biography
Vol. 5 (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), pp. 198–99.

2
.
The Letters and Papers of Cadwallader Colden
, Vol. II, Collections of The New York Historical Society for the Year 1918, New York, pp. 72–80.

3
. Alfred R. Hoermann,
Cadwallader Colden: A Figure of the American Enlightenment
(Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2003), p. 76.

4
. Alexander Grant,
The Story of the University of Edinburgh
, Vol. 1 (London: Longmans, Green, 1884), p. 220.

5
.
The Letters and Papers of Cadwallader Colden
, Vol. IV, Collections of the New York Historical Society for the Year 1920, New York, p. 258.

6
. Ibid.

7
. Ibid., p. 259.

8
.
The Letters and Papers of Cadwallader Colden
, Vol. I, Collections of the New York Historical Society for the Year 1918, New York, p. 39.

9
.
The Letters and Papers of Cadwallader Colden
, Vol. II, pp. 126–27.

10
.
Dictionary of National Biography
, Vol. 4 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1964), p. 716.

11
.
The Letters and Papers of Cadwallader Colden
, Vol. I, p. 34.

12
. Ibid., pp. 41–42.

13
. Ibid., pp. 37–39.

14
. William Smith, Jr.,
The History of the Province of New-York…to the Year MDCCXXXII
(London, 1757), Vol. I, Michael Kammen, ed., (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1972), p. 212.

15
. Joseph M. Toner,
Contributions to the Annals of Medical Progress and medical education in the United States before and during the war of independence
(Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1874), p. 106.

16
. William Douglass,
A Summary, Historical and Political, of the…British Settlements in North-America
, 2 vols. (London: R. and J. Dodsley, 1760), p. 106.

17
. Richard Harrison Shryock,
Medicine and Society in America 1660-1680
(New York: New York University Press, 1972), p. 9.

18
. S. Griffin to Levi Bartlett [April 4, 1794], Miller Collection, Richmond, VA. Academy of Medicine.

19
. Francis R. Packard,
History of Medicine in the United States
, Vol. 1, (New York: Paul B. Hoeber, 1931), p. 286.

20
. Frederick B. Tolles,
James Logan and the Culture of Provincial America
(Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1957), p. 6.

21
. Ibid.

22
. Ibid.

CHAPTER 2: THE NEW NEW YORKER: 1718–1728

a
. It was customary to designate two years, one representing the old style and the other the new style calendar. In 1750, an Act of Parliament
changed the calendar so that the new year began on January 1 rather than March 25 and would run according to the Gregorian calendar. The new calendar took effect on January 1, 1752.

1
. Seymour I. Schwartz and Ralph E. Ehrenberg,
The Mapping of America
(New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1980), pp. 75–79.

2
. Michael Kammen,
Colonial New York-A History
(New York: Charles Scriber's Sons, 1975), p. 180.

3
. Edwin R. Purple,
Genealogical Notes on the Colden Family
(Private printing, 1873).

4
. Ibid.

5
. Alice Mapelsden Keys,
Cadwallader Colden: A Representative Eighteenth Century Official
(New York: n.p., 1906), p. 27.

6
.
The Letters and Papers of Cadwallader Colden
, Vol. IV, Collections of the New York Historical Society for the Year 1917, New York, p. 100–101.

7
. Keys,
Cadwallader Colden
, p. 108.

8
. William Smith, Jr.,
The History of the Province of New-York…to the Year MDCCXXXII
, London, 1757, Vol. I, Michael Kammen, ed. (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1972), p. 16.

9
. Francis R. Packard,
History of Medicine in the United States
, Vol. I (New York: Paul B. Hoeber, 1931), p. 297.

10
. Cadwallader Colden, “To His Excellency Brigadier Hunter Governor of New York, January 16, 1719/20,”
Copy Book of Letters on Subjects of Philosophy, Medicine, Friendship, 1716-1721
, Colden MS., New York Historical Society, unpaginated.

11
. Ibid.

12
.
The Letters and Papers of Cadwallader Colden
, Vol. I, Collections of the New York Historical Society for the Year 1917, New York, pp. 114–23.

13
. Ibid., pp. 141–45.

14
. Ibid., p. 164.

15
. Ibid., pp. 165–67.

16
. Ibid., pp. 234–37, 244, 246, 247.

17
. Ibid., pp. 238–39, 244–45.

18
. Ibid., pp. 244, 245, 247, 250–51.

19
. Charles J. Bullock, “Introduction: Life and Writings of William
Douglass,” in “A Discourse Concerning the Currencies of the British Plantations in America &c. by William Douglass,” ed. by Charles J. Bullock,
Economic Studies
(
Journal of the American Economic Association
), Vol. 2, No. 5, Google Books.

20
.
The Letters and Papers of Cadwallader Colden
, Vol. I, pp. 272–73.

21
.
The Letters and Papers of Cadwallader Colden
, Vol. II, Collections of the New York Historical Society for the Year 1918, New York, pp. 146–47.

22
. Ibid., pp. 196–200.

23
. Seymour I. Schwartz and Ralph E. Ehrenberg,
The Mapping of America
(New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1980), p. 157.

24
. Keys,
Cadwallader Colden
, p. 29.

25
. Ibid., p. 31.

26
. Shelley Ross,
Fall From Grace
(New York: Random House, 1958), p. 4.

27
. Keys,
Cadwallader Colden
p. 31.

28
.
The Letters and Papers of Cadwallader Colden
, Vol. I, pp. 104–105.

29
. Alphonso T. Clearwater, ed.,
The History of Ulster County New York
(Westminster, MD: Clearwater, Heritage Book Facsimile, 2007), p. 53.

30
. Keys,
Cadwallader Colden
, p. 33.

31
.
The Letters and Papers of Cadwallader Colden
, Vol. I, pp. 128–34.

32
. Schwartz and Ehrenberg,
The Mapping of America
, p. 150.

33
. Baron de Lahontan,
Nouveaux Voyages de Mr. Baron de Lahontan Dans L—Amerique Septentrionale
(La Haye: Chez les Freres l Honore, 1702).

34
. Ibid., p. 146.

35
.
The Letters and Papers of Cadwallader Colden
, Vol. I, 1919, p. 209.

36
. Keys,
Cadwallader Colden
, p. 5.

37
. John Huske,
The Present State of North America
(London: R. and J. Dodsley, 1755), pp. 41-42.

38
. Smith,
The History of the Province of New-York
, Vol. I, p. lxiii.

39
. Lawrence C. Wroth,
An American Bookshelf 1755
(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1934).

40
. Cadwallader Colden,
The History of the Five Indian Nations
(New York: William Bradford, 1727; Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1973), p. ix.

41
.
Histoire de L—Amerique septentrionale pr Mr. de Bacqueville de la Potherie
(Paris: J. L. Nion et F. Didot, 1722).

42
. Baron de Lahontan,
Nouveaux Voyages de Mr.Baron de Lahontan Dans L—Amerique Septentrionale
.

43
. Colden,
The History of the Five Indian Nations.

44
. Keys,
Cadwallader Colden
, p. 112.

45
. Edwin R. Purple,
Genealogical Notes on the Colden Family
(Private printing, 1873), p. 4.

46
. Edmund B. O—Callaghan, ed.,
Documents Relative to the Colonial History of New York
, Vol. V (Albany, 1856–87), pp. 685–88.

47
. William Smith, Jr.,
The History of the Province of New-York
, Vol. I, p. 172.

48
. Edwin R. Purple,
Genealogical Notes on the Colden Family
, p. 8.

49
. Smith,
The History of the Province of New-York
, Vol. I, p. 171.

50
. Michael Kammen,
Colonial New York-A History
, pp. 184–85.

51
.
The Letters and Papers of Cadwallader Colden
, Vol. IX, Collections of the New York Historical Society for the Year 1937, New York, p. 278.

52
.
The Letters and Papers of Cadwallader Colden
, Vol. I, pp. 191–92.

53
. Jean O—Neill and Elizabeth P. McLean,
Petyer Collinson and the Eighteenth-Century Natural History Exchange
(Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 2008).

54
. Smith,
The History of the Province of New-York
, Vol. I, p. 318.

55
.
The Letters and Papers of Cadwallader Colden
, Vol. II, p. 263.

56
. Jacquetta M. Haley, “Farming on the Hudson Valley Frontier: Cadwallader Colden's Farm Journal, 1717–1736,”
Hudson Valley Regional Review
6 (March 1989), p. 2.

57
.
The Letters and Papers of Cadwallader Colden
, Vol. VIII, Collections of the New York Historical Society for the Year 1934, New York, p. 173.

58
. Haley, “Farming on the Hudson Valley Frontier,” p. 6.

59
. Ibid., pp. 1–34.

60
. Paula Ivaska Robbins,
Jane Colden: America's First Woman Botanist
(New York: Purple Mountain Press, Fleischmanns, 2009), p. 22.

61
. Ibid.

62
.
The Letters and Papers of Cadwallader Colden
, Vol. I, p. 274.

63
. id., pp. 271–72.

CHAPTER 3: A COUNTRY GENTLEMAN REMAINS FOCUSED ON COLONIAL CONCERNS: 1729–1738

1
.
The Letters and Papers of Cadwallader Colden
, Vol. II, Collections of the New York Historical Society for the Year 1917, New York, p. 6.

2
. Ibid., p. 84.

3
.
The Letters and Papers of Cadwallader Colden
, Vol. VIII, Collections of the New York Historical Society for the Year 1934, New York, p. 202.

4
. Jacquetta M. Haley, “Farming on the Hudson Valley Frontier: Cadwallader Colden's Farm Journal, 1717–1736,”
Hudson Valley Regional Review
6 (March 1989), p. 6.

5
. Paula Ivaska Robbins,
Jane Colden: America's First Woman Botanist
(New York: Purple Mountain Press, Fleischmanns, 2009), p. 24.

6
. Haley, “Farming on the Hudson Valley Frontier,” p. 6.

7
. Ibid., p. 4.

8
. Ibid., pp. 1–34.

9
. Joseph Devine, “Cadwallader Colden: Father of the American Canal System.”
http://home.roadrunner.com/-montghistory/
(accessed 2012).

10
. Cadwallader Colden, “Observations on the Situation, Soil, Climate, Water, Communications, Bounaries, etc. of the Province of New York, (1738)” in E. B. O—Callaghan,
The Documentary History of the State of New York
(Albany, NY: State of New York, 1849–1851), Vol. I, pp. 172–73.

11
.
The Letters and Papers of Cadwallader Colden
, Vol. VIII, pp. 198 and 200.

12
. Alice Colden Wadsworth, “Sketch of the Colden and Murray Families” (1819), Manuscript Division, New York Public Library, quoted in Alfred R. Hoermann,
Cadwallader Colden; A Figure of the American Enlightmenment
(Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2002), p. 17.

13
.
The Letters and Papers of Cadwallader Colden
, Vol. II, p. 180.

14
. Ibid., pp. 146–47.

15
. William Smith, Jr.,
The History of the Province of New-York…to the Year MDCCXXXII
(London, 1757, Vol. I), Michael Kammen, ed., (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1972) p. 187.