t his active life will soon find a biographer is so general, that it
seems unnecessary on the present occasion to speak at any length
concerning him. I knew him well some thirty-five years. In religion a Jew,
he was tolerant of all creeds, with equal amenity; his natural parts were
of a remarkable order; few excelled him in industry, none in temperance
and sobriety. He wrote for many journals, and established several. By his
_Travels in Africa_ he became known as an author. His work on the
_Abolition of Imprisonment for Debt_ was widely read. He was lively in
converse, and a most social companion. His literary compositions, though
not always pure in style, often showed a nice sense of the ludicrous and a
love of humor. He abounded in anecdote. Mr. Matthews, from his personal
knowledge, has not overdrawn the character of Noah. He possessed the organ
of benevolence on a large scale. It is to be regretted that by his
political vacillations his talents finally lost all influence in public
councils and affairs.

We are susceptible of the pleasures and the pains of memory. A retrospect
will confirm this declaration on many occasions. It is so in our
contemplations of a newspaper; and in no instance have I been more
sensible of this than when considering the origin, the career, and the
termination of the _New-York American_. Its prominent projector was
Johnson Verplanck, a native of this city, of a conspicuous family, whose
mental qualities were of a robust order, and whose classical attainments
entitled him to distinction. With the countenance and assistance of
enlightened associates, he soon acquired for the _American_ a reputation
for eminent talents, great independence in opinion, and the most perfect
freedom in scrutinizing public acts, and in literary and artistic
criticism. Mr. Verplanck was one of the writers of the _Buck Tail Bards_,
a satirical poem, of Hudibrastic flavor. He died in 1829. The _American_
fell then into other hands, and for a long succession of years was
editorially sustained by one who had often previously enriched its columns
with his lucubrations. I allude to Charles King, now President of Columbia
College. It was soon demonstrated to the satisfaction of its patrons,
that, although under a new government, and its supplies derived from
another source, its nutrition was not less wholesome and productive. For
many years it claimed the admiration of the conservators of constitutional
right and of critic