American Eden by Victoria Johnson

Author:Victoria Johnson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Liveright
Published: 2018-05-21T16:00:00+00:00

The Elgin Botanic Garden as it appeared around 1810

Clinton began his remarks in the Senate that day by lecturing his fellow senators on the history of European botany, and then he lectured them on the history of North American botany. He mentioned the most famous botanists who had traveled and collected in America, and some of the more obscure, too—“Colden, Cutler, Belknap, the Bartrams, Muhlenberg, the Michauxs, Barton, and others.” He talked about how critical the study of plants was to American progress in medicine, agriculture, and commerce, and finally he closed with a passionate plea for Elgin. The state should purchase the garden. The lawmakers would not only improve the state’s medical schools, they would also burnish the intellectual reputation of the entire nation. Hosack confessed to a friend afterward that although he didn’t much agree with Clinton’s politics, he was deeply moved by his friend’s devotion to the cause of natural history.

Two days after Clinton’s speech, a clerk walked next door to the Assembly chamber to deliver the news. The Elgin act had passed the Senate. In the Assembly, a lawmaker by the name of Pratt now tried to block consideration of the bill until after the plant collections and the land could be appraised. But Hosack had loyal allies here, too. Among those leading the charge for Elgin in the Assembly was his friend Mitchill, whose political career had him alternating between federal and state offices.

On March 9, 1810, the assemblymen took a vote on the bill: fifty-seven to forty-two. They sent a clerk back next door to tell the senators. Elgin would survive. Three days later, the act became law. Five managers—one of them Mitchill—were appointed to take charge of organizing a public lottery to raise money for the purchase of the garden from Hosack. The news of Hosack’s victory raced south from Albany to New York City.

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