DEPEW
DE PEYSTER
secretary of state and made .1 remarkable can-
vass, sjieaking twice eacli week day for six con-
secutive weeks, and led the ticket, being elected
by over 30.(»00 majority. He wiis apjKiinted by
President John.son collector of the |)ort of New
York iu 1800. but the President withdrew the
apiKnntment when
the New York sen-
ators refused to sus-
tain his veto of the
civil rights bill. The
President subse-
quently nominated
him as United States
minister to Japan,
and the senate con-
tirmed the nomina-
tion, but after one
month's considera-
tion he declined to
serve, having been
appointed attorney
of the New York &
^
ff-cjiuurr
Harlem railroad company by Commodore Vander-
bilt. In 1S69. ujKjn the consolidation of the New
York Central and the New York & Harlem roads.
he was appointed attorney of the new corporation.
In 1876 he was the general counsel of the Lake
Shore & Michigan Southern, Michigan Central,
Chicago & Northwestern, St. Paul & Omaha,
West Shore. Nickel Plate and New York Central
& Hudson River roads and a director in each.
In 1872, as a supporter of Horace Greeley for
President of the United States, he accepted the
Democratic nomination for lieutenant-governor
of New York and was defeated with the ticket.
In 1874 he was appointed on the commission to
superintend the erection of the state capitol, and
served as commissioner of quarantine; president
of the New York court of claims, and commis-
sioner of immigration, and of taxes and assess-
ments in New York. In 1881 he was a candidate
before the Republican caucus of the state legis-
lature for U.S. senator to succeed Thomas C.
Piatt, resigned. He led the candidates of his
party and had succeeded in receiving within ten
votes of those neces.sary for a choice, when the
exigencies of the party resulting from the assas-
sination of President Garfield determined him to
withdraw his name, thus breaking a deadlock
that had been maintained for eighty -two days.
On the forty-eighth ballot Warner Miller was
nominated by the joint legislative caucus. In
1882 on the resignation of William H. Vanderbilt
as president of the New York Central & Hudson
River railroad and the succession of James H.
Rutter to the office. Mr. Depew was made second
vice-president of the road, and in I880. upon
the deatli of President Rutter, he succeeded to
the presidency. On April 20, 1898, he rasigned the
j)residency to become cliairman of the board of
directors of the entire Vanderbilt system. In the
Republican national convention of 1888 at Chi-
cago, Mr. Depew was a prominent candidate for
the nomination as President of the United States
and on the first ballot received ninety-nine votes
to eighty for Harrison and two hundred twenty-
nine for Sherman. After the third ballot he
withdrew his name and New York's vote went
largely for Harrison, who on the succeeding
Monday was nominated. He was offered by
President Harrison the portfolio of state, which
he declined. In 1899 he was elected U.S. senator
as successor to Edward Murphy, Jr. , whose term
expired March 4, 1899. He was elected president
of the West Shore railroad company; of the
Union league club in 1887, and of the Yale alumni
association of New York city in 1883. He was
made a member of the New York chamber of
commerce; and a director of the Union trust
company, the Western Union telegraph com-
pany, the Equitable life assurance society, and
St. Luke's hospital, and president of the Repub-
lican club. He was married Nov. 9, 1871, to Elsie,
daughter of William A. O. Hegeman, and grand-
daughter of Judge Adrian Hegeman of Peekskill,
N.Y. She died at her home in New York citJ^
May 7, 1896. Yale conferred on him the honorary
degree of LL.D. in 1887, and elected him a fellow
June 26, 1888. In 1874 he was elected a regent of
the University of the state of New York. His
more notable public addresses delivered in New
York city were those on the unveiling of the
statue of Alexander Hamilton; on the centennial
of the formation of the New York state constitu-
tion; on the life and character of James A. Gar-
field; on the unveiling of the Bartholdi statue of
liberty; on the thirty-second anniversary of the
Young men's Christian association and at the
Washington centennial celebration, 1889. He
nominated Benjamin Harrison for President at
i^Iinneapolis in 1892, delivered the address at
the World's Columbian exposition at Chicago,
1893; and the inaugural address on the open-
ing of the Nasliville (Tenn. ) exposition in 1897.
In 1897 Pope Leo XIII. sent to Mr. Depew,
a medal bearing the likeness of the Pope and the
papal coat of arms.
DE PEYSTER, Abraham, colonial cliit-f justice, was born in New York city, July 8, 1058. He was a merchant in New York, then mayor, 1691-'95, afterward becoming (;liief justice, in 1701. He died in New York Aug. 10. 1728.
DE PEYSTER, Frederic, histoi*in. was born in New York city, Nov. 11, 1796; son of Frederick de Peyster; greats-grandson of Abra- ham de Pey.ster, mayor of New Y^ork. 1091-95; chief justice of the province, treasurer of both
