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Life of Thomas Eddy

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In the reformation of our penal code, in the establishment of the Lunatic Asylum, in the improvement of the New York Hos-pital, in the public schools of our city, in the establishment of the House of Refuge, in the Manumission Society, and other bene-volent institutions, I know you have long been fellow labourers; you will, therefore, be enabled to furnish me with many interesting memorandums of Mr. Eddy, that cannot fail to prove accept-able to the community. Your early attention to this subject, will greatly oblige me. Dear sir, your friend and humble servant, DAVID HOSACK. To the Hon. CADWALLADER D. COLDEN. June 23, 1833. MY DEAR SIR, It gives me great pleasure to learn that the biography of Thomas Eddy is to be written by so able a hand as Mr. Knapp. I should be very happy to give him any information in my power, which might tend to rescue from oblivion the merits and many virtues of our deceased friend. All I can say might be comprised in these few words:—That I knew him, and was very much asso-ciated with him during the last thirty years of his life ; and that there is no benevolent or charitable institution founded in that time, of which he was not the zealous promoter, if the project for its establishment did not originate with him. I would be more par-ticular, but my memory does not serve me as to dates, and I have no documents to which I can refer. I will nevertheless attempt to give the general recollections of my associations with Mr. Eddy. If it should be important to ascertain the dates connected with the circumstances I shall mention; it may be done by resorting to the public records, or the records of institutions of which he was a member. So far as I recollect, my first acquaintance with Mr. Eddy com-menced, from our having had the same views as to what has been called the amelioration of our criminal code. I mean the criminal code of the state of New York; and you must understand me throughout as writing as if I were in New York; I was then quite a young man, and I am not certain that my mind did not receive the strong bias it had in favour of the abolition of the punishment of death, from Mr. Eddy; though I, at that time, differed from