374 HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.

Two years before his death, however, in the year 1842, the citizens of Brooklyn, through a highly respectable committee, petitioned the Legislature for leave to remove the bones, for the purpose of ap-

In the spring of 1797, being then about thirty years of age, the condition of his health obliged him to relinquish teaching; and as he had, by his economical habits and natural thrift, accumulated a competency sufficiently ample for his wants, he never afterwards engaged in any regular business.

In politics he was a Democrat, and in 1808 was Grand Sachem of Tammany Society. He also hold the office of Comptroller during the mayoralty of De Witt Clinton, to which he formed an antipathy which made him a violent “bucktail,” as the members of the anti-Clinton wing of “Old Tammany” were called. In the War of 1812 he was a strong Jeffersonian, and sustained the vigorous prosecution of the war, during which he held an important departmental position, with the rank of major.

During the latter portion of his life, Mr. Romaine employed himself in the care of his extensive property in several parts of the city, and in literary pursuits. His reading was chiefly confined to history, politics, and the science of government, and his pen was constantly employed in contributing to the press (under the nom de plume of “An Old Citizen”) articles upon the passing and important topics of the day. In 1832 he published a pamphlet (State Sovereignty, and a Certain Dissolution of the Union. By Benjamin Romaine, An Old Citizen of New York. To the Hon. John C. Calhoun, now Vice-President of the United States. New York: J. Kennaday, Printer, No. 2 Dey street. 1832. 8vo, 54 pages.), in which he vigorously assailed the doctrine of State rights as then advocated by the nullifiers of South Carolina, and with a prescience which, in the light of recent events, seems most remarkable, foretells the consequences of such principles.

In literary, as well as personal character, Mr. Romaine may be said to have been distinguished, not so much for any personal range or brilliancy of intellect, as for soundness of understanding, elevated views, and high moral integrity. Although Mr. Romaine was not a professing Christian, but rather a moralist; and although “Pope’s Essay on Man” (which he knew by heart) was probably a greater favorite with him than the Bible, yet he respected and valued the ordinances of Christianity, and, in his own life, was a bright exemplar of all its virtues. In his personal habits he was remarkably cleanly and orderly; liquor and tobacco, in any form, were very obnoxious to him, and his manner of life was extremely simple, frugal, and temperate. Possessing great pride of character, with very little vanity, he passed through life unostentatiously, but with comfort to himself, and with the respect of others. His personal appearance has been described as tall, slim, and commanding in figure, with great vigor of body and motion, and with a countenance displaying seriousness mingled with kindness and affability.

Indeed, this kindness of heart was always manifested, except when he came in contact with Englishmen. Then his prejudices quickly and unmistakably manifested themselves, and amusing stories are yet related of the rough manner in which lie would absolutely refuse to treat with any Englishman who applied to become a tenant of any of his houses. In fact, the recollection of what he bad suffered, and of the horrors which he had witnessed in the British prisons, filled his mind with an intense hatred of British rule, and of anything pertaining to it, which he could never banish from his mind.

It was this, also, in great measure, which influenced him in 1839, when the lot in Brooklyn, on which the bones of the martyrs of the prison-ships bad been buried, were