The American Cyclopædia (1879)/Colden, David Cadwallader

II. Cadwallader David, grandson of the preceding, born near Flushing, L. I., April 4, 1769, died at Jersey City, Feb. 7, 1834. He commenced the practice of law in New York in January, 1791, removed his office for a time to Poughkeepsie, and in 1796 resumed his station at the New York bar, where he received the appointment of district attorney, and soon became eminent in the profession, which he practised for several years, intermitted only by a voyage to France for the benefit of his health. In 1812 he was colonel of a regiment of volunteers; in 1818 was elected a member of the house of assembly; in the same year succeeded De Witt Clinton as mayor of New York city; in 1822 was elected to congress, and in 1824 to the senate of his own state, from which he withdrew in 1827. He was an active promoter of internal improvements, his name being especially connected with the completion of the Erie and Morris canals. Public education and the reformation of juvenile offenders were also subjects to which he devoted much attention. For many years he was one of the governors of the New York hospital. He wrote a biography of Robert Fulton (1817) and "Memoir of the Celebration of the Opening of the New York Canals" (1825).