The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-07.
Tompkins, Daniel D.
1774–1825, American political figure, Vice President of the United States (1817–25), b. Scarsdale, N.Y. A leader of the Jeffersonian group in New York state, he was elected to Congress in 1804, but he preferred to accept an appointment to the New York supreme court. He was governor of New York from 1807 to 1817. Slavery was abolished in the state during his administration. In an effort to prevent the chartering of a banking institution in New York, he took (1812) the unique step of proroguing the legislature. He was elected Vice President in 1816 and held office through both Monroe administrations. His college essays were collected in A Columbia College Student in the Eighteenth Century (ed. by R. W. Irwin and E. L. Jacobsen, 1940).
