Later Years
Duane served in the New York state Senate from 1783 to 1790. He became the Mayor of New York by appointment in 1784, serving until 1789. He was a delegate to the New York convention that ratified the Federal Constitution.
On September 25, 1789, President Washington named him the first judge of the United States District Court for the District of New York, created by 1 Stat. 73. He was immediately confirmed by the United States Senate, and received his commission the following day. Richard Varick followed him as mayor.
Duane served on the Federal bench until March 17, 1794, when his health forced him to resign. Throughout his life, he had worked to establish his own estate, inherited from his father, and centered at Duanesburg, New York. He had started erecting a home there for himself, but did not live to see it completed. He died at Schenectady, New York, and is buried at Christ Episcopal Church in Duanesburg.
It is believed that Duane Street in Manhattan was named in his honor. (The Duane Reade pharmacy chain is named after the street.)
James Duane's current living relatives reside in Whitby, Ontario.
Read more about this topic: James Duane
Famous quotes containing the word years:
“If you feed a man, and wash his clothes, and borne his children, you and that man are married, that man is yours. If you sweep a house, and tend its fires and fill its stoves, and there is love in you all the years you are doing this, then you and that house are married, that house is yours.”
—Truman Capote (20th century)
“I have started to say
“A quarter of a century”
Or “thirty years back”
About my own life.”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)