In 1789, his widowed father remarried to Ann Walton, and thereafter Gulian was brought up by his paternal grandmother, Judith Crommelin Verplanck.

[7] In 1808, he was the first secretary for the newly formed Washington Benevolent Society, a Federalist-affiliated club that engaged in political activity and electioneering.

[8] An 1809 speech in front of the club members, which was then meeting at the old North Dutch Church, was considered "his entrance into public life.

"[9] In 1811, he was fined $200 (~$3,662 in 2023) for inciting a riot at a Columbia College commencement at Trinity Church when the presiding officer declined to confer a degree upon a student who had made political statements with which the faculty disagreed.

[10] In 1833, when President Andrew Jackson began his quest to suppress the Second Bank of the United States, Verplanck left the Democrats.

[11] In April 1834, at the first popular election for Mayor of New York City,[1] Verplanck was the candidate of the emerging Whig Party but was narrowly defeated (sources range from 181 to 213 votes) by Cornelius Van Wyck Lawrence.

[11] In his literary life, Verplanck was a contributor to the North American Review, perhaps best known for his denunciation of Knickerbocker's History of New York, by Washington Irving.

[10] Through his writing, he was considered part of the so-called "Knickerbocker group",[3] which included Irving, William Cullen Bryant, James Kirke Paulding, Fitz-Greene Halleck, Joseph Rodman Drake, Robert Charles Sands, Lydia Maria Child, and Nathaniel Parker Willis.

[17][18] Verplanck spent the greater part of his life in New York City and in 1820, he was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society.