Tompkins was born in 1815 in rural
Paris Hill, New York. Tompkins enrolled in
Union College in 1831 and joined
Sigma Phi. Tompkins graduated, earned a law degree at
Hamilton College, and practiced law in
Binghamton, New York as a partner to
Daniel S. Dickinson. Tompkins married a
Quaker woman, Mary Cook, from
Bridgeport, Connecticut. They established residence on the shores of
Lake Merritt in
Oakland. Tompkins was elected in 1869 to represent
Alameda County in the
California State Senate. In 1870 Tompkins, a self-described
Constitutional Democrat, spoke in favor of
ratification of the 15th Amendment and voted against a California Senate resolution opposing California's proposed ratification. As a state senator Tompkins argued for the creation of the
University of California as recommended by the previous governor,
Frederick Low. The charter creating the university (then only an agricultural school) passed on March 23, 1868 and Tompkins was elected to a four-year term on
the Board of Regents of the University of California later that same year. Upon Tompkins's death in 1872, his position on the board of regents was filled by his brother-in-law, former Governor Haight. Some of Tompkins's letters are archived with papers of his relatives at
Bancroft Library.
Louis Agassiz Chair Tompkins endowed the school's chair of Oriental Languages and Literature named for
Louis Agassiz on September 18, 1872 only months before Tompkins died. His initial gift of , which sold for , was evaluated on June 30, 2008 at more than . Tompkins's interest in Oriental studies grew out of his anticipation of expanded trans-Pacific commerce. Tompkins said that he felt "deeply the humiliation" of seeing Asian students go to the
East Coast "in search of that intellectual hospitality that we are not yet enlightened enough to extend to them." ==Notes==