George Clinton was an American soldier and statesman,
who served seven times as governor of the State of New York and was twice elected vice-president of the United States.
Background
George Clinton was born on July 26, 1739 in Longford, Ireland. His father, Charles, born in 1690 in the county of Longford, Ireland, organized a group of colonists, came to America, and finally, in 1731, settled at Little Britain in Ulster County. During a short period in 1758 he served on the Defiance, a privateer sailing from New York.
Education
After having studied law under William Smith in New York he returned to Ulster County where he practised with reputation if not with distinction.
Career
As a subaltern in his father's regiment he was a member of the successful expedition led by Col. John Bradstreet against Fort Frontenac on Lake Ontario. Elected to the Provincial Assembly in 1768, he became the rival of Philip Schuyler in the leadership of a revolutionary minority. His ostentatious defense of Alexander McDougall, who posed as the John Wilkes of America, augmented his reputation as a fiery young radical and defender of freedom of speech and of the press. Having been a member of the corresponding committee appointed by the Assembly, Clinton was elected a delegate to the Second Continental Congress, and in December 1775 he became brigadier-general of militia. At the beginning of the war he was one of the few leaders in the colonies who possessed military experience, and he was entrusted with measures necessary to the defense of the Hudson River. He was a man of vigor and courage, but he proved to be deficient in military ability. His defense of Fort Montgomery was so unskilful that its capture was easily accomplished by the British; nor did he make any serious efforts to prevent the burning of Esopus by the enemy in the fall of 1777. In March of that year he had written the New York Convention that he contemplated resigning his military command because "from fatal Experience I find that I am not able to render my Country that Service which they may have Reason to expect of me". In the same month he was commissioned brigadier-general in the Continental Army. In the elections to state office in June 1777, Clinton, despite the plans of political leaders, defeated Philip Schuyler and was elected both governor and lieutenant-governor. The election was a surprise to the ruling class; John Jay wrote that "Clinton's family and connections do not entitle him to so distinguished a pre-eminence. " He resigned the lieutenant-governorship and, after a series of delays incident to his military duties, he was inaugurated governor at Kingston on July 30, 1777. This was the beginning of a series of six successive terms as governor. Although he had failed to win renown on the battle-field he had been able to inspire the people with confidence and to urge them on to significant efforts in the revolutionary struggle. He managed the difficult finances of the state adroitly and dealt with the troublesome Indian situation in western New York with considerable success. He was also popular because he dealt severely with the Loyalists in New York. As early as 1781 he had disapproved of the legislative grant to Congress of the import duties collected in the port of New York and in 1783 he secured the passage of a law providing that, although the duties were to be given to Congress, they were to be collected by officials of the state. This unfriendliness to a national revenue was later to become a determined opposition to a national government. Many facts contributed to his advocacy of state sovereignty. He well understood the commercial advantage of New York state's geographical situation and believed that it made too great a sacrifice for the few advantages it would gain from union. Nor did he wish to diminish the state's and his own political power. Clinton had used the immense patronage that the constitution conferred upon the governor to build up a powerful political machine. He "preferred to remain the most powerful citizen of New York rather than occupy a subordinate place under a national government in which his own state was not foremost". In September 1787 Congress submitted a draft of the proposed federal constitution to the legislatures of the various states. Writing under the name of "Cato, " Clinton published seven letters against adoption in the New York Journal from September until the following January. The author of these letters was attacked by Hamilton in two letters written by "Cæsar" to the Daily Advertiser in October. In his opening address to the legislature Clinton did not even mention the ratification of the constitution, the important question for legislative consideration. It was under the leadership of Egbert Benson that a resolution providing for a convention was finally passed. Of this convention, held at Poughkeepsie the following June, Clinton was president. It was not until the constitution had been ratified by the necessary number of states and he had lost the support of Melancthon Smith that he acquiesced in the ratification by the New York convention. With the possible exception of that offered by Jay in 1786, there had been no considerable opposition to the various elections of Clinton to the governorship. In 1789, however, the contest between Robert Yates and Clinton was sharp and bitter. A large majority in Ulster County, whose vote he controlled, gave Clinton a total majority of over four hundred votes, but he was alone in surviving the close election. Preparations were at once begun for the next election; here Clinton displayed the abilities of a master politician. He appointed his late opponent chief justice; and in his attempt to attach brilliant and promising young men to the ranks of the Anti-Federalists he made Aaron Burr attorney-general. In 1791 he was able to obtain the election of Burr as United States senator, and it was partly through Burr that he was able to secure the support of the powerful Livingston family. The 1792 election was the most bitter that the state had yet experienced. Jay was again the opponent of Clinton and received a majority of the votes cast for the governorship; but through a notoriously unjust and partisan decision, the state canvassers ruled out the ballots of three counties on technicalities and awarded the election to Clinton. If Clinton had thus established a vicious precedent in usurping the governorship, it was the conversion of the Council of Appointment into a great political machine by his opponents under the leadership of Philip Schuyler that led to twenty years of political corruption and scandal. Clinton was quickly shorn of his great powers as governor by the Federalist Assembly. In 1795, when defeat would have been inevitable, he declined to become a candidate for governor again. He sensed the changes that were about to come in the politics of New York; and he dreamed of offices of greater honor and prestige. He did not again participate actively in politics until 1800, when political control of the state passed from the Federalists to the Republicans. This was brought about partly by the election of Jefferson to the presidency and partly by the strength of the coalition ticket that Burr had selected against Hamilton. Clinton was elected to his seventh term as governor. As early as 1804 his friends began to work for his election as vice-president and in February 1804 he replaced Burr on the Republican ticket; while in the state elections Morgan Lewis, supported by the Clinton and Livingston factions, defeated Burr for the governorship. Clinton was elected vice-president and went into comfortable retirement until 1808 when he definitely entered the presidential contest, as an insurgent Democrat with a policy highly acceptable to the Federalists, for whose support on a coalition ticket he was bidding. This alliance the Federalists seriously considered, but with the reëstablishment of Democratic harmony in Pennsylvania the strength of Clinton outside of New York vanished and there was little that the Federalists could gain by a coalition. Clinton was returned to the vice-presidency on the Republican ticket with James Madison, whom he held in contempt and toward whom, in 1809, he was openly hostile. His last conspicuous act was to break the tie in the Senate by casting his vote against the bill to re-charter the Bank of the United States. He died in office, April 20, 1812.
Achievements
Politics
He voted for separation from Great Britain, but military duties in New York caused his absence at the signing of the Declaration of Independence.