Background
DeWitt Clinton was born on March 2, 1769, the second son born to Major-General James Clinton and his wife Mary DeWitt.
naturalist politician statesman
DeWitt Clinton was born on March 2, 1769, the second son born to Major-General James Clinton and his wife Mary DeWitt.
He began his education at Princeton University, and then transferred to King's College; Kings was renamed Columbia University, and Clinton was the first to graduate under the school's new name.
He entered the New York State Assembly in 1797 and the next year was elected to the State Senate as a Democratic-Republican. He was appointed to the U. S. Senate in 1802 to fill a vacancy but resigned this office in 1803 to become mayor of New York City. He held this office, except for a two-year interruption, from 1803 to 1815. During part of that time he also served as state senator and lieutenant governor of New York. In 1810 Clinton became canal commissioner and unsuccessfully attempted in 1811 to obtain federal aid for a canal across the state to connect the Hudson River and Lake Erie. Clinton vigorously set to work to arouse popular support for the undertaking as a state enterprise. The plan was finally adopted by the legislature in 1816 and a new canal commission was appointed of which Clinton was a member. He sponsored humanitarian legislation and philanthropic activities and was especially interested in public education. Clinton was a political power in New York State in the early years of the 19th century, usually in support of Thomas Jefferson and his policies. He was a candidate for the presidency in 1812, supported by the Democratic-Republican opponents of the War of 1812 and by the dying Federalist Party. Clinton was defeated by James Madison, winning 80 electoral votes to Madison's 128. Though he lost favor with his own party in New York City, he was elected governor of New York in 1817 and was reelected in 1820. He declined to be a candidate in 1822 but was again elected governor in 1824 and was in office in 1825 when the Erie Canal, which he had done so much to further, was completed. Again elected governor, he died in office in Albany, N. Y. , Feburary 11, 1828.
Clinton served as Governor of New York from 1817 to 1822 and from 1825 to 1828, presiding over the construction of the Erie Canal. Clinton believed that infrastructure improvements could transform American life, drive economic growth, and encourage political participation. He heavily influenced the development of New York State and the United States.
In 1926 the DeWitt Clinton Professorship of American History was established at Columbia University; the first to hold the chair was Evarts Boutell Greene.
In 1813 Clinton became a hereditary member of the New York Society of the Cincinnati in sucession to his brother, Lieutenant Alexander Clinton, who was an Original Member of the Society.
Clinton was married twice. On February 13, 1796, he married Maria Franklin, daughter of the prominent New York Quaker merchant Walter Franklin and descendant of John Bowne and Elizabeth Fones. With her he had ten children, and four sons and three daughters were surviving at the time of her death in 1818.
On May 8, 1819, he married Catharine Jones, daughter of a New York physician, Thomas Jones; she outlived her husband.
