- This page is for the U.S. Vice President. For others of that name see George Clinton.
George Clinton (July 26, 1739 – April 20, 1812) was an American soldier and politician. He was the first (and longest-serving) Governor of New York, and then Vice President of the United States under Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.
Life
His political interests were inspired by his father, Charles Clinton, who was an Irish immigrant to Little Britain, New York and a member of the New York colonial assembly. George Clinton was the brother of General James Clinton and the uncle of New York's future governor, DeWitt Clinton.At 18, he enlisted in the British Army to fight in the French and Indian War, eventually rising to the rank of lieutenant. He subsequently studied law, became clerk of the court of common pleas and served in the colonial assembly. He was elected to the Continental Congress and voted for the Declaration of Independence, but was called to serve George Washington as a brigadier general of militia and had to leave before the signing. He did not support the adoption of the Constitution until the Bill of Rights was added.
He was known for his hatred of Tories and used seizure and sale of Tory estates to help keep taxes down. A supporter and friend of George Washington, he supplied food to the troops at Valley Forge, rode with Washington to the first Inauguration and gave an impressive dinner to celebrate it.
In 1759 he was appointed County Clerk for Ulster County, New York, a position he held for the next fifty-two years. He was a member of the New York Provincial Assembly for Ulster County from 1768 to 1776. He served as the first Governor of New York from 1777 to 1795, as a member of the New York Assembly in 1800 and 1801, and as Governor again from 1801 to 1804. In 1783, at Dobbs Ferry, Clinton and George Washington met General Sir Guy Carleton, later known as Lord Dorchester, to negotiate for the evacuation by the British troops of the posts they still held in the United States. With 21 years of service, he was the longest-serving governor of a U.S. state. Herbert Storing attributes to George Clinton the authorship of the Anti-Federalist essays, which appeared in New York newspapers under the pseudonym Cato during the Constitutional ratification debates of 1787. However, the authorship of the essays is disputed.
He went on to serve as the fourth Vice President of the United States, first under Thomas Jefferson from 1805 to 1809, and then under James Madison from 1809 until his death of a heart attack in 1812, becoming the first Vice President to die in office.
Clinton is one of only two United States vice presidents to serve the position under two presidents (John C. Calhoun being the other). He is of no known relation to the 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton, whose name at birth was William Jefferson Blythe III.
He had been an unwilling candidate for President of the United States in the 1808 election, garnering six electoral votes from a wing of the Democratic-Republican Party that disapproved of James Madison. He came in third after Madison and Charles Cotesworth Pinckney of the Federalist Party.
His original burial was in Washington. He was reinterred in Kingston, New York in 1908.
Marriage and children
On February 7, 1770, Clinton married Sarah Cornelia Tappen. They had five daughters and one son:
- Catharine Clinton (November 5, 1770 - January 10, 1811). Married first John Taylor and secondly Pierre Van Cortlandt, Jr.-son of New York Lt. Governor Pierre Van Cortlandt.
- Cornelia Tappen Clinton (June 29, 1774 - March 28, 1810). Married Edmond-Charles Genet.
- George Washington Clinton (October 18, 1778 - March 27, 1813). Married Anna Floyd, daughter of William Floyd. {A brother-in-law was Congressman Benjamin Tallmadge}
- Elizabeth Clinton (July 10, 1780 - April 8, 1825). Married Matthias B. Tallmadge.
- Martha Washington Clinton (October 12, 1783 - February 20, 1795).
- Maria Clinton (October 6, 1785 - April 17, 1829). Married Dr. Stephen D. Beekman—a grandson of Pierre Van Cortlandt and Joanna Livingston.
Legacy
Clinton County, New York, Clinton County, Missouri
, Clinton County, Ohio, Clinton County, Illinois and the village of Clinton, N.Y., site of Hamilton College, are named after him. Washington, D.C. has erected a gilded equestrian sculpture of him on Connecticut Avenue. In 1873, the state of New York donated a bronze statue of Clinton to the U.S. Capitol's National Statuary Hall Collection.Clinton Street in Chicago's downtown area of The Loop and nearby South Loop is named in his honor.
The bridge between Rhinecliff and Kingston New York was named the George Clinton bridge.
See also
- Pierre Van Cortlandt, Clinton's Lieutenant Governor and brother-in-law
Bibliography
- Kaminski, John P. George Clinton: Yeoman Politician of the New Republic. Madison House, 1993.
External links
- Architect of the Capitol: George Clinton
- An examination of the Clinton Lineage
- Barbagallo, Tricia Fellow Citizens Read a Horrid Tale. Retrieved on 2008-06-04..
- Find-A-Grave profile for George Clinton
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Last updated on Wednesday July 16, 2008 at 23:18:33 PDT (GMT -0700)
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