USA > New York > A history of the state of New York, from the first discovery of the country to the present time: with a geographical account of the country, and a view of its original inhabitants > Part 29
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35
After this campaign, he commenced the studies preparatory for the legal profession, and, in 1764, was admitted to the bar of the supreme court. He established himself in his native county, where he practised with great reputation and success. He had previously filled the office of clerk of Ulster county, to which he was appointed by governor Clinton, the father of sir Henry Clinton.
He was soon after chosen a member of the colonial assem- bly, after a violent struggle, and a formidable opposition from all the influence of the crown. He immediately became the
370
HISTORY OF NEW YORK.
head of the whig party in this assembly, where he continued usefully and actively employed until the revolution, on the side of the people, defying the frowns of power, spurning the seductions of corruption and intrigue, and displaying the re- sources of a powerful intellect, and the energies of undaunted patriotism.
!
In April, 1775, he was appointed a delegate to the conti nental congress, and took his seat in that body in May follow ing. In January, 1776, he attended an adjourned meeting, having been continued in office by the provincial convention which assembled in New York in December of the preceding year. In 1776, he was also appointed brigadier-general of the militia of Ulster county, and, some time after, a briga- dier in the army of the United States.
At the first election under the constitution of the state, he was chosen both governor and lieutenant-governor. On his acceptance of the former office, the venerable Pierre Van Cortlandt was elected to the latter. After having been con- tinued in the office of governor, by 6 triennial elections, for the term of 18 years, Mr. Clinton declined another election, and published an address to the freeholders of the state, stat- ing, that his respect for the republican principle of rotation in office would no longer permit him to fill his recent lionorable station.
During the revolutionary war, his situation, as chief magis- trate of the state of New York, owing to its exposure to the incursions of the enemy, was the most arduous, critical and important of any office in the new empire, except that of commander-in-chief of the army. In all the trying exigencies of that protracted conflict, he maintained his well-earned reputation for patriotismn and intrepidity. The actual, as well as the nominal head of the state militia, he was seen at one period driving the enemy into the forests of the west, at another time meeting him on the frontier, and chastising his temerity.
His energy and decision were very remarkable. At the conclusion of the revolutionary war, when violence against the tories was the order of the day, a British officer was placed on a cart, in the city of New York, to be tarred and feathered.
-
371
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
This was the signal for violence and assassination. Governor Clinton, at this moment, determined in his purpose, rushed in among the mob with a drawn sword, and rescued the victim.
Some years after, a furious assemblage of people collected, called the doctors' mob, and raged through New York, with intentions to kill the physicians of that city, and pull down their houses, for having dug up bodies for dissection. This mob was inconceivable terrible, and, by their violence, intim- idated the local magistracy. Governor Clinton fortunately appeared in person, called out the militia, and restored peace to the city.
After a retirement of five years from public life, Mr. Clinton was called by the citizens of New York to represent them in the assembly of the state. In 1801, he was again prevailed upon to accept of a re-election as governor, and, after continuing in that office for three years, he was elected vice-president of the United States, in which station he continued until his de- cease, which took place on the 20th of April, 1812, at the city of Washington.
Governor Clinton's conduct was amiable in private, as it was dignified in public life. No man felt more powerfully the charities of the love of his family and associates. In all the vicissitudes of an eventful career, he never abandoned a faith- ful friend. And while he made it a sacred rule to disregard the claims of consanguinity in the dispensation of patronage, his virtuous adherents, who were connected with him by the kindred feelings of patriotism and the sympathies of friend- ship, never failed to experience the full extent of his liberality
As a public character, he will live in the veneration of pos- terity, and the progress of time will thicken the laurels that surround his monument. The characteristic virtues, which distinguished his life, appeared in full splendor in the trying hour of death ; and he died as he lived-without fear and without reproach.
JAMES CLINTON.
James Clinton, brother to the preceding, was born in Ulster county, August, 1736, and received the advantages of a supe-
372
HISTORY OF NEW YORK.
rior education. The predominant inclination of his mind was for a military life. After having successfully held several off- ces in the militia and provincial troops, he was, in 1763, at- pointed by lieutenant-governor Colden captain-commandant of the four companies in the pay of the province of New York, raised for the defence of the western frontiers of the counties of Ulster and Orange, and, in 1774, lieutenant-colonel of the militia in Ulster county. In the French war of 1756, he was a captain under colonel Bradstreet at the capture of fort Fron tenac, and rendered important service in that expedition, par- ticularly by the capture of a French sloop of war on lake Ontario, which impeded the progress of the army.
At the, commencement of the revolution in 1775, he was appointed, by the continental congress, colonel of the 3d regi- ment of the New York forces. He was, the same year, ap- pointed, by the provincial congress of New York, colonel of the militia foot in Ulster county ; and, in March, 1776, by the continental congress, colonel of the 2d battalion of New York troops ; and, in August, a brigadier-general in the army of the United States. In this station he continued during the greater part of the war, having the command of the New York line, or the troops of this state, and, at its close, was constituted a major-general. In 1775, his regiment composed part of the army which invaded Canada under Montgomery; and, in 1777, he commanded at fort Clinton, which, with fort Mont- . gomery, constituted the defence of the Hudson river against the ascent of the enemy. When these forts were stormed by the enemy under sir Henry Clinton, general James Clinton, with his brother, then governor, made a desperate, but ineffec- tual resistance. During a considerable part of the war, he was stationed at Albany, where he commanded in the north ern department, a place of high responsibility, and requiring uncommon vigilance and constant exertion. He took part in the expedition against the Indians in 1779, and was present at the capture of Cornwallis at Yorktown, where he distin- guished himself by his usual intrepidity. His last appearance in arms was on the evacuation of the city of New York, where he bid the commander-in-chief a final and affectionate farewell, and retired to his estates.
.
1
DE WITT CLLITON.
Binished by . I. K. White.
373
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
He was, however, frequently called from his retirement by the unsolicited voice of his fellow-citizens. He was appointed a commissioner to adjust the boundary line between Pennsyl- vania and New York, and was selected by the legislature for an interesting mission to settle controversies respecting lands in the west. He represented his native county in the assem- bly, and in the convention that adopted the present constitution of the United States. He was elected, without opposition, a senator from the middle district, and a delegate to the conven- tion of 1801, for the purpose of amending the state constitu- tion, all of which trusts he executed with integrity and ability, and to the perfect satisfaction of his constituents. His tem- per was mild and affectionate ; but, when roused by unprovok- ed insult, or unmerited injury, he exhibited extraordinary energy. He died in December, 1812, in the 76th year of his age, and was interred in the family burial place, at Little Britain, in Orange county .*
DE WITT CLINTON.
De Witt Clinton was born in 1769, at the residence of his Esther, general James Clinton, New Windsor, Orange county, in this state, and received his early education at a grammar school in a neighboring village, called Stonefield, under the care of the reverend John Moffat, from which he was transfer- red, at the age of 13, to an academy at Kingston, then con- ducted by Mr. John Addison. He remained here until he was prepared to enter the junior class of Columbia college in 1784, and was graduated a bachelor of arts, at the first public commencement held in this institution after the close of the revolutionary war, being adjudged worthy to receive the honor of delivering the Latin salutatory address-an honor always conferred on the best classic scholar of the year.
He commenced the study of the law in 1786, with Samuel lones, esquire, a celebrated counsellor, second to none of his profession for profound and extensive knowledge. Mr. Clinton received the usual licenses or degrees in the law, but was
* Lord.
32
374
HISTORY OF NEW YORK.
abruptly called off from the further cultivation of the pursuit. by circumstances arising from the situation of political affair. in the state of New York. The germs of the two great par. ties, which have since divided the country, were, at that time, beginning to appear. His uncle, George Clinton, then govern- or of the state, was assailed by a combination of almost all the talents of that section of the country; and pamphlets and newspaper essays were poured upon the public with unrestrain- ed profusion. Mr. Clinton, relinquishing every other pursuit, entered warmly and exclusively into the vindication of the conduct and principles of his uncle; and it is believed that the greater part of the controversial politics on that side was managed by him during this period of turbulence and irritation. He continued with his uncle, as his secretary, during his ad- ministration, which ended in 1795. The governor declined a re-election, not only on account of the ill state of his health, but from his observance also of the republican rule of rotation in office. Mr. Clinton had been honored, while with his ven- erable uncle, with the office of secretary of the university, and of the board of fortifications of New York. Upon the retirement of the governor, Mr. Clinton also withdrew from public life. But his efforts, as an individual, in rallying and supporting the party of which he might then have been con- sidered the leader, were not for a moment remitted. To do this with effect, however, it seemed necessary that he should be placed in a public station ; and, accordingly, 1798, he was elected a member of the assembly of this state from the city of New York, and, in 1800, was chosen a senator from the southern district, and a member of the council of appointment. From the senate of this state, by a joint ballot of both branch- es of the legislature, he was elected to a seat in the senate of the United States, where he took an active interest in the con- cerns of the country, in relation to the differences then existing with the Spanish authorities at New Orleans. His continu- ance in that august body, however, was short, as, on receiving the appointment of mayor of New York, in October, 1803, it became necessary that he should resign it, the duties of the two offices being by law incompatible. In the office of mayor, he was continued by annual appointment until March, 1807,
375
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
when, by reason of one of those changes of party which occa- sionally occur, and are more in appearance than in reality, and not inappropriately designated by the term political mirage, he was superseded, and remained out of office eleven 'inonths, as he was appointed mayor again by the council, in February, 1808. His term of office, at this time, was a little more than two years, when another partial party change again removed him, and he remained out of office another term of eleven months. In February, 1811, he was again, and for the third time, appointed mayor, and he continued in office by yearly appointment until the 20th of March, 1815, a term which in- cluded the whole period of the late war. It. is worthy of remark, that a political change in the state, in 1813, caused an almost entire change in its civil commissions, and, in conforni- ity with that rule of proscription which seemed to have as- sumed as its basis, that so soon as a party were in a minority, every individual belonging to it was disqualified for any official trust, Mr. Clinton would have been removed from office; but so great was the measure of confidence which the public re- posed in him, that his political opponents petitioned their own friends for his re-appointment in place of his removal, so that the virulence of party was disarmed by a consciousness of his peculiar fitness for the station.
During the last term of his mayoralty, he was elected lieu- tenant-governor of the state, in the place of the honorable John Broome, deceased, and he continued to officiate both as president of the senate and mayor of the city for two years, viz. from 1811 to 1813. In the spring of 1815, he was again superseded, and deprived of all his public employments except that of canal commissioner. In 1817, Mr. Clinton was elect- ed the governor of the state, and, at the expiration of the term for which he was chosen, viz. 1820, he was re-elected, and served till the adoption of the new state constitution, which took effect from the commencement of the year 1s23, and shortened the ordinary term of office by six months. In the autumn of 1822, he declined another nomination, and re- turned to the pursuits of private life, holding only the office of a canal commissioner ; from which he was removed in the spring of 1524, by a vote of the legislature, which the people
376
HISTORY OF NEW YORK.
rebuked in a most emphatic manner, six months afterwards, by again electing him their governor, and by the largest majority ever known in this state, in a contested election ; and he con- tinued to exercise the office to the last hour of his valua- ble life.
As a citizen, useful, active, and meritorious, he was second, probably, to no man in the United States .- In the great and growing state and city of which he was a native and resident, no man has stamped his name, his genius and his services on more monuments of public munificence and private · utility.
His mind and cast of thought were of the finest order, partaking less of the Machiavelian than the Roman school, and exhibiting a greater portion of innate dignity and the forti- ter in re than is, at all times, convenient or advantageous to a candidate for popular suffrage. In every station, he distin- guished himself by his talents, his integrity and his despatch of business. His reading was multifarious, indefatigable, well-directed and profitable; for his judgment digested, and his memory retained, the collected knowledge of every hour allowed, from his numerous avocations, for study and reflection.
In religion, he was neither a bigoted sectarian, nor scoffer ' at the superstitious. Reverencing the great principles and duties of rational piety, he cherished the dictates of devotion in all, and respected the tenets and honest singularities of the most peculiar .- Establishing no exclusive denomination over others, he would tolerate every class of sincere professors and protect them in a liberal exercise of their ideas of divine worship. His charities have principally kept pace with his ability ; his pecuniary aid, and his friendly advice and assist- ance, were always at the service of indigence, virtue, benevo- lence, literature, the arts, and public utility. If the circle of his confidential associates was contracted, it was not because he discarded attachments when they ceased to be profitable. In his intercourse with the various classes of his fellow-citi- zens, to which his universal knowledge of business called him, his suavity of disposition and urbanity of manners banished every idea of fastidious reserve and austerity of demeanor,
377
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
1
and rendered his presence desirable and his co-operation sought for on every humane and laudable occasion .*
The following extract from the memoirs of De Witt Clinton, by doctor Hosac, will be read with interest.
" His person was tall, exceeding six feet in height, of a fine form, and well proportioned. In his earlier days, lie was re- markable for his thin and slender make; but, in the latter part of his life, his frame became expanded, and, in consequence of lameness from an accidental injury, by which he was de- prived of his customary exercise, he acquired a fulness of habit, which predisposed him to the diseases that ultimately supervened, and, in their consequences, led to his dissolution. His carriage was elevated; his movements deliberate and dig- nified, sometimes manifesting great earnestness, but never precipitancy.
" His head was well formed, and particularly distinguished for the great height and breadth of his forehead; his hair was brown ; his complexion brilliant; his nose finely propor- tioned, and of the Grecian form; his lip thin, and of that pe- culiar configuration that some critics have deemed indicative of eloquence.
" His eyes were of a dark hazel color, but peculiarly quick and expressive ; sometimes indicating all the playfulness of the most vivid imagination ; upon other occasions, moistened with a tear, displaying the most tender emotion that can weigh upon the heart; but when a sense of injury or wrong called for redress, the same eye would flash the fire of indignation in expressing the powerful feelings that were then passing through his mind. The muscles of his face, especially when exercised in conversation, or in public speaking, were strongly marked, and exhibited the impulse and energy of the soul that animated them ; furnishing ample illustration of the truth, that while the bony configuration of the head may exhibit the orig- inal capacity and propensities of the individual, the eye, and the muscles composing the soft features, alone indicate the activity and power actually exercised by the mind: as the
* Delaplaine's Repository.
32
378
HISTORY OF NEW YORK.
beautiful sculpture of the vase is only displayed in perfection when lighted from within, so do the external movable features of the human form exhibit the animating principle that gives to them their expression and intelligence; in these alone the character of the man is delineated. The clay and the canvass of the most eminent artists of our country have frequently been employed to convey the image of his person for the gratifica- tion of his numerous friends, and the different public institu- tions which he has created, and whose interests he has pro- moted by his public services and his private benefactions.
" Mr. Clinton was as amiable in his private, as he was dignified in his public life. His great intellectual powers and attainments were adorned with a corresponding moral character, pure and unsullied. Although his life has been dedicated to the interests of his country, and expended in her service, he has left his numerous family in a state of comparative dependence. Like Hamilton, his illustrious predecessor in the hearts of his coun- trymen, although placed in situations where he had an op- portunity of acquiring great wealth, and that without the least imputation upon his integrity, he preferred to forego these advantages, and to leave, as a legacy to his children, his un- sullied integrity and poverty, in preference to wealth, and the possibility of a suspicion, that he may have acquired it by any act which could bear the construction of a sordid desire to render his office tributary to his private benefit, at the expense of the public good.
" By his enemies, he was pronounced proud and ambitious. He was proud, but his was not the pride that is usually under- stood as the synonyme of vanity ; it was the consciousness of the merit and the powers he possessed, the purity of the principles by which he was governed, and of the deeds he had done; vanity knows no such merit, nor is entitled to those claims.
" He, too, was ambitious ; but it was that ambition which is ever identified with virtue, and never associated but with virtuous deeds : the object of that ambition was his country's welfare : true, he aspired to the high places and honors in the gift of his fellow-citizens; but it was to extend the horizon
379
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
of his usefulness ; and he never sought them but as the reward of merit, and of services rendered.
" During all the severity and most violent spirit of party contention, his enemies never said aught to call in question the unsullied purity of his private deportment. In tlie do- mestic character of Mr. Clinton, we are called upon to admire his amiable temper, and the tender attachment he manifested to the members of his family, not excepting, his domestics, who were uniformly treated by him with feeling and courtesy, · and who, in return, were always devoted to their kind and benevolent protector.
" The affectionate intercourse and playful fondness he ever indulged towards his children, and the inordinate sensibilities and sufferings which he experienced from the bereavements he had occasion to sustain, also evince the purity and gentle- ness of his domestic life.
" The closing scenes of his illustrious life merit our regard. Having been the fellow-student of Mr. Clinton when at college, having been his physician from the time of his first marriage in 1795, and, during that period, been honored by his unin- terrupted friendship, which has ever been that of an affection- ate brother, I have been enabled to become familiarly acquainted with his constitutional peculiarities and temperament : these, it may be remarked, were of a nature so vigorous and excel- lent, that he enjoyed a greater exemption from disease than falls to the lot of most men. As already intimated, an accident some years since occurred, by which, to a certain extent, lie was necessarily deprived of his accustomed exercise. Although temperate in the extreme in his habits of living, he soon be- came plethoric, at the same time that his confinement render- ed him sensitive to the changes of the atmosphere. In the autumn of 1827, he was attacked with a catarrhal affection of the throat and chest. As is generally the case with those of a vigorous constitution, and who have long enjoyed uninterrupt- ed health, he was impatient of the restraints which sickness 'imposes, and, to a degree, disregarded his disease, and, I might say, culpably omitted to employ the active means necessary for his relief. The result was a congestion of the heart and lungs, which ended in an effusion into the cavities of those
1
380
HISTORY OF NEW YORK.
viscera, attended with a corresponding deposit in the cellular membrane of the lower extremities.
"During my last visit to Albany, the week immediately preced- ing his dissolution, I was very much surprised at the change which had taken place in the state of his health, and confiden- tially communicated to his eldest son, and to some of his connexions and friends, his imminently alarming situation : even, too, at this period, he was daily taking bodily exercise, performing with his characteristic alacrity and energy his official duties at the capitol, and his mind directed to every object except his health and his own immediate condition, of which he was ever too regardless, and at this time totally un- mindful.
" Unprepared for these circumstances, and, indeed, told, upon my arrival in Albany, that he was recovering his health, which had been impaired, my feelings of surprise and pain, when I took my seat at his side, will be readily imagined : his anxious respiration, his anhelation upon the slightest motion, his livid countenance, his irregular and intermitting pulse, his swelling limbs, all indicated the dropsical, and, perhaps, organic affection of the heart and larger vessels, and at once pointed to the fatal issue thus confidently predicted.
"On the Friday preceding his death, after a long conversation I held with him in his library, I bade him a last farewell, under the fullest conviction, as I confidentially expressed to his more immediate friends, that I should never see Mr. Clinton more. 3 Am
" "On the Monday following, the 11th of February, he per- formed his ordinary duties at the capitol ; rode a few miles into the country with his family ; returned to town; met some friends at dinner, and afterwards, as was his habit, retired to his study for the transaction of business, and his accustomed literary pursuits. While sitting in his library, he was sudden- ly seized with a sense of oppression and stricture across the chest : he spoke to his son, sitting near him, who was then writing, performing some duty that had been directed by his father, described to him the distressful, and, as he feared, fa- tal sensation he experienced. Medical aid was instantly called
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.