Everything about George Clinton Politician totally explained
» 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. 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 didn't 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.
- 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(External Link
),
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.
Further Information
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