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 Clinton,
GEORGE, Vice-President of the United States from 1805 to
1812; Republican; born in Little Britain, Ulster co.,
New York, July 26, 1739; was
carefully educated by his father and a Scotch clergyman, a graduate
of the University of Aberdeen. In early youth George made a
successful cruise in a privateer in the French and Indian War, and
soon afterwards joined a militia company, as lieutenant, under his
brother James, in the expedition against Fort Frontenac in 1758. He
chose the profession of law, studied it with William Smith, and
became distinguished in it in his native county. In 1768 he was
elected a member of the Provincial Assembly, wherein he soon became
the head of a Whig minority. In 1775 he was elected to the
Continental Congress,
and voted for the resolution for independence in 1776; but the
invasion of New York by the British from the sea called him home,
and he did not sign the
Declaration
of Independence. He was appointed a brigadier-general, and as
such performed good service in his State. On the organization of the
State of New York, in 1777, he was elected the first governor, and
held the office, by successive elections, eighteen years. He was
very energetic, both in civil and military affairs, until the end of
the war; and was chiefly instrumental in preventing the consummation
of the British plan for separating
New England from the rest
of the Union by the occupation of a line of military posts, through
the Hudson and Champlain valleys, from New York to the St. Lawrence.
In 1788 Governor Clinton presided over the convention held at
Poughkeepsie to consider the new national Constitution. To that
instrument he was opposed, because it would be destructive of State
supremacy. In 1801 he was again elected governor of New York, and in
1804 was chosen Vice-President of the United States. In 1808 he was
a prominent candidate for the Presidency, but was beaten by Madison,
and was re-elected Vice-President. By his casting-vote in the Senate
of the United States, the renewal of the charter of the Bank of the
United States was refused. While in the performance of his official
duties at Washington, he died, April 20, 1812. His remains rest
beneath a handsome white marble monument in the Congressional
Cemetery in Washington. |
