CHAPTER XXIV. GEORGE CLINTON, FOURTH VICE-PRESIDENT. HE successor of Aaron Burr in the Vice-Presidency was General George Clinton, a patriot of the Revolution. No name connected with the history of New York became of more general importance than that of Clinton. Charles Clinton, the head of this family in America, emigrated from the north of Ireland, and with a few others settled in Orange or Ulster County, New York, about the spring of 1730. The Clintons were of English origin, and not until the evil or troublesome times of the Charleses and Cromwell did they change their residence first to Scotland and subsequently to Ireland; and not for more than a hundred years after the work of building a vast nation in the Western World had begun, did they add a representative to the great tide of adventure. Charles Clinton acquired a considerable landed estate, and became a man of some consequence in the Colony. He was an officer of militia during the French and Indian War of 1756, and under him his two distinguished sons had their first military experiences. He died in 1773, leaving four sons, Alexander, Charles, James, and George, the two first being physicians. James Clinton was a soldier, and during the Revo lutionary War rose to be a brigadier-general, gained some distinction under Washington, and in his bold and stubborn defense of the Hudson River. He was the father of De Witt, on many accounts the most distinguished of the Clintons. The mother of this family was Elizabeth Denniston, an English woman, married to Charles Clinton before emigrating to this country. Both parents were possessed of some educational advantages, it is said, and the father especially was regarded as possessing no mean talents and business importance. George Clinton, his youngest child, was born in Ulster County, New York, July 26, 1739. He received an ordinary education, as a preparatory step to the profession of the law, but, like most public men of his day, made no kind of pretensions towards literary attainments, and knew more of Indian wars, British tyranny, and pioneer hardships than of the polished manners of the world. Yet, in these respects, he was not behind the men of his day in the Colonies, and possessed many most admirable qualities. During the Revolution he rendered invaluable services to the patriot cause, and, for many years subsequently, aided very materially in building up the substantial interests of his State. At the close of the French and Indian War he studied law and entered upon its practice in 1764, in his own county. He served for a time as clerk of the county courts, and in other positions of some importance. His fine sense and other good qualities soon gave him flattering success in his profession, and introduced him to political notice. His career in politics dated from his election to the Colonial Assembly in 1768. He was continued in that body until the outbreak of the Revolutionary War virtually put an end to its existence. The provisional convention at New York, in the spring of 1775, elected him a member of the Continental Congress, and at its second session he took his seat. Yet he remained but a short time in that body, and took no great interest in its proceedings. He had little patience with its dilatory and temporizing policy, and turned his attention to a field where events were likely to be impelled by very different forces. He had been appointed to a military command by his State, as a brigadier-general, and this rank was afterwards conferred upon him by the Congress. He now became actively engaged in the military service, and figured prominently in the defense of New York and the Hudson. At the first election under the new State constitution in 1777, he was elected first Governor of New York. He was re-elected to this office uninterruptedly for many years. The first session of the Legislature was held at Kingston, on the Hudson, in September, where he delivered his first address as Governor. But at this juncture news of Burgoyne's expedition from the north, and of Sir Henry Clinton, of New York, marching up the Hudson to meet him, was received. The fighting Governor at once adjourned the Legislature and joined his brother James, who was in command at Forts Clinton and Montgomery, on the west side of the Hudson. These forts were attacked by the British and captured, after a stubborn resistance from the Clintons and their five or six hundred militia. Both of the commanders and many of their men escaped. Although the Clintons had worked with great energy, the Hudson was now virtually open to the British. After demolishing the captured forts, the British sailed up the Hudson, laying waste the country on both sides. The Governor gathered the scattered militia and hastened on to Kingston, but he could present little opposition, and that place was burned. Subsequently to this time Governor Clinton marched into the Mohawk valley to defend it against Sir John Johnson and his Indians, and on one or two other occasions during the war he took the field in person. Although he was greatly devoted to the policy of employing the continental army in the protection of New York, and was not always to be relied upon as to his judgment of the expediency of military operations, yet General Washington was greatly attached to him, and considered him one of the most daring and trustworthy of all the patriot leaders. Great Britain had few more determined opponents during the struggle for American Independence than George Clinton. And New York was fortunate in having him for her chief executive at such a period, when a more tolerant hand would have been unsuccessful in dealing with the bitter, adverse elements and interests of the State. Governor Clinton's attention was given mainly, throughout his long term of office, to building up the agricultural and other interests of his State, and in organizing a system of general education. He was an earnest advocate of internal improvements, and in his administration many of the foundations were laid on which New York subsequently rose to great distinction. Political parties had their origin in this country in While on the attempt to introduce the Federal Constitution instead of the old Articles of Confederation. all hands, and by almost all men, it was acknowledged that the old order of things was unsatisfactory, and that the country was fast going to bankruptcy and general ruin, if not worse, yet many leading men were opposed to the new Constitution. New York then became, what it has probably continued to be, the greatest political partisan caldron on the continent. This State was opposed to the Federal Constitution, and here the Anti-Federal party, under the leadership of Governor Clinton became the center of opposition to the proposed new plan of Government. Mr. Clinton committed the folly of urging the Legislature of his State to take steps for calling another National Convention for reconsidering the Constitution with a view to adapting it to the demands of the States. But while New York bitterly opposed the Constitution under some of her able men, she also furnished its most able defender, General Alexander Hamilton, by whose exertions mainly was she led to support the Federal Union. The subject was finally brought before a convention of which Governor Clinton was president, and the Constitution ratified by a majority of three votes; but, it must be said, that even this result was not reached until the necessary two-thirds of the States had accepted it, and the only alternative was secession, which was actually and foolishly discussed as advisable on the part of New York. While Governor Clinton opposed the Constitution he, perhaps, can not be charged with recommending the secession of his State from the Union. No man with the experiences of that day, and the respect in which |