Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IV.djvu/703

CLINTON 691 He soon after joined a militia company as lieu- tenant, and took part in the expedition against Fort Frontenac, now Kingston, Canada. Choos- ing the legal profession, he practised with dis- tinction in his native county, till in 1768 he was elected to the colonial assembly, where he soon became the head of a whig minority. He was elected to the continental congress in 1775, voted for the declaration of independence, was appointed brigadier general of the United States in 1777, and in the same year, at the first elec- tion under the constitution of New York, was chosen both governor and lieutenant governor of the state. He accepted the governorship, and by six successive elections held that office for 18 years. Both in his civil and military capacity, he exhibited great energy and ren- dered important services throughout the war; and though his efforts to save Forts Mont- gomery and Clinton in the Hudson highlands in 1777 were unsuccessful, it was yet due in a large measure to his counsels that communica- tion was prevented between the British in Canada and the city of New York. The poli- tics of New York were in a distracted state by reason of the numerous tories residing within its limits, which made the chief magistracy unsurpassed in difficulty by any office in the country except that of commander-in-chief of the army. In 1788 he presided over the con- vention at Poughkeepsie to consider the fede- ral constitution, the adoption of which he op- posed, not deeming it sufficiently decided in favor of the sovereignty of each state. When in 1792 Washington was elected to the presi- dency for the second time, Clinton received 50 electoral votes for vice president. After an interval in his official life, he was again elected in 1801 governor of New York, and in 1804 was elected vice president of the United States, receiving the same number of votes as Jeffer- son received for the presidency. He was one of the prominent candidates for nomination to the presidency in 1808, and received 6 electoral votes in opposition to Madison, but he was continued in the chair of vice president by 113 electoral votes. He was acting in dis- charge of the duties of his office at the time of his death. By his casting vote in the senate, Jan. 24, 1811, the recharter of the national bank was refused ; he thinking it inexpedient rather than unconstitutional. CLINTON, Sir Henry, an English soldier, born about 1738, died at Gibraltar in December, 1795. He was the grandson of Francis Fiennes Clinton, sixth earl of Lincoln, became a captain in the guards in 1758, served in the seven years' war, and was sent to America as major general in 1775. He took a prominent part in the bat- tle of Bunker hill, and in the battle on Long Island which resulted in the evacuation of New York by the Americans; stormed Fort Clinton on the Hudson in 1777, in a vain effort to relieve Burgoyne ; and was appointed com- mander-in-chief of the British land forces in America in January, 1778, superseding Gen. Howe. After being forced by Washington to evacuate Philadelphia, he sent an expedition against Savannah in 1779, and led an army against South Carolina, capturing Charleston. In May, 1780, he entered into negotiations with Arnold ; and he sailed from New York with 7,000 men to relieve Cornwallis on the very day that the latter capitulated. He was superseded by Sir Guy Carleton in 1781, re- turned to England in 1782, and died soon after he had been appointed governor of Gibraltar. He wrote a narrative of his conduct in America, a rejoinder to Lord Cornwallis's observations on it (1783), and " Observations on Stedman's ' History of the American War' " (1794). CLINTON, Henry Fynes, an English author, born at Gamston, Nottinghamshire, Jan. 14, 1781, died at Welwyn, Hertfordshire, Oct. 24,. 1852. He was a descendant of Henry, second earl of Lincoln, and his father, Charles, a clergyman, assumed in 1821 the surname of Fynes-Clinton. He was a graduate of Oxford, and a member of parliament for Aldborough from 1806 to 1826. He was one of the most diligent students of Greek and Latin literature ; and his two principal works, the Fasti Hellenici (3 vols., Oxford, 1824-'34) and Fasti Romani (2 vols., 1845-'50), are thorough and scholar- like treatises on the civil and literary chro- nology of Greece and Rome. See "Literary Eemains of H. F. Clinton," by C. J. F. Clinton (1854). CLINTON, James, an American soldier, the fourth son of Charles and father of De Witt Clinton, born in Ulster co., N. Y., Aug. 9, 1736, died at Little Britain, Orange co., Dec. 22, 1812. After receiving an excellent education, he joined the army, served in the French war as a captain under Col. Bradstreet, and distinguished him- self in 1756 in the capture of Fort Frontenac, and of a sloop of war on Lake Ontario. In 1763 he commanded four regiments for the protec- tion of the western frontiers of Ulster and Orange against the incursions of the Indians. He was appointed colonel at the outbreak of the revolutionary war, and toward the close of 1775 accompanied Montgomery to Cana- da. Promoted to the rank of brigadier gen- eral, he was with his brother, Gov. George Clinton, in command at Fort Clinton, on the west bank of the Hudson, when in 1777 that fort was stormed by the English; and after a gallant resistance, he escaped severely wounded with a part of the garrison across the river. In 1779 he cooperated with Gen. Sulli- van in his expedition against the Iroquois. Crossing the Mohawk to Lake Otsego, one of the sources of the Susquehanna, down which he was to join Sullivan, he dammed the lake, and then by breaking the dam away produced an artificial current which carried his boats rapidly to the point of junction. An army of Indians and tories was soon after encountered and defeated at Newtown, now Elmira. He afterward commanded at Albany, and was present at the siege of Yorktown and surren-