GEORGE CLINTON. THE first American ancestor of the | New York, in a settlement to which eminent New York family of the Clintons, Charles Clinton, was a native of Ireland, who emigrated to America in the early part of the seventeenth century. The lineage may be carried farther back to William Clinton, an adherent of Charles I. in the civil wars of England, and an officer in the royal army. When the monarch was defeated, his supporter took refuge on the Continent; after a while went secretly to Scotland, married, and passed over, for greater security, to the north of Ireland. His son James in vain endeavored to recover the patrimonial estate in England. He lived in Ireland, married the daughter of one of Cromwell's officers, and became the father of James, the emigrant to this country, who was born in the County of Longford, in 1690. He had a perilous voyage to the new land. The passengers were so badly treated by the captain of the ship which was to carry them to Philadelphia, that many of them died, among others a son and daughter of Mr. Clinton. The survivors were glad to effect a landing at Cape Cod, where Clinton and his friends continued till the spring of 1730, when they established themselves in what was then Ulster County, in the name Little Britain was given, eight miles distant from the Hudson. He cultivated a large farm, occasionally acted as a surveyor of land, was fond of books and study, and speedily be came recognized in the colony as a man of influence and intelligence. He held several military offices in the provincial service, and was with the royal forces at the capture of Frontenac. He was a man of general accomplishment, a gentleman of the olden time. A few verses, even, are preserved of his composition. He died in his eighty-third year, in Ulster, in 1773, on the eve of the Revolution, commending the cause of his country to his sons. "Stand," he said, "by the liberties of America." George Clinton, the subject of our present sketch, was born at the family seat, in the County of Ulster, in New York, July 26, 1739. His Christian name was given him out of esteem for the old colonial governor, George Clinton, the father of Sir Henry, with whom there was a distant family relationship. He was educated at home, by his father and a learned minister of the Presby terian Church, a graduate of Aberdeen. While quite a youth, on the breaking out of the old French war, he ran away from home to serve in a privateer, when he encountered many hardships, but was back in time to share with his father and brother, at the age of nineteen, in the reduction of Frontenac, and assist in capturing one of the French vessels. At the close of the war, he turned his attention to the arts of peace, reading law in the office of William Smith, the eminent lawyer, colonial historian, and loyalist of the Revolution. He was appointed, at the early age of twenty, by the favor of Governor Clinton, Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas, Clerk of the Peace, and of the Court of Sessions, etc., of Ulster County. In 1764, he was admitted to the bar; the following year he was appointed Surrogate, and in 1768 we find him taking his seat as a member of the Colonial Assembly from his county, and continuing in this relation till its dissolution, at the breaking out of the Revolution. and his rank confirmed by the Conti He was also, in 1776, appointed a It was not long before an opportunity was afforded the new governor to prove his mettle, in a contest with the son of his old friend and early patron, George Clinton. In autumn, the British army in New York, having been reinforced by the arrival of fresh troops from Europe, determined upon a movement against the forts in the Highlands, which would open the river to a coöperation with Burgoyne, who was advancing from the He was chosen in 1775 a delegate to the Continental Congress. He was pre-north. An expedition was planned sent at the preliminary vote which led to the Declaration of Independence, but was called away to military duties in his own State before the signing of the instrument. Clinton," says Gouverneur Morris, "attended but little in Congress. He had an aversion to councils, because, to use his own words, the duty of looking out for danger makes men cowards." He held the State appointment of brigadier-general, and was put in command of the levies raised for the defence of the Highlands, which was soon after specially assigned to him, with this object by Sir Henry Clinton, 'Oration in honor of the memory of George Clinton, passes. Part of the militia had been 1812. and it was very difficult to get the yeomanry from their farms at the harvest season to serve. Of the militia in the forts a portion was unarmed The main defence rested upon the artillerymen of the veteran, Colonel Lamb. There were but six hundred in all. General Putnam, who was intrusted with the defence of the region, was below on the opposite shore at Peekskill. Brigadier-General Clinton, "the Champion of the Highlands," was discharging his duties as governor at the meeting of the Legislature at Kingston. There were two other forts, on the opposite side of the river, defending the Highlands, one above Fort Constitution over against West Point, the other, Fort Independence, at the southern en trance above Peekskill. Sir Henry Clinton, who was a good strategist, completely outwitted Putnam in his advances. He sent a party of troops to Tarrytown, as if for a movement on the eastern side, which led Putnam to suppose that his force at Peekskill was the object of attack, while the British general brought his fleet up the river, and reëmbarked the men who had been landed. A second landing of men was made at Verplanck's Point, a few miles below Peekskill, which confirmed Putnam in the notion that he was to be assailed. He even despatched a demand to the opposite forts for succor from their scanty garrisons. The enemy were in the meanwhile landing on the opposite shore, and pushing upward with their vessels into the jaws of the Highlands. Governor Clinton, already warned of the movements of the fleet, had thrown himself into Fort Montgomery, and was disposing his force for the defence of the approach by the bridge across the kill, while he sought information of any movements in his rear; for his military eye saw at once that his forts were the aim of the enemy. On the morning of the sixth, the British forces, several thousand in all, from picked regiments, were landed at Stony Point. Sir Henry Clinton led them by a rough march to the west of the Dunderberg. Arriving at a convenient point, he sent a part of his force onward to attack Fort Montgomery from the rear at the same moment that he would assail its lower neighbor, Fort Clinton. Gover nor Clinton, as we have said, was at the upper fort. He was aware of the enemy's approach, and prepared for resolute resistance. Sending out a portion of his men to oppose the march with a fieldpiece, he dispatched a messenger to Putnam for a reinforcement. The enemy came rapidly along, when they were considerably annoyed by the grape-shot and musketry. The men, however, who opposed them, were but a handful, and the gallant defenders were compelled to retire to the fort after having spiked their gun. “This,” says Clinton, in his dispatch, "was about two o'clock in the afternoon; and the enemy approached the works and began the attack, which continued, with few intervals, till about five o'clock, when an officer appeared with a flag. I ordered Lieutenant Colonel Livingston to meet him without the works, and know his business. Colonel Livingston having demanded his rank and business, he was told by the bearer of the flag that he was Lieutenant- the Highland forts. Had Clinton been Colonel Campbell, and that he came in command in place of Putnam, the to demand the surrender of the fort, to result might have been different. As prevent the effusion of blood. Colonel it was, the loss was happily neutralized Livingston replied that he had no by the surrender of Burgoyne, which authority to treat with him, but if they rendered the conquest ineffectual. would surrender themselves prisoners of war, they might depend upon being well treated; and if they did not choose to accept of these terms, they might renew the attack as soon as he should return within the fort, he being determined to defend it to the last extremity. As soon as LieutenantColonel Livingston returned, the attack was renewed with great violence; and after as obstinate a resistance as our situation and the weakness of the garrison would admit, having defended the works from two o'clock till the dusk of the evening, the enemy, by the superiority of numbers, forced the works on all sides." The reinforcement from Putnam was still on the other side of the river. The river was, however, open to the incursions of the enemy, who availed themselves of the opportunity to burn and destroy in their progress. Kingston, where the legislature had lately been in session, was committed to the flames in sight of Governor Clinton, who had hastened to interpose his little force between the town and the enemy. During the remainder of the war, he was twice in the field to repel attack, in the defence of the Mohawk region against Sir John Johnson and his motley forces, and a like threatened attack from Lake Champlain. The old Colonial controversy of the New Hampshire Grants, was one of the agitated questions of Clinton's adminis tration, which, after a great deal of controversy and employment of the time of Congress and the State legis lature, and the minds of some of the best men in the country, was finally settled by the troublesome little Vermont becoming a State in 1791.1 The forcible dispatch of Clinton to Washington, just cited, tells the story of a prolonged and honorable resistance. It was utterly impossible to hold the extended works longer with the slender garrison against the hosts of assailants. When they were final- At the termination of the contest ly overpowered, many yet managed with England, Governor Clinton had by their valor to escape. General the satisfaction of entering New York James Clinton, who was commander at Fort Clinton, driven to surrender at the same time, was wounded, and narrowly escaped by descending a precipice to the river. The Governor, his brother, was fortunate enough to find a boat to carry him to the other side. Thus ended the gallant defence of sketch of Clinton in his "Council of Revision,” etc. at the side of Washington on the twenty-fifth of November—“ Evacuation Day." An incident occurred a short time after, which illustrated both the humanity and decision of Clinton. The history of this whole controversy is carefully given in a valuable note by Mr. Street to his biographical |