CLINTON, GEORGE American soldier and political leader, was born at Little Britain, Ulster (now Orange) county (N.Y.), on July 26, 1739, the son of Charles Clinton (169o-1773), who had emigrated to America in 1729, and com manded a regiment of provincial troops in the French and Indian War. The son went to sea at the age of 16, but, finding the sailor's life distasteful, joined his father's regiment and accompanied him as lieutenant in the expedition against Fort Frontenac in 1758. After the war he practised law and held a number of minor civil offices in Ulster county. From 1768 to 1775 he sat in the New York provincial assembly, and in the controversies with Great Britain zealously championed the colonial cause. In 1774 he was a member of the New York committee of correspondence, and in was a member of the second Continental Congress. In December of this year he was appointed a brigadier-general of militia by the New York provincial congress. In the following summer, being ordered by Washington to assist in the defence of New York, he left Philadelphia, after voting for the Declar ation of Independence, and before he could sign it.
General Clinton took part in the battle of White Plains (Oct. 28, 1776), and was charged with the defence of the highlands of the Hudson, where, with De Witt Clinton, in Oct. 1777, he offered a firm but unsuccessful resistance to the advance of Sir Henry Clinton. In March of this year he had been appointed b) Congress a brigadier-general in the continental army, and he thus held two commissions, as the State convention refused to accept his resignation as brigadier-general of militia. So great was Clinton's popularity at this time that at the first election under the new State constitution he was chosen both governor and lieutenant-governor. He declined the latter office, and on July 3o, 1777, entered upon his duties as governor, which were at first largely of a military nature. In 178o he took the field and checked the advance of Sir John Johnson and the Indians in the Mohawk valley. In his administration Clinton was energetic and patriotic, and though not so intellectual as some of his New York contem poraries, he was more popular than any of them. He served as governor for 18 successive years (1777-95), and for another triennial term from 1801 to 1804. In the elections of 1780, 1783, and 1786 he had no opponent. In 1800—oI he was a member of the assembly.
In the struggle in New York over the adoption of the Federal constitution he was one of the leaders of the opposition, but in the State convention of 1788, over which he presided, his party was defeated and the constitution was ratified. In national politics he was a follower of Thomas Jefferson, and in State politics he led the long dominant faction known as "Clintonians." In 1789, 1792, and 1796 Clinton received a number of votes in the electoral college but not enough to secure him the vice-presidency, which was then awarded to the recipient of the second highest number of votes. In 1804, however, after the method of voting had been changed, he was nominated for the vice-presidency by a con gressional caucus, and was duly elected. In 1808 he sought nom ination for the presidency and was greatly disappointed when this went to Madison. He was again chosen as vice-president, how ever, and died in Washington before the expiration of his term, on April 20, 1812. He was buried in the congressional cemetery, from which in May, 1908, his remains were transferred to Kings ton (N.Y.). His casting vote in the Senate in 1811 defeated the bill for the renewal of the charter of the Bank of the United States.
The Public Papers of George Clinton, 6 vols. (1899-1902) have been published by the State of New York. See also St. S. Spaulding, George Clinton and the New York Democracy (Harvard University, 1926).