1.1b.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.2.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1a.1b.1b.1.1.1.4.1.1.1.3.1.1b.1.1.1.4a.1.1.1.1.2.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.2.1 Dewitt Clinton , United States Senator 
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Birth |
2 Mar 1769, LITTLE BRITAIN, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES |
Death |
11 Feb 1828, ALBANY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES |
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Governor of New York and United States Senator, and a promoter of the Erie Canal |
CLINTON, DEWITT (b. March 2, 1769, Little Britain, N.Y. [U.S.]---d. Feb. 11, 1828, Albany, N.Y., U.S.), American political leader who promulgated the idea of the Erie Canal (q.v.), which connects the Hudson River to the Great Lakes.
Dewitt Clinton was the nephew of Governor George Clinton of New York. A Republican (Jeffersonian) attorney, he served as state senator (1798-1802, 1806-11), U.S. senator (1802-03), mayor of New York City (1803-15) except for two annual terms), and lieutenant governor (1811-13). As mayor of New York City, he advocated free and widespread public education, promoted legislation that removed voting restrictions against Roman Catholics, and established various public-welfare institutions in the city. He was an unsuccessful presidential candidate in 1812, winning 89 electoral votes to James Madison's 128.
In 1811 Clinton introduced a bill into the New York Senate to appoint a commission to explore suggested routes for a canal across New York state to link the Northeast costal trade with the Great Lakes via Lake Erie. He and Gouverneur Morris, chairman of the commission, were sent to Washington, D.C., to seek federal aid for the project but were unsuccessful. After the War of 1812 ended (1814), the canal idea was revived, and Clinton went to the state capital at Albany, urging acceptance of a detailed canal plan. After much persuasion, the legislature agreed to finance the canal as a state project (April 1816) and appointed Clinton to the commission.
Elected governor at this opportune time and serving almost continuously (1817-23, 1825-28) until his death, he was in an advantageous position to oversee the entire project. As bitter opposition to his administration developed under Martin Van Buren and TAMMANY HALL, Clinton refused to run for a third term in 1822. But his dismissal as canal commisssioner in 1824 caused such indignation statewide that he was swept into the governorship the next year and served until his death. With the opening of the Erie Canal on Oct. 25, 1825, Clinton assured the 19th-century development of New York City as the major port of trade with the Midwest.
Clinton was also profoundly interested in the arts and the natural sciences, and he published an excellant summary of the state of scientific knowledge in the United States in a work entitled An Introductory Discourse (1814).
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BUCKTAILS---were a powerful group in the Democratic-Republican Party in the state of New York from about 1816 to 1830. They wanted to keep TAMMANY, the New York City political machine, in control of state politics. They opposed the reform policies of Governor DeWitt Clinton, whose support came largely from rural districts. The Bucktails controlled the Democratic-Republican Party in New York from 1822 to 1824. Their name came from the buck's tail emblem that each member wore in his hat. See also Democratic-Republican Party, SOCIETY OF TAMMANY.
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