DeWitt Clinton
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DeWitt Clinton (March 2, 1769 – February 11, 1828) was an early American politician.
Born in Little Britain, New York, the son of James Clinton, he was educated at what is now Columbia University. He became the secretary to his uncle, George Clinton, who was the governor of New York. Soon after he became a member of the Anti-Federalist Party. DeWitt Clinton was a member of the New York state legislature from 1797 until 1802. He then stepped up to becoming a member of the United States Senate, which he resigned from in 1803, to become the Mayor of New York City. He served as Mayor in 1803-07, 1808-10 and 1811-15.
In 1812 Clinton ran for President of the United States as candidate of the Federalists and anti-war Republicans, but was defeated by James Madison. Clinton was able to accomplish many things as a leader in civic and state affairs such as improving the New York public school system, encouraging steam navigation and modifying the laws governing criminals and debtors. While governor he was largely responsible for the creation of the Erie Canal. In 1817 DeWitt Clinton became the governor of New York until 1823. He imagined a Canal from Buffalo, New York on the Eastern Shore of Lake Erie to Albany, New York on the upper Hudson River, a distance of almost 400 miles. So, in 1817 he persuaded the state lawmakers to provide 7 million dollars for the construction of a Canal 363 miles long and 40 feet wide, and four feet deep. In 1825, when the Canal was finished, Governor DeWitt Clinton opened the Erie Canal, sailing in the packet boat Seneca Chief along the Canal into Buffalo. After sailing from the mouth of Lake Erie to New York City, he emptied two casks of water from Lake Erie into the Atlantic Ocean, celebrating the first connection of waters from East to West in the ceremonial "Marriage of the Waters". However, the wisdom of corporate welfare, then called "internal improvements," was called into question when the fact that the canal operated for only a dozen years before becoming defunct due to the advent of railroad transportation comes to light.
Clinton died at the age of 59 and was interred in the Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.
See also
| Preceded by: John Armstrong, Jr. | U.S. Senator (Class 3) from New York 1802-1803 | Succeeded by: John Armstrong, Jr. |
| Preceded by: Charles Cotesworth Pinckney | Federalist Party Presidential candidate 1812 (lost) | Succeeded by: Rufus King |
| Preceded by: John Tayler | Governor of New York 1817–1823 | Succeeded by: Joseph C. Yates |
| Preceded by: Joseph C. Yates | Governor of New York 1825–1828 | Succeeded by: Nathaniel Pitcher |