JAMES RENWICK, LL.D.

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CHAPTER III.

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Clinton enters upon the Study of the Law, and is admitted to its Practice. – He is appointed Private Secretary to his Uncle the Governor. – His Career as a Political Writer. – He retires to Private Life, and applies himself to Scientific Pursuits. – He marries. – Character of his Wife.

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Upon leaving college Clinton entered immediately upon the study of the law. For this purpose he was placed in the office of the Hon. Samuel Jones, who at that time held a high rank at the bar of the State of New-York. This learned jurist had taken no active part in the war of revolution; and, from his quiet acquiescence in the sway exerted by England over the counties occupied by her armies, had even been accused of the sentiments called Tory. Like many others in the same position, this acquiescence arose from no hostile feelings to the cause of independence, but from the necessity of the case. Enveloped, with their families, by an armed force, and cut off from all communication with their countrymen, they had no choice but submission. On the evacuation of New-York, Mr. Jones resumed his profession, and took at once the highest place among the barristers of the day. His legal eminence descended to his sons; one of whom has reached the high office of chancellor of the state, and still presides in one of the most important courts. The intimacy between the families of Jones and Clinton, whether renewed or growing out of the position in which young Clinton was placed, has continued from that time, and has been cemented by more than one intermarriage.

The routine of a lawyer’s office affords little opportunity for the exhibition of more than steady industry, and in this respect both the teacher and scholar appear to have been mutually satisfied with each other. Practice in forensic disputation was sought by Clinton in an association of young men, engaged, like himself, in legal studies; and here he held a prominent rank among many who afterward attained to excellence in various ways. His admission to the bar took place after the usual course of three years’ study, and the examination prescribed by law. He was not, however, permitted to try his success in the practice of that profession, though his friends foretold him a brilliant career. His uncle, the governor of the state, at a period of great political excitement, had need of a person both of great capacity and unquestionable fidelity as secretary. This post had been filled by the elder brother of Dewitt Clinton, who was unfortunately drowned in the Hudson. On the death of this brother, in order to serve his relative and efficient patron, he consented to forego the hopes of a profession which, in his hands, promised both to be productive of great emolument and a road to distinction. It has been remarked of English legislators, that, however necessary may be the mere study of the laws, and particularly that of the constitution of their country, to those who aim at political eminence, none who have become entangled in its practice have distinguished themselves as statesmen. The reason is obvious; the necessity of confining themselves to one side of a cause creates a habit of viewing a subject in a single light, and in its details rather than in its broad and general bearings. The nice refinements of special pleading are unsuited to the ears of a popular assembly, and are repugnant even to the taste of a deliberative body.

It was, therefore, fortunate for his country, and particularly to his native state, that Clinton abandoned so early the profession of the law, and entered into the career of politics. Whether it were equally so to his own happiness may well be questioned. The life of Clinton was from this moment one of political strife, into which he threw all the force of his ardent temperament and brilliant talents, and in which he acquired but few disinterested and really attached friends, and made many bitter enemies.

We have already stated that he accepted the office of private secretary to his uncle at a time of great excitement. The question of the adoption of the federal constitution in the place of the old confederation had just been settled. His uncle had been opposed to many of the details of that measure, and had resisted it with all his influence to the moment when farther opposition would have become factious. If we look to the progress in wealth and population which New-York has made since that period, a progress due not more to the blessings of a stable government than to its own unrivalled position, we may ascribe to George Clinton the gift of prescience. He may have seen that his state was destined to take first rank in the confederacy; its chief city to be the emporium of the commerce of the Continent; and, imbued with the attachment to state rights which has again become so popular, may have patriotically desired to secure to the commonwealth over which he presided the advantages which nature had prepared for it. If we were to investigate the results which would have followed, had the proposition which was strongly urged by many been acceded to, namely, that a general and uniform tariff of duties should be adopted throughout the confederation, of which each state should receive into its own treasury that which was collected within its limits, how proud would have been the position of New-York. In its chief port are collected half the revenues from customs of the whole union; and it would have attained this pre-eminence years earlier than it actually did. Philadelphia would not have been enabled to rival it so long by the influence of capital collected in its two successive national banks, and all other cities must have sunk in the comparison.

The State of New-York also had no ill-founded claim to the whole of the territory north of the 42^d degree of latitude, as far west as the Mississippi. This claim seemed to have been considered as unquestionable so long as the colonial government lasted, and is exhibited upon the maps of that day. The adverse claim of Massachusetts covered but a narrow strip, and New-York cut her off from the lands in dispute. No state, therefore, yielded so much to the union as New-York. That many true patriots should have hesitated in mutilating the sovereignty under which such revenues were in prospect, and which might have maintained its land-claims by force if necessary, is not to be wondered at.

It happened, luckily, however, that a more extended sense of patriotism prevailed, which embraced not states or separate interests of even wider influence, but the whole of that people which had stood side by side in the war of independence. But let not those who now wage political warfare on sectional grounds – who speak of an Eastern and a Western interest – who advocate abolition because it will injure the South, or a system of finance that will injure the North, impeach the patriotism of those opposed to the federal constitution. The modern politicians seek to cause a division in interests which are already united, and whose severance would create the most disastrous consequences; the anti-federalists sought to perpetuate an existing state of things, from any change in which they erroneously anticipated evil.

The discussion on the subject of the constitution was carried on in the public papers. The cause which prevailed was sustained by the veteran pen of Jay, the strong and clear intellect of Hamilton, and the cool sagacity of Madison. At this day it is unnecessary to say how triumphant were their arguments, and how thoroughly the able exposition of the constitution contained in the papers collected under the name of "The Federalist" has become a part of the common law of the land. Yet this powerful publication was not allowed to remain unanswered, and the most able of the opposing arguments were found in papers bearing the signature of "A Countryman." These were the production of Clinton, and carried conviction to a large proportion of the voters of the State of New-York. If we cannot now assent to the justice of his views, we may, notwithstanding, admire the boldness which did not shrink from a contest with writers of such transcendent reputation, and the ability which to many minds appeared to have gained a victory over them.

In the state convention which was assembled to consider the new constitution, for the purpose of its being ratified or rejected by New-York, General James Clinton had a seat, and Governor George Clinton presided. In this assembly broad feelings of patriotism prevailed over the grounds which had been the basis of an opposition to the adoption of the constitution. Dewitt Clinton was present at the meetings of the convention, and reported its debates for one of the city papers. His letters, at the time, show him to have been in principle an anti-federalist. Mature reflection in after days changed his views on this subject; and his official letter to the mayor of Philadelphia, on the occasion of the death of Hamilton, shows how completely satisfied he had then become of the wisdom which directed the framers of the constitution of the United States.

The adoption of the constitution led to the formation of parties upon principles entirely new. The anti-federalists acquiesced in the declared will of the majority, and dropped their distinctive appellation; nor did the paramount influence of Washington, in his office of president, admit of the formation of an opposition upon the ancient grounds. Those who accepted representative offices under the new constitution would have formed an opposition to the administration with an ill grace, on the ground of their being dissatisfied with the provisions of that instrument. A question on which to organize an opposition was, however, speedily found in the state of the external relations of the country. It is foreign to our purpose to enter into the questions of the mission of Genet, and the commercial treaty made with England by Jay. Suffice it to say, that on these questions George Clinton placed himself in opposition to the general government. Into this position he was, perhaps, as much driven by attacks upon himself by the federal party, as impelled by his own sentiments. The supporters of the federal constitution, dissatisfied with the opposition made by George Clinton to its adoption, sought a new candidate for the office of governor in the person of Chief-justice Jay, and nearly succeeded in electing him. He, in fact, received a clear majority of all the votes, but was not returned by the canvassers for want of a strict compliance with the prescribed legal forms. In the published discussions which grew out of this contest in the State of New-York, and in the opposition to the foreign policy of the general government, the pen of Clinton found full occupation in the support of his uncle’s cause. However ephemeral were his essays, which appeared in anonymous forms, and however unwilling he may have been in after life to avow his juvenile efforts as a political gladiator, he acquired the reputation of a most powerful and efficient writer. So high was this reputation, that every paper of unusual merit which appeared on the side which he espoused was ascribed to him as the author, and he thus was often wrongfully suspected of personal and illiberal attacks, from which his own manly nature would have shrunk with abhorrence.

In 1794, while the aggressions of the two great belligerants of Europe upon our commerce threatened to involve the United States in a war with one of them, Dewitt Clinton united with several other young men in the formation of a company of volunteer artillery. Of this he was chosen lieutenant, and soon became the captain. The company formed a part of the regiment commanded by General Bauman, a corps even yet remembered for its soldierlike deportment and exemplary discipline. In this corps he rose to the rank of major.

While acting as private secretary to his uncle, he was also called to fill the stations of secretary to the regents of the University, and to a board of commissioners who had charge of fortifying the harbour of New-York at the expense of the state. These appointments show that he already filled a higher place in the estimation of the community than is usually reached by the young men who hold the confidential but unimportant place of private secretary to the governor. All these appointments ceased when his uncle failed in securing a re-election to the office of governor in 1795. The federal party now predominated beyond all possibility of question; and John Jay, the chief justice of the United States, was elected in the room of George Clinton.

Dewitt Clinton was thus restored to private life, and ceased to have any engrossing pursuit. He, in consequence, sought to re-establish himself in the profession of the law, and entered into a partnership with Mr. John McKesson for that purpose. The business which presented itself was respectable, and promised to increase rapidly; but, long before the slow steps by which young men acquire celebrity at the bar could be accomplished, he was recalled to political life. He, however, made use of this interval of leisure to apply himself to the study of the sciences, in which he had a decided taste. The direction which he took in this pursuit was influenced in a great degree by his intimacy with Drs. Hosack and Mitchill. The former was at this time professor of botany, the latter professor of chemistry in Columbia College. The latter, in addition, was almost the only cultivator of the science of zoology the United States then possessed. In compliance with the pursuits of his two associates, natural history, in its several branches, became the object of his studies. In this department of knowledge he made no mean proficiency, and it is not a little remarkable, that, while the two professors added no very important facts to science, the amateur, as we shall see, made discoveries, one of which, at least, was of great interest.

During the same interval Clinton entered into a matrimonial connexion. The lady whom he married was Miss Maria Franklin, the daughter of an eminent merchant in New-York of the Quaker persuasion. This union was a happy one, but was dissolved in 1818 by the death of Mrs. Clinton, who left a family of four sons and three daughters.

Mrs. Clinton was a lady of retiring and domestic habits; ill-suited, perhaps, to advance the political interests of her husband, but better qualified, for that very reason, to be his solace in the constant anxieties and occasional reverses to which he was exposed in his political career. Her worth may be best illustrated by the tender recollection and high esteem with which her children still regard the amiable qualities and virtues of their mother. She was a warm-hearted, accomplished, and most amiable woman, devoted to the happiness of her husband and children, and her death was an irreparable loss to her family.

We have thus passed the period of Clinton’s tutelage, whether literary or political. Up to this time he had, in the latter respect, been the agent and mouthpiece of his uncle the governor; we have next to contemplate him aspiring to eminence under the direction of his own intellect.

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Transcribed from the original text and html prepared by Bill Carr, last updated 12/10/99.