De Witt Clinton

De Witt Clinton (1769-1828), American lawyer and statesman, born in Little Britain, New York, and educated at Columbia College (now Columbia University). About three years after graduating from Columbia in 1786, Clinton was admitted to the bar, became secretary to his uncle, George Clinton, governor of New York, and joined the Anti-Federalist party. He was a member of the New York state legislature from 1797 until 1802, when he became a member of the U.S. Senate; he resigned in 1803 in order to become mayor of New York City, and he served in that capacity with two brief interruptions until 1815. In 1812 he ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. presidency against James Madison.

One of his most lasting accomplishments as a leader in civic and state affairs was the establishment of the New York City public school system. He was interested in all scientific and social questions, encouraged steam navigation, modified the laws governing debtors and criminals, and advocated the building of the Erie Canal, a project that had been advanced by the American statesman Gouverneur Morris. On the strength of the canal question, which had become a political issue, he was elected governor of New York State, serving from 1817 to 1823. In this official capacity he broke ground for the canal at Rome, New York, in 1817; in the first year of his third term (1825-1828), he opened the canal for navigation.