Henry Clinton

“ We have seen above that immediately after General Arnold had forfeited his honor, betrayed his trust, and endeavored to sell his country, he received his pecuniary reward from General Clinton and was appointed to a distinguished military command in the Chesapeake. He was in a few months recalled from Virginia to Sir Henry Clinton, ostensibly to assist in the defense of New York, but more probably to quiet the murmurs of men of more virtue, talents, and merit than himself. ”

“ The merits of Sir Henry Clinton, as a commander, have been variously estimated; and, as is usually the case, the truth seems to be intermediate between the panegyric of his friends and the censure of his enemies. That he was endowed with bravery, and possessed a considerable share of military skill, cannot, in fairness, be denied; but he was decidedly unequal to the great difficulties of his situation [Pg 495] and unfit to contend against so lofty a genius as Washington, supported by a people resolved on obtaining their independence, and fighting on their native soil. ”

“ Sir Henry Clinton proceeded with more caution than the ministry. He was not prepared to put implicit trust in a man, who had shown himself such an adept in the arts of dissimulation, so destitute of principle, and so regardless of honor. ”

“ Sir Henry Clinton bids me speak of that, as of a subject that has already occupied his thoughts. It would give grace and dignity to our resumed authority, to have it illustrated by the accomplished scholar and discreet statesman, who has, before this, discharged important and difficult trusts with a fidelity that has won all men's esteem. And then, my dear sir," he added after a pause, "who may say that it shall not be Sir Philip Lindsay, or even something yet higher?—a coronet would not be an honor unsuited even to the wilds of Virginia. ”

“ The men continued their march to Princeton for that purpose; and while there, emissaries arrived from Sir Henry Clinton, with tempting offers to them, and with the suggestion that they should take up a position behind the South River, when he would soon cover them with detachments from the royal army in New York. The mutineers, however, showed themselves true to the cause of liberty, for they not only rejected Clinton’s tempting offers, but communicated them to General Wayne, with assurances that, though they had left the American camp, they would never go over to the British. ”

“ He opened a correspondence with Sir Henry Clinton at New York, and agreed for a stated sum of money and an appointment in the British army to surrender the post to a force which Clinton was to send against it. When a point in the negotiations was reached where it was necessary to send a trusted agent to meet Arnold, Clinton dispatched Major John André, who went up the Hudson in a sloop, and, September 22, 1780, met Arnold at the foot of Long Clove Mountain. ”

“ He found the British troops scattered in small detachments an posted at a distance from each other in various parts of the country. He observed to Sir Henry Clinton, "One maxim appears to me to be absolutely necessary for the safe and honorable conduct of this war -- which is, that we should have as few posts as possible; and that wherever the King's troops are, they should be in respectable force. By the vigorous exertions of the present governors of America, large bodies of men are soon collected; and I have too often observed that when a storm threatens, our friends disappear." ”

“ It is hardly possible that this letter could have been seen by Sir Henry Clinton, although written at his request, with the view of operating on the judgment and clemency of Washington. Could any language, uttered by any individual, have a more opposite tendency? ”

“ So he abandoned Carolina, to which he had been sent, to General Greene; and with the idea that Sir Henry Clinton, his superior in command, ought to quit New York and establish himself in Virginia, without waiting that officer's views, he marched thither himself in such wise as to compel him to come. In that movement the great game was really lost. And it is to that act of insubordination, that, until this eventful April, 1862, the valley of James River has owed its historical interest. ”

“ CLINTON, HENRY FIENNES, ninth Earl of Lincoln and second Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyne (1720–1794) , was the second son of Henry Clinton, seventh earl of Lincoln, K.G., P.O., paymaster-general of the forces, cofferer of the household, and constable of the Tower, by Lucy Pelham, daughter of Thomas, first lord Pelham, and sister of Thomas, duke of Newcastle, and the Right Honourable Henry Pelham, prime ministers of England. He was born on 24 April 1720, and educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, and succeeded his brother George as ninth earl of Lincoln on 30 April 1730. ”

“ The regular force in New York and its dependencies was now estimated at twelve thousand men, great part of whom might be drawn into the field for any particular purpose, because Sir Henry Clinton could command about four thousand militia and refugees for garrison duty.
In communicating to congress the appearance of the British fleet off the Hook, General Washington observed, "a very alarming scene may shortly open, and it will be happy for us if we [Pg 228] shall be able to steer clear of some serious misfortune in this quarter. ”

“ Clinton then returned to New York and left Cornwallis to operate in the south, and the younger general in 1781 made the famous march which ended in the capitulation of Yorktown and the final loss of the American colonies. How far Clinton is to be blamed cannot be accurately defined, but in May 1781 he resigned his command to Sir Guy Carleton and returned to England, and in 1783 he published his 'Narrative,' which called forth an acrimonious answer from Cornwallis. ”

“ One can easily understand Clinton's dilemma. He wanted the bill disapproved without his aid; Woodworth's action compelled him to do the very thing he had planned to avoid. To the day of his death, Clinton never got over the affront. "Yates and Woodworth were both frightened and have damned themselves," he wrote Henry Post, on the 27th of November, 1820. "The latter supposed also that he would distinguish himself by his independence. I don't know a fellow more intrinsically despicable. ”

“ So certain was Clinton that his offers would be accepted, that he crossed over to Staten Island with a large body of troops, to act as circumstances might require. But he was as ignorant of the character of our men as King George himself. They wanted to be fed and clothed, and wanted their families provided for; but they were not soldiers fighting merely for pay. Every man of them knew what freedom was, and had taken the field to secure it for his country. You may judge how such men received Clinton's proposals. ”

“ Clinton replied, "I don't want to be any smarter, I'm smart enough."
Mrs. Clinton's two nieces, the Misses Mary and Mar [72] garet Gelston, were among my earliest and most intimate friends. They occupied a prominent social position in New York and both were well known for their unusual intellectuality. They were daughters of Maltby Gelston, President of the Manhattan Bank, and granddaughters of David Gelston, who was appointed Collector of the Port of New York by Jefferson and retained that position for twenty years. Late in life Mary Gelston married Henry R. Winthrop of New York. ”

“ He applied to the Governor of Boulogne, Lord Clinton, for leave to abandon it, and with Clinton's consent levelled the walls, blew up the castle, and withdrew with his men and guns into the town; [66] while Henry approached at leisure to Boulogne itself, to revenge, as was supposed, by an immediate assault, his night defeat when Dauphin, by Lord Poynings. By this time, however, the season was growing late; the garrison was strengthened by the troops brought in from Bullenberg, and the vast batteries raised by Henry VIII. would perhaps enable Clinton to protract his defence into the winter. ”

“ Though not gifted with the military abilities of Picton or Cole, Clinton yet made a thoroughly good general of division. His first feat of arms was the reduction of the forts of Salamanca in June 1812, when one of his brigadiers, General Bowes, was killed, and he also layed a conspicuous part in the battle of Salamanca, when his division was brought up to carry the Arapiles after the failure of Pack's Portuguese, and did its work successfully. After the battle, Clinton was left in command upon the Douro, and he afterwards co-operated in the unsuccessful siege of Burgos. ”

“ The general had now no very difficult task; his wary enemy, Suchet, was obliged to fall back on France because of the advance of Wellington in the west, and Clinton had only to watch him, and then to form the blockade of Barcelona. At the conclusion of the war, Clinton was made colonel of the 55th regiment, and promoted lieutenant-general, and in January 1815, on the extension of the order of the Bath, he was made a G.C.B. He now took some part in politics. ”

“ In June 1777, when Sir William Howe started for Philadelphia in order to open up a communication with General Burgoyne marching from Canada, he left Clinton in command at New York, and when the great plan failed, and Burgoyne was captured at Saratoga, Sir William Howe returned to England in May 1778, and Clinton became commander-in-chief of the forces in North America. He at once evacuated Philadelphia and concentrated at New York, and pursued a policy of sending out predatory expeditions and not attempting military operations. ”

“ He could not obtain from them either money or men for the Cape Breton expedition, set on foot by Governor Shirley of Massachusetts. Trying to regain control of colonial politics, he stirred up a bitter feeling among the popular party men; and after years of struggle, during which the home government afforded him little comfort and support, Clinton was willing to throw up his commission as governor of New York in 1751, and return to England and resume his station as admiral.
The French of Canada had used many artifices and had been indefatigable in their endeavors to gain over the Six Nations. ”

“ The slaveholders knew him for their clear-headed enemy, and drove him out of the arena of national politics. Never was political defeat so auspicious. Cured of the political ambition of his youth, Mr. Clinton turned the energies of his massive genius to the industrial consolidation of the North. He saw that all future political triumph of liberty must rest on the triumph of free labor. ”

“ Seldom in the history of an American commonwealth has a statesman been as prophetic. But in managing the details of party tactics—in dealing with individuals for the purpose of controlling the means that control men—he conducted the office of governor much as he did his candidacy for President in 1812, without plan, and, apparently, without organisation. With all his courage, Clinton must have felt some qualms of uneasiness as one humiliation followed another ”

“ As governor he took part in the formal ceremony of admitting the waters of Lake Erie into the canal in October 1825, and thus witnessed the completion of a work which owed more to him than to any other man. Clinton died at Albany, N.Y., on the 11th of February 1828. In addition to his interest in politics and public improvements, he devoted much study to the natural sciences; among his published works are a Memoir on the Antiquities of Western New York (1818) , and Letters on the Natural History and Internal Resources of New York (1822) . ”

“ In 1780 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 possessing the intellectual attainments of some of his New York contemporaries, he was more popular than any of them, as is attested by his serivice as governor for eighteen successive years (1777–1795) , and for another triennial term from 1801 to 1804. In the elections of 1780, 1783 and 1786 he had no opponent. ”

“ Clinton ultimately located in Ulster County New York, then a dense wilderness filled with wild beasts and savages more wild than them. He became a prominent public man and opposed the first indications of British oppression. He diffused liberal principles among his neighbors and planted them deep in the minds of his sons who did honor to their noble sire. He lived long enough to see the lurid clouds that portended the Revolutionary storm—just long enough to prepare his brave sons and neighbors for the approaching crisis. He was an honest man and a Christian. ”

“ Indeed, it has been given to few men in New York to inspire more passionate personal attachment than George Clinton. A patriot never lived who was more bitter in his hostility to English misrule, or more uncompromising in his opposition to toryism. He was a typical Irishman—intolerant, often domineering, sometimes petulant, and occasionally too quick to take offence, but he was magnetic and generous, easily putting himself in touchi. 20 with those about him, and ready, without hesitation, to help the poorest and carry the weakest. This was the kind of man the people wanted for governor. ”

“ To the memory of George Clinton, born in the State of New York, 26th day of July, 1738, died at the City of Washington the 20th of April, 1812, in the 73rd year of his age. Soldier and Statesman of the Revolution, eminent in council, distinguished in war, he filled with unexampled usefulness, purity and ability, among other high offices those of Governor of his native State, and Vice-President of the United States. ”