Clinton, De Witt

De Witt (1769-1828), a governor of New York. He was a lawyer of New York City and held many important positions, including the mayoralty of the city and a seat in the United States Senate; but his chief service was an insistent, intelligent, foreseeing advocacy, in season and out of season, of the building of the Erie Canal from Buffalo, through the Mohawk Valley, to the Hudson. The story of his struggles with prejudice, ignorance, indifference, delay, and jealousy, and his final triumphant ride in the autumn of 1825 in a barge from one end of the completed waterway to the other, reads like a romance. He died in office. The commercial supremacy and growth of New York date from the successful issue of Governor Clinton's policy. See New York; Erie Canal