My first post in this series was about the Robert R. Livingston statue because as a New Yorker, I was curious about which statues were New York’s picks. I held off a bit, but during my research about Ethan Allen, one of Vermont’s statues, I came across a link to George Clinton, whose name I recognized from my preliminary glance at the statue list as the subject of the other New York statue. It was not a friendly link, but a link none-the-less, so I decided this fourth post in the series would be about the other New York statue in the National Statuary Hall Collection.
George Clinton served as a soldier during the French Indian War and during the Revolutionary War. He was also the governor of New York, from 1777-1795, and 1801-1804. General George Washington called upon Governor George Clinton when he was in a desperate situation at Valley Forge. Food supplies were dangerously low, and Washington had no choice but to reach out to all that could help. Governor George Clinton was able to secure food supplies to meet the dire request.
Clinton was the fourth Vice President of the United States, from 1805 until his death in 1812. He replaced Aaron Burr, as Jefferson’s running mate in the 1804 election. He became James Madison’s Vice President in 1809, although he had attempted to be elected president in the 1808 election. Sadly, he had a heart attack in 1812, and died while still in office.
Here is the source of George Clinton’s contentious link to Ethan Allen. Land, that is now Vermont was disputed territory at one time. Both the colony of New Hampshire and the colony of New York claimed the land belonged to them. New Hampshire had been governing this territory, until 1764, when King George III awarded the region to New York. New York began the process of evicting settlers. This gave rise to the militia, known as The Green Mountain Boys. This militia was created to protect the land from the Yorkers.
The Green Mountain Boys were picky about who they would allow to lead them. The belligerent, defiant Ethan Allen, was one such individual. That is the conflict driven connection between George Clinton and Ethan Allen. In 1777, those in the disputed territory declared themselves an independent state to be called Vermont. As governor of New York, George Clinton opposed the “Vermonters.” Confrontational letters and pamphlets were written by both Allen and Clinton. George Clinton, opposed the statehood of Vermont and pressed the New York legislature to oppose it also. Vermont would not become a state until 1791. Ethan Allen died before Vermont was admitted as a state.
I hope the two statues are not near each other in the Capitol ‒ wouldn’t want a fight to break out.
Diana Erbio is a freelance writer and author of “Coming to America: A Girl Struggles to Find her Way in a New World”. Read more in her series Statues: The People They Salute visit The Table of Contents and the Facebook Page. (I’ll be adding to the Substack Table of Contents as I transfer the Blog Posts. Please subscribe to this Substack 😊🇺🇸🤓)
Well, sounds like it wasn’t all peace and harmony in the colonies!