vice in the American army. He was appointed a general of brigade and assumed a leading position as a defender of the infant State. A Provincial Gov. ernment was formed and Mr. Clinton, in 1777, was chosen Governor, and was Bworn into office at Kingston, which was then the Capital of the State and the place of meeting of its Legislature. Gov. | ernor Clinton was then in command of the militia of the State and continued to hold this position until after the sur render of General Burgoyne at Saratoga. He fought at the head of the State troops at Fort Montgomery, on the Hudson river, when that fort was captured by Sir Henry Clinton. George Clinton was re-elected as Governor in 1780, 1783, 1786, 1789, 1792, and in 1801. It was under his chief direction that the first Constitution of the State was adopted in 1777. He also had a strong influence over the convention which amended the Constitution in 1801. This convention said that the number of State Senators should be thirty-two, and the number of Assemblymen one hundred. It was also during Governor Clinton's long administration that the citizens liv. ing in what was known as "the Hampshire Grants" were permitted to separate themselves from the State of New York and to organize the present State of Vermont. New York thus lost one of its

counties Cumberland which now forms Windham and Windsor counties, Vermont. Governor Clinton took the lead in internal improvements and in building up the public schools. It was in pursuance of his recommendations that the Board of Regents of the Univer. sity was established in 1784. In 1789 lands were by law set aside in each new township for the support of the common schools and the literature fund, which still exists. Governor Clinton also recommended, in 1791, the organization of a society for the promotion of agriculture. He further suggested, in 1792, that canals be constructed between the Hud. son and Lake Ontario and the Hudson and Lake Champlain. Legislative acts were therefore passed, organizing two canal companies, the Northern Canal Company and the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company. These companies were authorized to improve the naviga. tion of the Hudson and Mohawk rivers, and to form connections between the upper waters of the Mohawk and Oneida and Ontario lakes, as well as between the Hudson river and Lake Champlain. Such were the first steps toward a grand system of canals.

In 1804 Governor Clinton was elected Vice-President of the United States, and it was while holding that office that he died in Washington, on April 20, 1812.

JOHN

JOHN JAY, the second Governor of New York, and the descendant of a Huguenot family, was born in New York city on December 12, 1745, and was graduated from Kings College, now Columbia College, on May 15, 1764. He then entered a law office and was admitted to practice law in 1768, forming a partnership with Robert R. Livingstone, the future Chancellor. From the first Mr. Jay sympathized with the American patriots in their resistance to English tyranny, and in 1774 he became one of a

JAY.

committee of fifty formed especially to link together the colonies by correspond. ence into a united effort for the common cause. He was elected a member of the first Continental Congress, and as such drafted the address to the people of Great Britain. He also was a member of the second Continental Congress, and took an active part in prepar. ing the United States for war. 1777 he drafted the first Constitution of the State and under it was him. self appointed Chief Justice of the

In