Arthur St. Clair

Arthur St. Clair

Arthur St. Clair (born March 23, ^jul. / 3. April  1736 ^greg. In Thurso , Scotland , † 31 August 1818 in Greensburg , Pennsylvania ) was the ninth President of the Continental Congress under the Articles of Confederation of 2 February 1787 to the 29 October 1787. He was also a general in the Continental Army during the War of Independence and governor of the Northwest Territory . He attended the University of Edinburgh and studied medicine with the well-known anatomist William Hunter .

French and Indian War

In 1757 St. Clair accepted a position in the British Army and went with Admiral Edward Boscawen's fleet to America in the French and Indian War . He served under General Jeffrey Amherst when taking the fortress Louisbourg in Nova Scotia on July 26, 1758. On April 17, 1759 he was promoted to lieutenant and subordinate to General James Wolfe , under whom he served in the battle of the Plains of Abraham .

Pennsylvania

He retired on April 16, 1762 and settled in Ligonier Valley, Pennsylvania in 1764, where he purchased land and built mills. He was the largest landowner in western Pennsylvania. In 1770, St. Clair became a judge in the court, quarter sessions and appeals court, member of the property council, judge, secretary and head of the orphan court, and chief judge of Bedford County and Westmoreland Counties .

1774, the colony claimed Virginia , the area around Pittsburgh and some residents Westpennsylvanias took up arms to reject them. St. Clair ordered the officer who led the Virginia troops to be arrested. Dunmore's war ultimately ended the border conflict.

American War of Independence

After this event, St. Clair broke with British administration and in January 1776 accepted a position in the Continental Army as Colonel in the Pennsylvania Militia . He was made brigadier general in August 1776 and sent by George Washington to organize the New Jersey militia. He took part in Washington's crossing of the Delaware on Christmas night, 1776, before the Battle of Trenton . Credit is attributed to St. Clair by many biographers for developing the strategy that led to the capture of Princeton, New Jersey in the days that followed.

In April of that year, St. Clair was sent out to defend Fort Ticonderoga . Unfortunately, his small garrison could not withstand John Burgoyne's force in the Saratoga campaign . He was forced to retire after the Battle of Ticonderoga on July 5, 1777. He was able to bring his troops back in an orderly fashion and continue the resistance. In 1778 he stood before a court martial for the loss of Fort Ticonderoga. He was fully acquitted and returned to the service. St. Clair was in Yorktown when Charles Cornwallis surrendered.

St. Clair was a member of the Council of Censors of Pennsylvania in 1783 and was elected delegate to the Continental Congress for the period from November 2, 1785 to November 28, 1787 . He was President of Congress when Shay's Rebellion took place.

In 1780 he was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society .

Northwest Territory

Under the Northwest Statute of 1787 that established the Northwest Territory, General St. Clair was appointed governor of the area that now includes Ohio , Indiana , Illinois , Michigan and parts of Wisconsin and Minnesota . He named Cincinnati after the Society of the Cincinnati and took his seat there. When the territory was divided in 1800, he served as governor of the Ohio area.

As governor, he formulated Maxwell's Code, the first laws of the territory. He also crushed Indian claims on land in Ohio and cleared the way for white settlers. In 1789 he got several Indians to sign the Treaty of Fort Harmar, but many Indian leaders had not been invited or had declined to attend. Not only was the settlement of Indian land prevented, the Indians felt challenged by the treaty to resist. The conflict led to the campaign of General Josiah Harmar , whose 1,500 militiamen were defeated by the Indians in October 1790.

In 1791, St. Clair personally led a revenge expedition made up of militia units and two regular regiments. This force advanced as far as the Indian settlements on the Wabash River, but was defeated on November 4th by a tribal federation headed by Miami chief Michikinikwa . More than 600 soldiers and officers were in the battle, as St. Clair's Defeat ( St. Clair's Defeat ), Columbia Massacre ( Columbia Massacre ) or Battle of the Wabash ( Battle of the Wabash received) in the US history, killed ; not a few of the wagon drivers, sutlers , women and children who had accompanied the armed forces perished. This battle is the greatest defeat a US force has ever suffered against Indians. After this debacle, St. Clair resigned from the army on the orders of George Washington, but remained governor of the Northwest Territory.

As a federalist , he hoped to turn the Ohio Territory into two states in order to increase the federalists' influence in Congress. In 1802, his underground opposition to the establishment of Ohio led President Thomas Jefferson to remove him from the post of territorial governor. That is why he played no role in organizing the founding of Ohio in 1803.

St. Clair died in poverty, having squandered his enormous fortune on generous gifts and loans.

Web links

• Biography on arhurstclair.com (English)
• Biography on archontology.org (English)
• Arthur St. Clair in the database of Find a Grave (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Member History: Arthur St. Clair. American Philosophical Society, accessed June 20, 2018 .