Arthur St. Clair

Arthur St. Clair was the ninth President of the United States in Congress assembled under the Articles of Confederation, holding office from February 2, 1787 to October 29, 1787. He was preceded in office by Nathaniel Gorham and succeeded by Cyrus Griffin.

St. Clair was born Thurso[?], Caithness[?], Scotland on March 23, sometime between 1734 and 1736. He attended the University of Edinburgh and studied medicine under the renowned anatomist William Hunter. In 1757, St. Clair purchased a commission in the British Army and came to America with Admiral Edward Boscawen's fleet for the French and Indian War. He served under General Jeffrey Amherst at the capture of Louisburg, Nova Scotia on July 26, 1758. On April 17, 1759 he received a lieutenant's commission and was assigned to the command of General James Wolfe, under whom he served at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham.

On April 16, 1762, he resigned his commission, and in 1764 he settled in Ligonier Valley, Pennsylvania, where he purchased land, and erected mills. He was the largest landowner in western Pennsylvania.

In 1770 St. Clair became a justice of the court, of quarter sessions and of common pleas, a member of the proprietary council, a justice, recorder, and clerk of the orphans' court, and prothonotary of Bedford and Westmoreland counties.

In 1774, the colony of Virginia took claim of the area around Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and some residents of western Pennsylvania took up arms to reject them. St. Clair issued an order for the arrest of the officer leading the Virginia troops. Lord Dunmore's War[?] eventually settled the boundary dispute.

After this event St. Clair broke with the British government and, in January, 1776, took a commission in the Continental Army, as a Colonel of Pennsylvania militia. He was appointed a Brigadier General in August of 1776, and was sent by George Washington to help organize the New Jersey militia. He took part in Washington's crossing of the Delaware River on Christmas night 1776 before the Battle of Trenton. Many biographers credit St. Clair with the strategy which led to Washington's capture of Princeton, New Jersey in the following days.

In April of the same year, St. Clair was sent to defend Fort Ticonderoga. Unfortunately, his small garrison, combined with British cannon, forced him to abandon the fort on July 5. He was able to withdraw his foces and continue resisting John Burgoyne's Saratoga Campaign.

In 1778 he was court martialed for the loss of Ticonderoga. The court exonerated him, and he was returned to duty. St. Clair was at Yorktown, Virginia when Charles Cornwallis surrendered.

St. Clair was a member of the Pennsylvania council of censors in 1783 and was elected a delegate to the Continental Congress from November 2, 1785 until November 28, 1787. He was President of the United States in Congress assembled when Shay's Rebellion took place.

Under the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 which created the Northwest Territory, General St. Clair was appointed governor of what is now Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Minnesota. He named Cincinnati, Ohio after the Society of the Cincinnati, and it was there that he made his seat. When the territory was divided in 1800, he served as governor of the Ohio Terrritory until it became a state in 1803.

In 1791 forces under St. Clair on a punitive expedition in the Northwest Territory were roundly defeated by a tribal confederation led by Miami Chief Michikinikwa.

St. Clair died in Greensburg, Pennsylvania on August 31, 1818, having squandered all of his vast wealth.

External Link

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