THE BIRTH OF EMPIRE.

• Author: Swope, Kevin A.
• Position: Review

THE BIRTH OF EMPIRE by Evan Cornog Oxford University, $29.95

DEWITT CLINTON IS BEST remembered today for his tireless championing of the Erie Canal, undoubtedly the greatest feat of American engineering in the 19th century. It is a worthy memorial, but one that came near the end of a 40-year political career in New York that saw him nearly elected president in 1812. Evan Cornog, a historian and onetime press secretary for former New York Mayor Ed Koch, has written a brief but illuminating new biography of the man who at various times served as New York's mayor, governor, and U.S. senator.

DeWitt Clinton was clearly destined for great things from an early age. He was born in 1769 to a prominent (if not wealthy) New York family. He was the nephew of George Clinton, New York's long-serving governor, who became DeWitt's patron. Young DeWitt was enrolled as the first student in the newly reconstituted Columbia College. Clinton's upbringing instilled in him an attractive intellectual vigor and inquisitiveness, as well as an often-remarked-upon haughtiness and sense of entitlement.

Clinton's pretensions to mold America into a "New Rome" (the title of Cornog's book refers to this vision) earned him ridicule even in his own time, but his remarkable sense of self-confidence enabled him to recover from political reverses again and again. Clinton in many ways resembles his contemporary John Quincy Adams, who was likewise launched into a career of public service at an early age under the tutelage of a close relative. Like Adams, he was well-respected, but not particularly well-liked. Clinton rapidly ascended the political ladder, holding a variety of elected offices before attaining the then-appointive office of mayor of New York in 1803.

As mayor, Clinton's most lasting contributions were to the educational and cultural life of the city. While he saw great cities as the font of civilization and progress, Clinton also recognized them as "at all times the nurseries and hotbeds of crime" His solution was education, especially for the poorest segments of society, who were thought to be irreligious and therefore not served by the denominational schools.

Although his dream of universal public education was not realized until long after he had passed from the scene, his exertions in the area are impressive. Particularly striking is the inclusiveness of his vision--he supported schools for girls, free blacks, deaf and dumb children, even refugees from the...