Wednesday, February 16, 2011

George Clymer - Founding Father

George Clymer was a man of wealth who literally risked his fortune on the revolution by exchanging his hard coin monies for the shaky Continental currency.  During the capture of Philadelphia his home was plundered and destroyed by the British

Clymer signed both the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.  A man of unusual intellectual curiosity, he also served as an officer of the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts and the Philadelphia Agricultural Society.  He was one of the first to advocate complete independence from Britain, and was called upon by the Continental Congress to serve as the first treasurer for the United Colonies.  He was given the almost impossible assignment of raising money to support the government's operations, chief of which was the new Continental Army.

In 1791, after a term in the First Congress, Clymer served as Federal Collector of the controversial tax on liquor which led to the Whiskey Rebellion.  He concluded his career by negotiating an equitable peace treaty between the United States and the Creek Tribe in Georgia.

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