 Clymer
was orphaned in 1740, only a year after his birth in Philadelphia. A
wealthy uncle reared and informally educated him and advanced him
from clerk to full-fledged partner in his mercantile firm, which on
his death he bequeathed to his ward. Later Clymer merged operations
with the Merediths, a prominent business family, and cemented the
relationship by marrying his senior partner's daughter, Elizabeth,
in 1765.Motivated at least partly by
the impact of British economic restrictions on his business, Clymer
early adopted the Revolutionary cause and was one of the first to
recommend independence. He attended patriotic meetings, served on
the Pennsylvania council of safety, and in 1773 headed a committee
that forced the resignation of Philadelphia tea consignees appointed
by Britain under the Tea Act. Inevitably, in light of his economic
background, he channeled his energies into financial matters. In
1775-76 he acted as one of the first two Continental treasurers,
even personally underwriting the war by exchanging all his own
specie for Continental currency.
In the Continental Congress (1776-77 and
1780-82) the quiet and unassuming Clymer rarely spoke in debate but
made his mark in committee efforts, especially those pertaining to
commerce, finance, and military affairs. During the War for
Independence, he also served on a series of commissions that
conducted important field investigations. In December 1776, when
Congress fled from Philadelphia to Baltimore, he and George Walton
and Robert Morris remained behind to carry on congressional
business. Within a year, after their victory at the Battle of
Brandywine, Pa. (September 11, 1777), British troops advancing on
Philadelphia detoured for the purpose of vandalizing Clymer's home
in Chester County about 25 miles outside the city. His wife and
children hid nearby in the woods.
After a brief retirement following his last
term in the Continental Congress, Clymer was reelected for the years
1784-88 to the Pennsylvania legislature, where he had also served
part time in 1780-82 while still in Congress. As a state legislator,
he advocated a bicameral legislature and reform of the penal code
and opposed capital punishment. At the Constitutional Convention,
where he rarely missed a meeting, he spoke seldom but effectively
and played a modest role in shaping the final document.
The next phase of Clymer's career consisted of
service in the U.S. House of Representatives in the First Congress
(1789-91), followed by appointment as collector of excise taxes on
alcoholic beverages in Pennsylvania (1791-94). In 1795-96 he sat on
a Presidential commission that negotiated a treaty with the Cherokee
and Creek Indians in Georgia. During his retirement, Clymer advanced
various community projects, including the Philadelphia Society for
Promoting Agriculture and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts,
and served as the first president of the Philadelphia Bank. At the
age of 73, in 1813, he died at Summerseat, an estate a few miles
outside Philadelphia at Morrisville that he had purchased and moved
to in 1806. His grave is in the Friends Meeting House Cemetery at
Trenton, NJ. |
