Pleasure is a shadow, wealth is vanity, and power a pageant; but knowledge is ecstatic in enjoyment, perennial in frame, unlimited in space and indefinite in duration.

He was married twice. According to Daniel Walker Howe (2007) Clinton is an authentic but largely forgotten hero of American democracy. He was persuaded by Canal proponent Jesse Hawley to support construction of a canal from the eastern shore of Lake Erie to the upper Hudson River.

Howe explains "The infrastructure he worked to create would transform American life enhancing economic opportunity political participation and intellectual awareness. DeWitt Clinton (March 2 1769 – February 11 1828) was an early American politician and naturalist who served as United States Senator and the sixth Governor of New York. Clinton was the leader of New York's People’s Party and was a major rival of Martin Van Buren who was attorney general of New York during Clinton's governorship.