Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History
Benson Lossing, Ed.

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Clymer, George 1739-1813

Signer of the Declaration of Independence; born in Philadelphia in 1739; was an active patriot during the war for independence, and a member of the council of safety in Philadelphia. In July, 1775, he was made joint treasurer of Pennsylvania with Mr. Hillegas; and when, in December, 1776. Congress fled to Baltimore, Clymer was one of the commissioners left in Philadelphia to attend to the public interests. In 1777 he was a commissioner to treat with the Indians at Fort Pitt; and in 1780 he assisted in organizing the Bank of North America. At the close of the war he made his residence at Princeton, N. J.; and in 1784 was a member of the Pennsylvania legislature. In 1787 he was a member of the convention that framed the national Constitution, and was a member of the first Congress under it. A collector of the excise duties in 1791 which led to the Whiskey insurrection (q. v.), and serving on a commission to treat with Southern Indians, Mr. Clymer, after concluding a treaty (in June, 1796). withdrew from public life. He was one of the founders of the Pennsylvania Agricultural Society, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and the Pennsylvania Bank. He died in Morrisville, Pa., Jan. 23, 1813.