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George Rogers Clark Quotes

George Rogers Clark was an American surveyor, soldier, and militia officer from Virginia who became the highest-ranking American patriot military officer on the northwestern frontier during the American Revolutionary War. He served as leader of the militia in Kentucky throughout much of the war. He is best known for his celebrated captures of Kaskaskia and Vincennes during the Illinois Campaign, which greatly weakened British influence in the Northwest Territory. The British ceded the entire Northwest Territory to the United States in the 1783 Treaty of Paris, and Clark has often been hailed as the "Conqueror of the Old Northwest".

Clark's major military achievements occurred before his thirtieth birthday. Afterward, he led militia in the opening engagements of the Northwest Indian War, but was accused of being drunk on duty. He was disgraced and forced to resign, despite his demand for a formal investigation into the accusations. He left Kentucky to live on the Indiana frontier but was never fully reimbursed by Virginia for his wartime expenditures. During the final decades of his life, he worked to evade creditors and suffered living in increasing poverty and obscurity. He was involved in two failed attempts to open the Spanish-controlled Mississippi River to American traffic. After suffering a stroke and the amputation of his left leg, he became an invalid. He was aided in his final years by family members, including his younger brother William, one of the leaders of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. He died of a stroke on February 13, 1818. Wikipedia  

✵ 19. November 1752 – 13. February 1818
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George Rogers Clark: 7   quotes 0   likes

Famous George Rogers Clark Quotes

“Great things have been effected by a few men well conducted.”

George Rogers Clark

Letter to Virginia Governor Patrick Henry (1779-02-03), from William Hayden English, Conquest of the Country Northwest of the River Ohio, 1778–1783, and Life of Gen. George Rogers Clark (Indianapolis: Bowen-Merrill, 1896) vol. 1, pp. 262-263
Context: I know the case is desperate, but, sire, we must either quit the country or attack Mr. Hamilton. No time is to be lost. Was I sure of a re-enforcement I should not attempt it. Who knows what fortune will do for us? Great things have been effected by a few men well conducted. Perhaps we may be fortunate. We have this consolation that our case is just, and that our country will be grateful and not condemn our conduct, in case we fall through; if so, this country as well as Kentucky, I believe, is lost.

“Our cause is just... our country will be grateful”

George Rogers Clark

“I have given the United States half the territory they possess, and for them to suffer me to remain in poverty, in consequence of it, will not redound much to their honor hereafter.”

George Rogers Clark

Letter to General Jonathan Clark, George's elder brother (1792-05-11), from William Hayden English, Conquest of the Country Northwest of the River Ohio, 1778–1783, and Life of Gen. George Rogers Clark (1896), vol. 2, p. 789

“I carry in my right hand war, and peace in my left… Here is a bloody belt and a white one. Take which you please.”

George Rogers Clark

Clark, Speech to the Indian Chiefs at Cahokia (1778) http://www.kdla.ky.gov/resources/KYGRClark.htm

“My name is Clark, and I have come out to see what you brave fellows are doing in Kentucky and to lend you a helping hand, if necessary.”

George Rogers Clark

Account of Clark's appearance in Harrodsburg, from Collins History of Kentucky http://www.kdla.ky.gov/resources/KYGRClark.htm

“If a country were not worth protecting, it was not worth claiming.”

George Rogers Clark

Clark to the Virginia Council, Autumn 1775, requesting aid for Kentucky.
Source: In the words of George Rogers Clark (link below)

“Never was a person more mortified than I was at this time, to see so fair an opportunity to push a victory; Detroit lost for want of a few men.”

George Rogers Clark

After aborting plans to raid Fort Detroit due to a lack of enlistments (1779), quoted in [Wilson, George R., Thornbrough, Gayle, The Buffalo Trace, Indiana Historical Society, Indianapolis, 1946, Indiana Historical Society Publications, volume 15, number 2, 189]

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