John Sergeant (December 5, 1779 – November 23, 1852) was an American politician who represented
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
in the
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...
. He was the
National Republican Party's vice presidential nominee in the
1832 presidential election, serving on a ticket with Senator
Henry Clay.
After graduating from
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...
, Sergeant served in the Philadelphia government and won election to the
Pennsylvania House of Representatives. As a member of the
Federalist Party, he won election to the United States House of Representatives, serving from 1815 to 1823. In Congress, he supported Clay's
American System and opposed the extension of
slavery
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
, voting against the
Missouri Compromise
The Missouri Compromise was a federal legislation of the United States that balanced desires of northern states to prevent expansion of slavery in the country with those of southern states to expand it. It admitted Missouri as a slave state and ...
.
After serving as president of the Pennsylvania Board of Canal Commissioners, Sergeant returned to Congress in 1827. He lost his 1829 re-election campaign and became a legal counsel for the
Second Bank of the United States
The Second Bank of the United States was the second federally authorized Hamiltonian national bank in the United States. Located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the bank was chartered from February 1816 to January 1836.. The Bank's formal name, ...
.
In the 1832 presidential election, the ticket of Clay and Sergeant was soundly defeated by the
Democratic ticket of
Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was an American lawyer, planter, general, and statesman who served as the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before being elected to the presidency, he gained fame as ...
and
Martin Van Buren
Martin Van Buren ( ; nl, Maarten van Buren; ; December 5, 1782 – July 24, 1862) was an American lawyer and statesman who served as the eighth president of the United States from 1837 to 1841. A primary founder of the Democratic Party, he ...
. After the election, Sergeant joined the
Whig Party and again returned to Congress, serving from 1837 to 1841. He was also the president of the Pennsylvania constitutional convention in 1838. He retired from public office in 1841 and resumed his law practice.
Early life
Sergeant was born in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
on December 5, 1779. He was a son of Margaret (
née Spencer) Sergeant and
Jonathan Dickinson Sergeant
Jonathan Dickinson Sergeant (1746 – October 8, 1793) was an American lawyer from Princeton, New Jersey. He represented New Jersey in the Second Continental Congress in 1776 and 1777. He later served as Attorney General for the state of Pennsylvan ...
, a lawyer who represented New Jersey in the
Second Continental Congress and served as the
Pennsylvania Attorney General
The Pennsylvania Attorney General is the chief law enforcement officer of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It became an elected office in 1980. The current Attorney General is Democrat Josh Shapiro.
On August 15, 2016, then-Attorney General Kat ...
.
His brother
Thomas Sergeant
Thomas Sergeant (January 14, 1782 – May 8, 1860) was a Pennsylvania lawyer, judge, and politician. He served as Secretary of State, Attorney General, and as an associate justice of the state Supreme Court.
Biography and career
Sergeant and ...
, served as
Pennsylvania Secretary of State, Attorney General and on the
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania is the highest court in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's Unified Judicial System. It also claims to be the oldest appellate court in the United States, a claim that is disputed by the Massachusetts Supreme Ju ...
.
Sergeant was educated in the common schools and at the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
at Philadelphia.
He graduated from
Princeton College
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ni ...
in 1795. He became a lawyer and, after being admitted to the bar in 1799, practiced law for fifty years.
Career
In 1800, Sergeant became deputy
attorney general for Philadelphia and then commissioner of bankruptcy for Pennsylvania the following year. He was a member of the
Pennsylvania State House of Representatives
The Pennsylvania House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Pennsylvania General Assembly, the legislature of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. There are 203 members, elected for two-year terms from single member districts.
It ...
from 1808 to 1810. He was elected as a
Federalist to the United States House of Representatives to fill the vacancy caused by the death of
Jonathan Williams. He was re-elected three times, serving from October 10, 1815 to March 3, 1823, and managed to reach the position of chairman of the
United States House Committee on the Judiciary
The U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary, also called the House Judiciary Committee, is a Standing committee (United States Congress), standing committee of the United States House of Representatives. It is charged with overseeing the administra ...
. Sergeant was a strong backer of
Henry Clay's
American System and the
Second Bank of the United States
The Second Bank of the United States was the second federally authorized Hamiltonian national bank in the United States. Located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the bank was chartered from February 1816 to January 1836.. The Bank's formal name, ...
in Congress, and even traveled to Europe to negotiate loans to the Bank. He was also a strong opponent of slavery who voted against the
Missouri Compromise
The Missouri Compromise was a federal legislation of the United States that balanced desires of northern states to prevent expansion of slavery in the country with those of southern states to expand it. It admitted Missouri as a slave state and ...
.
He then retired, albeit temporarily, from Congress.
In 1813, Sergeant was elected a member of the
American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...
.
In 1825, he was president of the Pennsylvania Board of Canal Commissioners. The following year, he was an envoy to the
Panama Congress
The Congress of Panama (also referred to as the Amphictyonic Congress, in homage to the Amphictyonic League of Ancient Greece) was a congress organized by Simón Bolívar in 1826 with the goal of bringing together the new republics of Latin Americ ...
of 1826 but arrived after the Congress had concluded its discussions. He returned to the U.S. House of Representatives for the term starting March 4, 1827.
He failed re-election to the following term and left Congress for the second time on March 3, 1829. He then became legal counsel to the
Bank of the United States.
Vice Presidential Candidate
Sergeant was
Henry Clay's running mate on the
National Republican ticket during the
1832 presidential election but lost to
Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was an American lawyer, planter, general, and statesman who served as the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before being elected to the presidency, he gained fame as ...
and
Martin Van Buren
Martin Van Buren ( ; nl, Maarten van Buren; ; December 5, 1782 – July 24, 1862) was an American lawyer and statesman who served as the eighth president of the United States from 1837 to 1841. A primary founder of the Democratic Party, he ...
in a landslide and again retreated from public life.
After his vice presidential candidacy, he returned as president of the Pennsylvania constitutional convention in 1838, and then was elected as a
Whig to the U.S. House of Representatives. He served this last time from March 4, 1837 until he resigned on September 15, 1841, and again was chair of the Committee on the Judiciary for the 1837 – 1839 term. He returned to his law practice, declining offers of a cabinet or diplomatic position from the new Whig administration.
In
1844 he was considered for the Whig vice presidential nomination, to once again run with Clay, but the convention eventually selected
Theodore Frelinghuysen
Theodore Frelinghuysen (March 28, 1787April 12, 1862) was an American politician who represented New Jersey in the United States Senate. He was the Whig vice presidential nominee in the election of 1844, running on a ticket with Henry Clay.
Bo ...
.
Personal life
On June 23, 1813 he married Margaretta Watmough, daughter of James Horatio Watmough and Anna (née Carmick) Watmough.
With Margaretta he fathered ten children, all but one surviving infancy. Among his children were:
* Margaretta Sergeant (1814–1886), who married Major General
George Meade
George Gordon Meade (December 31, 1815 – November 6, 1872) was a United States Army officer and civil engineer best known for decisively defeating Confederate General Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Gettysburg in the American Civil War. H ...
, Commander of the Union
Army of the Potomac
The Army of the Potomac was the principal Union Army in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War. It was created in July 1861 shortly after the First Battle of Bull Run and was disbanded in June 1865 following the surrender of the Confede ...
from the Battle of Gettysburg until the end of the Civil War.
* Sarah Sergeant (1817–1850), who married
Henry A. Wise, the 33rd
Governor of Virginia
The governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia serves as the head of government of Virginia for a four-year term. The incumbent, Glenn Youngkin, was sworn in on January 15, 2022.
Oath of office
On inauguration day, the Governor-elect takes th ...
.
* Katherine Sergeant (1825–1910), who married Harry Augustus Cram (parents of
John Sergeant Cram).
* William Sergeant (1829–1865), who served in the Civil War and was mortally wounded at the
Battle of White Oak Road
The Battle of White Oak Road, also known as The Battle of Hatcher's Run, Gravelly Run, Boydton Plank Road, White Oak Ridge was fought on March 31, 1865, during the American Civil War at the end of the Richmond-Petersburg Campaign and in the begi ...
.
Sergeant died in Philadelphia on November 23, 1852 and was interred at
Laurel Hill Cemetery
Laurel Hill Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery in the East Falls neighborhood of Philadelphia. Founded in 1836, it was the second major rural cemetery in the United States after Mount Auburn Cemetery in Boston, Massachusetts.
The cemetery is ...
Section L, Lots 1-7.
Descendants
His grandsons,
John Sergeant Wise
John Sergeant Wise (December 27, 1846 – May 12, 1913) was an American author, lawyer, and politician in Virginia. He was the son of Henry Alexander Wise, a Governor of Virginia, and Sarah Sergeant.
Early life
John was born in Rio de Jane ...
,
John Sergeant Cram, and
Richard Alsop Wise
Richard Alsop Wise (September 2, 1843 – December 21, 1900) was an educator and politician from Virginia. He was a U.S. Representative for parts of two terms. He was a son of Henry Alexander Wise, grandson of John Sergeant, brother of John S ...
, as well as his great-grandson,
John Crain Kunkel, were also prominent in politics.
References
External links
*
The Political Graveyard
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sergeant, John
1779 births
1852 deaths
19th-century American politicians
Burials at Laurel Hill Cemetery (Philadelphia)
Federalist Party members of the United States House of Representatives
Members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives
National Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives
Pennsylvania Federalists
Pennsylvania National Republicans
Politicians from Philadelphia
Princeton University alumni
1832 United States vice-presidential candidates
Whig Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Pennsylvania