Jeremiah Clemens (December 28, 1814 – May 21, 1865) was a

United States senator The United States Senate consists of 100 members, two from each of the 50 U.S. state, states. This list includes all senators serving in the 119th United States Congress. Party affiliation Independent Senators Angus King of Maine and Berni ...

and novelist from

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

. A

Southern Unionist In the United States, Southern Unionists were white Southerners living in the Confederate States of America and the Southern Border States opposed to secession. Many fought for the Union during the Civil War. These people are also referred t ...

, he opposed the secession of Alabama from the Union in 1861 but briefly served in the

Confederate Army The Confederate States Army (CSA), also called the Confederate army or the Southern army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fi ...

. He was the author of ''Tobias Wilson'', one of the first novels set during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

Biography

Clemens was born at

Huntsville, Alabama Huntsville is the List of municipalities in Alabama, most populous city in the U.S. state of Alabama. The population of the city is estimated to be 241,114 in 2024, making it the List of United States cities by population, 100th-most populous ...

on December 28, 1814, the son of James and Sarah (Mills) Clemens. His parents migrated from

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

to what was then the

Mississippi Territory The Territory of Mississippi was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that was created under an organic act passed by the United States Congress, Congress of the United States. It was approved and signed into law by Presiden ...

in 1812, settling in what later became Madison County. Clemens was educated at LaGrange College and the

University of Alabama The University of Alabama (informally known as Alabama, UA, the Capstone, or Bama) is a Public university, public research university in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States. Established in 1820 and opened to students in 1831, the University of ...

, and later attended

Transylvania University Transylvania University is a private university in Lexington, Kentucky, United States. It was founded in 1780 and is the oldest university in Kentucky. It offers 46 major programs, as well as dual-degree engineering programs, and is Higher educ ...

, where he studied law. In 1834, he married Mary L. Reed, the daughter of Huntsville merchant John Reed. Around the same time, he enlisted in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

and participated in military action against the

Cherokee Nation The Cherokee Nation ( or ) is the largest of three list of federally recognized tribes, federally recognized tribes of Cherokees in the United States. It includes people descended from members of the Cherokee Nation (1794–1907), Old Cheroke ...

percipient to the

Trail of Tears The Trail of Tears was the forced displacement of about 60,000 people of the " Five Civilized Tribes" between 1830 and 1850, and the additional thousands of Native Americans and their black slaves within that were ethnically cleansed by the U ...

. Clemens joined the Democratic Party and was appointed the

United States Attorney United States attorneys are officials of the U.S. Department of Justice who serve as the chief federal law enforcement officers in each of the 94 U.S. federal judicial districts. Each U.S. attorney serves as the United States' chief federal ...

for northern and middle Alabama by

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

Martin Van Buren Martin Van Buren ( ; ; December 5, 1782 – July 24, 1862) was the eighth president of the United States, serving from 1837 to 1841. A primary founder of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as Attorney General o ...

in 1839. The same year, he was elected to the

Alabama House of Representatives The Alabama House of Representatives is the lower house of the Alabama Legislature, the state legislature (United States), state legislature of state of Alabama. The House is composed of 105 members representing an equal number of districts, with ...

, serving from 1839 to 1841. He served in the Texian Army following the

Texas Revolution The Texas Revolution (October 2, 1835 – April 21, 1836) was a rebellion of colonists from the United States and Tejanos (Hispanic Texans) against the Centralist Republic of Mexico, centralist government of Mexico in the Mexican state of ...

, and was subsequently elected to the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...

, serving from 1843 to 1845. Following the U.S. annexation of Texas, Clemens volunteered again for the army and served in the

Mexican–American War The Mexican–American War (Spanish language, Spanish: ''guerra de Estados Unidos-México, guerra mexicano-estadounidense''), also known in the United States as the Mexican War, and in Mexico as the United States intervention in Mexico, ...

; he left the army in 1848 with the rank of colonel. Clemens was elected to the United States Senate in 1849 to fill the vacancy left by the death of

Dixon Hall Lewis Dixon Hall Lewis (August 10, 1802 – October 25, 1848) was an American politician who served as a Representative and a Senator from Alabama. Life and career Lewis was born on Bothwick plantation, Dinwiddie County, Virginia, and moved to ...

. Although a Democrat, Clemens owed his election to the support of Alabama's Whigs. He opposed the

Compromise of 1850 The Compromise of 1850 was a package of five separate bills passed by the United States Congress in September 1850 that temporarily defused tensions between slave and free states during the years leading up to the American Civil War. Designe ...

, but abruptly changed course following its passage and helped to organize the short-lived Union Party in Alabama. The Unionists swept the 1851 elections in Alabama, carrying two-thirds of the state's counties; however, Clemens was not re-elected to the Senate when his term ended in 1853. Dogged by accusations that he had purchased Whig support for his senatorial candidacy in 1848 with promises to back President

Zachary Taylor Zachary Taylor (November 24, 1784 – July 9, 1850) was an American military officer and politician who was the 12th president of the United States, serving from 1849 until his death in 1850. Taylor was a career officer in the United States ...

's legislative agenda, and having earned the enmity of Alabama's Democrats by supporting the Union Party movement, he retired to his plantation with his public reputation severely damaged. Following his departure from the Senate, Clemens joined the

Know Nothing The American Party, known as the Native American Party before 1855 and colloquially referred to as the Know Nothings, or the Know Nothing Party, was an Old Stock Americans, Old Stock Nativism in United States politics, nativist political movem ...

movement and was an unsuccessful candidate for the House of Representatives that year on the American Party ticket. He supported former President

Millard Fillmore Millard Fillmore (January 7, 1800 – March 8, 1874) was the 13th president of the United States, serving from 1850 to 1853. He was the last president to be a member of the Whig Party while in the White House, and the last to be neither a De ...

in the

1856 United States presidential election Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 4, 1856. Democratic nominee James Buchanan defeated Republican nominee John C. Frémont and Know Nothing/ Whig nominee Millard Fillmore. The main issue was the expansion of sl ...

, campaigning on his behalf across northern Alabama, but the state voted for Democrat

James Buchanan James Buchanan Jr. ( ; April 23, 1791June 1, 1868) was the 15th president of the United States, serving from 1857 to 1861. He also served as the United States Secretary of State, secretary of state from 1845 to 1849 and represented Pennsylvan ...

. Following this last defeat, Clemens retired from public life. He began a literary career, publishing three novels between 1856 and 1860: ''Bernard Lile'' (1856), ''Mustang Gray'' (1858), and ''The Rivals'' (1859). The

secession crisis Secession is the formal withdrawal of a group from a Polity, political entity. The process begins once a group proclaims an act of secession (such as a declaration of independence). A secession attempt might be violent or peaceful, but the goal i ...

following the

election An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold Public administration, public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative d ...

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War ...

prompted Clemens's reentry to politics in the winter of 1860–61. Clemens denounced secession in the pages of the ''Montgommery Advertiser'' and as a delegate to the 1861 secession convention. When the delegates voted in favor of secession, however, Clemens reluctantly signed the ordinance announcing Alabama's departure from the Union. He accepted a commission in the Alabama militia, but his ambivalence towards the Confederate cause led him to resign within the year. In 1862, he crossed into Union lines and became Alabama's foremost

. His fourth novel, ''Tobias Wilson'', describes Unionist guerrilla warfare in northern Alabama. The war had a radicalizing effect on Clemens's politics, and he became an outspoken defender of the Lincoln Administration. Clemens strongly supported Lincoln's re-election in the 1864 presidential campaign and traveled to

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

to write campaign literature in support of Lincoln's National Union Party. Following Lincolns' assassination, Clemens urged his successor, fellow Southern Unionist

Andrew Johnson Andrew Johnson (December 29, 1808July 31, 1875) was the 17th president of the United States, serving from 1865 to 1869. The 16th vice president, he assumed the presidency following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Johnson was a South ...

, urging him to complete the abolition of slavery in the United States, but died on May 21, 1865 before he could take an active role in

Reconstruction Reconstruction may refer to: Politics, history, and sociology *Reconstruction (law), the transfer of a company's (or several companies') business to a new company *''Perestroika'' (Russian for "reconstruction"), a late 20th century Soviet Union ...

Novels

Clemens was most famous outside of Alabama during his lifetime as a novelist. ''Bernard Lile'' (Philadelphia, 1856) and ''Mustang Grey'' (1857) were at least partly autobiographical novels set in the Texas War of Independence and the

and both received critical acclaim at the time of their release. ''The Rivals'' (1859) was a novelization of the enmity between

Aaron Burr Aaron Burr Jr. (February 6, 1756 – September 14, 1836) was an American politician, businessman, lawyer, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the third vice president of the United States from 1801 to 1805 d ...

and

Alexander Hamilton Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757July 12, 1804) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the first U.S. secretary of the treasury from 1789 to 1795 dur ...

. His final novel, ''Tobias Wilson'', published posthumously in 1865, was an account of Unionist partisans who fought during the

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

in the mountains of Alabama near Clemens' hometown of Huntsville. He was engaged in the preparation of a history of the war, giving an insight into the character, causes, and conduct of the war in northern Alabama, but it was left unfinished at his death.

Family

Jeremiah Clemens was a distant cousin of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, and essayist. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," with William Fau ...

References

;Attribution *

External links

*
Jeremiah Clemens
at ''

Encyclopedia of Alabama The ''Encyclopedia of Alabama'' is an online encyclopedia of the state of Alabama's history, culture, Geography of Alabama, geography, and natural environment. It is a statewide collaboration that involves more than forty institutions from across ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Clemens, Jeremiah 1814 births 1865 deaths Politicians from Huntsville, Alabama Writers from Huntsville, Alabama American people of English descent Democratic Party United States senators from Alabama Democratic Party members of the Alabama House of Representatives Alabama Secession Delegates of 1861 United States attorneys for the Northern District of Alabama American male novelists 19th-century American novelists 19th-century American male writers University of Alabama alumni Transylvania University alumni People of Alabama in the American Civil War American military personnel of the Mexican–American War United States Army colonels Novelists from Alabama 19th-century United States senators 19th-century members of the Alabama Legislature Southern Unionists in the American Civil War American historical novelists Writers of historical fiction set in the early modern period