John Chamberlain Clark (January 14, 1793 – October 25, 1852) was an American lawyer and politician who served four terms as a

United States representative 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 ...

from

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from 1827 to 1829 and from 1837 to 1843.

Biography

Clark was born in

Pittsfield, Massachusetts Pittsfield is the most populous city and the county seat of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the principal city of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Berkshire County. Pittsfi ...

, on January 14, 1793. He graduated from

Williams College Williams College is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim ...

Williamstown, Massachusetts Williamstown is a town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It shares a border with Vermont to the north and New York to the west. Located in Berkshire County, the town is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts metropolitan statis ...

, in 1811. Clark then studied law, was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in

Hamilton, New York Hamilton is a Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town in Madison County, New York, Madison County, New York (state), New York, United States. The population was 6,379 at the 2020 census. The town is named after American Founding Father ...

Political career

In 1818, Clark moved to Bainbridge. A

Democratic-Republican The Democratic-Republican Party (also referred to by historians as the Republican Party or the Jeffersonian Republican Party), was an American political party founded by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in the early 1790s. It championed l ...

, then a Jacksonian and later a

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (Cyprus) (DCY) **Democratic Part ...

, he served as District Attorney of Chenango County from 1823 to 1827.

Tenure in Congress

In 1826, he was elected to the United States House of Representatives 21 District and he served in the

20th United States Congress The 20th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, consisting of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from March 4, 1827, ...

, March 4, 1827 to March 3, 1829. He resumed practicing law and in 1836 returned to the U.S. House, again representing the 21st District. He began his term as a Democrat, but switched to the Whig Party in 1837 because he favored continuation of the

Second Bank of the United States The Second Bank of the United States was the second federally authorized Second Report on Public Credit, Hamiltonian national bank in the United States. Located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the bank was chartered from February 1816 to January ...

rather than the

independent Treasury The Independent Treasury was the system for managing the money supply of the United States federal government through the U.S. Treasury and its sub-treasuries, independently of the national banking and financial systems. It was created on August 6, ...

favored by President

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 ...

and the Democrats. Clark was re-elected to Congress as a Whig in 1838 and 1840, ultimately serving in the 25th,

26th 26 (twenty-six) is the natural number following 25 and preceding 27. In mathematics *26 is the seventh discrete semiprime (2 \times 13) and the fifth with 2 as the lowest non-unitary factor thus of the form (2.q), where q is a higher prime. ...

, and 27th Congresses (March 4, 1837 – March 3, 1843).

Later career and death

Clark did not run for re-election in 1842, and resumed practicing law. He later moved to Chemung County and became active in the lumber business. Following the Whig victory in the 1848 election for President, Clark was appointed First Auditor of the Treasury and he served from August 2, 1849, to October 31, 1849. He was

Solicitor of the United States Treasury The Solicitor of the Treasury position was created in the United States Department of the Treasury by an act of May 29, 1830 , which changed the name of the Agent of the Treasury. Function The Solicitor of the Treasury served as legal advisor to t ...

from October 31, 1849, until his death. Clark died in Elmira on October 25, 1852. He was buried at St. Peter's Churchyard in Bainbridge.

External links

* * 1793 births 1852 deaths Williams College alumni New York (state) Whigs United States Department of the Treasury officials Jacksonian members of the United States House of Representatives from New York (state) Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from New York (state) Whig Party members of the United States House of Representatives Politicians from Pittsfield, Massachusetts People from Bainbridge, New York 19th-century members of the United States House of Representatives {{NewYork-Representative-stub