John Crafts Wright (August 17, 1783 – February 13, 1861) was a

U.S. Representative The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the 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 Article One of th ...

from

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

and a

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

. He was the brother-in-law of

Benjamin Tappan Benjamin Tappan (May 25, 1773 – April 20, 1857) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Ohio and a United States senator from Ohio. Education and career Born on May 25, 1773, in Northampton, P ...

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

from Ohio from 1839 to 1845. Born in

Wethersfield, Connecticut Wethersfield ( ) is a town located in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. It is located immediately south of Hartford along the Connecticut River. The town is part of the Capitol Planning Region. The population was 27,298 at the time ...

, Wright completed preparatory studies and then learned the trade of printer. He moved to

Troy, New York Troy is a city in and the county seat of Rensselaer County, New York, United States. It is located on the western edge of the county, on the eastern bank of the Hudson River just northeast of the capital city of Albany, New York, Albany. At the ...

, and edited the ''Troy Gazette'' for several years. He studied law at

Litchfield Law School The Litchfield Law School was a law school in Litchfield, Connecticut, that operated from 1774 to 1833. Litchfield was the first independent law school established in America for reading law. Founded and led by lawyer Tapping Reeve, the proprietar ...

. He was

admitted to the bar An admission to practice law is acquired when a lawyer receives a license to practice law. In jurisdictions with two types of lawyer, as with barristers and solicitors, barristers must gain admission to the bar whereas for solicitors there are dist ...

and commenced practice in

Steubenville, Ohio Steubenville ( ) is a city in Jefferson County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Located along the Ohio River west of Pittsburgh, it had a population of 18,161 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Weirton–Steubenville m ...

, in 1809. United States district attorney in 1817. Wright was elected to the Seventeenth Congress, but resigned on March 3, 1821, before the beginning of the congressional term. Elected again to the Eighteenth Congress, he began his service in that body as a National Republican, and continued to serve in the Nineteenth, and

Twentieth 20 (twenty) is the natural number following 19 and preceding 21. A group of twenty units is sometimes referred to as a score. In mathematics Twenty is a composite number. It is also the smallest primitive abundant number. The Happy Family of ...

Congresses, his three terms running from March 4, 1823, through March 4, 1829. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1828 to the Twenty-first Congress. Wright was elected to the

Ohio Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the State of Ohio is the highest court in the U.S. state of Ohio, with final authority over interpretations of Ohio law and the Ohio Constitution. The court has seven members, a chief justice and six associate justices, ...

in 1831 and served until February 2, 1835, when he resigned. In 1833, Wright, along with Edward King and Timothy Walker, founded the

Cincinnati Law School The University of Cincinnati College of Law is the law school of the University of Cincinnati in Cincinnati, Ohio. History The University of Cincinnati College of Law was founded in 1833 as the Cincinnati Law School. It is the fourth oldest conti ...

, the first law school in the West.History of UC College of Law
/ref> He moved to Cincinnati in 1835 and engaged in newspaper work, and for thirteen years published the ''

Cincinnati Gazette The ''Cincinnati Commercial Tribune'' was a major daily newspaper in Cincinnati, Ohio, formed in 1896, and folded in 1930.(3 December 1930)OLDEST NEWSPAPER IN CINCINNATI QUITS; Commercial Tribune Stopped by McLean Interests After Political Shift ...

''. He served as director of the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railroad. He served as delegate to and honorary president of the

Peace Conference of 1861 The Peace Conference of 1861 was a meeting of 131 leading American politicians in February 1861, at the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C., on the eve of the American Civil War. The conference's purpose was to avoid, if possible, the secession of ...

held in

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 ...

, in an effort to devise means to prevent the impending war, and died while serving in that capacity at Washington on February 13, 1861. He was interred in

Spring Grove Cemetery Spring Grove Cemetery and Arboretum is a nonprofit rural cemetery and arboretum located at 4521 Spring Grove Avenue, Cincinnati, Ohio. At a size of 733 acres (2.97 km2), it is the third largest cemetery in the United States, after the Calverto ...

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...

. Wright married Mary Buell Collier on August 22, 1805. They raised four children.

Notes

References

John C. Wright - the Father of "the Popular Vote" in US Presidential Elections
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wright, John Crafts 1783 births 1861 deaths American male journalists Politicians from Cincinnati Burials at Spring Grove Cemetery 19th-century American newspaper editors Ohio National Republicans Justices of the Supreme Court of Ohio University of Cincinnati College of Law faculty Litchfield Law School alumni United States attorneys for the District of Ohio Democratic-Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Ohio National Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Ohio 19th-century American male writers 19th-century Ohio state court judges 19th-century members of the United States House of Representatives