John Alexander Cocke

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John Alexander Cocke (* 1772 in Brunswick , Brunswick County , Colony of Virginia , †  February 16, 1854 in Rutledge , Tennessee ) was an American politician . Between 1819 and 1827 he represented the state of Tennessee in the US House of Representatives .

Career

John Cocke was a son of US Senator William Cocke (1747-1828) and an uncle of Congressman William Michael Cocke (1815-1896). In his childhood he moved with his parents to Tennessee, where he attended public schools. After a subsequent law degree and his admission to the bar in 1793, he began to work in Hawkins County in his new profession. At the same time he embarked on a political career as a member of the Democratic Republican Party . Between 1796 and 1812 he sat several times as a member of the House of Representatives from Tennessee , whose speaker he became in 1812. Between 1799 and 1801 Cocke was a member of the State Senate . During the British-American War of 1812 he was first major general of a volunteer unit from Tennessee and then colonel under General Andrew Jackson at the time of the Battle of New Orleans .

In the congressional election of 1818 he was elected to the US House of Representatives in Washington, DC in the sixth constituency of Tennessee , where he succeeded William Grainger Blount on March 4, 1819 . After three re-elections, he was able to complete four terms in Congress by March 3, 1827 . Since 1825 he represented the second district of Tennessee as the successor to Adam Rankin Alexander . In the 1820s, Cocke joined the movement around Andrew Jackson and later became a member of the Democratic Party founded by him in 1828 . From 1823 to 1827 he was chairman of the Indian Committee. During this time there was heated discussion in Congress between supporters and opponents of Jackson.

After leaving the US House of Representatives, Cocke also worked in agriculture. In Knoxville he founded a school for the deaf and dumb. In 1837 he was once again a member and president of the Tennessee House of Representatives; In 1843 he was elected to the State Senate again. John Cocke died in Rutledge on February 16, 1854.

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personal data
SURNAME Cocke, John Alexander
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American politician
DATE OF BIRTH 1772
PLACE OF BIRTH Brunswick , Virginia
DATE OF DEATH February 16, 1854
Place of death Rutledge , Tennessee