John Clark (politician, 1766)

John Clark

John Clark (born February 28, 1766 in Edgecombe County , Province of North Carolina , † October 12, 1832 in St. Andrews Bay, Florida Territory ) was an American politician and governor of Georgia .

Early years

His parents moved from North Carolina to northeast Georgia in the 1770s. The young John grew up in the turmoil of the American Revolutionary War and went to school in North Carolina. Although he was still a child, he took part in Georgia militia fighting. At the age of 16, he was in this unit for Hauptmann ( Captain transported). After the war, the Georgian government gave him 800 acres of land as a reward for his war effort. John decided to stay with the militia and made it major general by 1796. During this time he and his militia had to secure the unsafe borders of Georgia. There were repeated battles with the Indians. In 1794 he was involved in the so-called Yazoo Land Fraud scandal. It involved fraudulent land sales to influential Georgian citizens and politicians. Clark survived this scandal largely unscathed.

Political rise

In 1801, Clark was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives. At that time there were two Georgia political camps engaged in heated debates. Clark was the leader of the group of small farmers, settlers and immigrants, while the opposing side, led by George Troup and William Harris Crawford , mainly represented the plantation owners and the long-established families of Georgia. The political rivalries between the two factions even led to bloody duels. In 1802 Crawford had killed a fellow party member of Clarks in a duel, four years later Clark wounded Crawford in another duel. In 1813, Clark ran for the governor of Georgia for the first time. This attempt failed as did a second attempt in 1815. In the next elections in 1819 he managed a narrow victory against his arch-rival Troup, which he was able to beat again in 1821.

Georgia Governor

During his tenure (1819-1823), Clark campaigned for the opening of the Indian land. When the city of Savannah was struck by a devastating fire in 1820, the governor donated $ 10,000 from the state budget for reconstruction. He also promoted the development of a public school system. He made half a million dollars available for this and for expanding the infrastructure in Georgia.

According to him, Clarke County named in Alabama.

Old age and death

According to the constitution, he was not allowed to stand for the 1823 elections. That cleared the way for his old rival, George Troup. In 1825 Georgia held its first general election under a new electoral system and Clark ran against Troup for governor. The elections ended in a narrow victory for Troup. Clark then withdrew from local politics. President Andrew Jackson named him the federal Indian commissioner and administrator of Florida state forests. Clark forgave all of his opponents except Crawford. He died of yellow fever in Florida in October 1832. His wife, Nancy Williamson Clark, also succumbed to the disease. His nephew Edward was the governor of Texas in 1861 .

literature

• James F. Cook: The Governors of Georgia, 1754-2004. 3rd edition, revised and expanded. Mercer University Press, Macon GA 2005, ISBN 0-86554-954-0 .
• Carl Augustus Ross: The Public Life and Accomplishments of John Clark. Athens GA 1957 (University of Georgia, Master's Thesis).

Web links

• The New Georgia Encyclopedia (History of the State of Georgia in Biographies )
• John Clark in the National Governors Association (English)

• John Clark in the database of Find a Grave (English)