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McCLERNAND, John Alexander, a Representative from Illinois; born in Breckinridge County, Ky., on
May 30, 1812; moved with his parents to Shawneetown, Ill., in 1813; attended
the village schools; engaged in agricultural pursuits; studied law; was
admitted to the bar in 1832; served in the Black Hawk War; engaged as a trader
on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers in 1833 and 1834; established the
Shawneetown Democrat in 1835 and in the same year commenced the practice of
law; member of the State house of representatives in 1836, 1840, 1842, and
1843; elected as a Democrat to the Twenty-eighth and to the three succeeding
Congresses (March 4, 1843-March 3, 1851); chairman, Committee on Public Lands
(Twenty-ninth Congress), Committee on Foreign Affairs (Thirty-first Congress);
declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1850; moved to Jacksonville,
Ill., in 1851 and to Springfield in 1856; elected to the Thirty-sixth Congress
to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Thomas L. Harris; reelected to the
Thirty-seventh Congress and served from November 8, 1859, until October 28,
1861, when he resigned to accept a commission as brigadier general of
Volunteers for service in the Civil War; returned to Illinois to raise troops
for the Union Army; was promoted to major general in 1862; elected circuit
judge of the Sangamon District of Illinois in 1870 and served until 1873;
resumed the practice of law; presided over the Democratic National Convention
in 1876; appointed by President Cleveland as a member of the Utah Commission;
died in Springfield, Ill., September 20, 1900; interment in Oak Ridge Cemetery.
BibliographyKiper, Richard L.
Major General John Alexander McClernand: Politician in
Uniform. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 1999; Meyers,
Christopher C. The Meanest Man in the West: John A. McClernand and the Civil
War Era. Ph. D. Diss., The Florida State University, 1996.
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