Charles A. Wickliffe

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Charles A. Wickliffe bigraphy, stories - U.S. Representative from Kentucky

Charles A. Wickliffe : biography

June 8, 1788 – October 31, 1869

Charles Anderson Wickliffe (June 8, 1788 – October 31, 1869) was a U.S. Representative from Kentucky. He also served as Speaker of the Kentucky House of Representatives, the 14th Governor of Kentucky, and was appointed Postmaster General by President John Tyler. Though he consistently identified with the Whig Party, he was politically independent, and often had differences of opinion with Whig founder and fellow Kentuckian Henry Clay.

Wickliffe received a strong education in public school and through private tutors. He studied law and was part of a debate club that also included future U.S. Attorney General Felix Grundy and future Governor of Florida William Pope Duval. He was elected to the Kentucky House of Representatives in 1812. A vigorous supporter of the War of 1812, he served for a brief time as aide-de-camp to two American generals in the war. In 1823, he was elected to the first of five consecutive terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. He returned to the state House in 1833, and was elected the tenth Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky in 1836. Governor James Clark died in office on October 5, 1839, and Wickliffe served as governor for the remaining nine months of Clark’s term.

President Tyler appointed Wickliffe as Postmaster General following Wickliffe’s term as governor. While aboard a steamship in 1844, he was stabbed by a man who was later found to be insane. In 1845, President James K. Polk sent Wickliffe on a secret mission to report on British and French intents with regard to annexing Texas and to assess the feasibility of the United States undertaking such an action. Wickliffe’s participation in this endeavor further distanced him from the Whigs.

In 1861, Wickliffe was again elected to the U.S. House, serving a single term. He tried to avert the Civil War by serving as a delegate to both the 1861 Peace Conference and the Border States Convention. After war was declared, he sided with the Union cause. In 1863, he again sought the office of governor, but federal military forces interfered with the election, resulting in a landslide victory for Thomas E. Bramlette. Later in life, Wickliffe was crippled in a carriage accident and also went completely blind. He died on October 31, 1869, while visiting his daughter in Maryland.

Political career

Wickliffe’s political career began when he was elected to represent Nelson County in the Kentucky House of Representatives in 1812 and 1813. During his tenure, he enthusiastically supported the War of 1812. He first served as an aide-de-camp to General Joseph Winlock, and on August 24, 1813, he enlisted as a private in Martin H. Wickliffe’s company.Trowbridge, "Kentucky’s Military Governors" On September 2, 1813, he was chosen as aide-de-camp to General Samuel Caldwell and served in this capacity at the October 5, 1813, Battle of the Thames. In 1816, he succeeded Ben Hardin as Commonwealth’s Attorney for Nelson County.

Wickliffe was returned to the Kentucky House in 1822 and 1823. During this period, a controversy known as the Old Court-New Court controversy was raging in Kentucky. Reeling from the financial Panic of 1819, many of the state’s citizens demanded debt relief. When some debt relief measures passed by the legislature were declared unconstitutional by the Kentucky Court of Appeals, the legislature attempted to dissolve the court and replace it with a more sympathetic one. For a time, two courts claimed to be the court of last resort in Kentucky. Wickliffe supported the "Old Court", which was the court that eventually prevailed.Little, p. 107

First service in the House of Representatives

In 1823, Wickliffe was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and served five consecutive terms. Again he succeeded his cousin and friend, Ben Hardin.Little, p. 98 Though a Whig, he disagreed with many of the positions of the party’s founder, Henry Clay. When no candidate received a majority of the electoral votes in the 1824 presidential election, the constitution mandated that the election be decided in the House. Wickliffe bucked Clay’s advice to vote for him and instead voted for Andrew Jackson, who was the choice of the Kentucky legislature.