Abraham Clark | |
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| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromNew Jersey'sat-large district | |
| In office March 4, 1791 – September 15, 1794 | |
| Preceded by | Lambert Cadwalader |
| Succeeded by | Aaron Kitchell |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1726-02-15)February 15, 1726 |
| Died | September 15, 1794(1794-09-15) (aged 68) Rahway, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Resting place | Rahway Cemetery,Rahway, New Jersey |
| Party | Pro-Administration |
| Signature |  |
Abraham Clark (February 15, 1726 – September 15, 1794) was an AmericanFounding Father,politician, andRevolutionary War figure.[1] Clark was a delegate forNew Jersey to theContinental Congress where he signed theDeclaration of Independence and later served in theUnited States House of Representatives in both theSecond andThird United States Congress, from March 4, 1791, until his death in 1794.
Clark was born inElizabethtown in theProvince of New Jersey. His father, Thomas Clark, realized that he had a natural grasp for math so he hired a tutor to teach Abraham surveying. While working as asurveyor, he taught himself law and went into practice. He became quite popular and became known as "the poor man's councilor" as he offered to defend poor men who could not afford a lawyer. He was a slaveholder.[2][3]
Clark married Sarah Hatfield circa 1749,[4] with whom he had 10 children.[5] While she raised the children on their farm, Clark was able to enter politics as a clerk of the Provincial Assembly. Later he became high sheriff ofEssex County and in 1775 was elected to the Provincial Congress. He was a member of theCommittee of Public Safety.
Early in 1776, the New Jersey delegation to theContinental Congress was opposed to independence from Great Britain. As the issue heated up, the state convention replaced all their delegates with those favoring the separation. Because Clark was highly vocal on his opinion that the colonies should have their independence, on June 21, 1776, they appointed him, along withJohn Hart,Francis Hopkinson,Richard Stockton, andJohn Witherspoon as new delegates.[6]
They arrived inPhiladelphia on June 28, 1776, and voted for the Declaration of Independence in early July. The day of the vote, Clark wrote a letter stating that "It is gone so far, that we must now be a free independent State, or a conquered country." and he demonstrated his resolve privately by saying "We can die here but once."[7]
During the events of the Revolutionary War, Clark remained in the Continental Congress through 1778, when he was elected as Essex County's Member of theNew Jersey Legislative Council. At one point his two sons were captured by the British and incarcerated on the prison shipHMS Jersey, as they were enlisted soldiers.[8][9]
Later, New Jersey returned him twice more, from 1780 to 1783 and from 1786 to 1788. Clark was one of New Jersey's three representatives at the abortedAnnapolis Convention of 1786, along withWilliam C. Houston andJames Schureman.[10] In an October 12, 1804 letter toNoah Webster,James Madison recalled that Clark was the delegate who formally motioned for the Constitutional Convention, because New Jersey's instructions allowed for consideration of non-commercial matters.[11][12]
Clark, more than many of his contemporaries, was a proponent of democracy and the common man, supporting especially the societal roles of farmers and mechanics. Because of their emphasis on production, Clark saw these occupations as the lifeblood of a virtuous society, and he decried the creditor status of more elite men, usually lawyers, ministers, physicians, and merchants, as an aristocratic threat to the future of republican government.[13] Unlike manyFounding Fathers who demanded deference to elected officials, Clark encouraged constituents to petition their representatives when they deemed change necessary.[14]
In May 1786, Clark, aided by thousands of petitions in the preceding months, pushed a pro-debtor paper money bill through the New Jersey legislature.[15] To garner support for the paper money bill and espouse his populist vision for New Jersey's future, Clark, under the pseudonym "A Fellow Citizen," published a forty-page pamphlet entitledThe True Policy of New-Jersey, Defined; or, Our Great Strength led to Exertion, in the Improvement of Agriculture and Manufactures, by Altering the Mode of Taxation, and by the Emission of Money on Loan, in IX Sections in February 1786.[16]
Clark unsuccessfully ran for the U.S. Senate in 1788,[17] but was later elected to the House in 1791, where he served until his death.
Clark retired before the state'sConstitutional Convention in 1794. He died from sunstroke at his home.Clark Township inUnion County, New Jersey, is named for him, as isAbraham Clark High School inRoselle, New Jersey. Clark is buried there at the Rahway Cemetery in Rahway, New Jersey.[18][19]
| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
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| Preceded by | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives fromNew Jersey's at-large congressional district 1791–1794 | Succeeded by |
