Henry De Lamar CLAYTON, Congress, AL (1857-1929)

CLAYTON, Henry De Lamar, (brother of Bertram Tracy Clayton), a Representative from Alabama; born near Clayton, Barbour County, Ala., February 10, 1857; attended the common schools; was graduated from the literary department of the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa in 1877 and from its law department in 1878; was admitted to the bar in the latter year and commenced practice in Clayton, Ala.; moved to Eufaula, Ala., in 1880 and continued the practice of law; member of the State house of representatives in 1890 and 1891; United States district attorney for the middle district of Alabama 1893-1896; permanent chairman of the Democratic National Convention in 1908; elected as a Democrat to the Fifty-fifth and to the eight succeeding Congresses and served from March 4, 1897, until May 25, 1914, when he resigned and moved to Montgomery, Ala., to accept a commission as United States judge for the middle and northern district of Alabama, in which capacity he served until his death; chairman, Committee on the Judiciary (Sixty-second and Sixty-third Congresses); sponsor of the Clayton anti-trust act of 1914; one of the managers appointed by the House of Representatives in 1905 to conduct the impeachment proceedings against Charles Swayne, judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida, and in 1912 against Robert W. Archbald, judge of the United States Commerce Court; appointed to the U.S. Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Joseph F. Johnston, but his appointment was challenged and withdrawn; died in Montgomery, Ala., December 21, 1929; interment in Fairview Cemetery, Eufaula, Ala.

Bibliography

Rodabaugh, Karl. “Congressman Henry D. Clayton and the Dothan Post Office Fight: Patronage and Politics in the Progressive Era.” Alabama Review 33 (April 1980): 125-49; Rodabaugh, Karl. “Congressman Henry D. Clayton, Patriarch in Politics: A Southern Congressman During the Progressive Era.” Alabama Review 31 (April 1978): 110-20.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present