James Paul CLARKE, Congress, AR (1854-1916)

CLARKE, James Paul, a Senator from Arkansas; born in Yazoo City, Yazoo County, Miss., August 18, 1854; attended the public schools and Professor Tutwilder’s Academy, Greenbrier, Ala.; graduated from the law department of the University of Virginia at Charlottesville in 1878; admitted to the bar in 1879 and commenced practice in Helena, Phillips County, Ark.; member, State house of representatives 1886-1888; member, State senate 1888-1892, serving as president in 1891 and ex officio lieutenant governor; attorney general of Arkansas 1892-1894; declined to be a candidate for renomination; Governor of Arkansas 1895-1896; moved to Little Rock, Ark., in 1897 and resumed the practice of law; elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate in 1903; reelected in 1909 and again in 1915 and served from March 4, 1903, until his death on October 1, 1916; served as President pro tempore of the Senate during the Sixty-third and Sixty-fourth Congresses; chairman, Committee on Disposition of Useless Executive Papers (Sixty-first and Sixty-second Congresses), Committee on Commerce (Sixty-third and Sixty-fourth Congresses); died in Little Rock, Ark.; interment in Oakland Cemetery.

Bibliography

American National Biography; Dictionary of American Biography; U.S. Congress. Memorial Addresses. 64th Cong., 2nd sess., 1916-1917. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1917.

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