Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 1).djvu/682

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CLAYTON
CLEAVELAND

the county. Several of his communications, treat- ing of the culture and different species of tobacco, and also one containing an account of medicinal plants which he had discovered in Virginia, were published in the " Philosophical Transactions."


CLAYTON, John Middleton, jurist, b. in Dags- borough, Sussex CO., Del., 24 July, 179(>; d. in Do- ver, Del., 9 Nov., 185G. He was the eldest son of James Clayton (a descendant of Joshua of tluit name, who came to America with William Penn) and Sarah Middleton, of Virginian ancestry. The pecuniary disasters consequent upon the war of 1812 reduced his father from affluence to com- parative poverty, and it was only by making the greatest sacrifices that he was able to send his son to college. He was graduated at Yale in 1815, studied law at the Litchfield law-school, began to practise in 1818, and soon attained eminence in his profession. In 1824 he was sent to the Dela- ware legislature, and was subsequently secretary of state. In 1829 he was sent to the U. S. senate, and in 1831 appointed a member of the convention to revise the constitution of Delaware. In 1835 he was again returned to the senate as a whig, but re- signed in 1837 to become chief justice of Dela- ware, an office which he held for three years. From 1845 till 1849 he was again U. S. senator, and at the latter date became secretary of state under President Taylor. He was elected a senator for the third time, and served in that capacity from March, 1851, until his death. He early distin- guished himself in the senate by a speech during tlie debate on the Foote resolution, wiiich, though merely relating to the survey of the public lands, introduced into the discussion the whole question of nullification. His argument in favor of paying the claims for French spoliations was also a fine in- stance of senatorial oratory. One of his most noted speeches delivered in the senate was that made in 1855 against the message of President Pierce veto- ing the act ceding public lands for an insane asy- lum. While secretary of state he negotiated in 1850 the treaty with the British government, known as the Clayton-Bulwer treaty, which guaranteed the neutrality and encouragement of lines of in- teroceanic travel across the American isthmus. In 1851 he zealously defended that treaty in the sen- ate and vindicated President Taylor's administra- tion. From 1844 Mr. Clayton cultivated a tract of land near Newcastle, which in a few years he made one of the most fruitful estates in that fer- tile region. Mr. Clayton was always accessible, and was noted for his genial disposition and brill- iant conversational powers.


CLAYTON, Joshua, physician, d. near Middle- town, Del., 11 Aug., 1798. He practised medicine for many years, and during the revolution intro- duced a substitute for Peruvian bark, consisting of cfjual parts of poplar and dogwood root bark and half the quantity of the inner bark of the white oak. Dr. Clavton was president of Delaware from 1789 till 1793," then governor till 1796, and just be- fore his death was chosen U. S. senator.


CLAYTON, Powell, governor of Arkansas, b. in Bethel, Delaware co.. Pa., 7 Aug., 1833. He was educated in the common schools and in an academy at Bristol, Pa., studied civil engineering at Wilmington, Del., and in 1859 was chosen engi- neer and surveyor of Leavenworth, Kansas. When the civil war began he entered the National army as captain in the 1st Kansas infantry, 29 May. 1861. He was appointed, 27 Feb., 1862, lieutenant-colo- nel of the 5th Kansas cavalrv, and was made colo- nel on 30 March. 1862. On 6 May, 1863, he com- manded a successful expedition from Helena, Ark., to the White river to break up a band of guerillas and destroy Confederate stores, and later an expe- dition from Pine Bluff in March, 1864, which in- flicted severe loss on the enemy. On 1 Aug., 1864, he was commissioned a brigadier-general. He set- tled in Arkansas as a planter after the war, was elected governor, and entered upon the office in June, 1868. He was U. S. senator from 25 March, 1871, till 3 March, 1877. Afterward he resided at Eureka Springs, and became president of the Eu- reka improvement company.


CLAYTON, Thomas, senator, b. in Newcastle, Del, 9 March, 1778; d. there, 21 Aug., 1854. He received a liberal education, studied and practised law at Newcastle, was elected to congress, and served from 4 Dec, 1814, till 3 March. 1817. He was for several terms a member of the legislature, and was elected U. S. senator on the resignation of C. A. Rodney, serving from 15 Jan., 1824, till 3 March, 1827. Afterward he was chief justice of common pleas. He was again elected senator when John M. Clayton resigned, serving from 19 Jan., 1837, till 3 Starch, 1847, and subsequently presided over the supreme court of Delaware.


CLEARY, James Vincent, Canadian R. C. bishop, b. in Waterford, Ireland, 18 Sept., 1828 ; d. in Kingston, 24 Feb.. 1899. At fifteen he was sent to Rome to be educated for the priesthood, but subsequently he was recalled by the bishop of Wa- terford and placed in the Royal college of May- nooth. After completing a five years' course there, he was ordained deacon in 1851, and priest in Sep- tember, 1852, by the bishop of Waterford. Imme- diately after his ordination he went to Spain and studied for. several years at the University of Sala- manca. In 1854 he was summoned home by the bishop of Waterford to take the chair of dogmatic theology and scriptural exegesis in St. John's col- lege, Waterford, and in 1873 was appointed presi- dent of this college. On 21 Nov., 1880, he was consecrated bishop of Kingston, Ontario. Bishop Cleary is reputed to be one of the most learned of the Roman Catholic ecclesiastics of Canada.


CLEAVELAND, John, clergyman, b. in Canter- burv, Conn., 22 April, 1722; d. in Ipswich, Mass., 22 April, 1799. He was expelled from Yale col- lege in 1745 for attending a Separatist meeting, but received his degree twenty years after as an act of redress. He preached to a Separatist society in Boston, but, declining to settle there, became pastor of the parish of Chebacco in Ipswich, now the town of Essex. He was chaplain of Col. Bag- ley's regiment at Ticonderoga in 1758, and at Louisburg in 1759, and served in that capacity with the Revolutionary army at Cambridge in 1775, and in ConneeticTit and New York the year fol- lowing. He published a " Narrative of the Work of God at Chebacco in 1763-'4," describing a re- vival of religion in his congregation ; an " Essay to Defend Christ's Sacrifice and Atonement against the Aspersions cast on the Same by Dr. j\Iayhcw" (1763); a " Reply to Dr. Mayhew's Let- ter of Reproof" (1765) ; and a " Treatise on Infant Baptism" (1784). — His grandson, Parker, b. in Rowley, Mass., 15 Jan., 1780; d. in Brunswick, Me., 15 Oct., 1858 (whose father was a physician of Rowley, a regimental surgeon in the revolution, and frequently a member of the Massachusetts legislature), was graduated at Harvard in 1799, taugiit school at Haverhill, Mass.. and York, Me., and studied law. He was appointed a tutor of mathematics at Harvard in 1803, and in 1805 was called to Brunswick as the first professor of mathe- matics and natural philosophy in Bowdoin. He applied himself especially to the new sciences of