Editing Abraham Clark

{{short description|American Founding Father and politician}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2020}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name=Abraham Clark
| image name=Abraham Clark 1873 Lambdin after Trumbull.jpg
| state=[[New Jersey]]
| district={{ushr|NJ|AL|at-large}}
| party=Pro-Administration
| term_start=March 4, 1791
| term_end=September 15, 1794
| preceded=[[Lambert Cadwalader]]
| succeeded=[[Aaron Kitchell]]
| birth_date={{birth date|1726|2|15}}
| birth_place=[[Elizabeth, New Jersey|Elizabethtown]], [[Province of New Jersey]], [[British America]]
| death_date={{Death date and age|1794|9|15|1726|2|15}}
| death_place=[[Rahway, New Jersey|Rahway]], New Jersey, US
| resting_place = Rahway Cemetery, [[Rahway, New Jersey]]
| spouse= 
| occupation= 
| residence= 
| alma_mater= 
| signature=Abraham Clark Signature.svg
}}
'''Abraham Clark''' (February 15, 1726 – September 15, 1794) was an American [[Founding Fathers of the United States|Founding Father]], [[Politics of the United States|politician]], and [[American Revolutionary War|Revolutionary War]] figure.<ref name=Bernstein2001>{{cite book |last=Bernstein|first=Richard B. |author-link=Richard B. Bernstein |title=The Founding Fathers Reconsidered | chapter=Appendix: The Founding Fathers: A Partial List |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2011 |orig-date=2009 |isbn=978-0199832576 |location=New York |url=https://archive.org/details/foundingfathersr0000bern/page/176/mode/2up}}</ref> Clark was a delegate for [[New Jersey]] to the [[Continental Congress]] where he signed the [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration of Independence]] and later served in the [[United States House of Representatives]] in both the [[Second United States Congress|Second]] and [[Third United States Congress]], from March 4, 1791, until his death in 1794.

==Early life==
Clark was born in [[Elizabeth, New Jersey|Elizabethtown]] in the [[Province 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 a [[Surveyor (surveying)|surveyor]], 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.<ref name="WaPo 012022">{{cite news |last1=Weil |first1=Julie Zauzmer |last2=Blanco |first2=Adrian |last3=Dominguez |first3=Leo |title=More than 1,700 congressmen once enslaved Black people. This is who they were, and how they shaped the nation. |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/interactive/2022/congress-slaveowners-names-list/ |access-date=30 January 2022 |newspaper=[[Washington Post]] |date=20 January 2022}}</ref><ref>Bogin, p. 116</ref>

Clark married Sarah Hatfield circa 1749,<ref>Bogin, p. 163</ref> with whom he had 10 children.<ref>Bogin, p. 166</ref> 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 of [[Essex County, New Jersey|Essex County]] and in 1775 was elected to the Provincial Congress. He was a member of the [[Committee of safety (American Revolution)|Committee of Public Safety]].

==Political career==
Early in 1776, the New Jersey delegation to the [[Continental 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 with [[John Hart (New Jersey politician)|John Hart]], [[Francis Hopkinson]], [[Richard Stockton (1730-1781)|Richard Stockton]], and [[John Witherspoon]] as new delegates.<ref>Bogin, pp. 38-41</ref> They arrived in [[Philadelphia]] on June 28, 1776, and voted for the Declaration of Independence in early July.

Clark remained in the Continental Congress through 1778, when he was elected as Essex County's Member of the [[New Jersey Legislative Council]]. 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 aborted [[Annapolis Convention (1786)|Annapolis Convention of 1786]], along with [[William Houston|William C. Houston]] and [[James Schureman]].<ref>Bogin, p.132.</ref> In an October 12, 1804 letter to [[Noah 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.<ref>Bogin, pp. 132-133</ref><ref>Brant, pp. 384-386.</ref>

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.<ref>Bogin, pp. 32-37.</ref> Unlike many [[Founding Fathers of the United States|Founding Fathers]] who demanded deference to elected officials, Clark encouraged constituents to petition their representatives when they deemed change necessary.<ref>Bogin, p. 37.</ref>

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.<ref>Bogin, "New Jersey's True Policy: The Radical Republican Vision of Abraham Clark." ''William and Mary Quarterly'', 3d ser., 35 (1978): p. 107.</ref> 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 entitled ''The 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.<ref>Bogin, pp. 160-161.</ref>

Clark unsuccessfully ran for the U.S. Senate in 1788,<ref>{{cite web | publisher= [[Tufts University]] | work= Tufts Digital Collations and Archives | series= A New Nation Votes: American Election Returns 1787–1825 | access-date= February 15, 2018 | title= New Jersey 1788 U.S. Senate | url= https://elections.lib.tufts.edu/catalog/tufts:nj.ussenate.1788}}, citing The New-Jersey Journal, and Political Intelligencer (Elizabethtown, NJ). December 3, 1788.</ref> but was later elected to the House in 1791, where he served until his death.

==Death and legacy==
Clark retired before the state's [[constitutional convention (political meeting)|Constitutional Convention]] in 1794. He died from sunstroke at his home. [[Clark, New Jersey|Clark Township]] in [[Union County, New Jersey]], is named for him, as is [[Abraham Clark High School]] in [[Roselle, New Jersey]]. Clark is buried there at the Rahway Cemetery in Rahway, New Jersey.<ref>Staff. [https://www.nytimes.com/1927/02/06/archives/house-of-abraham-clark-a-signer-will-be-rebuilt-duplicate-of-rahway.html "HOUSE OF ABRAHAM CLARK, A SIGNER, WILL BE REBUILT; Duplicate of Rahway Home to Memorialize Him and Two Sons as Revolutionary Patriots"], ''[[The New York Times]]'', February 6, 1927. Accessed September 21, 2015. "ABRAHAM CLARK, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, is to be honored by the erection of a memorial house in his home town, Rahway, N.J."</ref><ref>Dodge, Andrew R. (2005) ''Biographical directory of the United States Congress 1774–2005'', p. 824</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Biography}}
* [[List of United States Congress members who died in office (1790–1899)]]
* [[Memorial to the 56 Signers of the Declaration of Independence]]

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
* Bogin, Ruth, ''Abraham Clark and the Quest for Equality in the Revolutionary Era, 1774-1794''. Rutherford, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1982.
* Brant, Irving. ''James Madison: The Nationalist, 1780-1787'', Indianapolis, Ind.: Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1948.

==External links==
* {{CongBio|C000418}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070221192311/http://www.altlaw.com/edball/html/d0049/i07589.htm Genealogical information for Abraham Clark]
* [http://www.colonialhall.com/clark/clark.php ColonialHall.com biography of Abraham Clark]
* {{Find a Grave|2179}}

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{{US House succession box
| state= New Jersey
| district= AL
| before= [[Lambert Cadwalader]]
| after= [[Aaron Kitchell]]
| years= 1791–1794}}
{{s-end}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Clark, Abraham}}
[[Category:1726 births]]
[[Category:1794 deaths]]
[[Category:Surveyors from the Thirteen Colonies]]
[[Category:18th-century American lawyers]]
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[[Category:New Jersey sheriffs]]
[[Category:Members of the New Jersey Legislative Council]]
[[Category:Continental Congressmen from New Jersey]]
[[Category:Members of the United States House of Representatives from New Jersey]]
[[Category:Signers of the United States Declaration of Independence]]
[[Category:Politicians from Elizabeth, New Jersey]]
[[Category:People from Rahway, New Jersey]]
[[Category:People from colonial New Jersey]]
[[Category:Deaths from hyperthermia]]
[[Category:Founding Fathers of the United States]]
[[Category:Members of the United States House of Representatives who owned slaves]]
[[Category:18th-century members of the United States House of Representatives]]
[[Category:Candidates in the 1788–1789 United States elections]]