Powell Clayton

The Honorable Powell Clayton
United States Senator from Arkansas
In office March 4, 1871 – March 3, 1877 Serving with Benjamin Rice, Stephen Dorsey
Preceded by	Alexander McDonald
Succeeded by	Augustus Garland
9th Governor of Arkansas
In office July 2, 1868 – March 4, 1871
Lieutenant	James Johnson
Preceded by	Isaac Murphy
Succeeded by	Ozra Hadley (acting)
1st United States Ambassador to Mexico
In office January 3, 1899 – May 26, 1905
President	William McKinley Theodore Roosevelt
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Edwin Conger
Personal details
Born	Powell Foulk Clayton August 7, 1833 Delaware County, Pennsylvania
Died	Washington, D.C.
Resting place	Arlington National Cemetery
Nationality	American
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Adaline McGraw
Occupation	Civil engineer
Military service
Allegiance	United States of America
Service/branch	United States Volunteers
Years of service	1861–1865
Rank	Brigadier–General
Commands	5th Kansas Cavalry Post of Pine Bluff
Battles/wars	American Civil War Battle of Helena Battle of Pine Bluff

Powell Clayton (born Powell Foulk Clayton; August 7, 1833 – August 25, 1914) was an American politician and diplomat who served as a United States Senator from Arkansas from 1871 to 1877 and United States Ambassador to Mexico from 1899 to 1905. He previously served as the 9th Governor of Arkansas from 1868 to 1871. A member of the Republican Party, ideologically Clayton was a Radical Republican.

Early life

Clayton as a young man

Clayton was born in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, to John and Ann Glover Clayton. He was a direct descendent of William Clayton, originally from Chichester, England. Clayton the immigrant was a close friend of George Fox, founder of the Quakers, and William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania. John Clayton was an orchard keeper and carpenter. John and Ann Clayton had ten children in all; six died in infancy.

The young Clayton attended a private military academy in Pennsylvania, north of Philadelphia. He later attended engineering school at Wilmington, Delaware. He moved to Kansas in 1855 and served as an engineer at Leavenworth, Kansas. On April 29, 1861, he is recorded as having a company of militia at Fort Leavenworth. His brothers William and John followed him to the West and, at one point, they all worked in Arkansas.

Civil War

In May 1861 Clayton was formally mustered into the United States Volunteers as a captain of the 1st Kansas Infantry. In December 1861, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel of the 5th Kansas Cavalry and later to colonel in March 1862. During the war he served primarily in Arkansas and Missouri, fighting in several battles in those states.

Occupation of Pine Bluff

During the morning and early afternoon of October 25, 1863, Clayton commanded federal troops occupying Pine Bluff, Arkansas. He successfully repulsed a three-pronged confederate attack of the forces of General John S. Marmaduke. His troops had piled cotton bales around the Pine Bluff courthouse and surrounding streets to make a barricade for the Union defenders, and it worked. Confederate losses were 41 killed, wounded, and captured. Clayton was appointed a brigadier general of volunteers on August 1, 1864.

Arkansas life and career

Marriage and family

Powell decided to stay in Arkansas, likely because he fell in love. He married Adaline McGraw of Helena. Together with his brother William (W.H.H. Clayton), they purchased a plantation in Jefferson County, Arkansas, in the Mississippi Delta, formerly a base of cotton plantations and production. As in other southern states, violence did not end with the war. Hostilities continued and intensified as whites used lynchings, other physical attacks and intimidation against emancipated freedmen to repress black voting and maintain white supremacy. They intimidated white Republicans as well to regain political power. Other planters told Powell that they would pretend to go along with Reconstruction but would win back what they had lost through peaceful means. Powell at first tried to stay out of the conflicts. When his neighbors became more threatening, he decided to enter politics.

Political career

In 1868 Clayton was elected as the first Republican governor of Arkansas. His tenure was marked by soaring state debt (despite a state surplus when he took office), corruption, and violence. He was forced to declare martial law at the beginning of his term because of racial tensions, which were eventually cleared by General Daniel Phillips Upham. Many members of his administration, and colleagues in his party were charged with corruption {{!<--by whom?-->}} while he was governor. Clayton was impeached by the legislature but was never formally convicted of a crime. He was reportedly involved with the tampering of a US senate election between Thomas Boles and John Edwards; at the time the office was filled by election by the state legislature. Clayton was not convicted of any charges. His administration is mainly blamed for the Brooks–Baxter War.

He worked with the legislature to improve the infrastructure in Arkansas: building railroads and new levees, as well as replacing levees destroyed during the war. While these improvements temporarily increased the debt, they were needed investment for a state that had been underdeveloped before the war. The legislature established free public schools for the first time and funded the construction of some buildings. Because so little public investment had been made before, financing such projects was controversial.

On September 9, 1868 Clayton lost his left hand while hunting outside Little Rock when his rifle discharged.

Clayton was persuaded to resign and accept election to the United States Senate after trying to ensure that the state would be stable under the appointment of an acting governor. While in the Senate, he worked with President Grant and his brother, William H.H. Clayton, the US Attorney in Arkansas, to have Judge Isaac Parker reassigned from Utah to Fort Smith, Arkansas, a frontier area with a high rate of violence and crime. The legendary “Hanging Judge,” along with U.S. Attorney Clayton, are credited with bringing law and order to the region. William was later instrumental in bringing statehood to Oklahoma.

Clayton was appointed as ambassador to Mexico in 1897 by President McKinley and served in that position until 1905.

Later life

Powell Clayton at age 79 at the 1912 Republican Presidential Convention in Chicago

In 1912, Clayton moved to Washington, D.C.. Near the end of his life, Clayton reflected on the dilemma of Republicans trying to reestablish themselselves as a political force in Arkansas and other southern states:

In addition to the Democrats complete control and manipulation of the election machinery, as each biennial election drew near in Arkansas, some new version of the evils of Reconstruction was brought forth to distract the attention of the voters from the misdeeds of the Democratic Party ring and to make it possible for them to avoid giving an account of their stewardship. The wildest and most fallacious stories have been told by them.

Family life

Clayton's brother John was assassinated in 1889 in Plumerville, Arkansas. He had disputed the election results of a Congressional race with Clifton Breckinridge, a Democrat.

Death

Clayton died in Washington, D.C., and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Legacy

In 1882, Clayton established a home at the developing resort town of Eureka Springs in Carroll County in northwestern Arkansas. He and Adaline lived in what is now the Crescent Cottage Inn.

As president of the Eureka Springs Improvement Company (ESIC), Clayton worked to develop commercial and residential structures, many which still exist. ESIC was most successful in having the Eureka Springs Railroad built. This was the key to making the resort accessible to tourists. The ESIC also built the Crescent Hotel, now one of Eureka Springs' most notable landmarks. A poem on the fireplace in the lobby of the Crescent Hotel is attributed to Clayton Tourism rose dramatically in Eureka Springs after the railroad was completed; it became the center for a variety of entertainments.

In 1883, Clayton became the chief promoter of the Eureka Springs Railway, which provided service to the resort community until 1889, when it was merged into what became from 1906 to 1946 the Missouri and North Arkansas Railroad. This defunct line provided passenger and freight service from Joplin, Missouri, to Helena in Phillips County in eastern Arkansas.

Clayton's The Aftermath of the Civil War in Arkansas was published posthumously in 1915.

See also

• Battle of Pine Bluff
• Brooks–Baxter War
• Helena order of battle
• Reconstruction Era

Further reading

• Eicher, John H., and Eicher, David J., Civil War High Commands, Stanford University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8047-3641-3.

External links

• Powell Clayton at Find a Grave
• Powell Clayton at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Powell Clayton at the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture
• Powell Clayton at the National Governors Association

Political offices
Preceded by Isaac Murphy	Governor of Arkansas 1868-1871	Succeeded by Ozra Hadley Acting
United States Senate
Preceded by Alexander McDonald	U.S. Senator (Class 2) from Arkansas 1871-1877 Served alongside: Benjamin Rice, Stephen Dorsey	Succeeded by Augustus Garland
Diplomatic posts
Preceded by Position established	United States Ambassador to Mexico 1899-1905	Succeeded by Edwin Conger