William C. C. Claiborne

William C. C. Claiborne
United States Senator from Louisiana
In office March 4, 1817 – November 23, 1817
Preceded by	James Brown
Succeeded by	Henry Johnson
1st Governor of Louisiana
In office April 30, 1812 – December 16, 1816
Preceded by	Himself (As Governor of the Territory of Orleans)
Succeeded by	Jacques Villeré
Governor of the Territory of Orleans
In office December 20, 1803 – April 30, 1812
President	Thomas Jefferson
Preceded by	Pierre Clément de Laussat (Under French control)
Succeeded by	Himself (As Governor of the state of Louisiana)
2nd Governor of Mississippi Territory
In office May 25, 1801 – March 1, 1805
President	Thomas Jefferson
Preceded by	Winthrop Sargent
Succeeded by	Robert Williams
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Tennessee's At-large district
In office November 23, 1797 – March 3, 1801
Preceded by	Andrew Jackson
Succeeded by	William Dickson
Personal details
Born	c. 1772-75 Sussex County, Virginia
Died	November 23, 1817 (aged approx. 45) New Orleans, Louisiana
Political party	Democratic-Republican
Spouse(s)	1) Eliza Wilson Lewis, 2) Marie Clarisse Duralde, 3) Cayetana Susana "Suzette" Bosque y Fangui
Alma mater	College of William & Mary
Religion	Protestant
Signature

William Charles Cole Claiborne (c.1772/75 – 23 November 1817) was a United States politician, best known as the first non-colonial Governor of Louisiana. He also has the distinction of possibly being the youngest Congressman in U.S. history, though reliable sources differ about his age.

Claiborne supervised the transfer of Louisiana to U.S. control after the Louisiana Purchase of 1803; and he governed the "Territory of Orleans" from 1804 through 1812, the year in which Louisiana became a state. He won the first election for Louisiana's state Governor and served through 1816, for a total of thirteen years as Louisiana's executive administrator. (New Orleans served as the capital city during both the colonial period and the early statehood period.)

Early life and career

William C. C. Claiborne was born in Sussex County, Virginia. The date is unknown, but has been variously quoted as being before 23 November 1772,^[1] or on 13 August 1773,^[2] or between 23 November 1773 and 23 November 1774,^[3] or in August 1775^[4] His parents were Colonel William Claiborne and Mary Leigh Claiborne.^[5] He was a descendant of Colonel William Claiborne (1600–1677), who was born in Crayford, Kent, England and settled in the Colony of Virginia.^[6][7]

He studied at the College of William and Mary, then Richmond Academy. At the age of 16 he moved to New York City, where he worked as a clerk under John Beckley, the clerk of the United States House of Representatives, which was then seated in that city. He moved to Philadelphia with the Federal Government. He then began to study law, and moved to Tennessee in 1794 to start a law practice. Governor John Sevier appointed Claiborne to the Tennessee Supreme Court in 1796.

Congressman from Tennessee

In 1797, Claiborne resigned to run for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. He won, and succeeded Andrew Jackson. However, the new congressman may not have been 25 years of age, as required by the United States Constitution: "No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty five Years". Earlier in 1797, he described his age to George Washington vaguely: "Born Sir at a period, when every American Breast palpitated for freedom, I became early attached to civil Liberty...."^[8]

He took his seat in the House on November 23, 1797.^[9] State records apparently indicate that, when he took his seat, he was 24.^[2] Other sources speculate he was 22.^[10] His gravestone says he was 23.^[3]

He served in the House through 1801. The United States presidential election of 1800 was decided in the House of Representatives, due to a tie in the Electoral College, by which time Claiborne had apparently already turned 25 years old.

Service in Mississippi

Claiborne was appointed governor and superintendent of Indian affairs in the Mississippi Territory from 1801 through 1803. Although he favored acquiring some land from the Choctaw and Chickasaw, Claiborne was generally sympathetic and conciliatory toward Indians. He worked long and patiently to iron out differences that arose, and to improve the material well-being of the Indians.

He was also partly successful in promoting the establishment of law and order, as when his offering of a two-thousand-dollar reward helped destroy a gang of outlaws headed by Samuel Mason (1750–1803). His position on issues indicated a national rather than regional outlook, though he did not ignore his constituents. Claiborne expressed the philosophy of the Republican Party and helped that party defeat the Federalists.

When a smallpox epidemic broke out in the spring of 1802, Claiborne's actions resulted in the first recorded mass vaccination in the territory and saved Natchez from the disease.^[11][12]

Louisiana territorial period

Claiborne moved to New Orleans and oversaw the transfer of Louisiana to U.S. control after the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Local French and Spanish inhabitants saw it for what it was, i.e., a military occupation^[13] which they resented, quoting in their remonstrances and meetings that they were no more than conquered subjects who had not been consulted.^[14] He governed what would become the state of Louisiana, then termed the "Territory of Orleans", during its period as a United States territory from 1804 until 1812.

Relations with Louisiana's Créole population were initially rather strained: Claiborne was young, inexperienced, and unsure of himself, and at the time of his arrival spoke no French. The white elite were initially alarmed when Claiborne retained the services of the militia of free people of color, which had served with considerable distinction during the preceding forty-year Spanish rule. Claiborne bestowed a ceremonial flag and 'colors' on the battalion, an act which would enmesh him in a duel held in the Spanish territory, near the current Houmas House plantation, three years later with his arch-enemy Daniel Clark. On June 8, 1807, the Governor was shot through one thigh, with the bullet lodging in the other leg.^[15] Claiborne gradually gained the confidence of the French elite, saw the territory take in Francophone refugees from the Haitian Revolution, and was Governor during a slave revolt in the vicinity of today's La Place.

In 1805, Claiborne appointed Alexander Fulton, the founder of Alexandria, as the coroner of Rapides Parish.^[16]

An event which is now said to have been the largest slave revolt in U.S. history, the 1811 German Coast Uprising, occurred while Claiborne was the territorial Governor. However, the American government, over which he presided, had little participation in its suppression. The parish courts, dominated by wealthy planters, imposed quick convictions and sentencing of those black slaves who survived the fighting. U.S. military forces arrived too late, to either capture the slave rebels or prevent what amounted to their slaughter at the hands of the local militia, i.e., the powerful white planters along the Mississippi River.

Claiborne himself had written at least twice to the parish courts to request that they refer cases to him for executive pardon, or clemency, rather than accept the wholesale death sentences which were being handed out in Orleans Parish, as well as in St. Charles Parish and St. John the Baptist Parish. The only known beneficiaries of his pardon were two men named Theodore and Henry; however, no records exist of Claiborne refusing any other pardon requests related to the rebellion.^[15]

After the Republic of West Florida won a short-lived period of independence (from Spain) in 1810, Claiborne annexed the area to the Orleans Territory on the orders of President Madison, who determined to consider it as part of the Louisiana Purchase.

After Louisiana statehood

Claiborne was the first elected governor after Louisiana became a U.S. state, winning the election of 1812 against Jacques Villeré, and serving from 1812 through 1816. On the eve of the War of 1812 he sent interpreter Simon Favre to the Choctaws to attempt to keep them out of the war.

After his term as governor, he was elected to the United States Senate, serving from March 4, 1817 until his death on November 23, 1817,^[17] which was 20 years to the day after his first day in Congress.

Death

The Louisiana Courier attributed Claiborne's demise to a "liver ailment."^[18] Claiborne was buried at the St. Louis Cemetery Number 1, in New Orleans. This was a controversial honor, as this was the most prestigious of the city's cemeteries and is a Roman Catholic cemetery, while Claiborne was Protestant. He was re-interred at the Metairie Cemetery in New Orleans.^[19]

Legacy

Claiborne Parish, Louisiana, was named in his honor as were two U.S. counties: Claiborne County, Mississippi; and Claiborne County, Tennessee. The longest street in New Orleans was named in his honor: Claiborne Avenue.

The Supreme Court case Claiborne v. Police Jury established the three distinct governing structures of the U.S. in Louisiana. The decision was only made after Claiborne's death.^[20]

The World War II Camp Claiborne was named for him in 1939. This installation is still used today for training the Louisiana Army National Guard, particularly by the 256th Infantry Brigade for road marches and land navigation.

The Claiborne Building is located in downtown Baton Rouge and serves as an administrative center for the Louisiana state government.

In 1993, Claiborne was posthumously inducted into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame in Winnfield. He was among the first thirteen inductees into the Hall of Fame.^[21]

Family life and descendants

Claiborne's first two wives, Eliza Wilson Lewis and Marie Clarisse Duralde, died of yellow fever in New Orleans, within five years of each other. The child of the first marriage, a little girl named Cornelia Tennessee Claiborne, died the same day as her mother. The second marriage produced a son, William C. C. Claiborne, Jr. (1808-1878), who attended Transylvania University from 1822 to 1826. The younger William Claiborne worked as a cotton factor, served in the Louisiana House of Representatives, and was an officer in the Louisiana Militia and Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.

In 1812, Governor Claiborne married a third time, to Suzette Bosque, daughter of Don Bartólome Bosque, a Spanish colonial official. Their child was Sophronie (or Sophronia) Louise Claiborne, who married Antoine James de Marigny, son of Bernard de Marigny.

William Claiborne was a direct ancestor of fashion designer Liz Claiborne.^[22]

A close relative of William Claiborne was a direct ancestor of the late Lindy Boggs, Louisiana’s Representative from the 2nd District. Boggs served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1973 to 1991. In 1997 she was appointed Ambassador to the Vatican. She was the mother of American journalist and author Cokie Roberts.^[23]

Senator Claiborne Pell was Claiborne's great-great-great-grandnephew.^[24]

References

1. Self-identified as being at least 25 by taking oath of office on November 23, 1797.
2. “Notes From Albemarle Parish Register, Sussex County, Va.”, William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine, Vol. 14, No. 1. (Jul., 1905), p. 5.
3. His gravestone says he was 23 when he became a congressman (which definitely occurred on November 23, 1797). See Louisiana Governors, La-Cemeteries.
4. Webb, Samuel and Ambrester, Margaret. Alabama Governors: A Political History of the State (University of Alabama Press 2007).
5. Rowland, Dunbar. “Encyclopedia of Mississippi history: Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions and Persons”, Volume 1, page 427.
6. "Col. William C. Claiborne". Geni. Retrieved September 20, 2015.
7. "William Charles Cole Claiborne". Retrieved September 21, 2015.
8. Letter from William Claiborne to George Washington, April 22, 1797.
9. House Document No. 108-222, Biographical Directory of the United States Congress 1774 - 2005, FIFTH CONGRESS, U.S. Government Printing Office.
10. Hinds' precedents of the House of representatives of the United States, page 390.
11. Hatfield (1965)
12. Laura D. S. Harrell, "Preventive Medicine in the Mississippi Territory, 1799-1802," Bulletin of the History of Medicine 1966 40(4): 364-375
13. Carter, Clarence (1940). The Territorial Papers of the United States: The Territory of Orleans, Vol. IX,. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office. pp. 89–90, "An Act Enabling the President to Take Possession of Louisiana," October 31, 1803.
14. Eaton, Fernin. "To The French Inhabitants of Louisiana: Thomas Paine's Timequake". Retrieved June 14, 2013.
15. Eaton, Fernin, Governor on Trial: Claiborne in His Own Words, a Salon Publique at Pitot House, Bayou St. John, New Orleans, November 7, 2011 http://www.academia.edu/1910804/Gov._Claiborne_in_his_own_words--a_salon_publique_at_Pitot_House_Bayou_St._John
16. "Fulton, Alexander". lahistory.org (Louisiana Historical Association). Retrieved October 9, 2010.
17. "Louisiana Governor William Charles Cole Claiborne". National Governors Association. Retrieved August 5, 2012.
18. Peter Kastor, The Nation's Crucible: The Louisiana Purchase and the Creation of America, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004) 223.
19. "Louisiana Governor William Charles Cole Claiborne". National Governors Association. Retrieved July 28, 2012.
20. Peter Kastor, THe Nation's Crucible (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004).
21. "Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame". cityofwinnfield.com. Retrieved August 22, 2009.
22. Bernstein, Adam (June 28, 2007). "Liz Claiborne, 78, fashion industry icon". Washington Post (Washington Post). Retrieved 2008-08-21.
23. "William C.C. Claiborne". KnowSouthern History.net. Retrieved July 28, 2012.
24. G. Wayne Miller, Providence Journal, 'A Remarkable Life' - Nuala and Claiborne Pell Reflect on Six Extraordinary Decades Together, April 10, 2005

Further reading

• Hatfield, Joseph T. "Governor William Claiborne, Indians, and Outlaws in Frontier Mississippi, 1801-1803," Journal of Mississippi History 1965 27(4): 323-350
• Hatfield, Joseph Tennis. "William C. C. Claiborne, Congress, and Republicanism, 1797-1804," Tennessee Historical Quarterly 1965 24(2): 156-180,

External links

• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• State of Louisiana - Biography
• Cemetery Memorial by La-Cemeteries
• Find A Grave