Alexander M. Clayton

{{Use American English|date=March 2018}} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2018}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Alexander Mosby Clayton | office = Deputy from [[Mississippi]]<br />to the [[Provisional Congress of the Confederate States|Provisional Congress<br />of the Confederate States]] | term_start = February 4, 1861 | term_end = May 11, 1861 | predecessor = New constituency | successor = [[Alexander Blackburn Bradford|Alexander Bradford]] | birth_date = {{Birth date|1801|01|15}} | birth_place = {{Nowrap|[[Campbell County, Virginia]], U.S.}} | death_date = {{death date and age|1889|09|30|1801|01|15}} | death_place = {{Nowrap|[[Benton County, Mississippi]], U.S.}} | resting_place = Hill Crest Cemetery,<br/>{{Nowrap|[[Holly Springs, Mississippi]], U.S.}} }} '''Alexander Mosby Clayton''' (January 15, 1801 – September 30, 1889)<ref name="Obit">"Judge Alexander M. Clayton, Lamar, Miss.", ''The New Orleans Times-Democrat'' (October 2, 1889), p. 4.</ref> was an American politician and slaveowner who served as a justice of the [[Supreme Court of Mississippi]] from 1842 to 1852,<ref name="ME">{{cite web|url=https://mississippiencyclopedia.org/entries/alexander-clayton/ |title=Alexander Clayton (1801–1889) Judge|first1=Leslie H.|last1=Southwick|author-link1=Leslie H. Southwick|publisher=Mississippi Encyclopedia|access-date=April 12, 2022|url-status=live|website=Mississippi Encyclopedia / Center for Study of Southern Culture|language=en-US|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210709182033/https://mississippiencyclopedia.org/entries/alexander-clayton/ |archive-date=July 9, 2021 }}</ref><ref name="Southwick">[[Leslie H. Southwick|Leslie Southwick]], [https://dc.law.mc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1410&context=lawreview Mississippi Supreme Court Elections: A Historical Perspective 1916-1996], 18 Miss. C. L. Rev. 115 (1997-1998).</ref> and as a deputy from [[Mississippi]] to the [[Provisional Congress of the Confederate States]] from February to May 1861.

==Biography== Born in [[Campbell County, Virginia]], to William Willis Clayton and Clarissa Mosby Clayton. He attended the local schools. After this he [[Reading law|read law]] with a Lynchburg attorney in 1822 to gain [[admission to the bar]] in 1823.<ref name="ME"/> He migrated first to [[Arkansas Territory]], where he was appointed in 1832 to serve as a Judge of the [[Superior Court of the Arkansas Territory|Superior Court]], the highest court in the territory, and then to [[Mississippi]], where he served as a state court judge from 1842 to 1852. From 1844 to 1852, he served as the first president of the [[University of Mississippi]] Board of Trustees.<ref>{{Cite news|date=2001-10-07|title=Mississippi Hall of Fame Members|pages=62|work=Clarion-Ledger|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/80631568/clarion-ledger/|access-date=2021-07-01}}</ref><ref name="ME"/> In May 1853, President [[Franklin Pierce]] appointed Clayton to serve as Consul to [[Havana]], [[Cuba]].<ref name="Obit"/><ref>"Appointments", ''The Yazoo Democrat'' (June 1, 1853), p. 3.</ref> An editorial in the ''Natchez Daily Courier'' condemned the appointment, asserting that Clayton had authored a secessionist address on behalf of a committee appointed by the legislature to respond to the [[Compromise of 1850]], with the editorial describing Clayton as "a leader of the secession forces".<ref name="Obit"/><ref>"Another Resister Appointed", ''Natchez Daily Courier'' (May 26, 1853), p. 3.</ref> Clayton nevertheless received the appointment; he resigned the following year, and was succeeded by [[Roger Barton (consul)|Roger Barton]] in August 1854.<ref>"Appointments by the President", ''The Weekly Mississippian'' (August 16, 1854), p. 2.</ref>

Clayton became a wealthy [[Planter class|planter]], holding 140 people as slaves by 1860.<ref name="Smith">{{cite book |last=Smith|first=Timothy B. |author-link= |date=2014|title=The Mississippi Secession Convention |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Mississippi_Secession_Convention/AgYbBwAAQBAJ |location= |publisher=University Press of Mississippi |pages=|isbn=}}</ref> A fervent secessionist since 1850, Clayton was elected as a delegate to [[Mississippi Secession Convention|Mississippi's secession convention]] which took the state out of the Union in January, 1861.<ref name="Warner">{{cite book |last1=Warner |first1=Ezra J. |last2=Yearns |first2=W. Buck|date=1975 |title=Biographical Register of the Confederate Congress |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Biographical_Register_of_the_Confederate/riBfDwAAQBAJ |location= |publisher=Louisiana State University Press |pages=53 |isbn= |access-date=10 April 2026}}</ref> He was then selected to represent Mississippi in the [[Provisional Confederate States Congress]] from February to May, 1861. During his short time in Congress he served on the judiciary committee and was involved in the design of the Confederacy's judicial system.<ref name="Warner" /> He resigned in May, 1861, and was appointed as a District Court Judge. After the war he again served as a state court judge from 1866 to 1869.<ref name="ME"/> He continued to practice law after leaving office and was a director of the Northern Bank of Mississippi and the [[Mississippi Central Railroad]].<ref name="Warner" />

==Death== Clayton died on his farm near [[Lamar, Mississippi]], at the age of 88.<ref name="Obit"/> In his obituary, Clayton was described as "a leader at the bar of two States and at the time of his death [who] had practiced law longer than any other man in the country".<ref name="Obit"/> A modern historian described him as "perhaps the most accomplished legal mind of the [1861 state secession] convention".<ref name="Smith" />

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== *{{Find a Grave|10527687}} *[http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/clayton.html#800.67.96 Alexander Mosby Clayton] at ''[[The Political Graveyard]]''

{{s-start}} {{s-off}} {{succession box |title=[[List of justices of the Supreme Court of Mississippi|Justice of the Supreme Court of Mississippi]] |before=[[Reuben Davis (representative)|Reuben Davis]] |after=[[Ephraim S. Fisher]] |years=1842–1852}} {{succession box|title=Deputy from [[Mississippi]] to the<br />[[Provisional Congress of the Confederate States]]|years=1861|before=New constituency|after=[[Alexander Blackburn Bradford|Alexander Bradford]]}} {{s-end}} {{Navboxes |title=Articles related to Alexander Mosby Clayton |list1= {{CSProvisionalConstitutionSig}} {{Confederate States Constitution signatories}} }} {{Portalbar|American Civil War|Biography|Mississippi|Politics}} {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clayton, Alexander M.}} [[Category:1801 births]] [[Category:1889 deaths]] [[Category:19th-century Arkansas state court judges]] [[Category:Judges of the Confederate States of America]] [[Category:Members of the Confederate House of Representatives from Mississippi]] [[Category:Mississippi state court judges]] [[Category:People from Campbell County, Virginia]] [[Category:People of Mississippi in the American Civil War]] [[Category:Signatories of the Constitution of the Confederate States]] [[Category:Signatories of the Provisional Constitution of the Confederate States]] [[Category:Judges of the Superior Court of the Arkansas Territory]]