Pulaski-Phillips-Franklin County ArArchives Biographies.....Clarke, James P. 1854 - 1916
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Author: S. J. Clarke (Publisher, 1922)

HON. JAMES P. CLARKE.

    Hon. James P. Clarke of Little Rock, who died October 1, 1916, was serving
at the time of his death, for the third term as a member of the United States
congress. He had previously been governor of Arkansas and he left the impress of
his individuality and marked ability upon the history of state and nation, being
connected with various important legislative measures while a member of congress.

    A native of Mississippi, James P. Clarke was born in Yazoo City, August 18,
1854, and was the eldest son of Walter and Ellen (White) Clarke, the latter the
daughter of a prominent family of New Jersey. The father was a civil engineer
and architect. After attending the public schools of Yazoo City, James P. Clarke
became a student in Professor Tutwilder's Academy at Greenbrier, Alabama, and
completed his preparation for the bar as a law student in the University of
Virginia in 1878. Before becoming a university student he had edited a small
newspaper in Yazoo City and this constituted his initial step in the business
world.

    It was in 1879 that Senator Clarke became a resident of Arkansas, taking up
his abode in Ozark, later moving to Helena, Phillips county, where he opened a
law office and had soon gained a large and distinctively representative
clientage. He possessed a keen, analytical and logical mind and his reasoning
was always sound, while he was seldom, if ever, at fault in the application of a
legal principle.

    Senator Clarke was well known through his political activity. In 1886 he was
elected to represent Phillips county in the twenty-sixth general assembly of
Arkansas and after two years' service in the lower house he was elected to the
senate from the fourteenth district, continuing a member of that body until 1892
and serving as president of the senate in 1891. In the succeeding year he
received the nomination of the democratic party for the office of attorney
general and was elected by a large majority, continuing to serve in that
position in 1893 and 1894, vigorously prosecuting the duties of the office. He
declined a second term, to which he would without doubt have been elected, had
he so desired. In September, 1894, he was made a candidate for governor on the
democratic ticket and entered upon one of the most bitterly contested campaigns
in the political history of the state. He was elected, however, and inaugurated
in January, 1895. He declined reelection as governor and it was while serving as
chief executive of the state that he established a precedent in the matter of
preventing prize fighting. Some prize fight promoters undertook to arrange a
bout between James J. Corbett and Robert Fitzsimmons at Hot Springs, whereupon
Governor Clarke announced that no prize fights should take place in Arkansas
while he was governor and that he would call out the militia it necessary to
prevent the match. His unyielding determination to protect the good name of the
state caused the abandonment of the project by its promoters. In 1896 Senator
Clarke became a candidate of the United States senate against Senator James K.
Jones of Garland county, but withdrew from that contest and devoted the next six
years to the active practice of law. In 1902 he again became a senatorial
candidate against Senator Jones, whom he defeated, taking his seat in
Washington, March 9, 1903. So valuable was the service which he rendered to the
state that he was reelected in 1909 without opposition, for another six years'
term. In 1914 he was again chosen for the office and was filling the position
for the third term at the time of his demise. He was regarded as one of the
influential members of the senate and in 1913 after a bitter contest he was
elected president pro tempore of that body, being the first Arkansas man to
receive this honor. In 1915 he was again chosen for the same position. During
his last term he served as a member of three of the most important committees in
the senate, being chairman of the commerce committee and a member of the foreign
relations and military affairs committee. He was closely associated with the
passage of some of the most important legislation enacted during his connection
with the United States senate. He introduced and was responsible for the passage
of the Philippine bill, also of the cotton futures bill and he had opposed the
ship purchase bill introduced by the administration in the sixty-third congress.
He was also one of the two democratic senators who voted against the Adamson
bill passed in September, 1916, to stop the threatened national railroad strike.
It was largely through his efforts, at a most strenuous contest in both house
and senate, that the rivers and harbors committee recommended a substantial
appropriation for Arkansas rivers. Senator Clarke was a student of men and
events. He watched the trend of the times and with notable prescience foresaw
what might be accomplished in the future. He looked beyond the exigencies of the
moment to the opportunities of oncoming times and labored to meet the needs
which would arrive with the passing years. None ever doubted the integrity of
his position. Those who opposed him politically had the keenest respect for the
sterling worth of his character and his fidelity to a cause in which he believed.

    On the 15th of November, 1883, Senator Clarke was married to Mrs. Sallie
(Moore) Wooten of Moon Lake, Mississippi, a daughter of Francis Marion and
Nannie B. Moore, members of a prominent family in eastern Arkansas. They became
the parents of two daughters and a son: Julia, now the wife of Joseph W. House,
Jr., and they have a daughter, Ellen Clarke House; Marion, now the wife of
Robert Monroe Williams, and they have one child, Francis Marion Williams; and
James P., Jr., who was a captain in the late war and died while serving his
country at Camp Bowie, Fort Worth, Texas, October 28, 1917. Senator Clarke was a
prominent member of Albert Pike Consistory, in which he attained the
thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite in Masonry and he also belonged to
Al-Amin Temple of the Mystic Shrine and was a past exalted ruler of Little Rock
No. 29, B. P. O. E. He died on the 1st of October, 1916, leaving behind him a
memory that is enshrined in the hearts of those who knew him because of the
sterling traits of his character, his upright manhood, his fidelity to principle
and the broad vision which he always displayed in connection with public
affairs. The state honored Senator Clarke by placing his statue in Statuary Hall
of the capitol at Washington, D. C. The statue stands between those of Jackson
and Lee.


Additional Comments:

Citation:
Centennial History of Arkansas
Volume II
Chicago-Little Rock: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company
1922


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