Representative Bayard Clarke

Bayard Clarke (March 17, 1815 – June 20, 1884) was a United States Representative from New York and a lawyer, soldier, and diplomat whose career spanned the antebellum, Civil War, and postwar eras. Born in New York City on March 17, 1815, he was a member of one of the city’s oldest and most prominent families. Contemporary records and news accounts sometimes rendered his surname as “Clark,” but “Clarke” is the form consistently used in official congressional and biographical references.

Clarke received a classical education and graduated from Geneva College (now Hobart and William Smith Colleges) in Geneva, New York, in 1835. After college he studied law and was admitted to the bar, preparing for a professional career that would later encompass both legal practice and public service. His early exposure to international affairs came soon after his legal training, when he entered the diplomatic service.

From 1836 to 1840 Clarke served as attaché to Lewis Cass, the United States Minister to France, in Paris. During his residence in France he also pursued military training as a student in the Royal Cavalry School, an experience that foreshadowed his later service in the United States Army and his involvement with cavalry units. Upon his return to the United States, he entered the Regular Army and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the 8th U.S. Infantry in March 1841. In September 1841 he transferred to the 2nd Dragoons, a mounted unit, and took part in the Seminole Wars in Florida. Clarke resigned his commission in December 1843, concluding his early military career.

After leaving the Army, Clarke resumed civilian life and established himself in the legal profession, practicing law in New York City and in Westchester County. In December 1843 he married Alletta Remsen Lawrence, a member of another prominent New York family, further cementing his ties to the state’s social and political elite. His legal practice and family connections provided a base for his entry into electoral politics as the sectional and party tensions of the 1850s intensified.

Clarke first sought a seat in Congress as a Whig, running unsuccessfully in 1852 for election to the Thirty-third Congress. As the Whig Party disintegrated in the mid-1850s, he aligned with the emerging Opposition and Independent currents in New York politics. In 1854 he was elected as an Opposition Party candidate, and as a member of the Independent Party representing New York he contributed to the legislative process during one term in office. He served in the Thirty-fourth Congress from March 4, 1855, to March 3, 1857, during a significant period in American history marked by escalating sectional conflict over slavery and the future of the Union. Clarke participated in the democratic process and represented the interests of his New York constituents at a time when the national party system was in flux. In 1856 he declined renomination as a Republican, reflecting the shifting political alignments of the era, and at the close of his term he returned to the practice of law.

With the outbreak of the American Civil War, Clarke again offered his services to the national government. Traveling to Washington, D.C., at the start of the conflict, he was commissioned a colonel and became one of the organizers of the 1st New York Cavalry Regiment, commonly known as the “Lincoln Cavalry.” The regiment was successively commanded by Carl Schurz, Clarke, and Andrew T. McReynolds. In mid-1861 contemporary news accounts reported that Clarke would be promoted to brigadier general and assigned to command a cavalry school in Westchester County, New York. This plan, however, does not appear to have been carried out, as there are no further official references to his promotion or to the establishment of such a school under his command.

In his later years Clarke gradually withdrew from active public life. He spent several years living in England, reflecting both his personal means and his longstanding international interests. Subsequently he divided his time seasonally, residing in Florida during the winter months and at his summer home, Isola Bella, on an island in Schroon Lake, New York, during the warmer seasons. Bayard Clarke died at Isola Bella on Schroon Lake on June 20, 1884. He was interred in a vault at the First Presbyterian Church Cemetery in Newtown, New York, closing a life that had encompassed service as a diplomat, army officer, lawyer, and member of the United States House of Representatives.