Representative Churchill Caldom Cambreleng

Churchill Caldom Cambreleng (October 24, 1786 – April 30, 1862) was an American businessman, diplomat, and long-serving Democratic politician from New York. He is notable for his service in the United States House of Representatives from 1821 to 1839, during which he served nine consecutive terms and chaired several high-profile committees, and for his later appointment as United States Minister to Russia from 1840 to 1841. His congressional career unfolded during a formative period in American political and economic development, and he played a visible role in debates over commerce, foreign affairs, and federal finance.

Cambreleng was born on October 24, 1786, in Washington, Beaufort County, North Carolina, the son of Stephen Cambreleng and Ann (Patten) Cambreleng. He received his early education in New Bern, North Carolina, where he attended local schools. In 1802, as a teenager seeking broader commercial opportunities, he moved to New York City, then an emerging center of American trade and finance, a relocation that would shape both his business and political careers.

Intending to pursue a career in commerce, Cambreleng began as a clerk in a mercantile counting room in New York City, gaining practical experience in trade and accounting. In 1806 he moved to Providence, Rhode Island, where he became chief clerk for a merchant engaged in trade with the Pacific Northwest. After the death of his employer, he sought to establish himself in New Orleans, but his plans were disrupted by the unsettled conditions and ongoing conflict associated with the War of 1812, which made it impossible for him to remain there. Returning to New York City, he entered the employ of prominent merchant and financier John Jacob Astor. Acting both for Astor and on his own account, Cambreleng traveled extensively in Europe and Asia, managing commercial ventures that ultimately made him a wealthy man and established his reputation in mercantile circles.

Cambreleng’s success in business and his connections in New York’s commercial community facilitated his entry into politics. He was elected as a Democratic-Republican to the Seventeenth Congress and was re-elected as a Crawford Democratic-Republican to the Eighteenth Congress. As national party alignments shifted, he aligned with Andrew Jackson and was elected as a Jacksonian to the Nineteenth, Twentieth, Twenty-first, Twenty-second, Twenty-third, and Twenty-fourth Congresses, and then as a Democrat to the Twenty-fifth Congress. He represented New York in the United States House of Representatives from December 3, 1821, to March 3, 1839, serving nine consecutive terms. As a member of the Democratic Party and its antecedent factions, he participated actively in the legislative process during a significant period in American history, representing the interests of his New York constituents while engaging in national debates over banking, tariffs, and trade.

During his long tenure in the House, Cambreleng held several influential committee chairmanships. He served as chairman of the Committee on Commerce during the Twentieth, Twenty-first, and Twenty-second Congresses, where his mercantile background informed his work on legislation affecting shipping and trade. In the Twenty-third Congress he chaired the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in the Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth Congresses he was chairman of the powerful Committee on Ways and Means, which oversaw federal revenue and expenditures. He was an important Jacksonian voice in the controversies surrounding the Second Bank of the United States. During the Twenty-second Congress he sharply criticized Treasury Secretary Louis McLane’s report on the Bank, describing it as “a new version of Alexander Hamilton’s reports on a National Bank and manufacturers, and totally unsuited to this age of democracy and reform,” a remark that underscored his commitment to Jacksonian principles and suspicion of concentrated financial power.

In addition to his congressional duties, Cambreleng was involved in early railroad development in New York. When the Saratoga and Schenectady Railroad was incorporated in 1831, he became its first president, reflecting his interest in internal improvements and the expansion of transportation infrastructure to support commerce. His prominence in national politics led President Martin Van Buren to appoint him United States Minister to Russia in 1840. Cambreleng served in St. Petersburg from 1840 until 1841, representing American commercial and diplomatic interests at the Russian court during a period of evolving transatlantic trade relations.

After his diplomatic service, Cambreleng remained active in state and national politics. He was a delegate from Suffolk County to the New York State Constitutional Convention of 1846, participating in the revision of the state’s fundamental law during a period of democratic reform. In 1848 he attended the Democratic National Convention in Baltimore as part of the Barnburner faction of the New York Democratic Party. When the Barnburners withdrew from the convention over the issue of slavery’s expansion, Cambreleng joined them in supporting the nomination of former President Martin Van Buren as the candidate of the Free Soil Party. In subsequent years he returned to the Democratic fold and supported Franklin Pierce for president in 1852, reflecting the shifting party alignments of the antebellum era.

In his personal life, Cambreleng married relatively late. In 1835 he wed Phebe Glover, the daughter of New York City merchant John J. Glover. The marriage linked him to another prominent mercantile family in New York. The couple had no children and remained married until Cambreleng’s death. In his later years he resided at West Neck in Suffolk County, New York, while maintaining his connections to the political and commercial life of the state.

Churchill Caldom Cambreleng died in West Neck, Suffolk County, New York, on April 30, 1862. He was buried in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York, in Section 73, Lot 4150. His career as a merchant, legislator, committee chairman, and diplomat placed him at the center of many of the economic and political transformations of the early nineteenth-century United States, and his long service in Congress reflected both the rise of Jacksonian democracy and the growing influence of New York in national affairs.