Sherrard Clemens

Sherrard Clemens ( born April 28, 1820 Wheeling, Virginia; † June 30, 1881 in St. Louis, Missouri ) was an American politician. Between 1852 and 1861 he represented two times the state of Virginia in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Career

Born in what is now West Virginia Sherrard Clemens was a cousin of Samuel Clemens, known as Mark Twain. He first enrolled at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. After six months, he gave up this training. After a subsequent study of law at Washington College and his 1843 was admitted to the bar he began to work in Wheeling in this profession. At the same time he proposed as a member of the Democratic Party launched a political career.

Following the resignation of Mr George W. Thompson Clemens was at the due election for the 15th seat of Virginia as his successor in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington DC chosen, where he took up his new mandate on December 6, 1852. Until March 3, 1853, he finished there the current legislative period. In the congressional elections of 1856 Clement was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives again in the tenth constituency of his state, where he followed on March 4, 1857 Zedekiah Kidwell. After a re-election he was able to complete in Congress until March 3, 1861 two full terms of office. These were shaped by the events leading up to the Civil War.

In 1861 Clemens delegate to the meeting at which Virginia was the withdrawal from the Union decided. Clemens was an opponent of this step. In the following years he practiced as a lawyer in Wheeling again. Later he transferred his residence and his law firm to St. Louis, where he died on 30 June 1881. Sherrard Clemens was known by a duel with Jennings Wise, the son of Governor Henry A. Wise, in which Wise was unhurt, but Clemens was wounded.