John Alexander Cocke
John Alexander Cocke (* 1772 in Brunswick, Brunswick County, Virginia; † February 16, 1854 in Rutledge, Tennessee ) was an American politician. Between 1819 and 1827 he represented the state of Tennessee in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Career
John Cocke was a son of U.S. Senator William Cocke (1747-1828) and an uncle of Congressman William Michael Cocke ( 1815-1896 ). Even in his childhood he moved with his parents to Tennessee, where he attended the public schools. After a subsequent study of law and its made in 1793 admitted to the bar he began in Hawkins County to work in his new profession. At the same time he proposed as a member of the Democratic-Republican Party launched a political career. Between 1796 and 1812 he was several times as a delegate in the House of Representatives from Tennessee, which he became president in 1812. Between 1799 and 1801 Cocke was a member of the State Senate. During the British - American War of 1812, he was first Major General of Volunteers unit from Tennessee and then colonel under General Andrew Jackson at the time of the Battle of New Orleans.
In the congressional elections of 1818 he was in the sixth electoral district of Tennessee in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington DC chosen, where he became the successor of William Grainger Blount on March 4, 1819. After three re- elections, he was able to complete in Congress until March 3, 1827 four legislative sessions. Since 1825, he acted as the successor of Adam Rankin Alexander the Second District of Tennessee. In the 1820s the movement Cocke to Andrew Jackson joined and later became a member of the Democratic Party, founded in 1828 by this. From 1823 to 1827 he was chairman of the Indian Committee. During this time, there was heated debate in Congress between supporters and opponents of Jackson.
After his retirement from the U.S. House of Representatives Cocke was also active in agriculture. In Knoxville, he founded a school for deaf-mutes. In 1837 he was again a member and President of the House of Representatives from Tennessee; In 1843 he was elected a second time in the state Senate. John Cocke died on February 16, 1854 in Rutledge.