biography
| name: |
Clark, Champ
|
| |
popular name of James Beauchamp Clark
|
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1850–1921)
|
| biography:
| US representative, born in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky, USA. He studied at Bethany College in West Virginia and Cincinnati Law School, then moved to Missouri (1876). He worked as a newspaper editor and city attorney in Louisiana and Bowling Green, OH before serving as prosecutor for Pike County (1885–9) and member of the Missouri legislature (1889–91). Elected to Congress (Democrat, Missouri, 1893–1921) he served on the powerful Foreign Affairs and Ways and Means Committees, supporting the Spanish-American War, yet opposing annexation of Hawaii. A forcible orator and minority leader, he led the fight to wrest arbitrary control of legislative procedures from the Republican Speaker, Joseph Cannon. Elected Speaker of the House in 1911, he was a very popular candidate for the presidency in 1912 and led Woodrow Wilson through 14 ballots at the Democratic Convention. |
|
|
