Erik Visits an American Grave, Part 1,839

This is the grave of William C.C. Claiborne.

Born in Virginia somewhere between 1773 and 1775, though in fact we don’t know, Claiborne grew up wealthy. He went to the College of William & Mary and then moved to New York in 1789, at that moment still the capital of the United States. He worked as an assistant for John Beckley, clerk of the House of Representatives. Then when the capital moved to Philadelphia, he went too. He studied the law and decided to move to Tennessee, where young slavers could make a fortune. He started a law practice there and became close to the genocidal leaders of the new territory and then state. The odious John Sevier appointed Claiborne to the state Supreme Court in 1796.

Claiborne only stayed in that role for one year. Andrew Jackson was not running for reelection to Congress and Claiborne decided to run instead. One problem–he was not 25 years old. In fact, he was super cagey about how old he actually was and totally prevaricated when George Washington flat out asked him, telling the president, Born, Sir, at a period, when every American Breast palpitated for freedom, I became early attached to civil Liberty.” OK Bill. Well, no one was paying too close of attention to the Constitution back then so whether he was 23 or 24 or whatever, everyone just let it slide.

Claiborne stayed in Congress until 1801. When Thomas Jefferson became president, he named Claiborne, perhaps now at the ripe veteran old age of 26 or 27, to be governor and superintendent of Indian affairs in Mississippi Territory. That job required managing white-Native relations which was most certainly not always fun. Some reports claim Claiborne wasn’t so big on the genocide thing, but I remain highly skeptical of that until I see more information than I have time for to write a grave post. Those reports claim he was more interested in managing relations between the races, which may be possible. But the idea that he wanted to improve the actual lot of the Indians seems incredibly far-fetched to me.

Then in 1803, the French unexpectedly offered Jefferson the chance to buy the entirety of Louisiana, when all he wanted was New Orleans and environs. Although his constitutional scruples nearly got in the way of accepting this astounding offer, he did. He then named Claiborne governor of the new Orleans Territory. Now, it’s worth noting how terribly the Jefferson administration botched the governance of Louisiana. For all the talk about how Jefferson loved the French, in fact, he held the actual French settlers in Louisiana in tremendous contempt. He did not think them worthy of self-governance. Basically, Jefferson loved rich French people. But the poor? Please. Moreover, he didn’t even care to name people to important positions in the territory who even spoke French. They were almost all bumbling political allies who had no idea what they are doing and in fact did a remarkable job of alienating the city’s leaders.

The French and the smaller group of Spanish in New Orleans were furious with Claiborne for his existing. They rightfully saw this as a military occupation against their will. Claiborne of course spoke not a word of French. He was totally out of his element, inexperienced and still basically a kid. He wrote back to Jefferson than the French in Louisiana were by no means ready for statehood, calling them “uninformed, indolent, luxurious, and illy fitted to be useful citizens of a Republic.” He then got in a duel with Thomas Clark, an Irish immigrant to the city and merchant who thought he should be governor and who constantly nagged at Claiborne with unsolicited political advice. Claiborne took a bullet in the leg. He lived.

Over time, Claiborne made amends with the French, mostly over their shared interest in slavery. In fact, it was the really the violent reaction of the German Coast Rebellion, where French and Americans united in cutting the heads of slaves and lining the road with them on pikes that united the two peoples. Ah, the glories of white supremacy. Claiborne didn’t really have a lot to do with its suppression per se, as the local planters and militias took care of that before he could do much, but still, the larger point remains. He also improved his standing by marrying a French speaking woman, who then died of yellow fever, and then the daughter of a leading Spanish official.

Claiborne also did nothing to stop the slave trade except some half-hearted measures to crack down on slave ships coming in from the Caribbean. In fact, he was amazed at how much money Louisiana planters made from slavery. He actually was personally horrified by the international slave trade, but figured there was no way to get Louisiana planters to acquiesce to American rule without it. As he wrote on the issue to James Madison, “No act of Congress would excite more discontent than an immediate Prohibition” and “The African trade has hitherto been lucrative and the farmers are desirous of increasing the number of their slaves.” Then when South Carolina reopened its international slave trade in 1804 to get ahead of the upcoming ban in the Constitution, Louisiana planters were furious and wanted theirs too.

Claiborne become governor of Louisiana upon its statehood in 1812. He was thus involved in battles there against the British, which included paying off the slaver trader and pirate Jean Lafitte to raid British ships. Of course he was governor still at the Battle of New Orleans, though didn’t really have anything to do with it. He was sent to the Senate in 1817, but died only a few months later and I am not sure he ever got to Washington. He was perhaps 42 years old. It was something with his liver, which I assume was at least in part massive boozing.

Claiborne’s enormous lineage includes Liz Claiborne and former Rhode Island senator Claiborne Pell.

William Claiborne is buried in Metairie Cemetery, New Orleans, Louisiana. He was originally in the Catholic cemetery there, St. Louis Cemetery, but was interred at some point, explaining why his name is down on the step and not as prominent as his descendants.

If you would like this series to visit other senators elected in the 1816-17 cycle, you can donate to cover the required expenses here. James Burrill of Rhode Island is in Washington, D.C., and Montfort Stokes of North Carolina is buried in Fort Gibson, Oklahoma. Previous posts in this series are archived here and here.