1. Early life

2. Career
    Federal government 

3. Personal life
    Descendants 

4. References

5. External links

Early life

John Canfield Spencer was born on January 8, 1788 in Hudson, New York. He was the oldest child of Ambrose Spencer, Chief Justice of the New York Supreme Court, and his first wife, Laura Canfield (1768–1807).^[2] His sister, Abby Spencer (1790–1839), was married to Albany Mayor John Townsend.^[3] His younger brother, William Augustus Spencer (1792–1854),^[4] was married to Eleanora Eliza Lorillard (1801–1843), the daughter of Peter Abraham Lorillard.^[5] His brother, Ambrose Spencer, Jr., was killed at the Battle of Lundy's Lane.^[6]

After the death of his mother in 1807, his father married Mary Clinton (1773–1808) in 1808. Mary was the daughter of James Clinton and sister of New York Governor DeWitt Clinton.^[2] After Mary's death later that same year, his father remarried again to Katherine Clinton (1778–1837), Mary's sister.^[8]

He graduated from Union College in 1806, became secretary to New York Governor Daniel D. Tompkins in 1807, studied law in Albany, New York, and was admitted to the bar in 1809.^[1]

Career

After commencing practice in Canandaigua, New York in 1809, Spencer became a master of chancery in 1811.^[7]

During the War of 1812, Spencer served in the United States Army where he was appointed brigade judge advocate general for the northern frontier.^[1] He was postmaster of Canandaigua, New York in 1814, became assistant attorney general and district attorney for the five western counties of New York in 1815 and was elected a Democratic-Republican to the United States House of Representatives in 1816, serving from March 4, 1817, to March 3, 1819.^[7] He was a member of the committee that reported unfavorably on the affairs of the Second Bank of the United States.^[1]

In 1819, he was the Clintonian candidate for U.S. Senator from New York,^[14] but due to a three-cornered contest with Bucktail Samuel Young and Federalist Rufus King, no-one was elected. He was a member of the New York State Assembly from 1820 to 1822, and was Speaker in 1820. He was a member of the New York State Senate from 1825 to 1828.^[1]

In 1826, Spencer served as a special prosecutor to investigate the disappearance of William Morgan who was arrested, kidnapped and murdered for exposing secrets kept by Freemasons, thus sparking the Anti-Masonic movement.^[14] Spencer sided with the anti-Masons and was the author of a manuscript on Masonic rituals. He was again a member of the New York Assembly from 1831 to 1833 and moved to Albany, New York in 1837.^[1] He edited the English edition of Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America and served as Secretary of State of New York from 1839 to 1841.^[8]

Federal government

In 1841, President John Tyler appointed Spencer to be Secretary of War in his administration.^[14] As War Secretary, he proposed a chain of posts extending from Council Bluffs, Iowa to the Columbia River.^[9] He also recommended that the government adhere to arrangements made by Army commanders in the field for compensation of the Creek Indians, who had been forced to move west of the Mississippi. In 1842, his nineteen-year-old son, Philip Spencer, a midshipman, was executed without court-martial along with two other sailors aboard the brig USS Somers for allegedly attempting mutiny.^[7]

In 1843, Spencer was appointed Secretary of the Treasury after the resignation of Walter Forward. As Treasury Secretary, he was preoccupied with the tariff and believed that the deficit and other federal expenditures should be funded by duties on imports rather than by internal taxation, something he was forced to announce for the fiscal year in 1843.^[10] The expenditures of the treasury had exceeded its receipts and he advocated additional import duties on articles such as coffee and tea. To help fund the federal deficit he engaged in controversial issues of Treasury Notes. He also continued to develop a plan, originally initiated by Forward, for a Board of Exchequer to keep and disburse public funds raised by duties. The Exchequer bill, which reflected continuing interest in some form of independent treasury system, failed due to a political conflict in the United States Congress.^[11]

President Tyler nominated Spencer to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court twice, first in January 1844 to fill Smith Thompson's seat and again in June of the same year to fill Henry Baldwin's seat, but the Senate failed to confirm him both times.^[12] As one of few northerners in an administration dominated by southern interests, Spencer found it increasingly difficult to serve in his cabinet post and resigned as Treasury Secretary in May 1844.^[11] Thereafter, he returned to Albany.^[7]

Personal life

In 1809, Spencer married Elizabeth Scott Smith (1789–1868). Together, they were the parents of several children, many of whom died in infancy or under unfortunate circumstances:^[13]

• Mary Natalie Spencer (1810–1886), who married Henry Morris (1806-1854), son of Capt. Richard Valentine Morris and grandson of Lewis Morris, in 1831.^[14]
• Laura Catherine Spencer (1812–1891), who married George W. Clinton (1807–1885), the 12th Mayor of Buffalo who was the son of DeWitt Clinton.^[15]
• Eliza Abby Spencer (1815–1816), who died young.
• Ambrose Canfield Spencer (1817–1876), who was murdered in Linn, Missouri in 1876.^[30]
• John Canfield Spencer, Jr. (d. 1845)
• Philip Spencer (1823–1842), who was executed for mutiny in 1842.^[16]
• DeWitt Clinton Spencer (1830–1836), who also died young.

In Canandaigua, he lived for 36 years in a house at 210 Main Street, that was built by General Peter Buell Porter (1773–1844), the United States Secretary of War under John Quincy Adams, in about 1800.^[17]

He died in Albany, New York on May 17, 1855. He was interred in Albany Rural Cemetery beside his wife, Elizabeth.^[1]

Descendants

His grandson, through his daughter Mary, was Henry Lewis Morris (b. 1845), who married Anna Rutherfurd Russell,^[18] the daughter of Archibald Russell and Helen Rutherfurd (née Watts) Russell.^[14] They were the parents of Lewis Spencer Morris (b. 1884).^[19][20]

His grandchildren, through his daughter Laura, included Elizabeth Spencer Clinton (1835-1918), Spencer Clinton (1839-1914), Catharine Clinton (1841-1881), and George Clinton (1846-1934).^[21]

References

Notes

Sources

• John Canfield Spencer at the United States Army
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20071005025015/http://www.ustreas.gov/education/history/secretaries/jcspencer.shtml John Canfield Spencer] at the United States Department of the Treasury
• {{cite web|title=July 17 - Interview with John Canfield Spencer|url=http://www.tocqueville.org/ny4.htm|website=In Search of Tocqueville|publisher=C-SPAN|accessdate=7 March 2016|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20121104013149/http://www.tocqueville.org/ny4.htm|archivedate=4 November 2012}}

External links

• {{Commonscat-inline|John Canfield Spencer}}
• {{CongBio|S000727}}
• {{Gutenberg author | id=Spencer,+John+C.+(John+Canfield)}}
• {{Internet Archive author |sname=John Canfield Spencer |sopt=t}}
• [https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/502e7000-dd74-0133-c3d0-00505686a51c John Canfield Spencer letter], c. 1848-1854, at the New York Public Library
• {{Find a Grave|6911960}}

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