Charles A. Wickliffe

Charles Anderson Wickliffe was born June 8, 1788, in a log cabin near Springfield, Kentucky. He was the youngest of the nine children born to Charles and Lydia (Hardin) Wickliffe. His family emigrated to Kentucky from Virginia in 1784. Wickliffe attained his early education at the local schools of Springfield, then attended Wilson's Academy in Bardstown. In 1809, he was admitted to the bar and began practice in Bardstown. He owned slaves. He and five other prominent lawyers of Bardstown formed a debate club called The Pleiades Club. The club included six members: Wickliffe, John Hays, Ben Chapeze, Benjamin Hardin (another of Wickliffe's cousins), Felix Grundy, and William Pope Duval. , the home of Wickliffe In 1813, Wickliffe married Margaret Cripps, and the couple had three sons and five daughters. Later, Wickland was called "the home of three governors". Besides Wickliffe and his son, J. C. W. Beckham, Wickliffe's grandson and future governor of Kentucky, occupied the residence. ==Political career==

Wickliffe's political career began when he was elected to represent Nelson County in the Kentucky House of Representatives in 1812 and 1813. On September 2, 1813, he was chosen as aide-de-camp to General Samuel Caldwell and served in this capacity at the October 5, 1813, Battle of the Thames. First service in the House of Representatives In 1823, Wickliffe was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and served five consecutive terms. Though a Whig, he disagreed with many of the positions of the party's founder, Henry Clay. Of the sixty-nine votes needed to be elected to the seat, Wickliffe received forty-nine. He was elected lieutenant governor of Kentucky in 1836, defeating Democrat Elijah Hise by a margin of just over 1,300 votes. Wickliffe and Tyler were friends, having shared a room when they were both in Congress. While en route, he was stabbed in the chest by a man wielding a claspknife. In 1845, President James K. Polk sent Wickliffe as an envoy on a secret mission to the Republic of Texas. Originally, his purpose was to quash British and French attempts to forestall the U.S. annexation of Texas, but he later joined Commodore Robert F. Stockton in lobbying leaders of the Republic of Texas to order their military forces across the Rio Grande into Mexico. Stockton and Wickliffe believed that if they could provoke a Texan invasion of Mexico, the United States would have a stronger case for annexing Texas. In 1849, he was chosen as a delegate to the state constitutional convention, despite having opposed the calling of such a convention a decade earlier. On May 18, President Lincoln supplied rifles – nicknamed "Lincoln guns" – for the venture. After Braxton Bragg's forces destroyed the railroad trestles near Bardstown, Wickliffe personally hired Joseph Z. Aud to carry the area's mail by private carriage. The trestles were rebuilt in February 1863, precluding the need for Aud's service. Wickliffe served as a delegate to the 1864 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, casting his vote for George B. McClellan. ==See also==