J. Glancy Jones was born in
Caernarvon Township, Pennsylvania. He attended
Kenyon College, studied theology and was ordained to the ministry of the
Episcopal Church in 1835 and withdrew in 1841. He later studied law, was admitted to the bar in
Georgia in 1841 and commenced practice at
Easton, Pennsylvania. He was district attorney for
Berks County, Pennsylvania, from 1847 to 1849.
Convention delegate He was a delegate to the Democratic State conventions in 1848, 1849, and 1855, and served as president in 1855. He was a delegate to the
Democratic National Convention in
1848 and
1856 and served as vice president in 1848.
Congress Jones was elected as a Democrat to the
Thirty-second Congress. He declined to be a candidate for renomination in
1852. He was elected to the
Thirty-third Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of
Henry A. Muhlenberg. He was reelected to the
Thirty-fourth and
Thirty-fifth Congresses. He served as chairman of the
United States House Committee on Ways and Means during the Thirty-fifth Congress. He was an unsuccessful candidate for election in
1858, and resigned October 30, 1858.
Later career and death On November 1, 1858 he was appointed
Minister Resident to the
Austrian Empire by President
James Buchanan, and served from December 15, 1858 to November 14, 1861. After his service he resumed the practice of law, and died in
Reading, Pennsylvania, in 1878. Interment in Reading's
Charles Evans Cemetery.
Legacy In terms of his legacy to American history, biographer Michael Todd Landis states: :Leading Northern Democrats such as Jones and Buchanan were not romantic defenders of working men, as some scholars have claimed; nor were they moderates striving to save the Union from extreme sectionalism. Rather, they were proslavery activists whose willful actions had direct and disastrous effects on the nation. Their policies enraged free-state voters and caused the fatal split in the Democratic Party that resulted in Lincoln’s election, which, in turn, triggered disunion. They were culpable and responsible—a fact that should not be forgotten or overlooked. == Notes and references ==