March 30, 2010

James P. Clarke, a native of Mississippi, served as an Arkansas state legislator, attorney general, U.S. senator, and the state’s eighteenth governor. Clarke was a strong supporter of free and unlimited coinage of silver and, as governor, unsuccessfully pushed for the regulation of the state’s railroads. After serving one term as governor, Clarke mounted an unsuccessful race for the U.S. Senate in 1896. He was finally elected senator in 1902, being reelected twice before his death in 1916.