John Clark (1766–1832), public official, was born in Edgecombe County, North Carolina, and moved with his family to Wilkes County in the Georgia backcountry in 1774. At age fourteen he briefly attended school in Wake County, North Carolina, but left school to fight under his father in the Revolutionary War and continued in the Georgia militia after the war, eventually attaining the rank of major general. Clark entered politics and became a leader of the frontier faction in a long-standing Georgia divide between coastal and upland planters and backcountry farmers. He represented Wilkes County in the Georgia House of Representatives, 1801–03, and in the state senate the following year. In a duel in 1806 Clark wounded William H. Crawford, one of the leaders of the opposing faction. Andrew Jackson later sought out Clark as an ally against Crawford, their mutual enemy. After failed efforts in 1813 and 1817, Clark was elected governor of Georgia in 1819 by the state legislature and reelected two years later. In that office he championed free public education and democratic political reforms, efforts that were mostly unsuccessful. Clark lost a bid for the governorship in 1825, the first such contest determined by a popular vote, after which he retired from politics. Late in the 1820s he moved to Florida, where he was appointed to a position protecting public forests. In 1830 Clark owned twenty-three slaves. He died at his home on Saint Andrew Bay in Florida (ANB description begins John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes, eds., American National Biography, 1999, 24 vols. description ends ; DAB description begins Allen Johnson and Dumas Malone, eds., Dictionary of American Biography, 1928–36, repr. 1968, 20 vols. in 10 description ends ; Robert Sobel and John Raimo, eds., Biographical Directory of the Governors of the United States, 1789–1978 [1978], 1:287; Georgia State Senate, Journal [May 1804 sess.]; [Nov.–Dec. 1804 sess.]; Jackson, Papers description begins Sam B. Smith, Harold D. Moser, Daniel Feller, and others, eds., The Papers of Andrew Jackson, 1980– , 10 vols. description ends , 4:286–7, 323–5, 349–51; DNA: RG 29, CS, Fla., Washington Co., 1830; Tallahassee Floridian, 30 Oct. 1832; gravestone inscription in Marietta National Cemetery, Marietta, Georgia).

TJ’s enclosed circular letter was presented to the Board of Trustees of the University of Georgia (university of athens) on 12 Nov. 1821 by Moses Waddel, the school’s president. The following day the committee charged with considering it reported that they agreed entirely with TJ and recommended that the trustees petition Congress on the subject and seek support from Georgia’s congressional delegation (GU: Trustees’ Minutes, University of Georgia).