Robert McClelland (1807 - 1880)

Born 1 Aug 1807 in Greencastle, Pennsylvania

Ancestors

Husband of Sarah Elizabeth (Sabin) McClelland — married 20 Jun 1837 in Michigan, United States

Descendants

Died 30 Aug 1880 at age 73 in Detroit, Michigan

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Tara Flack [send private message]

Preceded by 3rd Secretary Alexander Hugh Holmes Stuart Preceded by 8th Governor John S. Barry

Robert McClelland 4th United States Secretary of the Interior 1853—1857 9th Governor of Michigan 1852—1853

Succeeded by 5th Secretary Jacob Thompson Succeeded by 10th Governor Andrew Parsons

Biography

Robert McClelland is Notable.

Robert McClelland was a Michigan governor.

Robert McClelland was born in Pennsylvania.

Robert McClelland has Irish ancestors.

Robert McClelland has Scottish Ancestors.

Robert was a lawyer

Robert McClellan, Secretary of the Interior & Gov. of Michigan Robert McClelland from the Dictionary of American Biography, Volume XI, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1933. Robert McClelland (Aug. 1, 1807-Aug. 30, 1880), congressman, governor of Michigan, secretary of the interior, was born at Greencastle, Pa., the son of Dr. John McClelland and Eleanor McCulloh . He graduated from Dickinson College in 1829 and was admitted to the bar at Chambersburg in 1831. After practicing for a year in Pittsburgh he migrated to Monroe, Mich., in 1833, where four years later he married Sarah E. Sabine of Williamstown, Mass. Michigan was about to become a state and McClelland was active in organizing the new government and the Democratic party. He served in the constitutional convention of 1835 and in the legislature, 1838-43; in the last-named year he want to Congress, to which he was twice reelected. At Washington he was interested in commerce and foreign affairs, and enjoyed the friendship of Wilmot and of Lewis Cass. He was in close association with the former and supported the "Proviso" to his later embarrassment. He became Cass's chief Michigan lieutenant and aided him considerably in his presidential campaign in 1848. McClelland retired from Congress in 1849 and after participating in the constitutional convention of 1850 was twice elected governor (1850, 1852). During this period he labored to heal the party schism of 1848 by abandoning his support of the Wilmot Proviso and successfully urging the Michigan Democracy to endorse the compromise measures of 1850. His success in Michigan, his activities at the national Democratic convention of 1852, and especially his close association with Cass, attracted attention outside of Michigan, and when President-Elect Pierce sought a representative man from the Cass faction for his cabinet he invited McClelland to become secretary of the interior. McClelland found his four-year-old department badly organized and set himself to produce order. His four bureaus, land, Indian, pension, and patent, were scattered over Washington and their work was behindhand. He instituted new regulations requiring more effort from his clerks, classified them under a recently enacted law, and in due time was able to report a coherent and efficient service. He struggled to reduce the corruption and waste that clung persistently to the land, Indian and pension bureaus and his strictness improved conditions in these respects without adding, however, to the popularity of the Pierce administration. He urged that pensions be given only to the indigent. The Indians he favored placing upon reservations, as quickly as possible, so that they might be taught the arts of civilization. Money payments to them should be stopped, he argued, and their annuities settled in goods. As to the public lands, he was at first much interested in grants to the states to be used for railroad purposes and favored a Pacific railroad constructed by the aid of land subsidies from the federal government, but as the railroad interests became more importunate and brought to bear upon Congress what the Pierce administration considered improper pressure, he withdrew his support from projects for this form of aid. The land system itself he thought needed no improvement, and like the dominant element in his party he opposed homestead legislation. None of his major recommendations was adopted by Congress, however; the value of his service to his department lay in his ability to produce system, order and honesty. As a member of Pierce's cabinet he belonged with Marcy and Guthrie to the more conservative wing and joined the former in advising the President to follow a neutral policy in Kansas. In 1857 McClelland returned to Michigan, settling down in Detroit to twenty-three years of legal practice. He returned to public service briefly in 1867 as a member of the Michigan constitutional convention. In personality he was always plain and unprepossessing; his manners were somewhat brusque and forbidding; and he was regular and painstaking in his mode of life to an extent which in his later years became proverbial among his neighbors. Robert McClellan was born on August 1, 1807, in Greencastle, Pennsylvania, the son of Eleanor and John. He married Sarah Elizabeth Sabin on June 20, 1837, in Michigan. They had six children during their marriage. He died on August 30, 1880, in Detroit, Michigan, at the age of 73. Robert and Sarah had the following Childern:

1. John McCleland 1837-1840
2. William Henry McCleland 1839- 1840
3. Augusta McClellan 1841-1909
4. Frazer McClelland 1842-1850
5. Sarah Elizabeth McCleland 1847-1924
6. Eleanor Belle McCleland 1854-1877

Sources

^{[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]}

• Find A Grave Memorial# 6246110

• Robert McClelland on Wikipedia