U.S. Representative from New York, Secretary of War, U.S. Cabinet Secretary for President John Tyler, Editor for of English version of DeTocqueville’s “Democracy in America”
John Canfield Spencer was born in Hudson, NY on January 8, 1788. He is the eldest child of Ambrose Spencer and Laura Canfield. The family moved to Albany where his father, a lawyer, served in several political rolls: New York Attorney General; Mayor of the City of Albany; and Member of the U.S. House of Representatives succeeding a seat previously occupied by Stephen Van Rensselaer III. John’s mother passed away in 1807, and his father married two more times, first to Mary Clinton in 1808, who died the same year, and her younger sister, Katherine in 1809. Both were the sisters of DeWitt Clinton, who later served as Mayor of Albany, Lieutenant Governor, and Governor of New York State.
Spencer attended Williams College but transferred to Union College, where he graduated with honors in 1806. The following year he became secretary to Governor Daniel Tompkins, fourth governor of New York, and namesake for Tompkins County. Spencer studied law like his father and admitted to the New York State Bar in 1809.
On May 20, 1809, Spencer married Elizabeth Scott Smith of Red Hook, NY and together they had seven children. That same year he and Elizabeth moved Canandaigua and began his law practice, and lived there for the next 36 years.
He served in the War of 1812 as a Judge Advocate General in 1813. His brother, Ambrose Spencer, Jr. also served in the war as an aide-de-camp to Major-General Jacob Jennings Brown but was killed at the Battle of Lundy Lane on July 25, 1814, at what is today Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada. With over 1500 causalities, 258 killed, it is one of the deadliest battles fought in Canada.
After the war, Spencer went back to Canandaigua serving as the postmaster and in 1815 the Assistant Attorney General for western New York. Aspiring for higher political office, he was elected as a Democrat-Republican to the U.S. House of Representatives from 1817 – 1819. While in office he was highly criticized on a committee he sat on that reported negatively on the Second Bank of the United States. In 1819 he ran as a Clintonian, an ally of Governor DeWitt Clinton, with two other candidates; a Bucktail, opponents of Clinton which included Tammany Hall and upstate politicians let by State Senator Martin Van Buren and the Attorney General; and a Federalist, which was originally established by Alexander Hamilton. Due to the three-way vote, no one won the seat and sat vacant until the next election when the Federalist, Rufus King was elected.
Spencer was elected to the NYS State Assembly from 1820 – 1821 and then again from 1831 – 1832. In 1820 he served as the Speaker of the House. From 1824 – 1828 he served in the NYS State Senator.
In 1826, Spencer was named a special prosecutor in the disappearance of William Morgan. Morgan was a brewer, stoneworker and eventually partnered with David Miller, publisher of a Batavia’s Republican Advocate and together their newspaper to expose the inner workings of the Freemason. Morgan was arrested, kidnapped and later murdered. The Freemasons, which included men of middle and upper class, had grown more powerful throughout the country, with more than half of all public offices occupied by one. Additionally, Governor DeWitt Clinton once served as the highest-ranking Mason in the country. This exposure sparked an Anti-Mason movement with Spencer siding with them later writing a manuscript on Masonic rituals.
Spencer moved to Albany and assisted Alexis de Tocqueville as editor of the English edition of Democracy in America. This book looked at the evolution of democratic revolutions that have been occurring over several hundred years, the Puritan Founding, the Federal Constitution how the lack of aristocracy had given rise to independent women who opted to remain unmarried. Tocqueville mentioned this is a positive development by stating: “As for myself, I do not hesitate to avow that although the women of the United States are confined within the narrow circle of domestic life, and their situation is in some respects one of extreme dependence, I have nowhere seen women occupying a loftier position; and if I were asked, ... to what the singular prosperity and growing strength of that people ought mainly to be attributed, I should reply,—to the superiority of their women”
In 1839 he served as the Secretary of State for New York. Two years later on October 12, 1841, he was appointed Secretary of War by President Tyler until March 3, 1843, when he became Secretary of the Treasury. The following year, he was nominated twice to the Supreme Court, but the Senate failed to confirm his. As Tyler’s administration was heavily influenced by southern interests, it was difficult for him to serve in his cabinet post. He resigned from his position in May of 1844 and returned to Albany.
Spencer died on May 17, 1855, in Albany and is buried in the family plot next to his wife, Elizabeth.