John Alexander Cocke

John Alexander Cocke (December 28, 1772 – February 16, 1854) was an American politician and soldier who represented Tennessee's 2nd district in the United States House of Representatives from 1819 to 1827. He also served several terms in the Tennessee Senate and the Tennessee House of Representatives, and was Speaker of the latter for two sessions (1811–1813 and 1837–1839). During the Creek War, Cocke commanded the Eastern Division of the Tennessee militia.

Early life Cocke was born in Brunswick in Nottoway County in the Colony of Virginia in 1772, the eldest son of frontiersman and future senator, William Cocke, and wife Mary (Maclin) Cocke. While still a young child, he moved with his parents across the Appalachian Mountains to what is now Tennessee, where his father was active in the State of Franklin movement. The family settled in what is now Grainger County, but was then part of Hawkins County. The younger Cocke studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1793.

Cocke was elected to the inaugural Tennessee Senate in 1796, serving until 1801. In 1807, he was elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives, and was elevated to Speaker in 1811. In November 1811, during the first year of Cocke's speakership, the House voted to impeach his father, William, then a state supreme court justice.

Creek War At the outbreak of the War of 1812, Cocke was Major General of the Eastern Division of the Tennessee militia, while Andrew Jackson was Major General of the Western Division. Responding to President James Madison's request for troops, Governor Willie Blount ordered Jackson and the Western Division south to Natchez in early 1813. Though Jackson's army was recalled within a few weeks, members of the Eastern Division grew restless, wanting to join the war. Cocke and a number of men (including his 65-year-old father, William) joined Colonel John Williams on a raid into the Seminole country of Florida in February 1813.

Congress and later life

Following the death of John Sevier in 1815, Cocke ran for his vacant seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, but was narrowly defeated by William Grainger Blount, 1,583 votes to 1,355. He ran against Blount in 1817, but was again narrowly defeated, 3,627 votes to 3,429. In 1819, Blount decided not to run for reelection, and Cocke was finally able to win the seat, edging James Porter, 3,792 votes to 3,434. He ran opposed for reelection in 1821 and 1823. In 1825, rising anti-Jackson politician Thomas D. Arnold challenged him for reelection, but Cocke won by a vote of 4,770 to 3,343. A Democratic-Republican, Cocke served in the Sixteenth, Seventeenth, Eighteenth, and Nineteenth congresses. During the Eighteenth and Nineteenth congresses (1823–1827), Cocke was chairman of the House Committee on Indian Affairs.

As a congressman, Cocke generally opposed federal involvement in internal improvement projects. While he voted in favor of a bill that would have provided appropriations for the repair of the Cumberland Road in 1822, he vigorously opposed legislation that would have empowered the president to designate certain improvement projects as having "national worth," and thus eligible for federal funding. In 1823, he voted against federal appropriations for numerous improvement projects, including improvements to the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, an extension of the Cumberland Road, and a purchase of stock in the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal Company.

Cocke did not seek reelection in 1827, and returned to Tennessee, where he engaged in agricultural pursuits. In 1837, he was again elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives, and served as Speaker for the 1837–1839 session. In 1843, he was again elected to the Tennessee Senate, serving a single term. In 1844, he introduced legislation establishing the Tennessee School for the Deaf in Knoxville.

Cocke died in Rutledge, Tennessee, on February 16, 1854, at age 81 years. He is interred at Rutledge's Methodist Church Cemetery.

Family

Cocke's father, William, played a prominent role in the establishment of Tennessee in the late 18th century, and served alongside William Blount as one of the state's inaugural U.S. Senators. Cocke's nephew, William Michael Cocke, served in Congress in the late 1840s. Cocke married his first cousin, Sarah Stratton Cocke. Their daughter, Eliza, married Knoxville industrialist Marcus De Lafayette Bearden (1793–1854) in 1821. Another daughter, Sarah, was married to Judge William B. Reese, who later became a justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court, and served as president of East Tennessee University (the forerunner of the University of Tennessee) in the 1850s. Notable descendants of Cocke include Admiral Alan Goodrich Kirk, who commanded the Normandy landings in 1944, art collector Francis Henry Taylor, and Senator Luke Lea.