Lincoln Clark was a lawyer and one-term Democratic

Democratic Party (United States)

The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

 U.S. Representative

United States House of Representatives

The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...

 from Iowa's 2nd congressional district

Iowa's 2nd congressional district

Iowa's 2nd congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of Iowa that generally covers most of the southeastern part of the state including Iowa City and Cedar Rapids.The district is currently represented by Democrat Dave Loebsack....

. His life began and ended in the same small town in western Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

, but included service in every branch of Alabama

Alabama

Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...

 state government, the U.S. Congress, and the Iowa General Assembly

Iowa General Assembly

The Iowa General Assembly is the legislative branch of the state government of Iowa. Like the federal United States Congress, the General Assembly is a bicameral body, composed of the upper house Iowa Senate and the lower Iowa House of Representatives respectively...

.

Born in Conway, Massachusetts

Conway, Massachusetts

Conway is a town in Franklin County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 1,809 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area.- History :...

, Clark attended the district and private schools.
He was graduated from Amherst College

Amherst College

Amherst College is a private liberal arts college located in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Amherst is an exclusively undergraduate four-year institution and enrolled 1,744 students in the fall of 2009...

 in 1825.
After studying law, he was admitted to the bar

Admission to the bar in the United States

In the United States, admission to the bar is the granting of permission by a particular court system to a lawyer to practice law in that system. Each U.S. state and similar jurisdiction has its own court system and sets its own rules for bar admission , which can lead to different admission...

 in 1831 and commenced practice in Pickensville, Alabama

Pickensville, Alabama

Pickensville is a town in Pickens County, Alabama, United States. At the 2000 census the population was 662.-Geography:Pickensville is located at ....

.
He served as member of the Alabama House of Representatives

Alabama House of Representatives

The Alabama House of Representatives is the lower house of the Alabama Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Alabama. The House is composed of 105 members representing an equal amount of districts, with each constituency containing at least 42,380 citizens. There are no term...

 in 1834, 1835, and 1845.
He moved to Tuscaloosa

Tuscaloosa, Alabama

Tuscaloosa is a city in and the seat of Tuscaloosa County in west central Alabama . Located on the Black Warrior River, it is the fifth-largest city in Alabama, with a population of 90,468 in 2010...

 in 1836. Clark was elected Alabama Attorney General by the Legislature

Alabama Legislature

The Alabama Legislature is the legislative branch of the state government of Alabama. It is a bicameral body composed of the Alabama House of Representatives, with 105 members, and the Alabama Senate, with 35 members...

 in 1839. He delivered an oration in Tuscaloosa in 1845 commemorating Andrew Jackson.
Clark was appointed circuit judge by Governor Benjamin Fitzpatrick

Benjamin Fitzpatrick

Benjamin Fitzpatrick was an American politician, who served as the 11th Governor of the U.S. state of Alabama and as United States Senator from Alabama as a Democrat....

 in 1846.

Clark moved to Dubuque, Iowa

Dubuque, Iowa

Dubuque is a city in and the county seat of Dubuque County, Iowa, United States, located along the Mississippi River. In 2010 its population was 57,637, making it the ninth-largest city in the state and the county's population was 93,653....

, in 1848. Two years later, in 1850, he was elected as a Democrat to represent Iowa's 2nd congressional district, defeating Whig

Whig Party (United States)

The Whig Party was a political party of the United States during the era of Jacksonian democracy. Considered integral to the Second Party System and operating from the early 1830s to the mid-1850s, the party was formed in opposition to the policies of President Andrew Jackson and his Democratic...

 candidate John Parsons Cook

John Parsons Cook

John Parsons Cook was a pioneer Iowa lawyer and one-term Whig U.S. Representative from Iowa's 2nd congressional district....

 by only 150 votes out of over 15,000 cast. Clark served in the Thirty-second

32nd United States Congress

The Thirty-second United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, consisting of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from March 4, 1851 to March 3, 1853, during the third and...

 Congress, from March 4, 1851 to March 3, 1853. In a rematch in 1852, Cook unseated Clark. Two years later, Clark tried again to regain his seat, but was defeated.

In 1857, Clark was elected to the Iowa House of Representatives

Iowa House of Representatives

The Iowa House of Representatives is the lower house of the Iowa General Assembly. There are 100 members of the House of Representatives, representing 100 single-member districts across the state with populations of approximately 29,750 for each constituency...

, and played an important role in adapting the laws to the new Iowa Constitution. In the 1860 presidential election, he participated in the Iowa state Democratic convention (declining to follow the breakaway faction supporting the John C. Breckenridge candidacy), where he was elected as a potential presidential elector for U.S. Senator Stephen A. Douglas

Stephen A. Douglas

Stephen Arnold Douglas was an American politician from the western state of Illinois, and was the Northern Democratic Party nominee for President in 1860. He lost to the Republican Party's candidate, Abraham Lincoln, whom he had defeated two years earlier in a Senate contest following a famed...

. During the Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

, he sided with his party's "War Democrat" faction, in opposition to the pro-secession "Mahoneyite" faction of followers of jailed newspaper editor D.A. Mahoney.

Clark eventually left Iowa to practice law in Chicago, Illinois.
He was appointed United States Register in Bankruptcy in 1866.

In 1869, he retired from active business and returned to Conway, Massachusetts.
He died in Conway on September 16, 1886. He was interred in Howland Cemetery.