McCLUNG, John Alexander, clergyman, born in Washington, Mason County, Kentucky, 25 September, 1804; died in Niagara river, 7 August, 1859. He was a son of Judge William McClung, and a nephew of Chief-Justice Marshall. In 1823 he entered Princeton theological seminary, where he remained between one and two years, lie was licensed to preach in 1828, but he abandoned the pulpit, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1835, practising until 1849. He was again licensed to preach in 1851, and was pastor of ***It Presbyterian church in Indianapolis in 1851-'7, and then of one in Maysville, Kentucky, until his death by drowning. During his career at the bar he frequently contributed to the press, and wrote "Sketches of Western Adventures" {Philadelphia, 1832). See "Additional Sketches of Adventure, Compiled by the Publishers, and a Biography of McClung, by Henry Waller" (Covington, Kentucky, 1872).--Htis brother, Alexander K., lawyer born in Mason county, Kentucky, about 1812; died in Jackson, Mississippi, 23 March, 1855, enlisted in the navy as midshipman, 1 April, 1828, but resigned, 29 August, 1829. He then studied law, was admitted to the bar, and practised in Mississippi. He subsequently served as a volunteer in the army during the Mexican war, attaining the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and being dangerously wounded at Monterey. He was appointed chargd d'affaires in Bolivia, by President Taylor, but resigned about two years before his death. Colonel McClung left behind him a brilliant temptation as an orator, but none of his addresses were published save a eulogy on Henry Clay, delivered at Jackson, Mississippi, in 1852.

--BEGIN-Alexander Kelly McClure

McCLURE, Alexander Kelly, journalist, born in Sherman's Valley, Perry County, Pro, 9 January, 1828. In the earlier years of his life he divided his time between his father's farm and the village school, and at the age of fourteen he was apprenticed to the tanner's trade. In 1846, on the urgent advice of his friend, the editor of the " Perry Freeman," to whose paper he had contributed, he be Can the publication of a Whig journal, the "Sentinel," at Mifflin, Pennsylvania At the close of the first year he set up the type, and did the press-work, besides editing the paper, with the aid of a single apprentice. He sold the " Sentinel " in 1850, purchased an interest in the "Chambersburg Repository," became its editor, and made it one of the most noted antislavery journals in the state. In 1853 he was the Whig candidate for auditor-general, being the youngest man ever nominated for a state office in Pennsylvania. In 1855 he was a member of the convention that met at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and organized the Republican party, and in the following year was a delegate to the National convention that nominated Frdmont for the presidency. In 1856 he soht the "Repository," quitted journalism, and shortly therea, fter was admitted to the bar. In 1857-8 he was chosen to the legislature, and in 1859 to the senate of Pennsylvania, over a Democratic opponent from a strong Democratic district. He was a delegate to the National Republican conventions of 1860 and 1864, and in the former played a conspicuous part in inducing the delegation from his state to disregard their instructions for Simon Cameron and vote for Abraham Lincoln. He was chosen chairman of the Republican state committee, and organized and led his party in the canvass of that year. In 1862 he repurchased the "Cham-bersburg Repository," but in the burning of Chambersburg, in 1864, almost his entire property was destroyed. In 1868 he settled in Philadelphia, where he resumed the practice of the law. In 1872 he was chairman of the Pennsylvania delegation to the National convention that nominated Horace Greeley for the presidency, was chosen chairman of the state committee Chat supported his election, and was elected as an Independent Republican to the state senate. In the following year he was an independent candidate for the mayoralty of Philadelphia, and came within nine hundred votes of being elected. During this year, with Frank McLaughlin, he established the "Times," a daily newspaper, and since its foundation he has been its editor-in-chief. He has opposed machine power in party management and official incompetency and dishonesty in Philadelphia.