Charles Creighton Stratton

Charles Creighton Stratton (March 6, 1796 – March 30, 1859) was a politician from New Jersey who served in the United States House of Representatives and was later the 15th governor of New Jersey. Biography He was born, and died, in Swedesboro, in Gloucester County, New Jersey. He is interred at Trinity Church Cemetery in Swedesboro. He graduated from Rutgers College in 1814, and engaged in agricultural pursuits. He was a member of the New Jersey General Assembly in 1821, 1823, and again in 1829. He was elected as a Whig to the Twenty-fifth United States Congress (1837–1839); presented credentials as a Member-elect to the Twenty-sixth Congress, but the House declined to seat him ; reelected to the Twenty-seventh United States Congress (1841–1843). He chose not to run again in 1842. Stratton served as a member of the 1844 Constitutional convention (political meeting) that created a revised New Jersey State Constitution. The new 1844 New Jersey State Constitution provided for direct election of a governor for a single three-year term. Stratton ran on the Whig ticket, and campaigned on a platform opposing the powerful railroad interests of the state. The Democratic candidate was Pennsylvania-born John R. Thomson, who was a stockholder in the railroad and a vigorous advocate of internal improvements.