In the Judicial Election of November 6, 1883, in the Twelfth Senatorial District, Clayton ran for election against J. D. Armstrong and lost with 1,969 votes to Armstrong's 6,203 [REF].
In March 1891, Clayton and C. Wood Daily of Keyser argued on behalf of the West Virginia Central and Pittsburgh Railway Company in a mandamus case at the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia brought by a director of the company, W. Irvine Cross.