George Poindexter
George Poindexter | |
---|---|
President pro tempore of the United States Senate | |
In office June 28, 1834 – November 30, 1834 | |
Preceded by | Hugh Lawson White |
Succeeded by | John Tyler |
United States Senator from Mississippi | |
In office October 15, 1830 – March 3, 1835 | |
Preceded by | Robert H. Adams |
Succeeded by | Robert J. Walker |
2nd Governor of Mississippi | |
In office January 5, 1820 – January 7, 1822 | |
Preceded by | David Holmes |
Succeeded by | Walter Leake |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Mississippi's at-large district | |
In office December 10, 1817 – March 3, 1819 | |
Preceded by | Cowles Mead (Delegate-elect) |
Succeeded by | Christopher Rankin |
Delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives from Mississippi Territory's at-large district | |
In office March 4, 1807 – March 3, 1813 | |
Preceded by | William Lattimore |
Succeeded by | William Lattimore |
Personal details | |
Born | 1779 Louisa County, Virginia, U.S. |
Died | September 5, 1853 Jackson, Mississippi, U.S. | (aged 74)
Political party | Democratic-Republican (Before 1825) Jacksonian (1825–1832) National Republican (1832–1834) Democratic (1834–1853) |
Spouse(s) | Lydia Carter Agatha Chinn |
George Poindexter (1779 – September 5, 1853) was an American politician, lawyer, and judge from
Early life
Poindexter was born in
The exact details of Poindexter's legal studies are not known, but according to family tradition, Poindexter studied under practicing attorneys, first in Kentucky, and later in Richmond.[6] He was admitted to the bar in 1800 and began to practice in Milton, an Albemarle County town along the Rivanna River which no longer exists.[7]
Move to Mississippi
After moving to the
During Mississippi's early years, nearby areas were under Spanish control.[13] When tensions rose over Mississippi's expansion, and the Spanish threatened an attack, residents of Adams County formed a militia;[13] Poindexter was one of the main organizers of a company in Natchez, the Mississippi Blues; he was elected commander with the rank of captain.[13] No attack from Spain materialized, and the militia soon disbanded.[13]
When former
Territorial delegate to Congress
Poindexter was elected as a delegate to the
Before leaving for
Poindexter was in Richmond in October 1807 to testify at Burr's treason trial;[21] his testimony suggested that Burr's arrest had been based on flimsy evidence, which probably played a part in Burr's acquittal.[21]
In 1811, Poindexter's outspoken opposition to the Federalist Party resulted in a duel with wealthy merchant and planter Abijah Hunt.[22] Poindexter killed Hunt, but afterward, Poindexter's political opponents alleged that he had broken the code duello by firing at Hunt prematurely.[2]
Judgeship
Poindexter did not run for reelection in 1812; after his final term in Congress ended, he was appointed federal Judge for the Mississippi Territory and served from 1813 to 1817.[2] Poindexter also served as a volunteer aide to William Carroll as Carroll commanded a division of Tennessee militia at the War of 1812's decisive 1814 Battle of New Orleans.[23]
Beauty and Booty
After the Battle of New Orleans, a Poindexter letter dated January 20, 1815, was published in the Mississippi Republican, which claimed that Pakenham's troops had used "Beauty and Booty" as a watchword.[24] This claim was republished in Niles' Weekly Register,[25] the National Intelligencer, and other newspapers.[26] Political opponents and the editor of the Mississippi Republican challenged Poindexter's account based on Poindexter's supposed dereliction of duty on the day of the battle.[27] In March 1815, Poindexter confronted the editor and was subsequently arrested for assault.[27] The "beauty or booty" story had a profound effect on how the war was perceived and became central to contemporary accounts of Jackson's victory because it made the British appear to be degenerates bent on rape and plunder, while the Americans were depicted as benevolent and morally superior for the charity and medical aid they rendered to British troops after the fighting.[24][28]
House of Representatives
Poindexter was chair of the committee appointed to draft a constitution for the new state of Mississippi. After its admission in 1817, he was elected to be the state's first representative in Congress.[2] He served in the 15th Congress from 1817 to 1819, when he chaired the Committee on Public Lands.
After that, he was an unsuccessful candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in 1820 to the 17th Congress and in 1822 to the 18th Congress.
Governor of Mississippi
In 1819 Poindexter was elected the second
United States Senate
Poindexter was appointed to the United States Senate in 1830 to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Robert H. Adams and served from 1830 to 1835. Soon after his appointment, he learned of the financial distress of Martha Jefferson Randolph, whose father Thomas Jefferson had left an estate heavily encumbered by debt. Poindexter introduced a bill to grant Randolph 50,000 acres in Virginia, with the idea she could sell the land to raise money to live on. The bill failed to pass the Senate and was rejected by the two Virginia senators in 1831.[31]
Poindexter served as chairman of the Committee on Private Land Claims in the 22nd Congress from 1831 to 1833, of the Committee on Public Lands in the 23rd Congress from 1833 to 1835 and was President pro tempore of the Senate from June to November 1834.
Poindexter's tenure as chair of the Committee on Private Land Claims had been then considered moderately controversial. He had espoused some views that could be regarded as
In 1834 Poindexter had his home in Washington, D.C. painted by Richard Lawrence. A deranged man, Lawrence came to believe that he was the ruler of England and the United States and that Jackson was a usurper. In January 1835, Lawrence attempted to shoot at Jackson using two pistols, which misfired. The assassination attempt occurred as Jackson attended a memorial service for a Congressman at the U.S. capitol and the first attempt to assassinate a president. Jackson accused various political enemies of being behind Lawrence's actions, including Poindexter, who denied any connection. Poindexter also took issue with Vice President Martin Van Buren's support of Jackson during the debate over the Bank and made explicit threats that caused Van Buren to carry pistols for self-defense when presiding over the Senate. The accusations about Lawrence followed Poindexter back to Mississippi, and he was unsuccessful in running for a second term. Poindexter returned to Mississippi, embittered by these issues.[2]
Retirement from politics
In 1835, Poindexter moved to
Family
In 1804 Poindexter married Lydia Carter (1789–1824),[32][33] the daughter of a prominent Natchez businessman and plantation owner.[34] They had two sons, George Littleton (or Lytleton) and Albert Gallatin.[35] They divorced after Poindexter publicly accused his wife of infidelity and claimed that their second child, whom he disavowed, was the product of an extramarital affair between his wife and their neighbor.[36] In 1820 Lydia Carter Poindexter married Reverend Lewis Williams and moved to Brimfield, Massachusetts.[34] Her sons remained with her;[37] Poindexter provided for the support of George, but disavowed Albert and refused to provide for him.[37]
In 1816 Poindexter married Agatha Ball Chinn (1794–1822). They had one son who died of yellow fever as a child while Poindexter was Governor, and Agatha Poindexter died soon afterward.
He was said to have a serious, potentially non-consensual liaison with an enslaved woman.
When several years before, Representative Richard Mentor Johnson of Kentucky was criticized for his common-law marriage with Julia Chinn, an enslaved woman; he said, "Unlike Jefferson, Clay, Poindexter and others, I married my wife under the eyes of God, and apparently He has found no objections."[38]
Historian Burke has written,
During slavery times, there was no particular stigma attached to the fact that many southern plantation owners, along with their white overseers, often fathered mulatto children born of black slave women. As long as the white father denied the facts, the customs that created miscegenation were usually overlooked by Southern society.[38]
Johnson violated the norms by acknowledging Chinn as his wife and their daughters as his, plus trying to introduce his daughters to "polite society".[38]
References
- ^ a b c The Early Life of George Poindexter, pp. 15–16.
- ^ a b c d e f g Wilson, J. G.; Fiske, J., eds. (1900). . Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton.
- ^ The Early Life of George Poindexter, pp. 19–20.
- ^ The Early Life of George Poindexter, pp. 18–19.
- ^ Simmons, Martha. Preaching with Sacred Fire: An Anthology of African American Sermons, 1750 to the Present. W. W. Norton & Company, 2010. p322-323
- ^ The Early Life of George Poindexter, pp. 21–22.
- ^ The Early Life of George Poindexter, p. 22.
- ^ The Early Life of George Poindexter, p. 28.
- ^ a b The Early Life of George Poindexter, p. 63.
- ^ Trinity College (1942). Historical Papers. Vol. 25–28. Durham, NC: Trinity College Historical Society. p. 181.
- ^ The Early Life of George Poindexter, pp. 74–75.
- ^ The Early Life of George Poindexter, p. 67.
- ^ a b c d The Early Life of George Poindexter, p. 75.
- ^ a b The Early Life of George Poindexter, pp. 76–77.
- ^ a b The Early Life of George Poindexter, pp. 80–81.
- ^ a b The Early Life of George Poindexter, pp. 84–85.
- ^ The Early Life of George Poindexter, pp. 104–106.
- ^ The Early Life of George Poindexter, p. 107.
- ^ The Early Life of George Poindexter, pp. 79–80.
- ^ a b c The Early Life of George Poindexter, pp. 80–82.
- ^ a b The Early Life of George Poindexter, pp. 82–83.
- ^ The Early Life of George Poindexter, pp. 114–115.
- ^ The Early Life of George Poindexter, pp. 129–130.
- ^ a b Eustace 2012, pp. 212.
- ^ Poindexter, George (1815). "From the Mississippi Republican-Extra, New Orleans, January 20th, 1815". Niles's Weekly Register. Vol. 8. pp. 58–59.
Beauty and Booty. Comment is unnecessary on these significant allusions held out to a licentious soldiery.
- ^ Eustace 2012, pp. 213–215.
- ^ a b Eustace 2012, pp. 210–214.
- ISBN 978-0-1909-3061-5 – via Google Books.
- ^ "Election Results, Mississippi Governor, 1819". Our Campaigns.com. Retrieved December 20, 2020.
- ^ a b "Biography, Gov. George Poindexter". NGA.org. Washington, DC: National Governors Association. January 10, 2012. Retrieved December 20, 2020.
- ^ Marc Leepson, Chap. One, "Stealing Monticello", Saving Monticello: The Levy Family's Epic Quest to Rescue the House that Jefferson Built, University of Virginia, 2001, accessed November 12, 2013
- ^ The Early Life of George Poindexter, p. 66.
- ISBN 9781455604760.
- ^ a b The Genealogy of Several Allied Families, p. 465.
- ^ McCain, William David (1995). The Journal of Mississippi History. Vol. 57. Jackson, MS: Mississippi Department of Archives and History. p. 204.
- ISBN 978-0-19-505626-6.
- ^ a b The Early Life of George Poindexter, pp. 134–135.
- ^ a b c Henry Robert Burke. Richard Mentor Johnson: "Window to the Past" Archived November 12, 2013, at the Wayback Machine, Lest We Forget Communications. Retrieved on January 3, 2008.
Sources
Books
- Eustace, Nicole (2012). 1812: War and the Passions of Patriotism. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0-81-220636-4.
- Poindexter, George (1929) [1815]. To the Public "A Villain's Censure Is Extorted Praise". A refutation of the calumnies, circulated ... by a certain Samuel Brown, and a few unprincipled confederates. Dated Lexington, August 14, 1815; Defense against charges of cowardice at the battle of New Orleans, corruption in office, etc. OCLC 1191844050– via llmc.com.
This document present evidence against the judge and in protesting Poindexter's animosity against the author, Samuel Brown, as well as supporting the list on the judge's behavior. (Digitized from a microfilm copy of titles originally held by the University of North Carolina Library).
- Swearingen, Mack Buckley (1934). The Early Life of George Poindexter: A Story of the First Southwest. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Libraries.
External links
- United States Congress. "George Poindexter (id: P000402)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.