David Settle Reid

David Settle Reid (1859)

David Settle Reid (born April 19, 1813 in Rockingham County , North Carolina , †  June 19, 1891 ibid) was an American politician and the 32nd  governor of North Carolina. He also represented this state in both chambers of Congress .

Early years and political advancement

David Reid attended local schools in his home country. He then studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1833. A year later he began practicing law in Wentworth .

The Democrat Reid was a member of the House of Representatives from North Carolina from 1835 to 1842 . Between 1843 and 1847 he represented his state in the US House of Representatives in Washington . His party nominated him in 1848 for gubernatorial elections; while he was just defeated by Whig Charles Manly , who received 854 more votes.

North Carolina Governor

Two years later, however, he managed to beat Manly by almost 2900 votes and to be elected governor himself; In 1852 he was confirmed in this office by the electorate. His tenure began on January 1, 1851 and ended on December 5, 1854. The most important event of his tenure was the acceptance by North Carolina of the 1850 compromise drawn up by US Senator Henry Clay in 1850 . The compromise eased the political differences between the northern and southern states for a short time. Reid campaigned for a further expansion of the education system in his state and advocated a reform of the electoral law, which was not implemented in parliament. In December 1854, the House of Representatives sent him to the US Senate. For this reason he resigned as governor on December 5th.

Further life

Reid was a Senator in Congress between 1854 and 1859. In 1861 he was a delegate to a peace conference in Washington designed to prevent civil war at the last minute. After the failure of the conference, he was at the Congress in North Carolina, where the secession was decided. In the following years he worked as a lawyer. Politically, he appeared only once in 1875 when he was a delegate to a congress to revise the North Carolina constitution.

David Reid died in 1891. He was married to Henrietta Settle and the couple had three children.

Web links

• David Settle Reid in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)
• David Reid in the National Governors Association (English)
• David Settle Reid in the database of Find a Grave (English)