George Robertson (politician, 1790)

George Robertson

George Robertson (born November 18, 1790 in Harrodsburg , Virginia , †  May 16, 1874 in Lexington , Kentucky ) was an American politician . Between 1817 and 1821 he represented the state of Kentucky in the US House of Representatives .

Career

After primary school, George Robertson, born in what is now Kentucky, attended Transylvania University in Lexington until 1806 . After a subsequent law degree and his admission as a lawyer in 1809, he began to practice in Lancaster in this profession. At the same time he embarked on a political career as a member of the Democratic Republican Party . In the congressional election of 1816 he was elected to the United States House of Representatives in Washington, DC , in the seventh constituency of Kentucky , where he succeeded Samuel McKee on March 4, 1817 . He was confirmed in the following two congressional elections. Between 1817 and 1819 he was chairman of the committee that dealt with private land claims. His last legislative period began on March 4, 1821. He resigned before the first session of the newly elected Congress . After a by-election, his mandate went to John Speed ​​Smith .

After leaving the US House of Representatives, Robertson continued his political career at the state level. Between 1822 and 1827 he was a member of the Kentucky House of Representatives , of which he was president for four years. He turned down the post of governor offered to him in the Arkansas Territory as well as the ambassadorial posts in Colombia and Peru . In 1828, George Robertson was Secretary of State as an executive officer of the state government of Kentucky. In 1829 he was appointed a judge on the Kentucky Court of Appeals . Between 1829 and 1834 he headed this state court of appeal as Chief Justice .

In 1834 Robertson resigned from his judicial office and began working as a private attorney in Lexington. At the same time he was from 1834 to 1857 as a professor of law at Transylvania University. Politically, Robertson joined the Whigs after the dissolution of his party . In 1848, 1851 and 1852 he was re-elected to the Kentucky House of Representatives, of which he was speaker between 1851 and 1852. From 1864 to 1871 Robertson was a judge in the second judicial district and intermittently as acting chief justice head of the Kentucky Court of Appeals . George Robertson died on May 16, 1874 in Lexington and was buried there.

According to him, this is Robertson County named in Kentucky.

Web links

Commons : George Robertson  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• George Robertson in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)
• George Robertson in the database of Find a Grave (English)