George W. Summers

George W. Summers

George William Summers (born March 4, 1804 in Alexandria , Virginia , †  September 19, 1868 in Charleston , West Virginia ) was an American politician . Between 1841 and 1845 he represented the state of Virginia in the US House of Representatives .

Career

George Summers first attended a school in Charleston and then studied at Washington College in Lexington , which later became Washington and Lee University . He then studied until 1826 at Ohio University in Athens . After studying law and being admitted to the bar in 1827, he began to work in this profession in Charleston. At the same time he embarked on a political career. From 1830 to 1832 and again between 1834 and 1836 he sat in the Virginia House of Representatives . He became a member of the Whig Party, founded in 1835 .

In the 1840 congressional election , Summers was elected to the US House of Representatives in Washington, DC , in the 19th  constituency of Virginia , where he took up his new mandate on March 4, 1841. After re-election, he was able to complete two legislative terms in Congress until March 3, 1845 . From 1843 he represented the 14th district of his state as the successor to Cuthbert Powell . His time in Congress was marked by tension between President John Tyler and the Whigs. In addition, a possible annexation of the Republic of Texas , which has been independent of Mexico since 1836, was already being discussed. In 1844, Summers was not re-elected.

In 1850, Summers attended a meeting to revise the Virginia Constitution as a delegate. A year later he ran unsuccessfully for the office of governor of his state. Between 1852 and 1858 he served as a judge in the 18th District of Virginia. In the spring of 1861 he was a member of a negotiating commission that unsuccessfully tried to prevent the outbreak of civil war in the federal capital, Washington . A little later he was a delegate at the meeting at which the state of Virginia declared its exit from the Union. Summers was a staunch opponent of this move. In the following years he practiced again as a lawyer in his home, which was loyal to the Union and which was elevated to the new state of West Virginia in 1863. George Summers died in Charleston on September 19, 1868. In 1871, the then newly created Summers County was named after him.

Web links

• George W. Summers in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• George W. Summers in the database of Find a Grave (English)