George W. Towns

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George Towns

George Washington Bonaparte Towns (born May 4, 1801 in Wilkes County , Georgia , † July 15, 1854 in Macon , Georgia) was an American politician and governor of the state of Georgia, which he also represented in Congress .

Origin and education

George Towns was the son of a family who immigrated to Georgia from Virginia . After elementary school, the young George began studying medicine in Eatontown . An injury put an end to this study and George moved to Montgomery ( Alabama ). There he bought an inn and studied law. In 1824 he was admitted to the bar there. He practiced first in Montgomery and then in Talbotton, Georgia.

Political rise

He quickly gained a foothold in Talbotton and became a colonel in the local militia. In 1829 he was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives; between 1832 and 1834 he was State Senator . At that point he was a staunch supporter of President Andrew Jackson and his Democratic Party . He declared himself an opponent of John C. Calhoun and rejected all separatist efforts in Georgia. After his election to the US House of Representatives , he took his seat there in 1835. In September 1836 he surprisingly resigned from this mandate. The reason he gave was that in the event of a stalemate in the upcoming presidential election, he did not want to get into a dilemma, if Congress had to elect the president and he had to elect an opposing candidate due to political pressures. This case did not occur in 1836. Martin Van Buren was elected president by a clear majority, but Towns had lost his seat in Congress. His successor was Julius Caesar Alford , of all people , a candidate for the opposing Whigs . His resignation cost him a lot of sympathy among supporters of the Democratic Party in Georgia. Nevertheless, in 1837 he made it to Congress again.

Political U-turn

In the following two years in the House of Representatives, Towns carried out a fundamental change of heart. Up until then he had always supported the federal government in Washington and opposed all separatist efforts of the individual states. Now he turned more and more from this position and became increasingly an advocate of the rights of the individual states against the federal government. In 1839 he temporarily withdrew from politics and practiced again as a lawyer in Talbotton. In 1846 he returned to Congress in Washington. Here he supported, like most southerners, the expansion policy of President James K. Polk .

Georgia Governor

Towns ran for governor of Georgia in 1847. During the election campaign, he praised President Polk's expansionist policy and, like most politicians in the South, spoke out against the so-called Wilmot Proviso . This envisaged a ban on slavery in the newly acquired territories of the USA. With the support of the radical southerners, Towns made the election and two years later also made the leap into a second term. In his tenure as governor, he now firmly stood up for the positions of the southern states, including slavery. He also promoted the expansion of the Western and Atlantic Railroad in Georgia. He expanded the health system and reformed the prison system. Finally, he hired a commission to plan free public schools.

Above all, however, was his conservative stance on the question of slavery. He firmly rejected the compromise of 1850 . In December 1850, he called a meeting in Georgia to resolve a secession of the country from the Union. He saw the federal government in Washington as an instrument of the northern states and abolitionists who only had the annihilation of the southern states in mind. In the assembly, however, his proposal did not find a majority: Georgia remained in the Union and even supported the compromise of 1850. This result was a major political defeat for Towns. His radical positions on this question did not yet find support from his compatriots. Ten years later, however, Georgia joined the other southern states and left the Union, which then led to the outbreak of the American Civil War.

According to him, Towns County named in Georgia.

Old age and death

After his tenure ended in 1851, Towns moved to Macon and resumed his practice as a lawyer. At the same time he ran a large cotton plantation with over 50 slaves. Since 1852 he was severely handicapped by a paralytic illness. He died in Macon in July 1854.

Since 1837 he was married to Mary Jones Towns for the second time. The couple had five daughters and two sons. His first wife Margaret Jane Campbell had died just weeks after the wedding in 1826.

literature

  • Anthony Gene Carey: Parties, Slavery, and the Union in Antebellum Georgia. University of Georgia Press, Athens 1997
  • James F. Cook: The Governors of Georgia, 1754-2004. 3rd edition, revised and expanded. Mercer University Press, Macon GA 2005, ISBN 0-86554-954-0 .
  • Stephen F. Miller: George W. Towns. In: The Bench and Bar of Georgia: Memoirs and Sketches. Volume 2, JB Lippincott, Philadelphia 1858.
  • G. Wilson Page Jr .: The Public Career of George Washington Towns. Master's thesis, Emory University, 1970.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Towns, George
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Towns, George Washington Bonaparte (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American politician
DATE OF BIRTH May 4, 1801
PLACE OF BIRTH Wilkes County , Georgia
DATE OF DEATH July 15, 1854
Place of death Macon , Georgia