James McNair Baker

James McNair Baker (born July 20, 1821 in Robeson County , North Carolina , †  June 20, 1892 in Jacksonville , Florida ) was an American lawyer and politician . He represented the State of Florida during the Civil War as a Senator in the Confederate Congress .

Prosecutor and Whig Politician

James McNair Baker was educated at College of Davidson , where he graduated in 1844. He then worked as a lawyer, initially in Lumberton ; when he got typhoid , he moved to Florida because of the warmer climate. There he practiced law in the area along the Suwannee River before moving to a town called Alligator . There he worked on the renaming of the place in Lake City .

Baker took his first public office in 1852 as a prosecutor for the judicial circuit of Suwannee County and its vicinity. In the same year he was a delegate to the Whigs nomination convention for the upcoming presidential election . Despite protests from Baker's delegation, Winfield Scott was named a Whig candidate, who was extremely unpopular in Florida because of his negative stance on the Seminole Wars. Many Whig voters in that state turned away from the party, which ultimately had an impact on Baker's unsuccessful candidacy for a seat in the US House of Representatives in 1856.

Judge and senator

After being elected judge in Florida’s fourth district in 1859, Baker supported John Bell , candidate for the Constitutional Union Party, in the presidential election the following year . When secession plans became loud in Florida after the election of Abraham Lincoln as president , Baker rejected them; However, he supported the decision of his adopted home when it joined the confederation . During his time as a judge, he was honored by the Florida Parliament in 1861 for his life's work by naming the newly formed Baker County after him. In the following year he was elected by a further parliamentary decision as one of the two CS senators in the first and second Confederate Congress. He moved to Richmond for the duration of his political activities .

After the defeat of the Confederation, Baker was appointed to the Supreme Court of Florida by Governor David S. Walker . However, the regulations of the Reconstruction forced him to resign in 1868, after which he practiced privately again. He was subsequently an active democrat and was a member of the party's executive committee at the state level. In 1881, Governor William D. Bloxham finally appointed him judge for the fourth judicial district; his successor Edward A. Perry confirmed Baker in 1885 in office. In 1890 he resigned for health reasons.

Web links

• James McNair Baker in the database of Find a Grave (English)
• The Political Graveyard