James Meriwether (politician)

James Meriwether (* 1789 near Washington , Georgia , †  1854 near Memphis , Tennessee ) was an American politician . Between 1825 and 1827 he represented the state of Georgia in the US House of Representatives .

Life

James Meriwether was the son of David Meriwether (1755-1822) and an uncle of James Archibald Meriwether (1806-1852), both of whom were also Congressmen of the State of Georgia. Neither the exact date of birth nor the date of his death are known. He attended the public schools of his home country and then studied until 1807 at the University of Georgia in Athens . He later taught at this university himself for a year. After studying law and being admitted to the bar, he began to work in his new profession for a short time. Then he worked in agriculture. In 1813 Meriwether took part in a war against the Creek . He later served as an American negotiator with the Cherokee . Between 1816 and 1831 Meriwether was a curator at the University of Georgia.

Politically, he was a member of the Democratic Republican Party . In the 1820s he joined the movement around the future President Andrew Jackson . He was a member of the Georgia House of Representatives from 1821 to 1823 . In the state-wide held congressional elections of 1824 he was elected to the United States House of Representatives in Washington, DC for the seventh mandate from Georgia , where he succeeded Richard Henry Wilde on March 4, 1825 . Since he renounced another candidacy in 1826, he could only complete one legislative period in Congress until March 3, 1827 . This was marked by heated discussions between supporters and opponents of Andrew Jackson.

After leaving the US House of Representatives, James Meriwether returned to his agricultural activities. He died in 1854 on a trip west near Memphis and was buried in the family cemetery near Athens.

Web links

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