James S. Rollins

James S. Rollins (1834)

James Sidney Rollins (born April 19, 1812 in Richmond , Madison County , Kentucky , †  January 9, 1888 in Columbia , Missouri ) was an American politician . Between 1861 and 1865 he represented the state of Missouri in the US House of Representatives .

Career

After primary school, James Rollins attended Center College in Danville . He then studied until 1830 at Indiana University in Bloomington . After a subsequent law degree and his admission as a lawyer in 1834, he began to work in Columbia in this profession. Rollins also took part in the Black Hawk War as a major .

Politically, he then joined the Whig Party . Between 1838 and 1840 and again in 1854 he was a member of the House of Representatives from Missouri . In 1844 he participated as a delegate to the Whig National Convention in Baltimore , where Henry Clay was nominated as a presidential candidate. Rollins was a member of the Missouri Senate from 1846 to 1848 . In the years 1848 and 1857 he ran unsuccessfully for the office of governor of Missouri. Rollins also provided land to establish the University of Missouri . He was a slave owner then . Nevertheless, he spoke out against the expansion of this institution and against secession .

After the dissolution of the Whigs, Rollins changed his party affiliation several times. In the congressional elections of 1860 he was elected as a unionist in the second constituency of Missouri in the US House of Representatives in Washington, DC , where he succeeded Thomas Lilbourne Anderson on March 4, 1861 . After re-election, he was able to complete two legislative terms in Congress until March 3, 1865 . These were determined by the events of the civil war . Since 1863 he represented the then newly created ninth district of his state. Rollis was rather conservative on the race issue and could not join the Republican Party at the time because of these differences. Instead, he supported the Democratic candidate George B. McClellan in the 1864 presidential election . Despite his concerns, he supported the 13th Amendment that abolished slavery in the United States .

After leaving the US House of Representatives, Rollins practiced law again. In 1866 he was a delegate to the National Union Convention in Philadelphia . Politically, he became a member of the Democratic Party after the civil war. During those years he supported President Andrew Johnson in the fight against the radical wing of the Republicans. In 1867 he was re-elected to the Missouri House of Representatives. Between 1869 and 1886 he was a curator at the University of Missouri. In 1878 he changed his party affiliation again and became a member of the Republicans. He died on January 9, 1888 in Columbia of the aftermath of a railroad accident in 1874 from which he had not fully recovered.

Web links

Commons : James S. Rollins  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• James S. Rollins in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• James S. Rollins in the database of Find a Grave (English)