Lemuel Benton

Lemuel Benton (born 1754 in Granville County , Province of North Carolina , †  May 18, 1818 in Darlington , South Carolina ) was an American politician . Between 1793 and 1799 he represented the state of South Carolina in the US House of Representatives .

Career

Lemuel Benton moved to Darlington County in South Carolina at a young age . He became a successful planter and a large landowner there. During the War of Independence he was a soldier in the Continental Army from 1777 , in which he rose to colonel. After the war, Benton also began a political career. Between 1782 and 1788 he was a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives . Benton was a judge in Darlington County in 1785 and 1791. In 1788 he was a delegate to the convention that ratified the United States Constitution for the state of South Carolina . From 1789 to 1791 he was sheriff in the Cheraw district. He also participated in 1790 as a delegate to a meeting to revise the state constitution in Columbia .

As a member of the anti-administration faction, Benton was in opposition to the federal government led by President George Washington . He later joined the Democratic Republican Party founded by Thomas Jefferson . In the congressional election of 1792 he was elected to the US House of Representatives in the third constituency of South Carolina. There he took over from Daniel Huger on March 4, 1793 . After two re-elections he was able to complete three consecutive terms in Congress by March 3, 1799 .

In the elections of 1798 Lemuel Benton lost to Benjamin Huger of the Federalist Party . In the following years he worked again in agriculture. He died in Darlington on May 18, 1818. He was the great-grandfather of Congressman George W. Dargan (1841–1898).

Web links

• Lemuel Benton in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)