Thomas Butler King

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Thomas Butler King

Thomas Butler King (born August 27, 1800 in Palmer , Hampden County , Massachusetts , †  May 10, 1864 in Waresboro , Georgia ) was an American politician . Between 1839 and 1850 he represented the state of Georgia in the US House of Representatives twice .

Career

Thomas King was the younger brother of Henry King (1790-1861), who sat between 1831 and 1835 for the State of Pennsylvania in Congress , and the father of J. Floyd King (1842-1915), who was between 1879 and 1887 Congressman from Louisiana was. He enjoyed private training and then attended Westfield Academy . After studying law and being admitted to the bar in 1822, he began working in his new profession in Waynesville (Georgia) in 1823 . In 1824 he married Anna Paige, the daughter of a plantation owner, with whom he had ten children. After the death of his parents-in-law, the couple inherited the "Retreat Plantation" that King managed. However, he lost this property to his creditors in the 1830s after a crisis in the cotton market. Thomas King has also been involved in canal and railroad projects. At the same time he began a political career.

Between 1832 and 1837 he was a member of the Georgia Senate on several occasions . In 1833 he was a delegate to a meeting to revise the state constitution. At that time he was a member of the Whig Party , whose regional conventions in Georgia he attended as a delegate in 1835 and 1843. In 1844 he also took part in the Whigs federal party conference. In 1836 he ran unsuccessfully for Congress. In the state-wide held congressional elections of 1838 he was elected for the seventh seat in Georgia in the US House of Representatives in Washington, DC , where he succeeded George Towns on March 4, 1839 . After re-election, he was able to complete two legislative terms in Congress until March 3, 1843 . These were overshadowed by the discussions about a possible annexation of the Republic of Texas , which had been independent of Mexico since 1836 . The dispute between his party and US President John Tyler also weighed on the work of Congress. In the elections of 1842 Thomas King was not confirmed.

In the congressional elections of 1844 he was then re-elected to Congress to succeed Alexander Stephens in the first constituency of Georgia. After two re-elections, he could remain in the House of Representatives until his resignation on March 3, 1850. During this time the Mexican-American War fell . From 1847 to 1849 King was Chairman of the Naval Committee.

After retiring from Congress, King headed the tax authority in the Port of San Francisco between 1850 and 1852 . He then worked for some time as a lobbyist for the Southern Pacific Railroad . After returning from California , he was re-elected to the Georgia Senate in 1859. After the dissolution of his party, he had now joined the Democrats . In 1860 he was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in Baltimore . At the beginning of the Civil War , he toured Europe on behalf of the State of Georgia and the Confederate Government to represent their trade interests. Then King returned to Georgia. He died in Waresboro on May 10, 1864.

Web links

  • Thomas Butler King in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)