William C. Price

William Cecil Price

William Cecil Price (born April 1, 1816 in Elk Garden , Virginia , † August 6, 1901 in Chicago , Illinois ) was an American lawyer and politician. He belonged to the Democratic Party . He also served as an officer in the Confederate Army . The Brigadier General Sterling Price (1809-1867) was his cousin.

Career

William Cecil Price, son of Luvina “Linnie” Cecil (1786–1868) and the farmer William “Crabtree” Price (1786–1852), was born and raised in Russell County about a year after the end of the British-American War . The family then moved to Missouri in 1836 and settled in Greene County . In the following years he attended Knoxville College in Tennessee before returning to Missouri. His student days were overshadowed by the economic crisis of 1837 . Price then taught as a teacher and worked as a clerk in a retail business. He also studied law . In 1840 he became Deputy Sheriff in Greene County. Price accepted an administrative position in Greene County Court in 1841 . He was admitted to the bar in 1844 and then began to practice. In 1847 he was elected probate judge at Greene County Court. His choice was overshadowed by the Mexican-American War .

Price was active in the slavery-advocate wing of the Missouri Democratic Party. He claimed that he had the idea that the Missouri Compromise needed to be lifted. In 1844 he traveled through Missouri. In doing so, he warned the slave owners of the dangers of their situation unless the Missouri Compromise was lifted. Price supported the leader of the pro-slavery Democrats of Missouri, Claiborne Fox Jackson (1806-1862), against the faction of Thomas Hart Benton (1782-1858) in the Democratic Party of Missouri. In this context, Price wrote the so-called Jackson Resolutions, which Claiborne Fox Johnson presented in December 1848 in the Missouri General Assembly . The Jackson Resolutions included the following: The actions of the Northern States released the slave states from any obligation to comply with the provisions of the Missouri Compromise. The people in every territory of the United States had the right to determine for themselves whether they would permit slavery. Any law of the US Congress that was in conflict with the Jackson Resolutions would force the slave-holding states to band together to protect themselves against the aggression of the northern states. At the time the Missouri Compromise was being debated in 1850, Price met Jefferson Davis (1808-1889), Judah Philip Benjamin (1811-1884) and Robert Augustus Toombs (1810-1885) in New Orleans . At that meeting, these pro-slavery Democrats decided that if slavery did not expand west, conflict with the north and the secession of the south would be inevitable. Price was elected to the Missouri Senate in 1854 . In 1857 he resigned from his Senate seat to take up the post of judge at the district court. The governor of Missouri Samuel Medaera (1801-1864) named 1859 Price for representatives of Missouri at the talks with the General Land Office on the use of the marsh and flooded areas. US President James Buchanan (1791–1868) appointed Price Treasurer of the United States in 1860 - a position that Price held from February 28, 1860 to March 21, 1861.

With the outbreak of the Civil War , Price joined a Missouri Confederate Brigade , which was under the command of his cousin Sterling Price. Price was captured by Union troops at the Battle of Pea Ridge between March 6 and 8, 1862 , and imprisoned near Alton, Illinois for eight months. He was then exchanged by the Confederation for a Union prisoner near Vicksburg ( Mississippi ). Confederate President Jefferson Davis then named him draft officer in Missouri with the rank of major . In 1864 he resigned from his post and moved to Arkansas . It was an attempt to improve his finances as a farmer.

After the war ended, he returned to Missouri and began practicing first in St. Louis and later in Springfield, Greene County. As a longtime member of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, Price became interested in theological issues as he grew older. Price has been described as a religious fanatic. He died in Chicago in 1901.

Web links

• William C. Price in the database of Find a Grave (English)
• William C. Price on the Kansas Bogus Legislature website