Willis Alston

Willis Alston (* 1769 near Littleton , Halifax County , Province of North Carolina , † April 10, 1837 ibid) was an American politician from North Carolina .

Alston claims to have attended Princeton College , but no official records exist. He also did agricultural work. In 1790 he was elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives, where he remained for two years. He was then elected to the North Carolina Senate in 1794 for a term .

In 1798, Alston was elected a federalist to the US House of Representatives; while he defeated the predecessor Thomas Blount and two other candidates. He stayed there from March 4, 1799 to March 3, 1816. At the beginning of Jefferson's tenure as US President , he changed parties and joined the Democratic Republicans . As a result, the federalists recruited former Governor William Richardson Davie in 1803 and placed him as Alston's challenger, but to no avail. During his tenure in Congress , he chaired the House Committee on Revisal and Unfinished Business ( 13th Congress ). In the April 1813 election, he defeated challenger Daniel Mason, the short-lived Peace Party candidate , with the smallest margin (56% to 44%) in all of his re-elections. Alston retired after the end of the term.

He was then re-elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives, of which he was a member from 1820 to 1824. He was then elected to Congress as Jackson Democrat in 1825 and confirmed two more times. He worked there from March 4, 1825 to March 3, 1831, at the end of which he was a democrat . During this time he chaired the Committee on Elections ( 21st Congress ). He decided against re-election in 1830 and went about his agricultural work.

Willis Alston died in 1837 on his Butterwood plantation near Littleton, where he was also buried.

Web links

• Willis Alston in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)
• Willis Alston on Our Campaigns page