John Anthony QUITMAN, Congress, MS (1798-1858)

QUITMAN John Anthony , a Representative from Mississippi; born in Rhinebeck, Dutchess County, N.Y., September 1, 1798; pursued classical studies and was graduated from Hartwick Seminary in 1816; instructor in Mount Airy College, Pennsylvania, in 1818; studied law; was admitted to the bar; moved to Chillicothe, Ohio, in 1820, and thence to Natchez, Miss., in 1821, where he practiced law; member of the State house of representatives in 1826 and 1827; chancellor of the State from 1828 until 1835, when he resigned; member of the State constitutional convention in 1832; served in the State senate in 1835 and 1836 and was made its president; Acting Governor of Mississippi in 1835 and 1836; judge of the high court of errors and appeals in 1838; during the Mexican War was appointed a brigadier general of Volunteers July 1, 1846; commissioned a major general in the Regular Army April 14, 1847, and honorably discharged July 20, 1848; Governor of Mississippi in 1850 and 1851; elected as a Democrat to the Thirty-fourth and Thirty-fifth Congresses and served from March 4, 1855, until his death on his plantation, ``Monmouth,'' near Natchez, Miss., July 17, 1858, presumably from the effects of National Hotel disease contracted in Washington, D.C., during the inauguration of President Buchanan; chairman, Committee on Military Affairs (Thirty-fourth and Thirty-fifth Congresses); interment in the Natchez City Cemetery.

Bibliography

Claiborne, John Francis Hamtramck. Life and Correspondence of John A. Quitman. 2 vols. New York: Harper and Bros., 1860; May, Robert E. John A. Quitman: Old South Crusader. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1985.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present