Alexander Contee HANSON, Congress, MD (1786-1819)

HANSON, Alexander Contee, (grandson of John Hanson), a Representative and a Senator from Maryland; born in Annapolis, Md., February 27, 1786; attended local private schools and graduated from St. John’s College, Annapolis, in 1802; studied law; admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Annapolis, Md.; member, State house of delegates 1811-1815; established and edited the Federal Republican, an extreme Federalist newspaper, in Baltimore, and on June 22, 1812, four days after war was declared, a mob, irritated by his articles denouncing the administration, destroyed the office; when he issued the paper from another building in late July, he was seriously injured by a mob; moved the paper to Georgetown, D.C., where he published it unmolested; moved to Rockville, Md.; elected as a Federalist to the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Congresses and served from March 4, 1813, until his resignation in 1816; unsuccessful candidate in 1816 for election to the State house of delegates; elected as a Federalist to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Robert G. Harper and served from December 20, 1816, until his death on his estate, ‘Belmont,’ near Elkridge, Howard County, Md., April 23, 1819; interment in the family burial ground.

Bibliography

American National Biography; Dictionary of American Biography; Hanson, Alexander Contee. Reflections Upon the Late Correspondence Between Mr. Secretary Smith, and Francis James Jackson. Baltimore: Privately published, 1810.

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