George Washington CAMPBELL, Congress, TN (1769-1848)

CAMPBELL, George Washington, a Representative and a Senator from Tennessee; born in the parish of Tongue, Sutherlandshire, Scotland, February 9, 1769; immigrated with his parents to North Carolina in 1772; taught school; graduated from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) in 1794; studied law while teaching; admitted to the bar in North Carolina and commenced practice in Knoxville, Tenn.; elected as a Democratic Republican to the Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth Congresses (March 4, 1803-March 3, 1809); chairman, Committee on Ways and Means (Tenth Congress); one of the managers appointed by the House of Representatives in January 1804 to conduct the impeachment proceedings against John Pickering, judge of the United States District Court for New Hampshire, and in December of the same year against Samuel Chase, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States; judge of the State supreme court of errors and appeals 1809-1811; elected as a Democratic Republican to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Jenkin Whiteside and served from October 8, 1811, to February 11, 1814, when he resigned; appointed Secretary of the Treasury in the Cabinet of President Madison and served from February to October 1814, when he resigned because of ill health; again elected as a Democratic Republican to the United States Senate and served from October 10, 1815, until his resignation, effective April 20, 1818; chairman, Committee on Finance (Fifteenth Congress); Minister to Russia 1818-1821; member of the French Spoliation Claims Commission in 1831; died in Nashville, Tenn., February 17, 1848; interment in the City Cemetery.

Bibliography

Dictionary of American Biography; Jordan, Weymouth. George Washington Campbell of Tennessee, Western Statesman. Tallahassee: Florida State University Press, 1955.

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