Hugh Swinton LEGARÉ, Congress, SC (1797-1843)
LEGARÉ, Hugh Swinton, a Representative from South Carolina; born in Charleston, S.C., January 2, 1797; attended Charleston College and the school of Rev. Moses Waddell at Abbeville; was graduated from the College of South Carolina (now University of South Carolina) at Columbia in 1814; studied law 1814-1817; pursued further studies in Paris and Edinburgh in 1818 and 1819; admitted to the bar in 1822 and commenced practice in Charleston, S.C.; member of the State house of representatives 1820-1821 and 1824-1830; one of the founders and editor of the Southern Review 1828-1832; attorney general of South Carolina 1830-1832; Chargé d’Affaires to Brussels 1832-1836; elected as a Democrat to the Twenty-fifth Congress (March 4, 1837-March 3, 1839); unsuccessful candidate for reelection; resumed the practice of law in Charleston; Attorney General of the United States in the Cabinet of President Tyler from September 13, 1841, until his death; also filled the office of Secretary of State ad interim from May 8, 1843, up to the time of his death, in Boston, Mass., June 20, 1843; interment in Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Mass.; reinterment in Magnolia Cemetery, Charleston, S.C.
O’Brien, Michael. A Character of Hugh Legaré . Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 1985; Rhea, Linda. Hugh Swinton Legaré; A Charleston Intellectual . Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1934.
Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present
