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, âMonmouth,â 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
