Weldon Nathaniel EDWARDS, Congress, NC (1788-1873)

EDWARDS, Weldon Nathaniel, a Representative from North Carolina; born in Gaston, Northampton County, N.C., January 25, 1788; attended Warrenton Academy; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1810 and commenced practice in Warrenton, N.C.; member of the State house of representatives in 1814 and 1815; elected as a Republican to the Fourteenth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Nathaniel Macon; reelected as a Republican to the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Congresses, elected as a Crawford Republican to the Eighteenth Congress, and as a Jacksonian to the Nineteenth Congress; and served from February 7, 1816, to March 3, 1827; chairman, Committee on Expenditures in the Department of the Treasury (Eighteenth Congress), Committee on Public Expenditures (Nineteenth Congress); declined to be a candidate for reelection in 1826; returned to his plantation; member of the State senate 1833-1844; member of the State constitutional convention in 1835; again elected to the State senate in 1850 and chosen its president; president of the State secession convention in 1861; died in Warren County, N.C., December 18, 1873; interment in a private cemetery at his home, “Poplar Mount,” about twelve miles from Warrenton, Warren County, N.C.

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