Mississippians in Washington

STATEHOOD
Mississippi was admitted to the Union as the twentieth state on December 10, 1817, during the first year of the first administration of President James Monroe. The first two U.S. Senators from Mississippi in the 15th Congress were Walter Leake from Red Bluff and Thomas Hill Williams from the town of Washington, site of the General Assembly meeting which sent both men to Washington, D.C. Both men took their seats one day after statehood on December 11, 1817. As determined by lot, Senator Leake's term expired on March 3, 1821, and Senator Williams' term expired on March 3, 1823. Mississippi originally had only one member in the U.S. House of Representatives: George Poindexter from Woodville. He took his seat on December 15, 1817.
Leake resigned from the Senate in 1820 and served as Governor of Mississippi from 1821 until his death in 1825. Williams was reelected to the Senate in 1823 and served until 1829.

Poindexter, who had served as a Delegate from the Mississippi Territory to the 10th, 11th, and 12th Congresses, later served as Governor (1819-1821) and Senator (1830-1835). He was considered a brilliant orator and engaged in longstanding feuds with Daniel Webster. Poindexter also is noted for chairing the committee which drafted Mississippi's first state constitution.

David Holmes, Governor of the Mississippi Territory from 1809 to 1817 and the first Governor of the state of Mississippi, was appointed to fill the vacancy caused by Leake's resignation in 1820. Holmes had Washington experience, having served as a Representative from Virginia from 1797 to 1809. Holmes served in the Senate until September 25, 1825, when he resigned.

ANTEBELLUM
The first Mississippian in the President's cabinet was Robert J. Walker, a Pennsylvanian who had made his home in Natchez. Walker served as Secretary of the Treasury (1845-1849) under President James K. Polk. Walker was elected to the U.S. Senate from Mississippi in 1835 as an ardent supporter of Andrew Jackson. He resigned ten years later in 1845 to join Polk's cabinet. Later, Jacob Thompson served as Secretary of the Interior in the administration of President James Buchanan. Thompson had served as a U.S. Representative from Mississippi from 1839 to 1851. Interestingly, Thompson declined a gubernatorial appointment to fill the vacancy in the Senate caused by Robert J. Walker's resignation in 1845.

By far, the most well known Mississippian to serve in the cabinet before the Civil War is Jefferson Davis, who was President Franklin Pierce's Secretary of War. While Davis achieved fame as President of the Confederate States of America, he represented Mississippi in Washington as a member of both the House and the Senate. Davis was elected as a Representative to the 29th Congress in 1845 and served one year before resigning to command the First Regiment of Mississippi Riflemen in the war with Mexico. He distinguished himself at Monterrey with General Zachary Taylor and at Buena Vista. In 1847, Davis was appointed to the U.S. Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Jesse Speight. He became a leading defender of states rights. Davis was subsequently elected, and in 1851 he resigned from the Senate and ran for governor unsuccessfully. After serving as Pierce's Secretary of War from 1853 to 1857, Davis was again elected to the U.S. Senate where he served from 1857 until Mississippi seceded from the Union in January 1861. A statue of Davis stands today in Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol.

Other noteworthy Mississippians who served their state in Washington before the Civil War include John Anthony Quitman, A.G. Brown, and Henry S. Foote. Quitman was a Representative in the 34th and 35th Congresses from 1855 until his death in 1858 on his plantation, Monmouth, near Natchez, presumably from poison secretly placed in food served at a banquet in Washington, D.C. Quitman has been called the "father of secession in Mississippi" for his role as an advocate of secession in 1832 at the state constitutional convention, in 1850 as governor, and finally as a congressman in the late 1850s.

Albert Gallatin Brown had already served both in the state legislature and Congress before he was elected governor at the age of 31 in 1844. Brown had a reputation for never saying an unkind word about anyone, and was reelected governor in 1846. In 1848, he went back to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he remained until he became a U.S. Senator in 1854. Brown and his colleague, Jefferson Davis, withdrew from the Senate in January 1861 along with the rest of the Mississippi delegation. During the Civil War, he served in the First and Second Confederate Congresses.

Henry Stuart Foote served as a U.S. Senator from 1847 until 1852 when he resigned to become governor (1852-1854). Foote, who as a Senator supported Henry Clay's Compromise of 1850, was bitterly opposed in the 1852 gubernatorial election by states rights advocate Quitman. The two even had a fist fight. When a convention voted for Mississippi to stay in the Union, Quitman quit the race for governor. Jefferson Davis, Mississippi's other Senator, opposed the Compromise of 1850 and became the nominee of the states rights faction. He lost narrowly to Foote. In 1854, Foote was an unsuccessful candidate for U.S. Senate by one vote. He moved to California, and in 1856 lost a Senate election from that state, again by one vote. Foote returned to the South and represented Tennessee in the Confederate Congress. He later moved to Washington, D.C. to practice law and was appointed by President Rutherford B. Hayes as superintendent of the mint at New Orleans, where he served from 1878 until his death in 1880.

A pair of brothers represented Mississippi in Congress, but not at the same time. William Barksdale was elected to the House of Representatives as a states rights candidate in 1853. His attitude toward the North is best indicated by the fact that he accompanied and protected Preston Brooks of South Carolina when the Carolinian caned abolitionist Charles Sumner in the Senate chamber in 1856. William Barksdale remained in Congress until the Civil War. He was killed in the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863.

William's brother, Elberth Barksdale, was a member of both Confederate Congresses (1861-1865) and later was elected to two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1883 to 1887.

AFRICAN AMERICANS IN CONGRESS
Blacks in the South became politically active soon after their emancipation and the close of the Civil War. The Reconstruction Act of 1867 and the ratification of the 15th Amendment finally enabled blacks to win seats in Congress, more than seven decades after the founding of the federal government.

Hiram Revels of Mississippi became the first African-American ever to serve in Congress when he took his seat in the Senate on February 25, 1870, two days after Mississippi was readmitted to the Union. Revels was born of free parents, attended college, and became an ordained minister of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. He settled in Natchez in 1866, and in 1869 was elected to represent Adams County in the state senate. On January 20, 1870, Revels was chosen by the Mississippi legislature to fill the unexpired term of former Confederate president Jefferson Davis in the U.S. Senate. A year after Revels' term expired on March 3, 1871, he became the first president of Alcorn University, the first land-grant college in the United States for black students.

Blanche K. Bruce was the first African-American ever to serve a full term in the U.S. Senate. In the 1870s, he was the most recognized black political leader in Mississippi. In 1874, the Mississippi legislature elected Bruce to the U.S. Senate. Although slighted by his Mississippi colleague, James L. Alcorn, Bruce won the friendship and support of Republican senators such as Roscoe Conkling (for whom Bruce would name his only child), and he enjoyed a more amicable relationship with Alcorn's successor, L.Q.C. Lamar. On February 14, 1879, during debate on a Chinese exclusion bill that he opposed, Bruce became the first black senator to preside over a Senate session. Whites recaptured political control, and in 1880 James Z. George was chosen to succeed Bruce. President James Garfield appointed Bruce registrar of the treasury, where he served until 1885. President Benjamin Harrison appointed Bruce recorder of deeds for the District of Columbia in 1889. After leaving this office in 1893, Bruce was a trustee of the public schools in Washington, D.C., and again registrar of the treasury from 1897 until his death in Washington on March 17, 1898.

John R. Lynch was the first black Mississippian in the U.S. House of Representatives-and the only one for over 100 years. In 1872, at the age of 24, Lynch was chosen Speaker of the Mississippi House of Representatives. That same year, twenty-five-year old Lynch was elected to the 43rd Congress, and he was sworn in on March 4, 1873. He spoke and worked for House passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1875. In 1876, Lynch was defeated by James R. Chalmers, a former Confederate general and cavalry commander. In 1880, Lynch lost a controversial election again to Chalmers, but successfully appealed the decision to the House and finally was seated as a member of the 47th Congress on April 29, 1882. That same year, Henry S. Van Eaton, a Confederate veteran, defeated Lynch by 900 votes in the next congressional election.

Although his congressional career had ended, Lynch remained deeply involved in political life. In 1884 and 1886, he unsuccessfully attempted to regain his seat in the House. From 1881 to 1892, he was chairman of the Republican state executive committee and was a member of the Republican National Committee from Mississippi from 1884 to 1889. At the Republican National Convention in Chicago in 1884, Lynch became the first black American to deliver the keynote address at a national political convention. Later, Lynch move to Chicago and in 1913 published The Facts of Reconstruction, an account of his participation in the politics of post-Civil War Mississippi. He died in Chicago in 1939 at the age of 92.

The Constitution of 1890 effectively disenfranchised most blacks in Mississippi. Another black from the state would not be elected to Congress until 1987 when Mike Espy, a native of the Mississippi Delta, was sworn into the House of Representatives over 100 years after John R. Lynch.

LATTER 19th CENTURY POLITICIANS
In the last quarter of the 19th century, the most influential Mississippian in Washington was Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar. L.Q.C. Lamar is the only Mississippian to serve in the U.S. House, U.S. Senate, as a member of the president's cabinet, and as a Supreme Court Justice. He served two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives before the Civil War, and although a firm supporter of states rights, he was not an extremist. He was elected to the House again in 1872, serving there until his election to the Senate in 1876. He resigned from the Senate in 1885 to become President Grover Cleveland's Secretary of the Interior. Three years later, in 1888, Cleveland appointed Lamar to the U.S. Supreme Court, where he remained until his death in 1893. Lamar is the only Mississippian who has served on the nation's highest court.

Lamar helped heal divisions in North and South when in 1874 he delivered a moving eulogy of Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, who was one of the most hated enemies of the South. Before a packed gallery and a full House of Representatives, Lamar astounded the nation with a plea for an end to sectional bitterness. He said, for example, "Let us hope that future generations, when they remember the deeds of heroism and devotion done on both sides, will speak not of Northern prowess and Southern courage, but of heroism, fortitude, and courage of Americans in a war of ideas; a war in which each section signalized its consecration to the principles, as each understood them, of American liberty and of the constitution received from the founding fathers."

Perhaps the greatest name of a 19th century politician from Mississippi is Hernando De Soto Money, who was both a Representative and Senator in Washington. A Civil War veteran and newspaper editor in Winona, Money was sent by Mississippi to Washington as a Representative from 1875 to 1885, and again from 1893 to 1897. He was appointed to fill the vacancy in the U.S. Senate caused by the death of James Z. George in 1897, and served there until 1911. Money was minority leader in the Senate from 1909 to 1911. He died in 1912.

Also noteworthy for his service in the U.S. House from Mississippi is Charles E. Hooker, a Harvard Law School graduate and Confederate veteran who lost an arm during the siege of Vicksburg. A Jackson attorney, Hooker served in Congress from 1875 to 1883, and again from 1887 to 1895. Finally, he was elected to the 50th Congress which met from 1901 to 1903. In all, Hooker served nine terms in the House of Representatives over a 28-year span.

One of the most colorful House members in the late 19th century was "Private" John Allen from Tupelo, who served eight terms in Congress from 1885 to 1901. According to historian John K. Bettersworth, "He was a nationally known wit, whose quips and yarns entertained a generation of Americans. His nickname came from the fact that, at a time when everybody in politics seemed to have been nothing less than a brigadier general in the Civil War, Allen boasted that he had been one of the few privates, if not the only one."

James Z. George, who was a member of both the Mississippi secession convention in 1861 and the constitutional convention of 1890, was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1880 and served until his death in 1897. He was known among his constituents as "the Great Commoner." He played an important role in framing the Sherman Antitrust Act and worked for aid to education and civil service reform. George is one of the two Mississippians (along with Jefferson Davis) honored with a statue in the U.S. Capitol.

George's colleague, Edward C. Walthall was appointed to the Senate when L.Q.C. Lamar resigned to join President Cleveland's cabinet in 1885. He served through 1894, when he resigned, but was again elected in 1895. Walthall, a Confederate major general from Holly Springs, died in office in 1898, and his funeral service was held in the chamber of the U.S. Senate. Anselm McLaurin was appointed in 1894 to serve the last year of Walthall's term. McLaurin was governor from 1895 to 1900, and from 1900 until his death in 1909, he again represented Mississippi in the U.S. Senate.

EARLY 20th CENTURY LEADERS
John Sharp Williams, whose grandfather had been a U.S. Representative from Tennessee, represented Mississippi for nearly a quarter century in Washington, first in the House and later in the Senate. He served eight terms in the House (1893-1909), the last three as minority leader. Williams, a plantation owner from Yazoo City, was elected to the Senate in 1910 and remained there until 1923. Sharp has the distinction of being the first U.S. Senator in the nation to be elected by popular ballot.

In the 20th century, Mississippi has had a number of long-serving members of the U.S. House of Representatives. John Rankin of Tupelo, a World War I veteran, served in the U.S. House from 1921 to 1953. He is remembered as one of the fathers of the Tennessee Valley Authority. Rankin was defeated by fellow Congressman Thomas G. Abernathy in 1952 in a race that pitted two sitting members against each other due to the loss of a seat after reapportionment.

Another long serving member of the House of Representatives was William M. Colmer of Pascagoula. First elected in the Roosevelt wave of 1932, he served 40 years through 1972. Thomas G. Abernethy, who defeated Rankin in 1952, served 30 years from 1943 to 1973. Colmer, Abernathy, and Rankin, all three sitting House members, lost to John C. Stennis in a special election for the Senate in 1947. In addition, William Arthur Winstead, a Philadelphia farmer and educator, was elected to 11 terms in the House, from 1943 to 1965. John Bell Williams, a pilot in World War II, was elected in 1946 and subsequently reelected until he resigned in 1968 to become governor of Mississippi.

Two of Mississippi's most distinguished statesmen of the 20th century, Pat Harrison and John C. Stennis, entered the Senate after the departure of arguably the two most racist politicians in Mississippi history. In 1918, Harrison, who had served four terms in the U.S. House (1911-1919), defeated the incumbent James K. Vardaman. Vardaman, who earned the nickname "The Great White Father" for his ardent support of white supremacy, was a former governor whose political mistake was to oppose U.S. entry into World War I.

Byron Patton (Pat) Harrison served in the U.S. Senate from 1911 until his death in 1941. As chairman of the Finance Committee in 1935, he guided the Social Security Act to passage. According to historian Bettersworth, "Harrison was on his way to a high position in (Democratic) party affairs, only to be passed over as majority leader in 1937 by Franklin D. Roosevelt, much of whose New Deal legislation he had piloted through the Senate." Harrison lost by one vote, his colleague, Theodore G. Bilbo, being one of those voting "nay."

Theodore G. Bilbo's name is synonymous with racism and populism in Mississippi politics. Having twice served as governor (1916-1920, 1928-1932), Bilbo's political career was thought to be over, but he made a surprise comeback by winning a seat in the U.S. Senate in 1934. He was reelected in 1940 and 1946. When he returned to Washington for his third term, Bilbo was denied his seat due to allegations he accepted bribes. Subsequently, he was diagnosed with cancer and died in 1947.

POST WORLD WAR II STATESMEN
The contrast between Bilbo and his successor in the Senate could hardly be greater. John C. Stennis, a former state legislator and judge who defeated three Congressmen in a special election in 1947, became a legend in American politics. Whereas Bilbo was denied a seat by his fellow Senators, Stennis was perhaps the Senator who earned the highest marks from his colleagues. They referred to him as "the conscience of the Senate" and "a Senator's senator." Stennis adopted a simple motto early in his political career that became his creed and the foundation for his steadfast devotion to honesty and hard work in every task he undertook: "I will plow a straight furrow right down to the end of my row."

Stennis served over four decades (1947-1989) in the Senate and advised eight presidents from Truman to Reagan. Only two senators in American history have served longer than Stennis, and none with more distinction. Known for his integrity and personal judgment, Stennis wrote the first code of ethics for the Senate and became the first chair of the Senate Committee on Ethics. At different times, he chaired two of the most powerful committees in the Senate: Armed Services and Appropriations. An expert on national security issues, Stennis was honored by President Ronald Reagan who named an aircraft carrier for him. This achievement is placed in context when considering the fact that the previous three carriers were named for Theodore Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, and George Washington. Stennis died in 1995 at the age of 93 after spending nearly 60 years under the oath of office.

Stennis'colleague in the Senate for most of his tenure was James O. Eastland. In fact, Eastland and Stennis represented Mississippi concurrently in the Senate for 31 years, the longest period of simultaneous service of any state in the Union. Eastland was appointed to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Pat Harrison in 1941. He was not a candidate in the special election, which was won by Wall Doxey, a member of the House since 1929. In 1942, Eastland defeated Doxey in the race for a full term in the U.S. Senate. According to historian Charles Lowery, Eastland "was the dominant influence in Mississippi politics during the racially turbulent 1950s and 60s. One of the most formidable congressional defenders of racial segregation in America, he achieved national attention as the iron-fisted chairman (1956-1978) of the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee, which under his control was for years the graveyard of civil rights legislation." He was also a leader in agriculture and national security. As president pro tempore of the Senate in the early 1970s, he became Acting Vice President twice, after the resignations of vice presidents Spiro Agnew and Gerald Ford. In this capacity, Eastland held the highest national office ever by a Mississippian. Eastland served six terms, or 36 years, before choosing not to seek reelection in 1978.

When Doxey resigned from the House of Representatives in 1941 to run in the special election for Senate, the winner of the special election to replace Doxey was young Jamie L. Whitten, a thirty-one-year-old lawyer from Charleston. He took office on November 4, 1941, about a month before Pearl Harbor spurred America's entry into World War II. Whitten became the longest-serving member of the House by the time he retired in 1994. His record setting tenure of 53 years and two months spanned more than one-fourth of the entire history of Congress. As chairman of the powerful Appropriations Committee, he developed a reputation for protecting the interests of Mississippi on Capitol Hill. As chair of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Rural Development and Agriculture, Whitten earned the title of "permanent Secretary of Agriculture." Whitten and Stennis both are credited with securing the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway, one of the largest public works projects ever undertaken in the nation. Unlike former Representative Private John Allen, Whitten was not known for making entertaining speeches on the floor of the House or for seeking the spotlight. He was adept at striking deals with his fellow congressmen and with presidents. Whitten died in 1995.

Perhaps the most beloved member of the House in the last half of the 20th century is Gillespie V. Montgomery, who was known affectionately as "Sonny." Sonny Montgomery, who spent ten years in the state senate (1956-1966), was first elected to Congress in 1966 and served 30 years in the U.S. House of Representatives. He served 14 terms on the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, including 14 years as its chairman. He served 12 terms on the Armed Services Committee. A decorated war veteran himself, he was most known for the Montgomery-GI Bill which continues to help millions of veterans afford a college education. Montgomery was one of the nation's leading champions of a strong defense and a strong advocate for veterans' rights. Friendly by nature, he was also one of the most liked members among his colleagues. Montgomery died in 2006.

CONTINUING THE LEGACY
The legendary Stennis and Eastland were succeeded in the Senate by men who have distinguished themselves in the tradition of Mississippians in Washington. Thad Cochran won the Senate election to succeed Eastland in 1978, after serving three terms in the U.S. House. When Stennis did not seek reelection in 1988, Trent Lott, who like Cochran entered the House in 1972, won the election. In 1996, Lott became majority leader in the Senate-the first Mississippian to hold the Senate's top post. In 2004, Lott was elected chairman of the Joint Congressional Committee for Inaugural Ceremonies, becoming the first Mississippian to oversee the inauguration of the President of the United States, including the swearing-in ceremony and the traditional inauguration luncheon. No longer the majority leader, Lott chairs the Rules and Administration Committee and the Joint Committee on Printing.

Cochran, the senior senator from Mississippi, has served as the second ranking member in the Senate.  Cochran has served as Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference; the Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee; and the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee. He currently serves in a role considered the most powerful in the Senate - as Chairman of the full Appropriations Committee. Cochran is also a member of the Rules Committee.   



Sources
Bettersworth, John K. Mississippi: A History. The Steck Company. Austin, Texas. 1959
Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress, 1774-1971. 11th edition. Compiled under the
Direction of the Joint Committee on Printing. Congress of the United States. Government Printing Office. 1971.
Mississippians in the U.S. Senate. Internet home page of U.S. Senator Thad Cochran. 1998.
Ragsdale, Bruce A. and Treese, Joel D. Black Americans in Congress, 1870-1989. Office of the Historian. U.S. House of Representatives. Written under the Direction of the Commission on the Bicentenary of the U.S. House of Representatives. Government Printing Office. 1990.