Alexander O. Anderson Explained

Alexander Outlaw Anderson
Image Name:Alexander O. Anderson (1794 – 1869).jpg
Jr/Sr:United States Senator
State:Tennessee
Party:Democrat
Term Start:February 26, 1840
Term End:March 3, 1841
Preceded:Hugh Lawson White
Succeeded:Spencer Jarnagin
Office1:Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court
Term Start1:April 6, 1852
Term End1:January 2, 1853
Predecessor1:Henry A. Lyons
Successor1:Alexander Wells
Birth Date:10 November 1794
Birth Place:Jefferson County, Tennessee (now Hamblen County, Tennessee)
Death Place:Knoxville, Tennessee
Spouse:
    Relations:Joseph Anderson, father; James W. Deaderick, cousin
    Alma Mater:Washington College
    Profession:Politician, Lawyer, Judge

    Alexander Outlaw Anderson (November 10, 1794May 23, 1869) was an American slave owner and attorney who represented Tennessee in the United States Senate, and later served in the California State Senate, and on the California Supreme Court.

    Early life

    The son of Patience Outlaw and longtime U.S. Senator Joseph Anderson, he was born at his father's home, "Soldier's Rest" in Jefferson County (now Hamblen County), Tennessee.[1] He was named for his maternal grandfather, frontiersman Alexander Outlaw (1738 - 1826).

    As a youth he graduated from Washington College near Greeneville, Tennessee. He volunteered for service in the War of 1812 and fought under Andrew Jackson in the Battle of New Orleans in 1815. Later that year he was admitted to the bar and began a practice in Dandridge, Tennessee. In 1821, Jackson was appointed Territorial Governor of Florida, and Anderson the United States district attorney of West Florida.[2] [3]

    Afterward, he moved to Knoxville, and then served as the superintendent of the United States United States General Land Office in Alabama in 1836. He was an agent in the Indian removals of 1838 for Alabama and Florida, and held a contract through 1848.[4] [5] [6]

    Senate and legal career

    In February 1840, Anderson was elected to the United States Senate by the Tennessee General Assembly to the vacancy caused by the resignation of Senator Hugh Lawson White. He was a member of the Whig party whose resignation was orchestrated by Governor James K. Polk so that a Democratic senator could be appointed.[7] [8] [9] [10] Anderson served in that body from February 26, 1840, to March 3, 1841, when the term expired.[11] [12] In May 1840, he was a delegate to the national Democratic Party convention in Baltimore, Maryland.[13] [14] Anderson did not stand for reelection to the seat; it was to remain vacant for a period when a group of Tennessee Democratic legislators called the "Immortal Thirteen" refused to meet and give a quorum sufficient to allow the election of a successor, apparently preferring no representation to that by a member of the other party, the Whigs.

    After leaving the Senate, Anderson remained active in politics. In September 1844, he published a series of letters on the admission of Texas as a new state, which were published as a book.[15] [16] In July 1847, he announced his support for Zachary Taylor of Louisiana as a candidate for President of the United States.[17]

    Anderson was a leader of an overland company of leaving from Independence, Missouri, and going to California in 1849.[18] [19] He served in the California State Senate in 1852 as a Democrat.[20] In February 1852, his name was put forward for U.S. Senator, but he lost the Democratic Party nomination.[21] He then was appointed by Governor John Bigler as an associate justice of the California Supreme Court, serving from April 6, 1852, to January 2, 1853, before returning to Tennessee in 1853 or 1854.[22] [23] [24] While in the California Supreme Court, he co-authored a ruling supporting the Fugitive Slave Act, writing, "Slaves are not parties to the Constitution, and although ‘persons,’ they are property."[25]

    Anderson later practiced law in Washington, D.C., appearing before both the Court of Claims and the Supreme Court of the United States.[26] During the American Civil War he returned to Alabama, practicing law in Mobile and Camden.[23] Again returning to Tennessee, he died in Knoxville on May 23, 1869, and is buried in the Old Gray Cemetery.[23]

    Personal life

    In 1821, he married Maria Hamilton in Washington, D.C., who died in 1825 in Jonesboro, Tennessee.[23] On June 7, 1825, he remarried married to Eliza Rosa Deaderick, his cousin, and they had 11 children.[23] She died October 15, 1866, in Knoxville, Tennessee.[27]

    See also

    References

    Retrieved on 2008-04-02

    External links

    Notes and References

    1. Web site: Historic American Buildings Survey . Historical and Descriptive Data . Rural Mount, Hamblen County, TN . U.S. Dept. of the Interior . August 10, 2017.
    2. Book: Tennessee Blue Book. 1890. Tennessee Secretary of State. 25. August 9, 2017. Year 1821.
    3. Book: Force. Peter. A National Calendar ..., Volume 3. 1822. Davis and Force. 135. August 9, 2017. State Governments, The Floridas, Officers Appointed by the President in the Floridas..., Alexander Anderson, of Tennessee, to be Attorney of the United States for West Florida, and for that part of East Florida which lies westward of the Cape, to reside in Pensacola..
    4. Book: Senate Documents, Otherwise Publ. as Public Documents and Executive Documents: 14th Congress, 1st Session-48th Congress, 2nd Session and Special Session, Volume 3. 1845. Gales and Seaton. Washington, DC. 7. August 10, 2017. Discussion of the contract status from 1843 to 1845.
    5. News: The Report of the Commissioners of Indian Affairs. August 9, 2017. The New York Herald. Library of Congress Historic Newspapers. January 6, 1848. 6. Under the circumstances stated in my report of last year, the contract for their removal made on the 5th September, 1844, with Alexander Anderson and others, and which expired by limitation on the 31st December 1846, was extended to the 1st day of June last; yet, at the end of the period of extension there were nearly as many remaining East as had gone West..
    6. Book: Calhoun. John Caldwell. Wilson. Clyde N.. The Papers of John C. Calhoun, Volume 21. 1993. Univ of South Carolina Press. Columbia, SC. 0872498891. 302. August 10, 2017.
    7. Book: Borneman, Walter R.. Polk: The Man Who Transformed the Presidency and America. Random House, Inc.. 2008. New York. 978-1-4000-6560-8. 43. registration.
    8. News: Tennessee. August 9, 2017. Lexington Union (Lexington, MS). Library of Congress Historical Newspapers. February 14, 1840. 2. Mr. Anderson is a tried and true Democrat-so we go..
    9. News: Tennessee Senator. August 9, 2017. The North-Carolinian. Library of Congress Historic Newspapers. February 22, 1840. 3.
    10. News: Tennessee Senator. August 9, 2017. The Ohio Democrat and Dover Advertiser. Library of Congress Historic Newspapers. February 21, 1840. Judge White...He is one of the old school Republicans.
    11. News: Twenty-Sixth Congress. August 9, 2017. The North-Carolina Standard (Raleigh, NC). Library of Congress Historic Newspapers. March 4, 1840. 3. On the 26th, Mr. Grundy presented the credentials of the Honorable Alexander Anderson.
    12. News: U.S. Senate. August 9, 2017. Salt River Journal (Bowling Green, MO). Library of Congress Historic Newspapers. May 30, 1840. 2.
    13. News: National Democratic Convention. August 9, 2017. The North-Carolina Standard (Raleigh, NC). Library of Congress Historic Newspapers. May 13, 1840. 3.
    14. News: National Democratic Convention. August 9, 2017. The North-Carolinian (Fayetteville, NC). Library of Congress Historic Newspapers. May 16, 1840. 1.
    15. News: Letter of Alexander Anderson. August 9, 2017. The Daily Madisonian (Washington, D.C.). Library of Congress Historic Newspapers. September 16, 1844. 3.
    16. News: Gen. Anderson's Letter. August 9, 2017. The Daily Madisonian (Washington, D.C.). Library of Congress Historic Newpspapers. September 20, 1844. 2.
    17. News: Taylor Meeting at Knoxville. August 9, 2017. Boon's Lick Times (Fayette, MO). Library of Congress Historic Newspapers. July 10, 1847. 1. Gen. A came out boldly for old Rough and Ready..
    18. News: Intelligence by the Mails. August 9, 2017. The New York Herald. Library of Congress Historic Newspapers. February 11, 1849. 3.
    19. News: For California. August 9, 2017. The Daily Crescent (New Orleans, LA). Library of Congress Historic Newspapers. February 22, 1849. 2.
    20. News: Democratic Meeting in Sonora. August 9, 2017. Sacramento Transcript. 17. California Digital Newspaper Collection. 18 April 1851. 3. 2.
    21. News: Grand Democratic Caucus for U.S. Senatorial Candidate. August 9, 2017. Daily Alta California. 31. California Digital Newspaper Collection. 1 February 1852. 3. 5.
    22. News: California's First Supreme Court. August 9, 2017. San Francisco Call. California Digital Newspaper Collection. 22 June 1895. 5.
    23. Book: Johnson. J. Edward. History of the California Supreme Court: The Justices 1850-1900, vol. I. 1963. Bender-Moss Co.. San Francisco, CA. 46–47. August 9, 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20161227124913/http://library.courtinfo.ca.gov/included/docs/SCJC_Vol_1.pdf. December 27, 2016. dead. mdy-all.
    24. Book: Durham. Walter T.. Volunteer Forty-niners: Tennesseans and the California Gold Rush. 1997. Vanderbilt University Press. Nashville, TN. 0826512984. 142. August 10, 2017.
    25. Web site: Egelko. Bob. 2021-12-27. How 'free state' California wrote slavery and white supremacy into its law books. 2022-01-15. San Francisco Chronicle. en-US.
    26. News: Court of Claims. August 9, 2017. Washington Sentinel. Library of Congress Historic Newspapers. July 19, 1855. 2. The following gentlemen...have been sworn in as attorneys of this court, viz: Alexander Anderson.
    27. Book: Moon. Anna Mary. Sketches of the Shelby, McDowell, Deaderick, Anderson families. 1933. 102. general alexander anderson.. August 10, 2017.

    This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Alexander O. Anderson".

    Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.