George A. Waggaman Explained

George Waggaman
Jr/Sr:United States Senator
State:Louisiana
Term Start:November 15, 1831
Term End:March 4, 1835
Predecessor:Edward Livingston
Successor:Robert C. Nicholas
Office1:Secretary of State of Louisiana
Governor1:Pierre Derbigny
Armand Beauvais
Jacques Dupré
Term Start1:1828
Term End1:1831
Predecessor1:Pierre Derbigny
Successor1:George Eustis Sr.
Birth Name:George Augustus Waggaman
Birth Place:Caroline County, Maryland, U.S.
Death Place:New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.
Party:National Republican
Spouse:Marie Arnoult
Children:5
Allegiance:United States
Branch:United States Army
Battles:War of 1812

George Augustus Waggaman (1782March 31, 1843) was a United States Senator from Louisiana. Born in Caroline County, Maryland, he completed preparatory studies under private tutors, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in Caroline County in 1811. He served in the War of 1812 under General Andrew Jackson at New Orleans and settled in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, commencing the practice of law in 1813. He was attorney general of the third district of Louisiana in 1813, judge of the third judicial circuit court in 1818, and assistant judge of the criminal court in New Orleans in 1819. He was interested in sugarcane growing and held the office of Secretary of State of Louisiana from 1830 to 1831.

Waggaman was elected as an anti-Jacksonian to the U.S. Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Edward Livingston and served from November 15, 1831, to March 4, 1835. He resumed the practice of law in New Orleans and again engaged in sugar cane planting. He participated as a principal in a duel with the former mayor of New Orleans, Denis Prieur, a political adversary, and received injuries from which he died in New Orleans in 1843; interment was in Girod Street Cemetery.

In 1840, Waggaman's daughter Christine eloped with a young Canadian lawyer, John Sandfield Macdonald, who made regular trips to Washington on behalf of the government of Upper Canada as Queen's messenger. She joined Macdonald in Upper Canada. He would go on to be joint Premier of the Province of Canada and the first Premier of Ontario.[1]

External links

|-

Notes and References

  1. [Bruce Hodgins|Bruce W. Hodgins]