Seth Barton (attorney) explained
Seth Barton (December 5, 1795 - December 29, 1854) was an American attorney and government official who was active in Alabama and Louisiana. He served the federal government as Solicitor of the United States Treasury and Chargé d'affaires in Chile.
Biography
Barton was born in Baltimore, Maryland on December 5, 1795, the son of shipping merchant Seth Barton and Sarah Emerson (Maxwell) Barton.[1] [2] He attended Washington and Lee University, where he studied law and attained admission to the bar.[3]
In 1821 he relocated to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where he continued to practice law and became involved in the newspaper business.[4] [5] He apparently served in the militia, in that he was often referred to in correspondence and press accounts as "Colonel", though the exact details of his military service are not currently known.[6] [7]
Barton was elected to the Alabama House of Representatives in 1825.[8]
In 1828 Barton was an unsuccessful candidate for the United States House of Representatives.[9]
Barton moved to New Orleans, Louisiana in 1830, where he continued to practice law[10] [11] as a partner of Judah P. Benjamin.[12] In 1843 he ran unsuccessfully for the Louisiana House of Representatives,[13] and in 1844 he supported James K. Polk for President, including writing letters to the editor under the pen name John Randolph of Roanoke.[14]
Polk, as President, rewarded Barton with an appointment as Solicitor of the Treasury, where he served from 1845 to 1847.[15] [16] [17] [18]
Barton served as U.S. Chargé d'affaires in Chile from 1847 to 1849.[19] While at this post he created controversy by marrying a local woman in a Protestant service. The leaders of Chile's Catholic Church were angered because as a Protestant and a man who had been divorced, they believed Barton to be violating church tenets by marrying Isabel Astaburruaga, who was Catholic.[20] [21] [22]
After leaving office, Barton resumed practicing law in New Orleans as the partner of Pierre Soulé.[23] He died of yellow fever in New Orleans on December 29, 1854.[24]
Notes and References
- The United States in Latin America: A Historical Dictionary, by David Shavit, 1992, page 18
- Web site: Dictionary of Louisiana Biography . September 26, 2017 . LA History.org . Louisiana Historical Association . Baton Rouge, LA.
- https://archive.org/details/catalogueofoffic00washrich/page/68 Catalogue of the Officers and Alumni of Washington and Lee University
- Matrimonial Problems of Seth Barton: An Ante-Bellum American 'Diplomat' in Chile . James Morton . Callahan . Arkansas Historical Quarterly . 4 . 4 . 1945 . 285–306 . 10.2307/40018363 . 40018363 .
- Memorial Record of Alabama, published by Brant & Fuller, Chicago, 1893, page 170
- Book: Shurbutt, Thomas Ray . 1991 . United States-Latin American Relations, 1800-1850: The Formative Generations . Tuscaloosa, AL . University of Alabama Press . 253 . 9780817304829 . President James Polk had already appointed Colonel Seth Barton as the new chargé to Santiago..
- Book: Oeste, George Irvin . 1966 . John Randolph Clay: America's First Career Diplomat . Philadelphia, PA . University of Pennsylvania Press . 278 . Colonel Seth Barton, a personal friend of the President, was of a quarrelsome disposition and totally unfitted for a diplomatic post..
- https://archive.org/details/historyalabamaa02owengoog/page/n133 Seth Barton entry
- https://archive.org/details/historyalabamaa02owengoog/page/n133 Robert Emmett Bledsoe Baylor entry
- The Papers of Henry Clay, by Henry Clay, edited by James Franklin Hopkins and Robert Seager, 1973, page 672
- https://archive.org/details/alabamaherhisto01brewgoog/page/n566 Alabama, Her History, Resources, War Record, and Public Men: From 1540 to 1872
- Book: Shurbutt, Thomas Ray . 1991 . United States-Latin American Relations, 1800-1850: The Formative Generations . Tuscaloosa, AL . University of Alabama Press . 253. 9780817304829 .
- News: Niles . Hezekiah . July 15, 1843 . The States of the Union: Louisiana . Miles' Weekly Register . Baltimore, MD . 310.
- Web site: Biography: Barton, Seth . Dictionary of Louisiana Biography . Louisiana Historical Association . November 10, 2015 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20101013043600/http://www.lahistory.org/site19.php . October 13, 2010 .
- https://books.google.com/books?id=BvFr1WKWDskC&pg=PA93 Correspondence of James K. Polk: July-December 1845
- https://books.google.com/books?id=GaksAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA203 The Bench and Bar of the South and Southwest
- https://archive.org/details/registerdepartm00statgoog/page/n13 Register of the Department of Justice
- https://books.google.com/books?id=qXonmIMRI4oC&pg=PA524 The Papers of Jefferson Davis: June 1841-July 1846
- The Mission of Colonel Seth Barton, United States Chargé D'Affaires to Chile, 1847-1849, by Thomas Ray Shurbutt, 1967
- https://books.google.com/books?id=RNDz_yVajZwC&pg=PA308 Parley P. Pratt: The Apostle Paul of Mormonism
- https://books.google.com/books?id=MCXJnAmnfFAC&pg=PA124 Rendering Unto Caesar: The Catholic Church and the State in Latin America
- https://books.google.com/books?id=aw_1aaE0Fb4C&pg=PA310 Freedom and Religion in the Nineteenth Century
- News: January 6, 1855 . Death of Hon. Seth Barton . . Washington, DC . 2 . subscription . Newspapers.com.
- https://books.google.com/books?id=uw8wAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA19 American Biographical Notes
