Bedford Brown

A Senator from North Carolina; born in Caswell County, N.C., near Greensboro, June 6, 1795; graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1813; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1815 but did not practice; planter; elected to the house of commons of North Carolina in 1815, 1816, 1817, and 1823; member, State senate 1828-1829; elected in 1829 as a Jacksonian (later Democrat) to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of John Branch; reelected in 1835 and served from December 9, 1829, until November 16, 1840, when he resigned, because he would not obey the instructions of the general assembly of North Carolina; chairman, Committee on Agriculture (Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth Congresses), Committee on Revolutionary Claims (Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth Congresses), Committee to Audit and Control the Contingent Expense (Twenty-fifth Congress); again elected to the State senate in 1842; unsuccessful candidate for election to the United States Senate in 1842; moved to Missouri in 1843; subsequently moved to Virginia; returned to North Carolina and engaged in agricultural pursuits; member, State senate 1858-1860; delegate to the reconstruction convention in 1865; again elected to the State senate in 1868, but was not permitted to take his seat; died at “Rose Hill,” Caswell County, N.C., near Greensboro, December 6, 1870; interment in the family cemetery at ‘Rose Hill.’

Bibliography

Dictionary of American Biography; Jones, Houston. Bedford Brown: States Rights Unionist. Carrolton, Ga.: West Georgia College, 1955.