Hugh Lawson White

A Senator from Tennessee; born in Iredell County, N.C., October 30, 1773; moved with his parents in 1785 to that part of North Carolina which now is Knox County, Tenn.; participated in an expedition against the Cherokees around 1793; pursued classical studies in Philadelphia, Pa., and studied law in Lancaster, Pa.; admitted to the bar in 1796 and commenced practice in Knoxville, Tenn.; judge of the State superior court 1801-1807; member, State senate 1807-1809; appointed United States district attorney in 1808; judge of the State supreme court 1809-1815; president of the State bank; member, State senate 1817-1825; elected in 1825 as a Jacksonian to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Andrew Jackson; reelected in 1829 and then in 1835 as an Anti-Jacksonian (later Whig) and served from October 28, 1825, to January 13, 1840, when he resigned because he could not conscientiously obey the instructions of his constituents; served as President pro tempore of the Senate during the Twenty-second and Twenty-third Congresses; chairman, Committee on Indian Affairs (Twentieth through Twenty-sixth Congresses); died in Knoxville, Tenn., April 10, 1840; interment in First Presbyterian Church Cemetery.

Bibliography

American National Biography; Dictionary of American Biography; Gresham, L. Paul. “The Public Career of Hugh Lawson White.” Ph.D. dissertation, Vanderbilt University, 1943; Scott, Nancy, ed. A Memoir of Hugh Lawson White. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott and Co., 1856.