Edward Douglass White, the son of James and Mary (Willcox) White, was born in March 1795 in Maury County, middle Tennessee. His father was a native of Pennsylvania; his grandfather, of Ireland. In 1799 the family removed to Louisiana, settling in St. Martin Parish. After the transfer of Louisiana to the United States and the organization of the new territorial government, James White was appointed a district judge.
He attended common schools and in 1815 was graduated from the University of Nashville. Returning to Louisiana, he studied law in the office of Alexander Porter.
He began the practice of law at Donaldsonville. In 1825 he went to New Orleans to accept appointment as associate judge of the city court, but resigned that post in 1828 and removed to Lafourche Parish, where he owned a sugar plantation. He entered the federal House of Representatives in 1829, serving in the Twenty-first, Twenty-second, and Twenty-third congresses. He was opposed to Jackson in politics and is said to have become a personal friend of Henry Clay. In November 1834 he resigned his seat in Congress to seek election as governor of Louisiana; he was successful and served four years, 1835-39. Critical of Congress for seeming to neglect the welfare of his state, especially in matters of tariff protection for sugar planters and certain land claims, he advocated state legislative measures to provoke the attention of Congress. He approved the charter (1835) of the Medical College of Louisiana, the nucleus from which grew the Tulane University of Louisiana. Several bank failures occurred in New Orleans during his administration, and he effectively vetoed a bill to charter the Farmers' Bank in the panic year of 1837. He warned against the activities of the abolitionists. Before the expiration of his term as governor, he was again elected to Congress, holding the seat for two terms, 1839-43. Giving special attention to local interests, he worked to secure construction funds for the New Orleans mint, the refunding to Louisiana of "moneys paid by her for her militia serving in the Florida war several years ago, " relief of private land claimants, and the establishment of new ports of entry and the adoption of regulations to facilitate commerce between the Southwest and Mexico. Upon retiring from Congress, he resumed the career of lawyer-planter, spending the last years of his life at Thibodaux, La. He died in New Orleans about two years after the birth of this son, and was buried in St. Joseph's Catholic Cemetery at Thibodaux, La.
He was tenth Governor of Louisiana and a member of the United States House of Representatives. He served five non-consecutive terms in Congress, as an adherent of Henry Clay of Kentucky and the Whig Party. White was among the survivors of the steamboat Lioness explosion that occurred on the Red River south of Natchitoches on May 19, 1833.
He was a man of good humor, kindly disposition, and unusual common sense, with eccentricities which were the source of numerous anecdotes.
He married Catherine S. Ringgold of Washington, D. C. , and they had five children.
