Background
Gabriel Moore was the son of Matthew and Letitia (Dalton) Moore and the grandson of John and Frances (Jouett) Moore of Albemarle County, Virginia. He was born on January 1, 1785, in Stokes County, North Carolina.
Gabriel Moore was the son of Matthew and Letitia (Dalton) Moore and the grandson of John and Frances (Jouett) Moore of Albemarle County, Virginia. He was born on January 1, 1785, in Stokes County, North Carolina.
Moore removed to Huntsville, Mississippi Territory, about 1810 and entered upon the practice of law. He was soon sent to represent Madison County in the legislature of the territory. After he had served in this capacity for several years the territory was divided in 1817, and Madison County became a part of the new Territory of Alabama. He continued as a representative under the new jurisdiction and was at once elected to the speakership of the lower house of the Assembly. When Alabama became a state he sat in the convention of 1819 that framed her constitution. Immediately thereafter he was elected to the upper house of the new legislature, served in 1819 and 1820, and was chosen speaker in 1820. In 1821, he was sent to Congress and continued to hold this place until 1829 when he was elected without opposition to the governorship of Alabama. Alabama had been a supporter of the Jackson movement from its incipiency, and he was one of the local leaders in the cause. He had an ear for popular favor and was accused of the usual electioneering practices of his partisans. It was said that he made a habit of condemning his opponents as aristocrats and appealing to the reason of his adherents on the hustings through the agency of potent spirits. It was as a thoroughgoing Jacksonian that he was elected to the chief magistracy of his state, and his gubernatorial policy was in keeping with his pretensions.
In 1831, he resigned the governorship in order to take a seat in the Senate of the United States. In this body, he voted against the confirmation of Van Buren as minister to the Court of St. James's, and thus broke definitely with the Jackson party. The Alabama legislature requested his resignation, but, in spite of his support of the doctrine of instruction, while he was governor, he now refused to comply and continued in his seat until the expiration of his term in 1837. During this year, he ran again for the House of Representatives, but the Jackson forces were arrayed against him, and he was defeated. Having thus brought an end to his political life in Alabama, he removed to Texas in 1843. He is supposed to have died at Caddo in that state two years later, but there is a curious uncertainty in respect to this event.
Moore advocated the graduation system for the sale of public lands, deprecated the nullification movement in South Carolina, and proposed that the congressional delegation from Alabama be instructed to vote against the recharter of the Bank of the United States. In local affairs, he took an active interest in the beginning of the construction of the canal around Muscle Shoals and in the opening of the state university, both of which events occurred during his administration. He was also much interested in the establishment of a separately organized supreme court for the state, in the revision of the penal code, and in the establishment of a penitentiary.
Moore was married to a Miss Callier of Washington County, Alabama, but an immediate divorce followed. This led to a duel with the bride's brother, who was slightly wounded in the affray. It appears that Moore never married again.