Background
George W. Towns was born in Wilkes County, Ga. , the son of John and Margaret (George) Hardwick Towns, both natives of Virginia.
George W. Towns was born in Wilkes County, Ga. , the son of John and Margaret (George) Hardwick Towns, both natives of Virginia.
He attended the county academy and began the study of medicine in Eatonton, Ga. , but was forced to give it up, when thrown from his horse and seriously injured. He studied law in Montgomery, Ala.
He was admitted to the bar in 1824. Returning to Georgia in 1826, he settled in Talbot County, where he practised law. He served in the lower house of the state legislature, 1829-30, and in the Senate, 1832-34.
He was elected to Congress in 1834 as a Union Democrat but resigned on Septemper 1, 1836. Reelected he served from 1837 to 1839, when he dropped "Bonaparte" from his name.
He attained great success at the bar and made a good deal of money. His second wife also brought him a fortune and greatly enhanced his social position.
He was again elected to Congress in 1846 but was not reelected to succeed himself.
In 1847 he defeated Gen. Duncan L. Clinch for governor, and renominated by acclamation he defeated Edward Y. Hill in 1849.
Retiring from the governorship, he moved from Talbotton to Macon, Ga. , and renewed his law practice.
He died in Macon.
He was a bitter opponent of protective tariff and of federal aid to internal improvements. While opposed to protection, he also opposed the call of a southern convention and abhorred nullification. He attended the Georgia nullification convention of 1832 and played a leading part in obtaining the resolution asking South Carolina to retrace her steps.
He championed military and naval preparedness, defense against the Indians, the interests of the United States in Texas, and the removal of the Cherokee, while opposing protective tariff, federal aid for internal improvements, the Second Bank of the United States, the "American system, " and the Wilmot Proviso.
During his administration he led the fight for the amelioration of the slave code, obtained the adoption of the ad valorem system of taxation and the completion of the Western and Atlantic railroad; and he advocated the use of poll taxes, the revenue from the state railroad, and other revenue for common schools with the hope that Georgia might soon boast that she had no illiterate. He was a stanch supporter of the Mexican War and had, by 1849, become an extreme "fire eater. " He obtained from the legislature power to call a state convention, if Congress should pass the Wilmot Proviso or any similar legislation. He called the convention that adopted the "Georgia platform, " which became the position of the entire South. He also appointed the Georgia delegation to the adjourned Nashville convention, and he wrote the inscription, "The Constitution as it is, the Union as it was, " for Georgia's stone in the Washington monument.
By the end of his time in politics, Towns had become a radical secessionist who believed the federal government was controlled by abolitionists bent on repressing the South.
He was a man of marked business ability, genial nature, attractive manners, and public popularity. He was a man of principle, although timid and inclined to postpone difficulties; and he was a good fighter once he entered an encounter.
He was married twice: first to the sister of John W. Campbell of Alabama, and second to Mary Jones, the daughter of John Winston Jones, by whom he had seven children.