Background
FOOTE, Henry Stuart was born on September 20, 1800 in Fauquier County, Virginia, United States, United States. Son of Richard Helm and Jane (Stuart) Foote.
FOOTE, Henry Stuart was born on September 20, 1800 in Fauquier County, Virginia, United States, United States. Son of Richard Helm and Jane (Stuart) Foote.
Private school, southern university.
He graduated from Washington College in Lexington, Virginia, in 1819 and was admitted to the Richmond bar in 1822. He moved to Alabama in 1823 and began his law practice. Foote was an Episcopalian.
He was married twice—to Elizabeth Winters, whose family was from Virginia, and, upon her death, to Mrs. Rachel D. Smiley. He moved to Mississippi after a duel and there he set up his law practice and became a planter. He edited The Mississippian in Jackson in 1832.
He served at least one term in the Mississippi legislature during the 1840s. Interested in Texas affairs, he wrote a history of Texas and the Texans in 1841. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1847 and was a pronounced unionist who defended slavery and supported the Compromise of 1850.
In 1851, as a Whig he won the gubernatorial election over Jefferson Davis and served until 1854. He moved to California in 1854 but returned to Vicksburg in 1858. Shortly thereafter he moved to Tennessee.
In 1859, he opposed secession as a member of the Southern convention in Knoxville, Tennessee. During the war, he represented Tennessee in both Confederate Houses where he opposed conscription, wanted to draft foreigners, supported a curb on speculation, condemned martial law, and criticized the Davis administration for not pursuing a vigorous war effort in the west. He served on the Foreign Affairs, Illegal Seizures, and Special Committees.
He was censured in Congress for consorting with the Union troops and was expelled from that body in 1864. In 1865, he called for peace and was called a traitor to the Confederacy. Foote ran to Montreal after the war and later moved back to Tennessee.
He also practiced law in Washington, D.C., and became a Republican during the 1870s. From 1878 to 1880, he was superintendent of the U.S. mint in New Orleans.
"Peculiar institution" of slavery was not only expedient but also ordained by God and upheld in Holy Scripture.
Stands for preserving slavery, states' rights, and political liberty for whites. Every individual state is sovereign, even to the point of secession.