Background
Thompson was born in Leasburg, North Carolina in 1810. Nicholas Thompson, his father, went to North Carolina from Virginia as a humble tanner but by his own diligence as well as by his marriage to Lucretia Van Hook had acquired wealth.
(This report presented to Congress in 1846 covers the Cher...)
This report presented to Congress in 1846 covers the Cherokee Indians that resided west of the State of Arkansas are divided into three distinct parties, or factions, well known and distinguished by the terms of "old settlers," "treaty party," and .“anti-treaty, or Ross party." The "old settlers" and "treaty party," together, constitute about one- third of the Cherokee nation; and of course all the political power of the government is held and exercised by the anti-treaty or Ross party. The manner in which this power was obtained, and is now exercised, is the fruitful source of the discontents and complaints which have been brought to the consideration of Congress.
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Thompson was born in Leasburg, North Carolina in 1810. Nicholas Thompson, his father, went to North Carolina from Virginia as a humble tanner but by his own diligence as well as by his marriage to Lucretia Van Hook had acquired wealth.
His father, Nicholas decided to make a minister of his studious, quiet and rather ugly third son, Jacob, who could not summon courage to oppose his stern father until he was a student in the University of North Carolina. From that institution he graduated in 1831.
He remained for eighteen months as a tutor in the University of North Carolina. He read law in Greensboro and was admitted to the bar in 1835. Possibly because he had disagreed with his father, he chose to begin his career in a distant region and with his next elder brother, James Young Thompson, a physician, settled at the booming town of Pontotoc in north Mississippi. Later he removed to Oxford, Miss.
Both brothers prospered, and Jacob soon entered politics. In 1837 he was one of the leaders in the fight of the new counties of his section for immediate representation in the state legislature. The same year he was defeated for the attorney-generalship of the state, but he was soon elected to Congress, where he attained some prominence and was for a time chairman of the committees on public lands and Indian affairs.
After six terms, March 4, 1839 – March 3, 1851, he was defeated by a temporarily powerful combination of Whigs and Union Democrats. In the spring of 1845 an executive appointment to the Senate was sent him by Gov. A. G. Brown, but Robert J. Walker, to whom the commission was intrusted, did not deliver it and thereby caused a small political tempest in Mississippi. After playing an important part in the Democratic conventions of 1852 and 1856, he was appointed secretary of the interior in 1857. He reorganized this department to increase its efficiency and seems to have had considerable influence over President Buchanan.
He resigned because of his state-rights views, when the Star of the West was sent to Fort Sumter. Serving with the Confederate forces until the fall of Vicksburg, he became chief inspector of the army under Pemberton. In the autumn of 1863 he was elected to the legislature of Mississippi. In 1864 he and C. C. Clay were sent to Canada as secret agents of the Confederacy. From that base he cooperated with the "Sons of Liberty" of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois until convinced that this organization would not take up arms against the Union. After that he sought to free thousands of Confederate soldiers imprisoned near the Great Lakes and to encourage the hoarding and export of gold from the North so as to damage its financial strength. He even abetted plans for burning several northern cities, including New York.
An attack against Saint Albans, Vt. , by revengeful, escaped Confederate prisoners focused the fear and hatred of northern patriots on him. He, however, disclaimed any share in that episode. Being thus in the limelight when Lincoln was assassinated, it was natural that he should have been charged with complicity in that crime. A large reward was offered for his capture. With his wife, who joined him in Canada, he lived there and in Europe for several years. Certainly not earlier than the summer of 1868 he returned to Oxford. Soon after this he settled permanently in Memphis.
In 1876 he was for a short time brought out of private life when, as a political move to divert attention from the Belknap scandals, he was sued for a large sum stolen from the Indian funds of the department of the interior during his administration. Though the money had indeed been stolen, he had at the time been judged innocent by a congressional committee, and, as soon as the election of 1876 was over, the case was dismissed at the cost of the government. He died in Memphis.
(This report presented to Congress in 1846 covers the Cher...)
He married Catherine, the daughter of Paton Jones, a wealthy planter. They had one son.
