In 1839 James Orr entered the University of Virginia, where he began the study of law. Returning to South Carolina he completed his law studies in the office of Joseph N. Whitner and was admitted to the bar when he became of age.
In 1839 James Orr entered the University of Virginia, where he began the study of law. Returning to South Carolina he completed his law studies in the office of Joseph N. Whitner and was admitted to the bar when he became of age.
Address Delivered Before The Literary Societies Of Erskine College, Abbeville District, S. C.: By The Appointment And At The Request Of The ... Seventh Anniversary, September 16, 1846 ...
The slavery agitation. Speech of Hon. J. L. Orr, of South Carolina, in the House of representatives, May 8, 1850, in Committee of the whole on the ... transmitting the constitution of California
James Lawrence Orr was an American diplomat and politician. He served as the 22nd Speaker of the United States House of Representatives and the 73rd Governor of South Carolina.
Background
James Lawrence Orr was born on 12 May 1822 in Craytonville, now Anderson County, South Carolina. He was the son of Martha McCann Orr, a daughter of Irish emigrants, and Christopher Orr, a prosperous merchant. He was the brother of Jehu Amaziah Orr. His great-grandfather Robert Orr emigrated from Ireland to Bucks County, Pennsylvania, about 1730 and later removed to Wake County, North Carolina.
Education
James Orr's early years were spent in schools near his home and as a clerk in his father's store. In 1839 he entered the University of Virginia, where he began the study of law. Returning to South Carolina he completed his law studies in the office of Joseph N. Whitner and was admitted to the bar when he became of age.
James Orr started his carrier with editing the Anderson Gazette, a weekly newspaper. Within two years he abandoned journalism to devote himself to politics and to become the law partner of J. P. Reed. The court records of Anderson for the period show that this firm enjoyed nearly half the law business of that district. In 1844, at the age of twenty-two, he became a member of the state legislature, where he served until 1848. In that body, he distinguished himself as the opponent of the parish system and as the champion of the popular election of presidential electors, internal improvements, and the reform of the public schools. Although a believer in the right of secession, he opposed the Bluffton movement, which would have committed the state to another nullification experiment.
In 1848, after an exciting canvass, he was elected to Congress, where he served until 1859. In Congress, he was largely instrumental in stifling the secessionist tendencies of his state. Although he had voted against the compromise measures of 1850, the following year he canvassed the state against the advocates of immediate secession and won a signal victory. This gave him the opportunity to organize the South Carolina branch of the National Democratic party. He was able to bring about the defeat of R. B. Rhett for reelection to the United States Senate and to get himself chosen the head of the state's delegation to the National Democratic Convention of 1856, where he supported the policies of Stephen A. Douglas. These actions, coupled with his opposition to Know-Nothingism, made him very popular in the North, and he was elected speaker of the federal House of Representatives in 1857.
Orr was mentioned as a possibility for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1860 and was president of the state convention of April 1860, in which he stressed the value of the Union and prevented the delegates to the national convention from being instructed for secession. Nevertheless, he changed his views to meet the changing sentiment of his state. Already he had overstepped himself, having been defeated for the United States Senate in 1858 for quoting a famous phrase of Webster on nullification. He withdrew from the National Democratic Convention of 1860 with the other South Carolina delegates and ardently championed the withdrawal of the state from the Union. He signed the ordinance of secession, was one of the three commissioners sent to Washington to negotiate for the possession of the Charleston forts, organized Orr's Regiment of Rifles for service under the Confederacy, and, after a brief and undistinguished military career, was elected a Confederate States senator in December 1861. In this capacity, he served until the fall of the Richmond government.
Realizing that the defeat of the Confederacy was inevitable, Orr was among the first who prepared for the problems of Reconstruction. He quarreled with President Davis and in 1864 advocated a negotiated peace. Espousing the Reconstruction policies of President Johnson, he played a prominent part in the state constitutional convention of 1865 and was elected governor by a small majority. As governor, he pursued a compromising policy. He advocated modification of the notorious "black code" and provision for restricted negro suffrage, and he headed the state's delegation to the Union National Convention of 1866. Yet when Congress refused to accept these overtures, in a defiant mood he advised the state legislature to reject the Fourteenth Amendment. Changing his course again when he saw that congressional Reconstruction would be applied to the South, he shrewdly attempted to accommodate the state to the inevitable. He cooperated with the military officers, advised the whites to accept the Reconstruction Act, and made a statesmanlike address before that Radical state constitutional convention of 1868.
Losing the confidence of the whites, he joined the Radical party. He was elected to the circuit bench in 1868 and served until 1870. He supported Grant's Ku-Klux policy before the Republican National Convention of 1872, and the president appointed him to minister to Russia.
James Lawrence Orr served as a Democratic Congressman from South Carolina from 1849 to 1859, serving as the Speaker of the House from 1857 to 1859. Congressman Orr was an advocate of states' rights who used his position of power to assist those persons who promoted the continuation of slavery. He opposed the annexation of Utah and New Mexico, and the admission of California into the Union, and resisted all compromise measures except the Fugitive Slave Law.
Personality
James Orr's phenomenal success as a politician was largely due to unusual personal qualities. Although he was neither elegant in manners nor learned, his powerful physique, ringing voice, and intelligent face gave him an air of distinction. Genial and generous, he was liked even by his political enemies. Unlike most South Carolinians of his day, he accurately understood Northern public opinion and knew when it was expedient to accommodate his views to it. Had his advice been followed, South Carolina would have escaped many of its misfortunes. Yet his faults were patent. He changed his views too frequently to inspire popular confidence. His enemies were correct in ascribing this to ulterior motives, for every move he made redounded to his personal advantage in the form of some new public office.
Connections
On November 16, 1843, James Orr married to Mary Jane Marshall Orr, the daughter of Samuel Marshall of Abbeville District.