Speech Of John A. Quitman Of Mississippi: On The Subject Of The Neutrality Laws (1856)
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John Anthony Quitman was an American lawyer, soldier, and champion of state rights.
Background
John Anthony Quitman was born on September 1, 1798 in Rhinebeck, New York City, New York, United States. He was the third son of the Rev. Frederick Henry Quitman and Anna Elizabeth (Hueck) Quitman, the former a licentiate of the University of Halle and for twelve years a Lutheran pastor in Curacao, W. I.
Education
John Quitman was educated by his father, who intended him for the ministry, by private tutors, and at Hartwick Academy, Otsego County, New York, where he was also a tutor.
Career
In 1818 John Quitman became adjunct professor of English at Mount Airy College, Germantown, Pa. , where he utilized an opportunity to study Spanish under a native teacher. Finding that he had no vocation for the ministry, he resolved to study law and proceeded westward, stopping first at Chillicothe and later at Delaware, Ohio, where he began his legal studies, at the same time holding a clerkship in the government land office. In 1821 he was admitted to the bar. For some time his eye had been on the South, and by the end of that year he had settled at Natchez, Miss. , and begun practice. Quitman was active in Masonry and his connection therewith doubtless contributed not a little to his professional and political progress. From 1826 to 1838 and again in 1840 and 1845 he was Grand Master of the Mississippi Masons.
Meanwhile, in 1827 he was elected to the lower house of the state legislature (session of 1828), where he served on the judiciary committee. From 1827 until 1835 he held the office of chancellor and during that period he was also chairman of the judiciary committee of the constitutional convention of 1832. He earnestly advocated submitting the convention's work to the people for ratification, managed to secure nineteen votes for his proposal as against twenty-six to the contrary, and succeeded in providing for popular approval of subsequent amendments. In 1834 he became identified with the political group known as "Nullifiers" who held the views expressed by the Nullification leaders in South Carolina. He prepared an address in their behalf, which was adopted May 21, 1834, by a convention of "Nullifiers" at Jackson. While the sentiments therein set forth were not then popular in Mississippi he was nevertheless elected to the state Senate in 1835, became its president on December 3, and until January 7, 1836, was acting governor. When he was a candidate for Congress in 1836, however, he was defeated. About this time he was offered and declined the position of judge of the high court of errors and appeals.
Turning aside for the time from the political arena, he recruited and led a company called the "Fencibles" to the relief of the Texans in their struggle with Mexico, but took part in on actual fighting. Returning from this expedition, he was appointed brigadier-general of the Mississippi militia. His interest in military affairs continued until practically the end of his life. In 1839 he visited Europe and was particularly interested in "Old Bailey" and the Inns of Court at London. Returning to Mississippi, he devoted himself to his law practice, which had become highly lucrative. In the controversy over the bonds issued by the state in aid of the Union Bank, which in 1843 agitated the electors, he took his stand against repudiation. Three years later, when the Mexican War began, he was given a commission as a brigadier-general of volunteers and served under General Taylor. He took part in the battle of Monterey and the investment of the Mexican capital, and his command was the first to enter the city upon its surrender. General Scott thereupon appointed him governor of the city, with high civil and military powers, and on April 14, 1847, he was promoted major-general.
Returning to the United States, he visited Washington and submitted to President Polk a carefully wrought plan for the permanent occupation of Mexico. He also visited Charleston, S. C. , where he was accorded signal honors by the Grand Lodge of Masons and was elected an active member of the Scottish Rite Supreme Council. n 1848 his name was placed before the National Democratic Convention at Baltimore for the vice-presidential nomination, but although he is said to have had "more personal strength and popularity in that body than any other" candidate, he was not nominated. He was later chosen as a presidential elector, however, and in the following year, governor of Mississippi. His term, beginning January. 10, 1850, was a stormy one, with the slavery question growing daily more acute. He opposed the compromise measures of 1850 and after their adoption by Congress called a session of the legislature to take measures of protest.
Meanwhile Quitman had become interested in the liberation of Cuba, and Lopez, a leader of the movement for independence, visited him at Jackson and offered him command of the revolutionary forces. This he declined, on the ground that to accept it would be desertion of the pro-slavery cause; but it was evident that the Cuban junta had his moral support, and he with others was indicted by a federal grand jury at New Orleans for violating the neutrality laws. He thereupon resigned the office of governor, deeming it incompatible with the sovereignty of Mississippi for the governor "to be detained as a prisoner by another authority", but the case against him was dismissed after a third failure to convict a co-defendant. He continued, however, his correspondence with the junta.
In 1851 he was again a candidate for governor, on an anti-compromise platform, but he withdrew after the election of delegates to the convention had resulted in a large "Union" majority. Jefferson Davis was named as the state-rights candidate and defeated. Elected to Congress, Quitman began to serve Mar. 4, 1855. On Apr. 29, 1856, he delivered an extended speech advocating repeal of the neutrality laws. He was reelected to Congress. He died on July 17, 1858 at his home "Monmouth Plantation, " near Natchez, after several months of illness. The decline of his health was ascribed by some of his friends to poisoned food which he had eaten at the National Hotel in Washington. His death was the occasion of numerous tributes, not the least of which was the "Lodge of Sorrow" held at the Unitarian Church in Washington, Mar. 30, 1860, in connection with the session of the Scottish Rite Supreme Council.
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Membership
John Quitman was an active member of the Scottish Rite Supreme Council. He was also a member of the Scottish Rite Supreme Council.
Connections
On December 24, 1824, John married Eliza Turner, daughter of a highly respected and well-to-do citizen. They had eight children, two of whom died in childhood.