Background
Benjamin Fitzpatrick was born in Greene County, Georgia, the son of William and Anne (Phillips) Fitzpatrick. His forebears came originally from Virginia. His father served in the Georgia legislature for nineteen years.
Benjamin Fitzpatrick was born in Greene County, Georgia, the son of William and Anne (Phillips) Fitzpatrick. His forebears came originally from Virginia. His father served in the Georgia legislature for nineteen years.
Bereft of both of his parents at the age of seven, his education was severely limited; in fact, he never attended school more than six months.
He studied law in the office of Judge N. E. Benson and was admitted to the bar at the age of twenty-one years.
He removed to Alabama in 1816, while it was yet a part of Mississippi Territory, to assist in the planting interests of his elder brothers whose lands lay on the east side of the Alabama River about six miles above Montgomery.
He studied law in the office of Judge N. E. Benson and was admitted to the bar at the age of twenty-one years. Soon afterward he formed a professional partnership with Henry Goldthwaite of Montgomery. His legal success is attested by the fact that he was soon elected solicitor of the Montgomery district, in which position he served for two terms. Ill health led him to retire in 1827 to a plantation which he had acquired in the Alabama Valley about six miles west of Montgomery.
For twelve years he engaged exclusively in planting, developing one of the most attractive estates in the region. Here, "surrounded by all the comforts wealth can bring, he dispensed a boundless hospitality" (Brewer, post, p. 240).
During the year that Fitzpatrick abandoned law for planting he married Sarah Terry Elmore, a member of one of the most distinguished families of the state, and by his marriage also became the brother-in-law of Dixon H. Lewis, the state's most powerful state-rights leader and a member of Congress from 1829 until his death in 1848. This union laid the basis of Fitzpatrick's political fortunes.
In 1840 he was called out by the Democratic party convention to stump the state for Martin Van Buren, who was being sorely pressed by the Whigs. He showed himself a man of unusual talents in this campaign and was chosen by his party for the governorship before the end of the year.
He was elected the following year over James W. McClung, an independent Whig candidate. He was reelected without opposition for a second term. Fitzpatrick's messages to the legislature were remarkable documents for one who had never had the advantage of schools. His administration is notable for the overthrow of the state banking system which had degenerated into a public evil.
At the end of his second term he repaired again to his plantation, and, his first wife having died in 1837, in 1846 he was married to Aurelia Rachel Blassingame of Marion, Alabama. From planting he was called back into politics in 1848 by Governor Chapman to fill the unexpired term of Dixon H. Lewis, in the United States Senate.
In 1853 he was appointed by Governor Collier to fill the vacancy in the federal Senate caused by the resignation of William R. King who had been elected vice-president of the United States. Two years later he was elected to the Senate for a full term of six years.
His high standing in that body is indicated by the fact that he was chosen president pro tempore in 1857 and served in that capacity till 1860.
The National Democratic Convention, held at Baltimore in 1860, offered him the nomination for vice-president on the Douglas ticket. This he declined, probably because there was no chance for victory, though he himself declared that he could not run with Douglas because he did not approve the "squatter sovereignty" doctrine.
Fitzpatrick was by nature conservative and imperturbable. Though a personal and political friend of Yancey, he opposed the latter's "Alabama Platform" and ranged himself by the side of King, Winston, Collier, Campbell, and Hilliard to prevent Yancey and Samford from taking Alabama out of the Union in 1850.
Though an ardent Southerner, he held steadfastly to the view, down to the outbreak of hostilities, that secession was not the proper remedy for the South's grievances, well founded though they were.
But when secession came he withdrew from the federal Senate and supported wholeheartedly the Southern cause. When the war was over he undertook to help reconstruct the state in a manner acceptable to President Johnson, but was for a time imprisoned with other prominent leaders.
He was elected the following year over James W. McClung, an indepenent Whig candidate. He was reelected without opposition for a second term.
Fitzpatrick was by nature conservative and imperturbable. Though a personal and political friend of Yancey, he opposed the latter’s “Alabama Platform” and ranged himself by the side of King, Winston, Collier, Campbell, and Hilliard to prevent Yancey and Samford from taking Alabama out of the Union in 1850. Though an ardent Southerner, he held steadfastly to the view, down to the outbreak of hostilities, that secession was not the proper remedy for the South’s grievances, well founded though they were.
But when secession came he withdrew from the federal Senate and supported wholeheartedly the Southern cause. When the war was over he undertook to help reconstruct the state in a manner acceptable to President Johnson, but was for a time imprisoned with other prominent leaders.
Fitzpatrick was by nature conservative and imperturbable.
During the year that Fitzpatrick abandoned law for planting he married Sarah Terry Elmore, a member of one of the most distinguished families of the state, and by his marriage also became the brother-in-law of Dixon H. Lewis, the state's most powerful state-rights leader and a member of Congress from 1829 until his death in 1848.
At the end of his second term he repaired again to his plantation, and, his first wife having died in 1837, in 1846 he was married to Aurelia Rachel Blassingame of Marion, Alabama.