Background
Peyton, Balie was born on November 26, 1803 in near Gallatin, Tennessee, United States.
Diplomat politician representative
Peyton, Balie was born on November 26, 1803 in near Gallatin, Tennessee, United States.
After his preparatory studies, he studied law, was admitted to the bar, and commenced practicing in Gallatin in 1824.
Elected as a Jacksonian to the Twenty-third Congress and re-elected as a Hugh Lawson White Anti-Jacksonian supporter to the Twenty-fourth Congress, Peyton served from March 4, 1833 to March 3, 1837. Peyton moved to New Orleans in 1841, having been appointed the United States. Attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana, a position he held for four years from 1841 to 1845. Family life for Peyton was shattered by the fatal illness of his thirty-four-year-old wife in New Orleans in 1845.
Nationally known for the fine racehorses bred on his farm, Peyton had promoted and staged the Peyton Stake, a futurity race for colts and fillies dropped in the spring of 1839.
Held at Nashville in 1843, the race attracted international attention because the purse was the largest that had ever been offered in America or Europe. Peyton then served as an aide-de-camp on the staff of General West.J. Worth during the United States.-Mexican War.
Peyton was appointed as Envoy to Chile by President Zachary Taylor, from August 9, 1849 to September 14, 1853, when he resigned. He moved to California, where he was the Prosecuting Attorney for San Francisco from 1853 to 1859.
Returning to Gallatin in 1859 and practicing law, Peyton resided on his Station Camp Creek farm.
He was a presidential elector on the Constitutional Union ticket of John Bell and Edward Everett in 1860. In 1866, he was an unsuccessful candidate to the Fortieth Congress. Peyton again resumed practicing law before dying on his farm near Gallatin on August 18, 1878 (age 74 years, 265 days).
He is interred at the family burying ground on his estate.
He was the brother of United States. Representative Joseph Hopkins Peyton.
He was a member of the Tennessee Senate between 1869 and 1871.