Background
LANDER, William was born on May 9, 1817 in Tiparo, Ireland, United States. Son of Samuel and Eliza Ann (Miller) Lander.
LANDER, William was born on May 9, 1817 in Tiparo, Ireland, United States. Son of Samuel and Eliza Ann (Miller) Lander.
Private school.
His family moved to the United States in 1818 and settled somewhere in the Northeast. They moved to Lincolnton, North Carolina, in 1826. The younger Lander, whose parents were members of the Church of England, attended Lincolnton Academy and the Cokesburg, South Carolina, Methodist School during the 1820s.
He read law under James R. Dodge, was admitted to the bar in 1839, and built up a large practice in Lincolnton. He also owned a small plantation. He had four children by his marriage to Sarah Connor on May 8, 1839.
Lander was elected to the North Carolina House in 1852, and from 1852 to 1862, he served as solicitor for the state Circuit Court. A Democrat and a pronounced secessionist, he attended the Democratic national convention in Charleston in 1860. He supported John C. Breckinridge for the presidency in 1860.
As a delegate to the North Carolina secession convention, he voted for the Ordinance of Secession and continued to serve in the convention until he resigned in 1862 to enter the Confederate House. An active supporter of the Davis administration, Lander served on the Patents, War and Tax, and Quartermaster’s Committees. Because of his radical views on pursuing the war effort, he was defeated for reelection by a moderate.
Lander played no further role in the Confederate war effort. After the war, he returned to his law practice in Lincolnton.
"Peculiar institution" of slavery was not only expedient but also ordained by God and upheld in Holy Scripture.
Stands for preserving slavery, states' rights, and political liberty for whites. Every individual state is sovereign, even to the point of secession.