Background
He was born on February 18, 1804 in Georgetown, District of Columbia, United States, the son of John Wilkes and Rachel (Belt) Pratt.
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He was born on February 18, 1804 in Georgetown, District of Columbia, United States, the son of John Wilkes and Rachel (Belt) Pratt.
It is probable that he went to the College of New Jersey (Princeton), although he did not graduate and the college records of the period are too incomplete to prove his attendance. He read law in the office of Richard S. Coxe in Washington.
He settled in Upper Marlboro, Prince George's County, Maryland. Shortly afterward he embarked upon a career of public service, which, with brief intermissions, lasted through his entire life. In 1832 he entered the lower house of the state legislature, where he sat until 1835.
In 1836 he was a member of the Maryland electoral college for the selection of a Senate at a critical period, when nineteen Democratic members revolted against an inequitable system of representation. His candidacy for presidential elector on the Whig ticket in 1836 met with success, although the Whig candidate was defeated. From 1838 to 1842 he served as a member of the state Senate. He was responsible for making payment of the state debt the crucial issue in the gubernatorial campaign of 1844, when as the Whig nominee he advocated, unequivocally, the discharge of the state's obligations.
Though he settled down at Annapolis after his gubernatorial term to resume his law practice, he was not allowed to remain in private life, for in 1850 he became a federal senator in the place of Reverdy Johnson, who had resigned to become attorney-general. At the close of that term he received election in his own right for a full term.
After his term in Washington he returned to Annapolis but remained only until 1864, when he removed to Baltimore. During the Civil War he was so bold a supporter of the Confederacy that he was brought into conflict with the federal power and was imprisoned for several weeks in Fortress Monroe. The last bits of public service were his appearance at the Democratic convention in Chicago in 1864, at the Union convention in Philadelphia in 1866, and his unsuccessful candidacy for senator in 1867.
He died in Baltimore in 1869.
As a Governor of Maryland, Thomas George Pratt was responsable for the immediate payment of the serious debt of the state. To raise state funds, Pratt put into effect direct taxes on the population by the government, an unpopular decision at the time, which nevertheless repopulated the state's treasury and allowed the repayment of the debt. He favored the extension of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad into Ohio, strongly encouraged peaceful and speedy resolution over the dispute between Great Britain and the United States regarding the Oregon Territory.
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Initially he supported Whig party. About his late years he transfered to the Democratic party, a natural alignment for a proslavery man.
He was staunchly pro-slavery, but mostly pro-South, and even gave a son to the Confederate Army.
On September 1, 1835, he was married to Adeline McCubbin Kent, with whom he was thrown by his intimacy with her father, Joseph Kent. They had six children.
