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Dromo's Den
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[Up] [Dromo's Den] Hugh Lawson White Biography WHITE,
Hugh Lawson (1773-1840). An American political leader, born in Iredell Co.,
N. C. He served against the Indians in Tennessee in 1792-93, and became private
secretary to Governor Blount in the latter year, but soon went to Philadelphia
to study. In 1796 he began the practice of law at Knoxville, Tenn. In 1801 he
became judge of the Superior Court of Tennessee, and was a member of the State
Senate in 1807 and 1809. From 1809 to 1815 he was judge of the Supreme Court,
and from 1812 to 1827 was president of the Bank of Tennessee, which for a time
was the only bank in the West which did not suspend specie payments, He was
again a State Senator in 1817, and from 1821 to 1824 was a commissioner on the
part of the United States to settle disputes growing out of the Spanish
occupation of Florida. He succeeded General Jackson
in the United States Senate in 1825, and served continuously until 1840, though
offered the secretaryship of war in 1831. He soon became a leader in the Senate,
opposed internal improvements by the Federal government, was instrumental in
preventing the recharter of the United States Bank, and in 1829-30 was the
author of the bill to remove the Indians west of the Mississippi. He was at
first a strong supporter of Jackson, but by his independent course in favoring
the bill to limit executive patronage, and especially by his opposition to Van
Buren's succession to the presidency, the friendship was broken. In October,
1835, he was nominated for President by the Legislature of Tennessee, and in
spite of President Jackson's vigorous personal efforts, carried the State in
1836 by more than 10,000 majority. He also carried Georgia and received
altogether 26 electoral votes. He refused to vote for the resolution to expunge
the Senate resolutions of censure against President Jackson, but was willing to
rescind. By 1838 he declared himself a Whig. When the Democratic Legislature of
Tennessee instructed him to vote for the sub-Treasury Bill, he refused and
resigned. Judge White's stern sense of rectitude earned for him the appellation
"The Cato of the United States." Consult Scott, Memoir
of Hugh Lawson White (Philadelphia, 1856). The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XXIII (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 524. |