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History and Government—Congressional Biographies—MissouriThomas Hart BENTON
(1782-1858)
Senate Years of Service:
1821-1851Party: Democratic Republican;
Jacksonian; DemocratBENTON, Thomas Hart,
(father-in-law of John C. Frémont; brother-in-law of James
McDowell [1795-1851], great uncle of Maecenas Eason Benton
[1848-1924]), a Senator and a Representative from Missouri; born at
Harts Mill, near Hillsboro, N.C., March 14, 1782; attended Chapel
Hill College (University of North Carolina); admitted to the bar at
Nashville, Tenn., in 1806 and commenced practice in Franklin,
Williamson County, Tenn.; member, State senate 1809-1811; served as
aide-de-camp to General Andrew Jackson; colonel of a regiment of
Tennessee volunteers 1812-1813; lieutenant colonel of the
Thirty-ninth United States Infantry 1813-1815; moved to St. Louis,
Mo., where he edited the Missouri Inquirer and continued the
practice of law; upon the admission of Missouri as a State into the
Union, was elected in 1821 as a Democratic Republican (later
Jacksonian and Democrat) to the United States Senate; reelected in
1827, 1833, 1839, and 1845 and served from August 10, 1821, to
March 3, 1851; chairman, Committee on Indian Affairs (Eighteenth
through Twentieth Congresses), Committee on Military Affairs
(Twentieth through Twenty-sixth and Twenty-ninth and Thirtieth
Congresses), Committee on Foreign Relations (Thirtieth Congress);
author of the resolution to expunge from the Senate Journal the
resolution of censure on Andrew Jackson; unsuccessful candidate for
reelection to the Senate in 1850; censure proceedings were
initiated against Benton in 1850, arising from an incident of
disorderly conduct on the Chamber floor, but the Senate took no
action; elected as a Democrat to the Thirty-third Congress (March
4, 1853-March 3, 1855); chairman, Committee on Military Affairs
(Thirty-third Congress); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in
1854 to the Thirty-fourth Congress and for Governor of Missouri in
1856; engaged in literary pursuits in Washington, D.C., until his
death there on April 10, 1858; interment in Bellefontaine Cemetery,
St. Louis, Mo.
Bibliography
American National Biography; Dictionary of American
Biography; Benton, Thomas H. Thirty Years View: Or A History
of the American Government for Thirty Years From 1820-1850. 2
vols. 1854, 1856. Reprint. New York: Greenwood Press, 1968; Smith,
Elbert B. Magnificent Missourian: Thomas Hart Benton.
Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1957.
Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present
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