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Jul 24, 2008
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History and GovernmentCongressional BiographiesLouisiana

BROWN, James

(1766—1835)

Senate Years of Service: 1813-1817; 1819-1823
Party: Democratic Republican; Adams-Clay Republican

BROWN, James, (brother of John Brown of Virginia and Kentucky (1757-1837), cousin of John Breckinridge, James Breckinridge, and Francis Preston, uncle of James Brown Clay), a Senator from Louisiana; born near Staunton, Va., September 11, 1766; attended Washington College (now Washington and Lee University), Lexington, Va., and William and Mary College, Williamsburg, Va.; studied law; admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Frankfort, Ky.; commanded a company of sharpshooters in an expedition against the Indians in 1789; secretary to the Governor 1792; soon after the cession of the Territory of Louisiana moved to New Orleans and was appointed as secretary of the Territory in 1804; subsequently became United States district attorney for the Territory; elected as a Democratic Republican to the United States Senate on December 1, 1812, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of John N. Destrehan, and served from February 5, 1813, to March 3, 1817; unsuccessful candidate for reelection; again elected to the United States Senate in 1819, as an Adams-Clay Republican, and served from March 4, 1819, until December 10, 1823, when he resigned; chairman, Committee on Foreign Relations (Sixteenth Congress); appointed United States Minister to France 1823-1829; returned to the United States and settled in Philadelphia, Pa., where he died on April 7, 1835.


Bibliography

American National Biography ; Dictionary of American Biography ; Padgett, James A., ed. “Letters of James Brown to Henry Clay, 1804-1835.” Louisiana Historical Quarterly 24 (1941): 921-1177.

Padgett, James A., ed. “Letters of James Brown to Henry Clay, 1804-1835.” Louisiana Historical Quarterly 24 (October 1941): 921-1177.

___, ed. “The Letters of Doctor Samuel Brown to President Jefferson and James Brown.” Register of the Kentucky State Historical Society 35 (April 1937): 99-130.

___, ed. “Some Letters of James Brown of Louisiana to Presidents of the United States.” Louisiana Historical Quarterly 20 (January 1937): 58-136.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present

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