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History and Government—Congressional Biographies—GeorgiaCRAWFORD, William Harris
(1772—1834)
Senate Years of Service:
1807-1813
Party:
Democratic Republican
CRAWFORD, William Harris, a Senator from Georgia; born in Nelson County, Va., February 24, 1772; moved with his father to Edgefield District, S.C., in 1779 and to Columbia County, Ga., in 1783; pursued classical studies in a private school and in Richmond Academy, Augusta, Ga.; studied law; admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Lexington, Ga., in 1799; appointed to prepare a digest of the laws of Georgia in 1799; member, State house of representatives 1803-1807; elected to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Abraham Baldwin and served from November 7, 1807, to March 23, 1813, when he resigned; served as President pro tempore of the Senate during the Twelfth Congress; declined appointment as Secretary of War under President James Madison in 1813; Minister to France 1813-1815; returned home to act as agent for the sale of the land donated by Congress to Lafayette; appointed Secretary of War by President Madison in August 1815; transferred to the Treasury in October 1816, and served under Presidents Madison and James Monroe until 1825; unsuccessful Democratic Republican candidate for President of the United States in 1824; due to illness refused the tender of President John Quincy Adams that he remain Secretary of the Treasury; returned to Georgia and was appointed judge of the northern circuit court in 1827, which position he held until his death in Oglethorpe County, Ga., September 15, 1834; interment on his estate, “Woodlawn,” near Crawford, Oglethorpe County, Ga.
Bibliography
American National Biography
; Dictionary of American Biography
; Green, Philip. The Life of William Crawford
. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1965; Mooney, Chase. William H. Crawford, 1772-1834.
Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1974.
Cutler, Everette Wayne. “William H. Crawford: A Contextual Biography.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Texas at Austin, 1971.
Green, Philip Jackson. The Life of William Harris Crawford
. Charlotte: University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 1965.
___. “William H. Crawford and the War of 1812.” Georgia Historical Quarterly
26 (1942): 16-39.
Kaplan, Lawrence S. “The Paris Mission of William Harris Crawford 1813-1815.” Georgia Historical Quarterly
60 (Spring 1976): 9-22.
Knowlton, Daniel Chauncey, ed. “The Journal of William H. Crawford.” Smith College Studies in History
11 (October 1925): 5-64.
Mellichamp, Josephine. “William H. Crawford.” In Senators from Georgia
, pp. 59-65. Huntsville, AL: Strode Publishers, 1976.
Mooney, Chase C. William H. Crawford, 1772-1834.
Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1974.
Rabun, James Z., and James Harvey Young, eds. “William H. Crawford on the Election of 1828: Two Letters.” Georgia Historical Quarterly
37 (December 1953): 340-45.
Shipp, John Edgar Dawson. Giant Days, or the Life and Times of William H. Crawford
. Americus, GA: Southern Printers, 1909.
Stegeman, John and Janet. “Georgia’s Forgotten Man.” Georgia Review
15 (Fall 1961): 288-95.
Williams, William Henry, ed. “Ten Letters from William Harris Crawford to Martin Van Buren.” Georgia Historical Quarterly
49 (March 1965): 65-81.
Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present
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