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History and Government—Congressional Biographies—South CarolinaJoel Roberts POINSETT
(1779-1851)
POINSETT, Joel Roberts, a
Representative from South Carolina; born in Charleston, S.C., March
2, 1779; spent his early childhood in England; returned to America
in 1788; attended private school at Greenfield Hill, Conn., and
later in Wandsworth, near London, England; studied medicine at the
University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and attended the military school
in Woolwich, England; returned to Charleston, S.C., in 1800;
studied law for a few months; traveled extensively in Europe from
1801 to 1809, returning to the United States for short intervals;
sent to South America by President Madison in 1809 to investigate
the prospects of the revolutionists there in their struggle for
independence from Spain; returned to Charleston, S.C., in 1816;
member of the state house of representatives 1816-1819; served as
president of the board of public works; declined the offer of
commissioner to South America by President Monroe; elected as a
Republican to the Seventeenth Congress reelected as a Jackson
Republican to the Eighteenth Congress, and elected as a Jacksonian
to the Nineteenth Congress and served from March 4, 1821, to March
7, 1825, when he resigned to enter the diplomatic service; Minister
to Mexico 1825-1829; member of the state house of representatives,
1830-1831; Secretary of War in the Cabinet of President Van Buren
1837-1841; died near what is now Statesburg, Sumter County, S.C.,
December 12, 1851; interment in the Church of the Holy Cross
(Episcopal) Cemetery.
Bibliography
Hruneni, George A., Jr. “Palmetto Yankee. The Public Life and
Times of Joel Roberts Poinsett: 1824-1851.” Ph.D. diss.,
University of California, Santa Barbara, 1972; Rippy, James Fred.
Joel R. Poinsett, Versatile American. 1935. Reprint, St.
Clair Shores, Mich.: Scholarly Press, 1970.
Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present
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