Governor of Mississippi
What was the position of George Poindexter from 1820 to 1822?
George Poindexter George Poindexter ( April 19 , 1779 − September 5 , 1853 ) was an American politician , lawyer and judge from Mississippi . Born in Virginia , he moved to the Mississippi Territory in 1802 . He served as United States Representative from the newly admitted state , was elected as Governor ( 1820–1822 ) , and served as a United States Senator . Early life . Poindexter was born in Louisa County , Virginia in 1779 . He was the son of Thomas Poindexter and Lucy ( Jones ) Poindexter ; the Poindexters were a large Virginia family of French Huguenot and English ancestry . Poindexter received a sporadic education , primarily from studying under the tutelage of two of his brothers . He was orphaned after his father died when Poindexter was 17 ; Poindexter inherited two slaves and a share of his fathers land , and resided with an older brother until he came of age . The Poindexter family of Virginia made frequent use of the names George , Thomas , and John ; as a result , their genealogy is difficult to trace . He may have been the uncle of Ohio abolitionist preacher James Preston Poindexter , whose father was Joseph Poindexter , a journalist at the Richmond Enquirer . The exact details of Poindexters legal studies are not known , but according to family tradition , Poindexter studied under practicing attorneys , first in Kentucky , and later in Richmond . He was admitted to the bar in 1800 and began to practice in Milton , an Albemarle County town along the Rivanna River which no longer exists . Move to Mississippi . After moving to the Mississippi Territory in 1802 , Poindexter set up his law practice in Natchez . He soon became a friend of Governor William C . C . Claiborne , and a leader in the local Democratic-Republican Party . As a result , in 1803 , he was appointed Attorney General of the Territory ; he served until 1807 , when he took up his duties as a member of the Territorial House of Representatives , to which he had been elected in 1806 . ( He had been an unsuccessful candidate for the legislature in 1804. ) During Mississippis early years , nearby areas were under Spanish control . When tensions rose over Mississippis expansion , and the Spanish threatened an attack , residents of Adams County formed a militia ; Poindexter was one of the main organizers of a company in Natchez , the Mississippi Blues , and he was elected commander with the rank of captain . No attack from Spain materialized , and the militia soon disbanded . When former U.S . Vice President Aaron Burr appeared in Mississippi while traveling south as part of the Burr conspiracy in 1807 , acting Governor Cowles Mead declared martial law , appointed Poindexter and William B . Shields as aides-de-camp on his military staff , and sent them to interview Burr and determine his intentions . When Burr was arrested , Poindexter conducted the prosecution until Burrs escape from custody . After Burr escaped , Governor Robert Williams returned from vacation at his home in North Carolina to personally take control of the situation ; he criticized Mead and fired the militia officers Mead had appointed , including Poindexter . Territorial delegate to Congress . Poindexter was elected as a delegate to the United States House of Representatives from the Mississippi Territory ; he served in the 10th , 11th and 12th Congresses ( 1807 to 1813 ) . As a delegate , Poindexter concentrated his efforts largely on questions germane to Mississippi , such as federal patronage , as well as advocating for Mississippis admission to the Union . Poindexter also worked to resolve and standardize land titles in Mississippi , where residents possessed deeds and grants from Spain , France , England , and the United States , due to the number of times the area had changed hands . He also opposed those who claimed the Yazoo lands , but in 1810 the United States Supreme Courts ruling in Fletcher v . Peck , resolved the claims in their favor . Before leaving for Washington , DC to begin his duties , Mead informed Poindexter of disparaging comments Williams had made to Mead about Poindexter following Burrs escape . Poindexter responded by challenging Williams to a duel ; Williams replied that he would admit to any comment Mead attributed to him , but that he would not involve either his public or private character with such a man . Poindexter responded by writing letters to the editor that made it appear that he had been wronged by Williams and was unable to obtain satisfaction , which had the effect of making Williams appear cowardly in the eyes of his constituents . Poindexter was in Richmond in October 1807 to testify at Burrs treason trial ; his testimony suggested that Burrs arrest had been based on flimsy evidence , which probably played a part in Burrs acquittal . In 1811 , Poindexters outspoken opposition to the Federalist Party resulted in a duel with wealthy merchant and planter Abijah Hunt . Poindexter killed Hunt , but afterwards Poindexters political opponents alleged that he had broken the code duello by firing at Hunt prematurely . Judgeship and the House of Representatives . Poindexter did not run for reelection in 1812 ; after his final term in Congress ended he was appointed as federal Judge for the Mississippi Territory , and he served from 1813 to 1817 . Poindexter also served as a volunteer aide to William Carroll as Carroll commanded a division of Tennessee militia at the War of 1812s decisive 1814 Battle of New Orleans . Poindexter was chairman of the committee that was appointed to draft a constitution for the new state of Mississippi . After its admission in 1817 , he was elected to be the states first representative in Congress . He served in the 15th Congress from 1817 to 1819 , when he chaired the Committee on Public Lands . After that , he was an unsuccessful candidate for the U.S . House of Representatives in 1820 to the 17th Congress and in 1822 to the 18th Congress . Governor of Mississippi . In 1819 Poindexter was elected the second Governor of Mississippi by a large margin , winning more than 60% of the vote . He served from 1820 to 1822 . During his time in office he oversaw a reorganization of the militia , the state created its first free public schools , state courts were reorganized , and Jackson was selected as the site for the state capital . United States Senate . Poindexter was appointed to the United States Senate in 1830 to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Robert H . Adams , and served from 1830 to 1835 . Soon after his appointment , he learned of the financial distress of Martha Jefferson Randolph , whose father Thomas Jefferson had left an estate heavily encumbered by debt . Poindexter introduced a bill to grant Randolph 50,000 acres in Virginia , with the idea she could sell the land to raise money to live on . The bill failed to pass the Senate , and was rejected by the two Virginia senators in 1831 . Poindexter served as chairman of the Committee on Private Land Claims in the 22nd Congress from 1831 to 1833 , of the Committee on Public Lands in the 23rd Congress from 1833 to 1835 and was President pro tempore of the Senate from June to November 1834 . Poindexters tenure as chairman of the Committee on Private Land Claims had been considered moderately controversial at the time , as he had espoused some views that could be considered Socialist , regarding government repossession of land . Poindexter was thought to have made these claims to support President Andrew Jacksons fight with the Second Bank of the United States . He was a supporter of President Jackson , and had defended him against calls for censure stemming from the Arbuthnot and Ambrister incident , but had slowly become less happy with the Presidents policies . In 1834 Poindexter had his home in Washington , D.C . painted by Richard Lawrence . A deranged man , Lawrence came to believe that he was the ruler of England and the United States , and that Jackson was a usurper . In January 1835 Lawrence made two attempts to shoot at Jackson using two separate pistols , both of which misfired . The assassination attempt occurred as Jackson was attending a memorial service for a Congressman at the U.S . capitol , and the first attempt to assassinate a president . Jackson accused various political enemies of being behind Lawrences actions , including Poindexter , who denied any connection . Poindexter also took issue with Vice President Martin Van Burens support of Jackson during the debate over the Bank , and made explicit threats that caused Van Buren to carry pistols for self-defense when presiding over the Senate . The accusations about Lawrence followed Poindexter back to Mississippi , and he was unsuccessful in running for a second term . Poindexter returned to Mississippi embittered by these issues . Retirement from politics . In 1835 , Poindexter moved to Kentucky , where he continued practicing law in Lexington . He later moved back to Jackson , Mississippi and continued his law practice until his death there on September 5 , 1853 . He was interred in Greenwood Cemetery in Jackson . Family . In 1804 Poindexter married Lydia Carter ( 1789–1824 ) , the daughter of a prominent Natchez businessman and plantation owner . They had two sons , George Littleton ( or Lytleton ) and Albert Gallatin . They divorced after Poindexter publicly accused his wife of infidelity and claimed that their second child , whom he disavowed , was the product of an extramarital affair between his wife and their neighbor . In 1820 Lydia Carter Poindexter married Reverend Lewis Williams and moved to Brimfield , Massachusetts . Her sons remained with her ; Poindexter provided for the support of George , but disavowed Albert and refused to provide for him . In 1816 Poindexter married Agatha Ball Chinn ( 1794–1822 ) . They had one son who died of yellow fever as a child while Poindexter was Governor , and Agatha Poindexter died soon afterwards . He was said to have a serious , potentially non-consensual , liaison with a woman who was a slave . When several years before , Representative Richard Mentor Johnson of Kentucky was criticized for his common-law marriage with his slave Julia Chinn , he said , Unlike Jefferson , Clay , Poindexter and others , I married my wife under the eyes of God , and apparently He has found no objections . Historian Burke has written , During slavery times , there was no particular stigma attached to the fact that many southern plantation owners , along with their white overseers , often fathered mulatto children born of black slave women . As long as the white father denied the facts , the customs that created miscegenation were usually overlooked by Southern society . Johnson violated the norms by acknowledging Chinn as his wife and their daughters as his , plus trying to introduce his daughters to polite society .