Samuel Turney

From 1841 to 1843, Samuel Turney served as Speaker of the State Senate. Turney represented the tiebreaking vote, giving the Democratic Party a 13-12 edge over the Whigs.Miller, Chas. A. The Official and Political Manual of the State of Tennessee. Nashville: Marshall & Bruce, Stationers, 1890.
During this session, Turney was a member of a group known as "The Immortal Thirteen", which refused to vote to replace Tennessee's two Senators, who had resigned after the Legislature had issued them instructions on how to vote on the issue of a national bank. The "Thirteen" allowed the state to go unrepresented in the U.S. Senate for two years rather than permit Governor James C. Jones (a Whig) to fill the vacancies.
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