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Alfred Iverson Sr. | |
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United States Senator from Georgia | |
In office March 4, 1855 – January 28, 1861 | |
Preceded by | William C. Dawson |
Succeeded by | Joshua Hill |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Georgia's 2nd district | |
In office March 4, 1847 – March 3, 1849 | |
Preceded by | Seaborn Jones |
Succeeded by | Marshall J. Wellborn |
Member of the Georgia Senate | |
In office 1843-1844 | |
Member of the Georgia House of Representatives | |
In office 1827-1830 | |
Personal details | |
Born | (1798-12-03)December 3, 1798 Liberty County, Georgia |
Died | March 4, 1873(1873-03-04) (aged 74) Macon, Georgia |
Political party | Democratic |
Spouse(s) | Caroline Holt Julia Frances Forsyth |
Alfred Iverson Sr. (December 3, 1798 – March 4, 1873) was a United States representative and Senator from Georgia.
Early life
Born in Liberty County, he attended private schools and graduated from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) in 1820. He studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1822 and commenced practice in Clinton, a community in Jones County, Georgia.
Political life
He was a member of the Georgia House of Representatives from 1827 to 1830, and moved to Columbus in 1830 and continued the practice of law. He was judge of the State superior court from 1835 to 1837, a member of the Georgia Senate in 1843–1844, and a presidential elector on the Democratic ticket in 1844.
Iverson was elected as a Democrat to the Thirtieth Congress (March 4, 1847 – March 3, 1849). From 1850 to 1854 he again served as judge of the State superior court, and was elected to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1855, to January 28, 1861, when he withdrew. While in the Senate he was chairman of the Committee on Claims (Thirty-fifth and Thirty-sixth Congresses). While a senator, he repudiated popular sovereignty. Iverson left the Senate shortly after Georgia passed an ordinance of secession from the United States and after making a defiant farewell speech, stating that Southerners would never return to the Union "short of a full and explicit recognition of the guarantee of the safety of their institution of domestic slavery."
Death and legacy
After leaving the Senate, he resumed the practice of law in Columbus until 1868, when he purchased a plantation in East Macon and engaged in agricultural pursuits until his death there in 1873; interment was in Linwood Cemetery.
His son Alfred Iverson Jr. was a Confederate general in the American Civil War.
References
- Iverson, Alfred (1860). Speech of Hon. Alfred Iverson, of Georgia, on our territorial policy : delivered in the Senate of the United States, January 9, 1860. Washington: Congressional Globe Office. p. 3. Retrieved 28 October 2016.
popular sovereignty .
- Goodheart, Adam (Jan 27, 2011). "The South Rises Again – and Again, and Again". New York Times. Archived from the original on 1 February 2011. Retrieved 28 Jan 2011.
- "A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774 - 1875". Congressional Globe, Senate, 36th Congress, 2nd Session. Library of Congress. 1861. p. 589. Retrieved 28 Jan 2011. (text of farewell speech)
Other sources
- United States Congress. "Alfred Iverson Sr. (id: I000049)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
External links
- Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library, Emory University: Iverson family papers, 1821-1928
U.S. House of Representatives | ||
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Preceded bySeaborn Jones | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Georgia's 2nd congressional district March 4, 1847 – March 3, 1849 |
Succeeded byMarshall J. Wellborn |
U.S. Senate | ||
Preceded byWilliam C. Dawson | U.S. senator (Class 3) from Georgia 1855–1861 Served alongside: Robert A. Toombs |
Succeeded byvacant |
Notes and references | ||
1. Georgia seceded from the Union in 1861. Seat declared vacant until Joshua Hill elected after Georgia's readmission into the Union in 1870. |
United States senators from Georgia | ||
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Class 2 | ||
Class 3 |
- 1798 births
- 1873 deaths
- People from Liberty County, Georgia
- Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Georgia (U.S. state)
- Democratic Party United States senators from Georgia (U.S. state)
- 1844 United States presidential electors
- Democratic Party members of the Georgia House of Representatives
- Democratic Party Georgia (U.S. state) state senators
- Georgia (U.S. state) state court judges
- Princeton University alumni
- 19th-century American judges
- United States senators who owned slaves
- Members of the United States House of Representatives who owned slaves
- 19th-century United States senators
- 19th-century members of the Georgia General Assembly
- 19th-century members of the United States House of Representatives