Misplaced Pages

James George
United States Senator from Mississippi
In office March 4, 1881 – August 14, 1897
Preceded by	Blanche Bruce
Succeeded by	Hernando Money
Personal details
Born	James Zachariah George (1826-10-20)October 20, 1826 Monroe County, Georgia
Died	August 14, 1897(1897-08-14) (aged 70) Gulfport, Mississippi
Political party	Democratic
Signature
Military service
Allegiance	Confederate States (1861–1862, 1863–1865)  Mississippi (1862–1863)
Service	Confederate States Army Mississippi State Troops
Rank	Colonel (CSA) Brigadier general (Mississippi)
Unit	20th Mississippi Infantry 5th Mississippi Cavalry
Battles/wars	American Civil War

James Zachariah George (October 20, 1826 – August 14, 1897) was an American lawyer, writer, U.S. politician, Confederate politician, and military officer. He was known as Mississippi's "Great Commoner".

Biography

James Z. George was born in Monroe County, Georgia, but moved to Noxubee County, Mississippi at age eight when his widowed mother remarried, and two years later, to Carroll County, Mississippi, where he received his education in the common schools. He served as a private in the Mexican–American War under Colonel Jefferson Davis, and participated in the Battle of Monterey. On his return, George read law and was admitted to the bar. In 1854 he became a reporter of the Supreme Court of Mississippi and, over the next 20 years, George prepared a 10-volume digest of its cases.

George was a slave owner. As a member of the Mississippi Secession Convention, George signed the Secession Ordinance. During the Civil War, George first served as Captain of Company C, 20th Mississippi Infantry Regiment, before resigning his commission in the Confederate Army to serve as a Brigadier general of the Mississippi State Troops in October, 1862. Frustrated by the disorganization of the State Troops and facing disrespect from Confederate officers, George left the State Troops service in November 1863, and rejoined the Confederate service as a colonel of the 5th Mississippi Cavalry. He was captured twice and spent two years in a prisoner of war camp, where he conducted a law course for his fellow captives. After the war, he returned to Mississippi and resumed the practice of law. In 1879 he was appointed to the Supreme Court of Mississippi and immediately was chosen as chief justice by his colleagues.

From 1881 until his death, George represented Mississippi in the United States Senate, where he was recognized for his skills in debate, helped frame the future Sherman Anti-Trust Act, introduced the bill for agricultural college experiment stations, and encouraged the establishment of the Department of Agriculture. Alarmed by the proposed Lodge Bill, which would have provided for federal supervision of elections, he campaigned in Mississippi for a constitutional convention in order to legally disenfranchise African-Americans, without resorting to violence, fraud, and other extralegal measures that had been used prior. He was a major figure during the Mississippi Constitutional Convention of 1890 itself, leading a hardline faction promoting the disenfranchisement of blacks without disenfranchising whites (as opposed to those who wanted to apply property and educational requirements to whites and blacks), and successfully defended the constitution before the Senate and the Supreme Court.

George died in Mississippi City, Mississippi, where he had gone for health treatment. He is buried, along with his wife, Elizabeth Brooks (Young) George, in Evergreen Cemetery in North Carrollton, Mississippi. George's wife Elizabeth was the granddaughter of Col. William Martin Jr. of Tennessee, and the great-granddaughter of General Joseph Martin, an early Virginia explorer and Revolutionary War commander.

In 1931, the state of Mississippi donated a bronze statue of George to the United States Capitol's National Statuary Hall Collection.

The J. Z. George High School in North Carrollton, Mississippi is named in his honor, which is less than 2 miles (3.2 km) from his burial place. In addition, George County, Mississippi, is also named in his honor.

See also

• Battle of Collierville – Col. J. Z. George captured.
• List of United States Congress members who died in office (1790–1899)

References

1. ^ Thomas H. Somerville, "A Sketch of the Supreme Court of Mississippi", in Horace W. Fuller, ed., The Green Bag, Vol. XI (1899), p. 513.
2. Weil, Julie Zauzmer; Blanco, Adrian; Dominguez, Leo. "More than 1,700 congressmen once enslaved Black people. This is who they were, and how they shaped the nation". Washington Post. Retrieved January 29, 2022.
3. "Congress slaveowners", The Washington Post, January 27, 2022, retrieved January 29, 2022
4. Barnett, Tracey L. (2017). Maligned “Milish:” Mississippi Militiamen in the Civil War (Master's thesis). Hattiesburg, Miss.: University of Southern Mississippi. p. 108.
5. Barnett, Tracey L. (2017). Maligned “Milish:” Mississippi Militiamen in the Civil War (Master's thesis). Hattiesburg, Miss.: University of Southern Mississippi. p. 110.
6. Leslie Southwick, Mississippi Supreme Court Elections: A Historical Perspective 1916-1996, 18 Miss. C. L. Rev. 115 (1997–1998).
7. Kousser, J. Morgan (1974). The Shaping of Southern Politics: Suffrage Restriction and the Establishment of the One-Party South, 1990-1890. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. p. 140. ISBN 9780300016963.
8. Ogden, Frederic D. The Poll Tax in the South (University of Alabama Press, 1958), 211
9. Family History Compiled by Lucy Henderson Horton, Press of the News, Franklin, Tennessee, 1922
10. The Political Graveyard: Index to Politicians: George
11. Family History Compiled by Lucy Henderson Horton, Press of the News, Franklin, Tenn., 1922

Further reading

• Timothy B. Smith. James Z. George: Mississippi's Great Commoner (University Press of Mississippi; 2012) 256 pages; scholarly biography

External links

• On-line biography

• United States Congress. "James Z. George (id: G000127)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.

v t e United States senators from Mississippi
Class 1	Leake Holmes Ellis Reed Ellis Black Trotter T. Hickman Williams Henderson Speight Davis McRae S. Adams Davis Ames Pease Bruce George Money J. Williams Stephens Bilbo Stennis Lott Wicker
Class 2	T. Hill Williams Reed R. Adams Poindexter Walker Chalmers Foote Brooke Brown Revels Alcorn Lamar Walthall McLaurin Walthall Sullivan McLaurin Gordon Percy Vardaman Harrison Eastland Doxey Eastland Cochran Hyde-Smith

v t e Chairs of the United States Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry
Agriculture (1829–1857; 1863–1881)	Marks Seymour Brown Page P. Smith Mouton Linn Upham Sturgeon Soulé Allen (abolished 1857–1863) Sherman Cameron Morton Frelinghuysen Paddock Johnston
Agriculture and Forestry (1884–1977)	Miller Palmer Paddock George Proctor Hansbrough Dolliver Warren Burnham Gore Gronna Norris McNary E. Smith Thomas Capper Thomas Ellender Aiken Ellender Talmadge
Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry (1977–)	Talmadge Helms Leahy Lugar Harkin Lugar Harkin Cochran Chambliss Harkin Lincoln Stabenow Roberts Stabenow

v t e Chief justices of Mississippi
Supreme Judges of Mississippi (1818–1832)	Hampton Turner
High Court of Errors and Appeals of Mississippi (1832-1870)	Sharkey C. Smith Handy
Supreme Court of Mississippi (since 1870)	Peyton Simrall George Campbell Cooper Arnold Woods Campbell Cooper Woods Whitfield Mayes S. Smith Griffith McGehee P. Lee Ethridge Gillespie Patterson Walker R. Lee Hawkins D. Lee Prather Pittman J. Smith Waller Randolph

• American Civil War
• Biography
• Mississippi
• Politics

• 1826 births
• 1897 deaths
• People of Mississippi in the American Civil War
• People from Monroe County, Georgia
• Mississippi Democrats
• Democratic Party United States senators from Mississippi
• Chief justices of the Mississippi Supreme Court
• People from Carroll County, Mississippi
• 19th-century American lawyers
• 19th-century American judges
• American military personnel of the Mexican–American War
• U.S. state supreme court judges admitted to the practice of law by reading law
• People from Noxubee County, Mississippi
• United States senators who owned slaves
• Phi Delta Theta members
• 19th-century United States senators