Berrien, John M.

Born: 1781-08-23 Rocky Hill, New Jersey

Died: 1856-01-01 Savannah, Georgia

John M. Berrien's family moved to Georgia in 1783. However, Berrien was sent to New York and New Jersey for education and graduated from the College of New Jersey (Princeton) in 1796. He returned to Georgia to study law and was admitted to the bar in 1799. Berrien set up a practice in Louisville, Georgia but moved to Savannah in 1802, where he was highly successful. The following year, he married Eliza Anciaux, with whom he had nine children. She died in 1828 and he married Eliza Cecil Hunter in 1833, with whom he had six children.

Initially a Federalist, Berrien was defeated in several state elections before securing a judgeship in 1810. He finally left the Federalist Party during the War of 1812, in which he served as a colonel. His political fortunes changed in 1822, when he was elected to the Georgia Senate, where he remained until 1824. In 1825, he won a seat in the U.S. Senate, where he became a Jacksonian Democrat and served until 1829. Andrew Jackson appointed him attorney general in 1830, in which capacity Berrien most notably supported Jackson's Indian Removal policies. He resigned at Jackson's request in 1831 and soon fell out of favor with the administration, causing him to temporarily leave politics. He ran against Democrats in the 1833 and 1837 senatorial election but lost both times. In 1840, he supported the Whig presidential candidate, William Henry Harrison, and regained his Senate seat as a Whig in 1841 - remaining there until 1852. Like many Whigs, he opposed James K. Polk's expansionist policies, including the Mexican War. He increasingly identified himself politically with the South and the protection of slavery, causing him to initially reject and later reluctantly support the Compromise of 1850. After losing his Senate seat, Berrien became affiliated with the American Party and presided over the 1855 party convention in Georgia. He died in Savannah the following year.

M. Philip Lucas, "Berrien, John Macpherson," American National Biography, ed. by John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 2:683-84.