Quitman, John A.

Born: 1799-09-01 Dutchess County, New York

Died: 1858-07-17 Natchez, Mississippi

Flourished: Natchez, Mississippi

Son of a prominent Lutheran minister, John A. Quitman devoted his early years to studying for the ministry. From 1816 to 1818, he taught and pursued theological studies at Hartwick Seminary, Hartwick, New York. He was an adjunct professor of English at Mount Airy College in Philadelphia before moving to Ohio in 1819 to read law. He earned admission to the Ohio bar in 1821, but the state's depressed economy in the aftermath of the Panic of 1819 prompted him to move to Natchez, Mississippi. He arrived in Natchez in 1821, and the next month, he gained admission to the Mississippi bar and commenced what would soon become a lucrative legal practice. Quitman became a leading figure in the Mississippi Bar Association, and his marriage in 1824 to Eliza Turner, niece of an influential Natchez judge and planter with whom he would have ten children, brought him social respectability. As he grew in statue and wealth, Quitman began to purchase property, eventually owning a mansion in Natchez, four plantations in Mississippi and Louisiana, and several hundred enslaved people. In the late 1820s, he ventured into state politics. From 1826 to 1827, he was a member of the Mississippi House of Representatives. He served as chancellor of the state from 1828 to 1834, and in 1832, he was a delegate to the Mississippi State Constitutional Convention. From 1835 to 1836, he was a member of the Mississippi Senate and acting governor. In 1838, he became a judge of the High Court of Appeals and Errors. He served as trustee of the University of Mississippi, and achieved the Masonic rank of Grand Master, the highest in Mississippi. Quitman also played a prominent role in state and national military affairs. He organized a volunteer militia company in Natchez, and served as brigade inspector and major general in the Mississippi Militia. During the Texas Revolution of 1836, he accompanied Mississippi volunteers to lend assistance to the Texans, but the force arrived too late to see action. When the Mexican War began, he received a commission as brigadier general of volunteers and commanded a brigade during General Zachary Taylor's campaign in Northern Mexico. Quitman earned promotion to major general in recognition of his gallantry at the Battle of Monterrey. He transferred to Winfield Scott's command, and commanded the 4th Division in Scott's campaign to capture Mexico City. In recognition of Quitman's conduct at the battles of Chapultepec and Garita de Belén, Scott appointed him civilian and military governor of Mexico City. Mustered out of service in 1848, Quitman returned to Natchez, and in 1850, he won his second term as governor.

A strong pro-slavery advocate and champion of John C. Calhoun's state's rights theories, Quitman became a fixture in Mississppi's nullification movement in the 1830s. As governor, he opposed the Compromise of 1850 and unsuccessfully urged Mississippi to secede from the Union. From 1850 to 1855, he became embroiled in plots to add other slave states by supporting filibustering expeditions to conquer Cuba. Federal authorities prosecuted him for his involvement in these schemes in 1850 and 1851, forcing him to resign as governor. Quitman was prosecuted again in 1854, but he escaped conviction, and secured election to the U.S. House of Representatives. While in Congress, he urged admission of Kansas as a slave state and advocated the reopening of the African slave trade. He died at his plantation in Natchez from the ill effects from the "National Hotel disease" contracted while attending the inauguration of James Buchanan.

Robert E. May, "Quitman, John Anthony," American National Biography, ed. by John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 18:48-49; Biographical Directory of the American Congress 1774-1996 (Alexandria, VA: CQ Staff Directories, 1997) 1699; Robert E. May, John A. Quitman: Old South Crusader (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University, 1985), 182, 236-52.