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Senate Years of Service: 1821-1851 Party: Democratic Republican; Jacksonian; Democrat
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BENTON, Thomas Hart, (father-in-law of John C. Frémont; brother-in-law of James McDowell [1795-1851], great uncle of Maecenas Eason Benton [1848-1924]),
a Senator and a Representative from Missouri; born at Harts Mill,
near Hillsboro, N.C., March 14, 1782; attended Chapel Hill College (University
of North Carolina); admitted to the bar at Nashville, Tenn., in 1806 and
commenced practice in Franklin, Williamson County, Tenn.; member, State senate
1809-1811; served as aide-de-camp to General Andrew Jackson; colonel of a
regiment of Tennessee volunteers 1812-1813; lieutenant colonel of the
Thirty-ninth United States Infantry 1813-1815; moved to St. Louis, Mo., where
he edited the Missouri Inquirer and continued the practice of law; upon the
admission of Missouri as a State into the Union, was elected in 1821 as a
Democratic Republican (later Jacksonian and Democrat) to the United States
Senate; reelected in 1827, 1833, 1839, and 1845 and served from August 10,
1821, to March 3, 1851; chairman, Committee on Indian Affairs (Eighteenth
through Twentieth Congresses), Committee on Military Affairs (Twentieth through
Twenty-sixth and Twenty-ninth and Thirtieth Congresses), Committee on Foreign
Relations (Thirtieth Congress); author of the resolution to expunge from the
Senate Journal the resolution of censure on Andrew Jackson; unsuccessful
candidate for reelection to the Senate in 1850; censure proceedings were
initiated against Benton in 1850, arising from an incident of disorderly
conduct on the Chamber floor, but the Senate took no action; elected as a
Democrat to the Thirty-third Congress (March 4, 1853-March 3, 1855); chairman,
Committee on Military Affairs (Thirty-third Congress); unsuccessful candidate
for reelection in 1854 to the Thirty-fourth Congress and for Governor of
Missouri in 1856; engaged in literary pursuits in Washington, D.C., until his
death there on April 10, 1858; interment in Bellefontaine Cemetery, St. Louis,
Mo.
BibliographyAmerican National Biography;
Dictionary of American Biography; Benton, Thomas H.
Thirty Years View: Or A History of the American Government for Thirty
Years From 1820-1850. 2 vols. 1854, 1856. Reprint. New York: Greenwood
Press, 1968; Smith, Elbert B.
Magnificent Missourian: Thomas Hart Benton. Philadelphia:
Lippincott, 1957.
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