born , July 2, 1810, Wilkes county, Ga., U.S.
died Dec. 15, 1885, Washington, Ga.
U.S. politician.
He was a plantation owner and a lawyer. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives (1845–53) and the Senate (1853–61), but he resigned his Senate seat to help form the Confederate States of America. Disappointed at not being chosen its president, he served briefly as secretary of state (1861). He criticized Jefferson Davis 's extralegal policies during the American Civil War and after the war fled to England. He returned to Georgia in 1867 to rebuild his law practice and to help revise the state constitution and restore white supremacy.