born March 14, 1782, near Hillsborough, N.C., U.S.
died April 10, 1858, Washington, D.C.
U.S. politician.
After moving to St. Louis, Mo. (1815), he became editor of the St. Louis Enquirer . Appealing to agrarian and commercial interests, he won election to the U.S. Senate in 1820. He became a crusader for the distribution of public lands to settlers and was soon acknowledged as the chief spokesman in the Senate of the early Democratic Party. His opposition to the extension of slavery into the West cost him his Senate seat in 1851, though he later served in the House of Representatives (185355). His grandnephew was the artist Thomas Hart Benton .