born April 7, 1786, Sampson county, N.C., U.S.
died April 18, 1853, Cahaba, Ala.
U.S. politician.
A member of the U.S. House of Representatives from North Carolina from 1811, he resigned from the House in 1816 to serve as secretary of legation to William Pinkney, the U.S. minister plenipotentiary to Russia. Upon his return, he moved to Alabama and became one of the state's first U.S. senators (1819–44, 1848–52). As minister to France from 1844 to 1846, he convinced the French government not to interfere with the U.S. annexation of Texas. In 1852 he was elected U.S. vice president under Franklin Pierce , but he died shortly after taking the oath of office.