Henry S. Foote
Henry Stuart Foote (February 28, 1804 – May 19, 1880) was a United States Senator from Mississippi and the chairman of the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations from 1847 to 1852. He was a Unionist Governor of Mississippi from 1852 to 1854 and an American Party supporter in California. During the American Civil War, he served in the First and Second Confederate Congresses. A practicing attorney, he published two memoirs related to the Civil War years, a book on Texas before its annexation and a postwar book on the legal profession and courts in the Southern United States.
Henry S. Foote
May 19, 1880 (aged 76)
Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.
Mount Olivet Cemetery
Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.
Democratic
Republican (from 1875)
Elizabeth Winters
Rachel (Boyd) Smiley
6
- Politician
- lawyer
Early life[edit]
Henry S. Foote was born on February 28, 1804, in Fauquier County, Virginia.[1][2] He was the son of Richard Helm Foote and Catherine (Stuart) Foote. He pursued classical studies in 1819 and graduated from Washington College (now Washington and Lee University).[1][2] He later studied the law and was admitted to the bar in 1822.[2]
Career[edit]
Foote moved to Alabama in 1824, where he began his law practice in Tuscumbia.[1][2] He also established a Democratic newspaper.[1][2] He became a co-founder and trustee of LaGrange College, later known as the University of North Alabama. Shortly after, he moved to Mississippi, where he practiced law in the state capital, Jackson,[1] and in the river towns of Natchez, Vicksburg, and Raymond, which were centers of business associated with the cotton and slave trades.[3] He also visited the state of Texas and wrote a two-volume book about it.
Foote served as a Democratic Senator from 1847 to 1852.[1] He was the chairman of the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.[2] He played a key role in securing the Compromise of 1850.[1] During Senate debates over the projected compromise resolutions, Thomas Hart Benton refused to support the compromise and became enraged by Foote's verbal attacks. According to the historian James Coleman, during heated Senate debates over the projected compromise resolutions, Foote drew a pistol on Benton[4] after Benton charged him.[5] Other members wrestled Foote to the floor; they took the gun away and locked it in a drawer. The incident created an uproar that prompted an investigation by a Senate committee.[4]
Foote defeated Jefferson Davis to succeed John A. Quitman as the governor of Mississippi from 1852 to 1854.[1] He was elected on a Unionist platform at a time of increasing sectional tension.[1] It was the last Unionist ticket in Mississippi. Foote resigned and moved to California,[6] where he practiced the law in San Francisco and joined the American Party.[1][6] Foote was considered a leading candidate for United States Senate from California, but by the votes of every Democratic state senator, alongside abolitionist American Party state senator, Wilson G. Flint, the office went unfilled. He campaigned for the Fillmore–Donelson ticket in the 1856 presidential campaign.[6]
Postbellum career[edit]
After the war, Foote returned to Nashville, Tennessee, where he practiced law.[9] He was also a frequent visitor to Washington, D.C.[9] He joined the Republican Party in 1875. He attended the 1876 Republican National Convention.[9] He published two memoirs and a history of the law in the region. He was then appointed by President Rutherford B. Hayes to serve as the superintendent of the New Orleans Mint from 1878 to 1880.[2][9] His final public speech, delivered in 1879, was a civil rights speech, and he advocated for the cause in his memoirs.