Benton, Thomas Hart

Life Span
to
Full name
Thomas Hart Benton
Place of Birth
Birth Date Certainty
Exact
Death Date Certainty
Exact
Gender
Male
Race
White
Origins
Slave State
Family
Jesse Benton (father), Ann Gooch Benton (mother), Elizabeth McDowell (wife), Jessie Benton Frémont (daughter), John C. Frémont (son-in-law)
Education
University of North Carolina
Occupation
Politician
Military
Attorney or Judge
Journalist
Relation to Slavery
Slaveholder
Political Parties
Democratic
Government
US Senate
State legislature
Military
US military (Pre-Civil War)

Thomas Hart Benton (Congressional Biographical Dictionary)

Reference
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.
“Benton, Charles,” Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774 to Present, http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=B000398.
Chicago Style Entry Link
Benton, Thomas Hart. Historical and Legal Examination of that Part of Decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in the Dred Scott Case. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1857. view record
Smith, Elbert B. Magnificent Missourian: Thomas Hart Benton. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1957. view record
How to Cite This Page: "Benton, Thomas Hart," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/index.php/node/5092.