Walter T. Colquitt

Walter T. Colquitt
United States Senator from Georgia
In office March 4, 1843 – February 4, 1848
Preceded by	Alfred Cuthbert
Succeeded by	Herschel V. Johnson
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Georgia's at-large district
In office March 4, 1839 – July 21, 1840
Preceded by	Jabez Y. Jackson
Succeeded by	Hines Holt
In office January 3, 1842 – March 3, 1843
Preceded by	Eugenius A. Nisbet
Succeeded by	John H. Lumpkin
Member of the Georgia Senate
In office 1834 1837
Personal details
Born	Walter Terry Colquitt (1799-12-27)December 27, 1799 Halifax County, Virginia
Died	May 7, 1855(1855-05-07) (aged 55) Macon, Georgia
Political party	Democratic

Walter Terry Colquitt (December 27, 1799 – May 7, 1855) was a lawyer, circuit-riding Methodist preacher, United States Representative and Senator from Georgia.

Life and career

Born in Monroe in Halifax County, Virginia, he moved with his parents to Mount Zion in Carroll County, Georgia. He attended the common schools and Princeton College and studied law, gaining admission to the bar in 1820 and commencing practice in Sparta, Georgia. Late in 1820, he was chosen brigadier general of the state militia, despite being only 21 years old. Colquitt moved to the village of Cowpens in Walton County and was elected judge of the Chattahoochee circuit in 1826, being re-elected three years later. He was licensed as a Methodist preacher in 1827, becoming extremely popular in Central and South Georgia, mostly for his strong support of states' rights. It was said of Colquitt that he could make a stump speech, try a court case and plead another at the bar, christen a child, preach a sermon, and marry a couple all before dinner.^[1] He was a member of the Georgia Senate in 1834 and 1837.

Colquitt was elected as a Whig to the Twenty-sixth Congress and served from March 4, 1839, to July 21, 1840, when he resigned. He changed parties,^[2] and was elected as a Van Buren Democrat to the Twenty-seventh Congress to fill in part vacancies caused by the resignations of Julius C. Alford, William Crosby Dawson, and Eugenius A. Nisbet. Following the death of his first wife, Colquitt married Mrs. Alphea B. (Todd) Fauntleroy in 1841, then when tragedy struck again, he married Harriet W. Ross the following year. He was then elected as a Democrat to the U.S. Senate and served from March 4, 1843, until his resignation in February 1848. While in the Twenty-ninth Congress, Colquitt was chairman of the Committee on the District of Columbia and the Committee on Patents and Patent Office. He supported the Polk administration in the controversy relative to the Oregon Territory, and was a prominent opponent of the Wilmot Proviso throughout the Mexican-American War.

Colquitt retired from national politics in 1848 and resumed his law practice and preaching. He was a member of the Nashville Convention in 1850, arguing for secession if slavery was restricted in any of the new territories then being added to the country. Colquitt died on a trip from Columbus to Macon, Georgia, in 1855. He was buried in Linwood Cemetery in Columbus, Georgia.

Colquitt County, Georgia is named in memory of Walter T. Colquitt. His son, Alfred Holt Colquitt, was also a U.S. Representative and Senator from Georgia, as well as a general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. His other son, Peyton H. Colquitt, served as a Confederate officer, too, and was killed in the Battle of Chickamauga.

References

• United States Congress. "Walter T. Colquitt (id: C000648)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. 

United States Senators from Georgia
Class 2	Few Jackson Walton Tattnall Baldwin Jones Crawford Bulloch Bibb Troup Forsyth Walker Ware Cobb Prince Troup King Lumpkin Berrien Charlton Toombs H. Miller Norwood B. Hill Barrow A. Colquitt Walsh Bacon West Hardwick Harris Cohen Russell Gambrell Nunn Cleland Chambliss Perdue
Class 3	Gunn Jackson Milledge Tait Elliott Berrien Forsyth Cuthbert W. Colquitt Johnson Dawson Iverson J. Hill Gordon Brown Gordon Clay Terrell Smith Watson Felton George Talmadge Mattingly Fowler Coverdell Z. Miller Isakson