Gov Joseph Alston

Joseph Alston was the Governor of South Carolina

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Alston

Joseph Alston (1779 – September 19, 1816) was the 44th Governor of South Carolina from 1812 to 1814.

Early life and career

Born in All Saint's Parish near Georgetown, Alston attended the College of New Jersey, but left in 1796 without graduating. He then went to study law at the office of Edward Rutledge and was admitted to the bar. Alston decided against practicing law and instead engaged in planting becoming one of the wealthiest planters in South Carolina. In 1801, he married the daughter of Aaron Burr, Theodosia Burr Alston, partly to ingratiate himself with Republican voters in an effort to cover up his aristocratic facade. Their honeymoon was spent in Niagara Falls, the first recorded couple to do so. Their son Aaron Burr Alston, born 1802, died in 1812.

Political career

Rise to governor

Alston won election to the South Carolina House of Representatives for a term from 1802 to 1803 and again from 1805 to 1812. In 1806, the House of Representatives chose Alston to be the speaker and he pushed the legislature to adopt a more equitable basis of representation. The General Assembly elected Alston to be the Governor of South Carolina in 1812 for a two-year term after the removal of Thomas Sumter and Andrew Pickens as candidates. Although Alston became governor, his private life suffered tragedy by the loss of his only child and the disappearance of a ship headed towards New York City that his wife had boarded. His misery continued as his tenure got off to a rocky start and his popularity plummeted.

War of 1812

With the War of 1812 raging, Alston called the state militia to service in 1813 to protect military magazines from the British. Some soldiers of the militia refused to serve and Alston issued a statement that the refusal of service would result in death. However, a court issued a writ of habeas corpus and the men charged with court-martial were let free. Subsequently, Alston dismissed the entire militia from service, but the residents were in shock that their state was then completely defenseless from British attack. Alston was forced to recall the militia to service after the British landed on St. Helena Island and the legislature correspondingly responded by increasing the powers of the governor for the use of the militia in wartime.

Later life

After Alston left the governorship in 1814, he died on September 19, 1816 in Charleston.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

https://www.scencyclopedia.org/sce/entries/alston-joseph/

Governor. Scion of one of the great rice planting families of Georgetown District, Alston was born ca. 1778, the son of William “King Billy” Alston and Mary Ashe. Educated by private tutors, Alston attended the College of Charleston from 1793 to 1794. In 1795 he entered the junior class of the College of New Jersey (later Princeton), but withdrew before graduating. Alston studied law under Edward Rutledge, who predicted a brilliant future for his pupil. Admitted to the bar in 1799, Alston practiced only occasionally, devoting his career to the management of his extensive rice plantations in All Saints Parish, comprising 6,287 acres and 204 slaves. On February 2, 1801, Alston married Theodosia Burr, daughter of Vice President Aaron Burr. The couple’s only child, Aaron Burr Alston, died at the age of ten on June 30, 1812. A short time later, Theodosia, after departing Georgetown aboard the schooner Patriot on December 30, 1812, was lost at sea off the coast of North Carolina.

Although unambitious, Alston entered politics at the insistence of his father-in-law. He was a member of the S.C. House of Representatives from 1802 to 1812, serving as Speaker of the House from 1805 to 1809, the youngest man to hold the office up to that time. Lauded as “a great manager in all political movements,” Alston’s crucial support of upcountry demands for reapportionment of the legislature led to the adoption of the constitutional amendment of 1808. Also while a House member, he opposed reopening the slave trade, initiated his advocacy of a state penitentiary, and amelioration of the state’s draconian penal code. In 1806 Alston became embroiled in the Burr Conspiracy, and while never indicted for support of his father-in-law’s grandiose schemes, his reputation suffered thereafter.

On December 10, 1812, Alston was elected governor by a narrow margin after a bitter campaign. As governor, Alston’s chief concern was the defense of South Carolina during the War of 1812. His vigorous efforts resulted in the state quickly meeting its quota of five thousand troops, and the construction and garrisoning of forts for coastal defense. His administration also saw the settlement of the state’s boundary with North Carolina, the establishment of the Bank of the State of South Carolina, and the raising of a brigade of state troops. Despite these accomplishments, Alston’s governorship was one of the most discordant in the history of the state due, in part, to several impolitic actions he took, and the unremitting personal and political animus of E. S. Thomas, editor of the Charleston City Gazette, who Alston successfully sued for criminal libel. At the conclusion of his term, Alston served in the S.C. Senate from 1814 to 1815, where he was credited with saving the free school system after the House had voted to abolish it.

Eulogized as a man “Naturally humane and merciful in his disposition,” Alston died at Charleston on September 10, 1816, and was buried in the family graveyard at his home plantation, The Oaks. Ironically, like another prominent nineteenth-century political figure, James Chesnut, Alston is primarily remembered as the husband of his legendary wife.

GEDCOM Note

Gov.