James Abercrombie, US Congress

NOTE: Biographies give his birth year as 1795, yet his gravestone says 1792.

James Abercrombie

http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-3958

Matthew Robinson, Auburn University

James Abercrombie

James Abercrombie (1795-1861) was a member of the Alabama House of Representatives and the Alabama Senate. He later served two terms as a U.S. Congressman representing Alabama's Second Congressional District as a Whig and was a moderate voice on the issue of secession in the early 1850s.

Abercrombie was born on February 18, 1792 or 1795, in Hancock County, Georgia, to Charles and Edwina Dicey Malinda Booth Abercrombie. (His congressional biography and other sources state his birth year as 1795 but his gravestone says 1792. And some sources mention 9 siblings, but he may have had up to 10.) His father served as an Army officer in the American Revolution and later represented Greene and Hancock Counties in the Georgia State Senate and was the Speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives in 1825. He was a delegate to Georgia's constitutional convention in Louisville on May 30, 1789, and the owner of several very large plantations.
James Abercrombie served as a corporal in Maj. F. Freeman's Squadron of Georgia Cavalry during the War of 1812. He moved to Monroe (present-day Dallas) County in Alabama in 1812. An older brother, Anderson Abercrombie (1786-1867), rose to the rank of adjutant general in the war and fought at Autosee and Calabee Creek during the Creek War of 1813-14. He settled on a large plantation in Russell County, and married Evelina Elizabeth Ross in the area of present-day Montgomery, Montgomery County, on July 27, 1816. They raised four sons and six daughters, with at least one son following in the family political tradition by representing Escambia County in the Florida Legislature.

Marquis de Lafayette

In 1819, Abercrombie settled in Montgomery County and was elected as a member of the State House of Representatives in 1822 and again in 1824. In 1825, then a captain in the Alabama Militia, he commanded the cavalry that was present when Revolutionary War hero the Marquis da la Lafayette visited Fort Mitchell on his tour through the eastern United States. Also that year, he was elected to the Alabama Senate and served for nine years, until 1833 when he was removed for having moved out of his district and into Creek Territory. In 1838, he moved to Russell County and was elected again to the State House of Representatives, serving until 1839. He became an influential member of the Whig Party, served in the Alabama Senate from 1847 to 1850, and was a delegate to the first of two 1850 Nashville Conventions that brought together pro-slavery southerners to discuss the issue of secession, on which he was considered a Unionist. Those meetings would lead to the Missouri Compromise of 1850. About this time, he helped organize the Mobile and Girard (present-day Phenix City) Railroad and tried to secure for it a federal land grant. The railroad aimed to circumvent Montgomery as a center of commerce but ran no farther than Troy, Pike County, after the Civil War, and was abandoned.

David Clopton

In 1851, Abercrombie defeated secessionist John Cochran to take the seat left open by Henry W. Hilliard's retirement to represent Alabama's Second Congressional District. It largely consisted at the time of counties in southeast Alabama, stretching from what is now Lee County southwest to Covington County. Unlike Cochran, Abercrombie was more equivocal on secession, voicing support for the Union and constitutional rights of the South. He endorsed the "Georgia Platform" in which Georgia leaders pledged support for the Union and acceptance of the Compromise of 1850 in exchange for the federal government enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act and supporting slavery's expansion into new territories to avoid Georgia's secession. In the presidential election of 1852, Abercrombie withheld support for Whig candidate Winfield Scott for his weak stance on southern rights. Abercrombie was reelected to the Thirty-third Congress in 1853, defeating David Clopton. Discouraged by the district's impending reapportionment in 1855, he did not run for reelection in 1854. The open seat was won by Eli Sims Shorter.

After retiring from political office, Abercrombie relocated to Pensacola, Florida, in 1856. There, he became a contractor, supplying bricks to the U.S. government. Although, he did not serve in any other political offices, as late as 1859 he visited Montgomery to assist former governor Benjamin Fitzpatrick's campaign for reelection to the U.S. Senate. Abercrombie died on July 2, 1861, in Pensacola and is buried in Linwood Cemetery in Columbus, Georgia.

Additional Resources

• Denman, Clarence Phillips. The Secession Movement in Alabama. Montgomery: Alabama Department of Archives and History, 1933.
• Dorman, Lewy. Party Politics in Alabama from 1850 through 1860. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1995.
• Thornton, J. Mills, III. Politics and Power in a Slave Society: Alabama, 1800-1860. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1978.

Published: November 15, 2017

http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/f/o/w/Jann-J-Fowler/PDFG...

Hon. James Abercrombie was described as "a distinguished citizen of this county, was born in Hancock county, Georgia, in 1795. His father was a planter with considerable means, and gave his son a good education. About the year 1812 the son came to the wilds of Alabama, and first settled in Monroe (now Dallas) county, but shortly after became a resident of Montgomery. That county he represented in the lower house of the legislature in 1820, '22, '24, and from 1825 to 1834 in the senate. In the latter year he came to Russell, and in 1838-'40 represented the county in the legislature. In 1844 he headed the Clay electoral ticket. From 1847 to '51 he was in the upper house, and in the latter year was elected to congress over Hon. John Cochran of Barbour. He was re-elected two years later, defeating Mr. David Clopton of Macon. This closed his long public service. He removed to Florida in 1859, and died near Pensacola, July 2, 1861. He was buried in Columbus, Georgia. His wife was a sister of Mr. Isaac N. Ross of Tallapoosa, and the late Hon. James J. Abercrombie of Florida was his son. Col. R. H. Abercrombie of Macon, Dr. Charles Abercrombie, who represented Macon in 1853, and Col. Anderson Abercrombie of Texas, are nephews.

Capt. Abercrombie "was a man of massive proportions, both in body and mind. He was one of that class of men who engage in all business with intention to succeed. They

never stop to count cost, but set in to go through, cost what it may. These inherent qualities of mind we deem indispensable to all greatness. The right use of such mental

condition may be, and often is, abused, especially in hard political races; but this is an abuse. Capt. A. had a large endowment of this capital. He used it successfully in his business life. He made a great deal of money, paid out a fortune for his friends, squandered thousands for party, gave with princely munificence to the church, and to the poor.”* He was one of the most remarkable men the State has produced, and was a tower of strength to whatever cause he belonged, and wielded an immense influence by his personal popularity and wondrous energy." He was born on 18 February 1792 at Hancock Co., Georgia. He was the son of Charles Abercrombie and Edwina Dicey Malinda Booth. Hon. James Abercrombie began military service in 1812 as a Captain in the War of 1812. He married Evelina Elizabeth Ross on 27 July 1816 at Old Augusta, Montgomery, Alabama; Conflicting Date 28 JUL 1816. Hon. James Abercrombie lived in 1835 at Russell Co., Alabama; Coweta Rd., three miles from Columbus, GA. Lived next door to his brothers, Anderson and Charlie. In 1859, living in Pensacola, Florida. He was Alabama State Representative in 1838. He was Alabama State Senator in 1848. He was U. S. Congressman from Alabama from 1851 to 1853. He was buried on 2 July 1861 at Linwood Cemetery, Columbus, Muscogee Co., Georgia. He died on 2 July 1861 at Pensacola, Florida, at age 69.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Abercrombie_%28Congressman%29

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