Hugh Lawson White

Lloyd Branson's "Sheep-shearing scene," showing Hugh Lawson White (left), his future father-in-law Samuel Carrick (middle), and future wife, Elizabeth

White was born in what is now Iredell County, North Carolina (but then part of Rowan County), the eldest son of James White and Mary Lawson White.[1] James, a Revolutionary War veteran, moved his family to the Tennessee frontier in the 1780s, and played an active role in the failed State of Franklin.[3] In 1786, he constructed White's Fort, which would eventually develop into Knoxville, Tennessee.[3] Young Hugh was a sentinel at the fort, and helped manage its small gristmill.[2]^:8

In 1791, White's Fort was chosen as the capital of the newly created Southwest Territory, and James White's friend, William Blount, was appointed governor of the territory. Hugh Lawson White worked as Blount's personal secretary,[1] and was tutored by early Knoxville minister and educator, Samuel Carrick.[1] In 1793, he fought in the territorial militia under John Sevier during the Cherokee–American wars.[1] Historian J. G. M. Ramsey credited Hugh Lawson White's company with the killing of the Chickamauga Cherokee war chief, King Fisher,[4] and White's granddaughter and biographer, Nancy Scott, stated that White fired the fatal shot.[2]^:11n

White studied law in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, under James Hopkins, and was admitted to the bar in 1796.[1] Two years later, he married Elizabeth Carrick, the daughter of his mentor, Samuel.[1]

In 1801, White was appointed judge of the Superior Court of Tennessee, then the state's highest court.[1] In 1807, he resigned after being elected to the state legislature.[1] He left the state legislature in 1809, following his appointment to the state's Court of Errors and Appeals (which replaced the Superior Court as the highest court).[1] He resigned this position in 1815, when he was elected to the state senate.[1] He served in the state senate until 1817. As a state legislator, White helped reform the state's land laws,[2]^:19 and engineered the passage of an anti-dueling measure.[5]

In 1812, White was named president of the Knoxville branch of the Bank of Tennessee.[1] White was described as a very cautious banker,[2]^:14–9 and his bank was one of the few in the state to survive the Panic of 1819.[6]

In 1821, President James Monroe appointed White to a commission to settle claims against Spain, following the Adams-Onís Treaty in which that nation sold Florida to the United States.[1]

Portrait of White by Emanuel Leutze

In 1825, the Tennessee state legislature chose White to replace Andrew Jackson in the United States Senate (Jackson had resigned following his failed run for the presidency in 1824).[1] White spearheaded the Southern states' opposition to sending delegates to the 1826 Congress of Panama, which was a general gathering of various nations in the Western Hemisphere, many of which had declared their independence from Spain and abolished slavery.[2]^:40–6 White argued that if the U.S. attended the congress, it would violate the commitment to neutrality put forth by President Washington decades earlier, and stated that the nation should not get involved in foreign treaties merely for the sake of "gratifying national vanity."[2]^:39

Following Jackson's election to the presidency in 1828, White became one of the Jackson Administration's key congressional allies.[2]^:246 White was chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, which drew up the Indian Removal Act of 1830, a major initiative of Jackson.[2]^:153–4 The act called for the relocation of the remaining Native American tribes in the southeastern United States to territories west of the Mississippi River, and would culminate in the so-called Trail of Tears.

In an 1836 speech, White described himself as a "strict constructionist,"[2]^:209 arguing that the federal government could not pass any laws outside its powers specifically stated in the Constitution. Like many Jacksonians, he was a staunch states' rights advocate.[2]^:76–7 He opposed the national bank,[2]^:19 and rejected federal funding for internal improvements (which he believed only the states had the power to fund).[2]^:76–7 He also supported Jackson's call for the elimination of the Electoral College,[2]^:348 and opposed federal intervention into the issue of slavery.[2]^:199

Like most Southern senators, White opposed the Tariff of 1828, which placed a high tax on goods imported from overseas to protect growing northern industries. White argued that while the federal government had the power to impose tariffs, it should only do so when it benefited the nation as a whole, and not merely one section (i.e., the North) at the expense of another (i.e., the agrarian South, which relied on trade with England).[2]^:76–7 During the resulting Nullification Crisis in late 1832 and early 1833, as the Senate's president pro tempore (the leader of the Senate in the absence of the Vice President), White coordinated negotiations in the interim between the resignation of Vice President John C. Calhoun (December 28, 1832) and the swearing in of Vice President Martin Van Buren (March 4, 1833).[2]^:239 Vice President Calhoun's resignation put White next in line to assume the presidency should that office have become vacant.[7]

Toward the end of Jackson's first term, a rift developed between White and Jackson. In 1831, as Jackson reshuffled his cabinet in the aftermath of the Petticoat affair, White was offered the office of Secretary of War, but turned it down.[2]^:251 During the Nullification Crisis in February 1833, White angered Jackson by appointing Delaware senator and Clay ally John M. Clayton to the select committee to consider the Clay compromise.[2]^:239 In later speeches, White stated that the Jackson Administration had drifted away from the party's core states' rights principles, and argued that the executive was gaining too much power.[2]^:352

The Tennessee state legislature endorsed White for the presidency in 1835, at the end of Jackson's second term. This angered Jackson, as he had chosen Martin Van Buren as his successor. White stated that no sitting president should choose a successor, arguing that doing so was akin to having a monarchy.[2]^:352 In 1836, White left Jackson's party entirely, and decided to run for president as a candidate for the Whig Party led by Henry Clay, which had formed largely from opposition to Jackson but also continued the nationalist agenda of the National Republican Party, although this very contradicting position in regard to White's ideals was not yet determined at that time, as the party was still regionally factionalised.[1]

In the 1836 presidential election, the Whig Party, unable to agree on a candidate, ran four candidates against Van Buren: White, William Henry Harrison, Daniel Webster, and Willie Person Mangum. Jackson actively campaigned against White in Tennessee, and accused him of being a federalist who was opposed to states' rights.[2]^:356 In spite of this, White won Tennessee, as well as Georgia, giving him 26 electoral votes, the third highest total behind Van Buren's 170 and Harrison's 73.[8]

By 1837, the relationship between White and Jackson had turned hostile. Jackson was outraged when he learned that White had accused his administration of committing outright fraud, and stated in a letter to Adam Huntsman that White had a "lax code of morals."[2]^:306 Jackson allies such as James K. Polk, Felix Grundy, and John Catron, also turned against White, and blamed him for the dispute with Jackson.[2]^:262 White stood by his accusations, and blasted Jackson for making "useless expenditures" of public money,[2]^:347 and increasing the power of the presidency.[2]^:348

By the late 1830s, Jackson's allies had gained control of the Tennessee state legislature. After White refused their demand that he vote for the Subtreasury Bill, he was forced to resign on January 13, 1840.[1] Following a large banquet in Washington, White returned to his native Knoxville. His entry into the city was marked by the firing of cannons and the ringing of church bells, as he paraded through the streets on horseback.[2]^:410

Shortly after his return, White fell ill, and he died on April 10, 1840. A large funeral procession led his casket and riderless horse through the streets of Knoxville.[2]^:421–2 He is interred with his family in the First Presbyterian Church Cemetery.[9]