Dixon Hall LEWIS, Congress, AL (1802-1848)

LEWIS, Dixon Hall, (nephew of Bolling Hall), a Representative and a Senator from Alabama; born on Bothwick plantation, Dinwiddie County, Va., August 10, 1802; moved to Hancock County, Ga., with his parents in 1806; graduated from Mount Zion Academy and from South Carolina College at Columbia in 1820; moved to Autauga County, Ala., the same year; studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1823, and commenced the practice of law in Montgomery, Ala.; member, State house of representatives 1826-1828; elected as a States Rights Democrat to the Twenty-first and to the seven succeeding Congresses and served from March 4, 1829, to April 22, 1844, when he resigned, having been appointed Senator; chairman, Committee on Indian Affairs (Twenty-second and Twenty-third Congresses); appointed and subsequently elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of William R. King; reelected in 1847 and served from April 22, 1844, until his death in New York City on October 25, 1848; chairman, Committee on Finance (Twenty-ninth Congress), Committee on Retrenchment (Twenty-ninth Congress); interment in Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn, N.Y.

Bibliography

American National Biography; Dictionary of American Biography; Moore, Frederick W., ed. ”Calhoun as Seen by His Political Friends: Letters of Duff Green, Dixon H. Lewis and Richard K. Crallé During the Period from 1831 to 1848.” Publications of the Southern History Association 7 (May 1903): 159-69; (July 1903): 269-91; (September 1903): 353-61; (November 1903): 419-26; Watson, Elbert L. “Dixon Hall Lewis.” In Alabama United States Senators, pp. 45-48. Huntsville, AL: Strode Publishers, 1982.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present