George W. Jones
Encyclopedia
George Wallace Jones a frontiersman, entrepreneur, attorney, and judge, was among the first two United States Senators
to represent the state of Iowa
after it was admitted to the Union in 1846. A Democrat
who was elected before the birth of the Republican Party
, Jones served over ten years in the Senate, from December 7, 1848 to March 3, 1859.
. He was the son of John Rice Jones
, who became active in efforts directed toward the introduction of slavery to the country north of the Ohio River
. When George was six years old, his father moved the family to Missouri Territory
, recently acquired from France as part of the Louisiana Purchase
. As a child he served as a drummer for a volunteer company in the War of 1812
. He later moved to Kentucky
where he attended Transylvania University
in 1825, and returned to Missouri to study law with his brother. After he was admitted to the bar and had practiced law for a short time, he went to work at Sinsinawa Mound
, then in Michigan Territory
, where he mined lead and worked and a storekeeper. He returned to Missouri, where he courted and married seventeen-year-old Josephine Gregiore in 1829. In 1831 Jones returned to Sinsinawa with his wife, seven slaves and several French laborers, to resume lead mining.
In 1832, Jones fought the Sauk and Fox Indians in the Black Hawk War
. Jones was a judge in the local county court.
from 1835 until 1837. His constituency included all of what is now the states of Michigan
, Wisconsin
, Minnesota
, and Iowa. He then became the first Congressional delegate from the Territory of Wisconsin, which was formed from a portion of the Michigan Territory. In that position he successfully persuaded voting members to support the designation of areas of Wisconsin Territory west of the Mississippi River as Iowa Territory
. He continued to represent the Wisconsin Territory until January 3, 1839, when he was succeeded by James D. Doty.
President Martin Van Buren
appointed him as Surveyor-General of the Wisconsin and Iowa Territories, where he served (most likely in Dubuque
, in Iowa Territory) from early 1840 until the end of the Van Buren administration in 1841. In 1845, following the election of another Democrat, James K. Polk
, as president, he was reappointed Surveyor-General of Iowa Territory
, one year before the southeastern eastern area of Iowa Territory became the State of Iowa.
from December 7, 1848 to March 3, 1859. For its first two years, the Iowa General Assembly
failed to choose Iowa's first U.S. Senators, due to a three-way split that prevented any candidate from earning the required number of 30 legislators' votes. However, after the 1848 elections gave the Democratic Party a greater share of Iowa legislators, Jones became a candidate for one of the two seats, and after four ballots won the Democratic caucuses' nomination for one of the two seats. He won the election and then, by drawing lots, received the seat with the longer term (to expire in four years). He won re-election (to a full six-year term) in 1852, after winning renomination by the Democratic Party by a single vote.
Jones was Chairman of the Committee on Engrossed Bills, the Committee on Pensions, and the Committee on Enrolled Bills. He served two terms before failing to be renominated. Jones had become increasingly unpopular in Iowa, even among those in his own party, because he often voted with southern Senators on slavery-related issues. As a senator, Jones was described by his biographer as a "Democrat in politics and a southerner by instinct." He claimed to oppose slavery (despite his own slaveholding past) but insisted that Congress had no right to forbid it or criticize it where states chose to allow it. Thus, he supported the Kansas-Nebraska Act
. That stance, while unremarkable at the time, ultimately rendered him incapable of re-election in a state whose antislavery, anticompromise faction became dominant midway in Jones' second term, as the new Republican Party
. After his term ended, no Iowa Democrat would win election to the U.S. Senate until the 1920s. His ten years in the Senate were not matched by any Iowa Democrat until 1950, after Guy M. Gillette was elected a third time.
, gave for the adoption by Kansas Territory
and Congress of the pro-slavery Lecompton Constitution
. Jones had voted to approve the Lecompton Constitution in the Senate. When anti-slavery Iowa Democrats passed a resolution at their 1858 state convention repudiating the party's previous support for the Lecompton Constitution, Jones and others in the party's "old guard" walked out.
In 1859, President Buchanan appointed Jones as Minister Resident of the United States to New Granada
(encompassing modern Colombia
and Panama
), requiring his relocation to Bogotá
.
His service in Bogotá ended just as the Civil War
broke out, as the Abraham Lincoln
administration displaced the Buchanan administration. Jones' two sons joined the Confederate Army. Upon returning to the United States
in 1861, Jones was arrested by order of Secretary of State
William H. Seward
on the charge of disloyalty, based upon correspondence with his friend, Confederate President Jefferson Davis
. He was never indicted or placed on trial. Jones was held for 34 days, until he was released by order of President Lincoln.
and the Iowa General Assembly
gave Jones a public reception in recognition of his valuable services in the formative periods of the Territory and State. He died in Dubuque on July 22, 1896.
Jones County, Iowa
was named in his honor. In 1912, the State Historical Society of Iowa
published the biography George Wallace Jones, by John Carl Parish
.
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
to represent the state of Iowa
Iowa
Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...
after it was admitted to the Union in 1846. A Democrat
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
who was elected before the birth of the Republican Party
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
, Jones served over ten years in the Senate, from December 7, 1848 to March 3, 1859.
Life before Congress
Jones was born in Vincennes, IndianaVincennes, Indiana
Vincennes is a city in and the county seat of Knox County, Indiana, United States. It is located on the Wabash River in the southwestern part of the state. The population was 18,701 at the 2000 census...
. He was the son of John Rice Jones
John Rice Jones
John Rice Jones was an American politician, jurist, and pioneer.-Early history:Jones was born in Mallwyd, Wales, the eldest of fourteen children to John Jones, an excise officer. According to family tradition Jones was educated in Oxford, but this is unconfirmed...
, who became active in efforts directed toward the introduction of slavery to the country north of the Ohio River
Ohio River
The Ohio River is the largest tributary, by volume, of the Mississippi River. At the confluence, the Ohio is even bigger than the Mississippi and, thus, is hydrologically the main stream of the whole river system, including the Allegheny River further upstream...
. When George was six years old, his father moved the family to Missouri Territory
Missouri Territory
The Territory of Missouri was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from June 4, 1812 until August 10, 1821, when the southeastern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Missouri.-History:...
, recently acquired from France as part of the Louisiana Purchase
Louisiana Purchase
The Louisiana Purchase was the acquisition by the United States of America of of France's claim to the territory of Louisiana in 1803. The U.S...
. As a child he served as a drummer for a volunteer company in the War of 1812
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...
. He later moved to Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
where he attended Transylvania University
Transylvania University
Transylvania University is a private, undergraduate liberal arts college in Lexington, Kentucky, United States, affiliated with the Christian Church . The school was founded in 1780. It offers 38 majors, and pre-professional degrees in engineering and accounting...
in 1825, and returned to Missouri to study law with his brother. After he was admitted to the bar and had practiced law for a short time, he went to work at Sinsinawa Mound
Sinsinawa, Wisconsin
Sinsinawa is an unincorporated community in Grant County, Wisconsin, United States. The community is in the Town of Jamestown, and the Town of Hazel Green, one mile north of the border with Illinois. The community is 7.5 miles east of Dubuque, Iowa and 6.5 miles west of the village of Hazel Green,...
, then in Michigan Territory
Michigan Territory
The Territory of Michigan was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from June 30, 1805, until January 26, 1837, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Michigan...
, where he mined lead and worked and a storekeeper. He returned to Missouri, where he courted and married seventeen-year-old Josephine Gregiore in 1829. In 1831 Jones returned to Sinsinawa with his wife, seven slaves and several French laborers, to resume lead mining.
In 1832, Jones fought the Sauk and Fox Indians in the Black Hawk War
Black Hawk War
The Black Hawk War was a brief conflict fought in 1832 between the United States and Native Americans headed by Black Hawk, a Sauk leader. The war erupted soon after Black Hawk and a group of Sauks, Meskwakis, and Kickapoos known as the "British Band" crossed the Mississippi River into the U.S....
. Jones was a judge in the local county court.
Delegate to Congress from territories
Jones represented the Michigan Territory as a delegate in CongressUnited States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
from 1835 until 1837. His constituency included all of what is now the states of Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
, Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
, Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
, and Iowa. He then became the first Congressional delegate from the Territory of Wisconsin, which was formed from a portion of the Michigan Territory. In that position he successfully persuaded voting members to support the designation of areas of Wisconsin Territory west of the Mississippi River as Iowa Territory
Iowa Territory
The Territory of Iowa was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from July 4, 1838, until December 28, 1846, when the southeastern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Iowa.-History:...
. He continued to represent the Wisconsin Territory until January 3, 1839, when he was succeeded by James D. Doty.
President Martin Van Buren
Martin Van Buren
Martin Van Buren was the eighth President of the United States . Before his presidency, he was the eighth Vice President and the tenth Secretary of State, under Andrew Jackson ....
appointed him as Surveyor-General of the Wisconsin and Iowa Territories, where he served (most likely in Dubuque
Dubuque, Iowa
Dubuque is a city in and the county seat of Dubuque County, Iowa, United States, located along the Mississippi River. In 2010 its population was 57,637, making it the ninth-largest city in the state and the county's population was 93,653....
, in Iowa Territory) from early 1840 until the end of the Van Buren administration in 1841. In 1845, following the election of another Democrat, James K. Polk
James K. Polk
James Knox Polk was the 11th President of the United States . Polk was born in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. He later lived in and represented Tennessee. A Democrat, Polk served as the 17th Speaker of the House of Representatives and the 12th Governor of Tennessee...
, as president, he was reappointed Surveyor-General of Iowa Territory
Iowa Territory
The Territory of Iowa was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from July 4, 1838, until December 28, 1846, when the southeastern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Iowa.-History:...
, one year before the southeastern eastern area of Iowa Territory became the State of Iowa.
U.S. Senate
Jones represented Iowa in the United States SenateUnited States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
from December 7, 1848 to March 3, 1859. For its first two years, the Iowa General Assembly
Iowa General Assembly
The Iowa General Assembly is the legislative branch of the state government of Iowa. Like the federal United States Congress, the General Assembly is a bicameral body, composed of the upper house Iowa Senate and the lower Iowa House of Representatives respectively...
failed to choose Iowa's first U.S. Senators, due to a three-way split that prevented any candidate from earning the required number of 30 legislators' votes. However, after the 1848 elections gave the Democratic Party a greater share of Iowa legislators, Jones became a candidate for one of the two seats, and after four ballots won the Democratic caucuses' nomination for one of the two seats. He won the election and then, by drawing lots, received the seat with the longer term (to expire in four years). He won re-election (to a full six-year term) in 1852, after winning renomination by the Democratic Party by a single vote.
Jones was Chairman of the Committee on Engrossed Bills, the Committee on Pensions, and the Committee on Enrolled Bills. He served two terms before failing to be renominated. Jones had become increasingly unpopular in Iowa, even among those in his own party, because he often voted with southern Senators on slavery-related issues. As a senator, Jones was described by his biographer as a "Democrat in politics and a southerner by instinct." He claimed to oppose slavery (despite his own slaveholding past) but insisted that Congress had no right to forbid it or criticize it where states chose to allow it. Thus, he supported the Kansas-Nebraska Act
Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854 created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, opening new lands for settlement, and had the effect of repealing the Missouri Compromise of 1820 by allowing settlers in those territories to determine through Popular Sovereignty if they would allow slavery within...
. That stance, while unremarkable at the time, ultimately rendered him incapable of re-election in a state whose antislavery, anticompromise faction became dominant midway in Jones' second term, as the new Republican Party
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
. After his term ended, no Iowa Democrat would win election to the U.S. Senate until the 1920s. His ten years in the Senate were not matched by any Iowa Democrat until 1950, after Guy M. Gillette was elected a third time.
Later life
In 1858, the Democratic Party in Iowa, like those in other northern states, was bitterly divided over the support that its own president, James BuchananJames Buchanan
James Buchanan, Jr. was the 15th President of the United States . He is the only president from Pennsylvania, the only president who remained a lifelong bachelor and the last to be born in the 18th century....
, gave for the adoption by Kansas Territory
Kansas Territory
The Territory of Kansas was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 30, 1854, until January 29, 1861, when the eastern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Kansas....
and Congress of the pro-slavery Lecompton Constitution
Lecompton Constitution
The Lecompton Constitution was the second of four proposed constitutions for the state of Kansas . The document was written in response to the anti-slavery position of the 1855 Topeka Constitution of James H. Lane and other free-state advocates...
. Jones had voted to approve the Lecompton Constitution in the Senate. When anti-slavery Iowa Democrats passed a resolution at their 1858 state convention repudiating the party's previous support for the Lecompton Constitution, Jones and others in the party's "old guard" walked out.
In 1859, President Buchanan appointed Jones as Minister Resident of the United States to New Granada
Granadine Confederation
The Granadine Confederation was a short-lived federal republic established in 1858 as a result of a constitutional change replacing the Republic of New Granada. It comprised the present day nations of Colombia and Panama...
(encompassing modern Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
and Panama
Panama
Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...
), requiring his relocation to Bogotá
Bogotá
Bogotá, Distrito Capital , from 1991 to 2000 called Santa Fé de Bogotá, is the capital, and largest city, of Colombia. It is also designated by the national constitution as the capital of the department of Cundinamarca, even though the city of Bogotá now comprises an independent Capital district...
.
His service in Bogotá ended just as the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
broke out, as the Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
administration displaced the Buchanan administration. Jones' two sons joined the Confederate Army. Upon returning to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in 1861, Jones was arrested by order of Secretary of State
United States Secretary of State
The United States Secretary of State is the head of the United States Department of State, concerned with foreign affairs. The Secretary is a member of the Cabinet and the highest-ranking cabinet secretary both in line of succession and order of precedence...
William H. Seward
William H. Seward
William Henry Seward, Sr. was the 12th Governor of New York, United States Senator and the United States Secretary of State under Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson...
on the charge of disloyalty, based upon correspondence with his friend, Confederate President Jefferson Davis
Jefferson Davis
Jefferson Finis Davis , also known as Jeff Davis, was an American statesman and leader of the Confederacy during the American Civil War, serving as President for its entire history. He was born in Kentucky to Samuel and Jane Davis...
. He was never indicted or placed on trial. Jones was held for 34 days, until he was released by order of President Lincoln.
Legacy
Jones then began a long retirement in Dubuque. In 1892, he was granted a pension by special act of Congress for his services in the Black Hawk War. On his ninetieth birthday in 1894, Governor Frank D. JacksonFrank D. Jackson
Frank Darr Jackson was the 15th Governor of Iowa, serving one term from 1894-96. -Biography:...
and the Iowa General Assembly
Iowa General Assembly
The Iowa General Assembly is the legislative branch of the state government of Iowa. Like the federal United States Congress, the General Assembly is a bicameral body, composed of the upper house Iowa Senate and the lower Iowa House of Representatives respectively...
gave Jones a public reception in recognition of his valuable services in the formative periods of the Territory and State. He died in Dubuque on July 22, 1896.
Jones County, Iowa
Jones County, Iowa
-2010 census:The 2010 census recorded a population of 20,638 in the county, with a population density of . There were 8,911 housing units, of which 8,151 were occupied.-2000 census:...
was named in his honor. In 1912, the State Historical Society of Iowa
Iowa
Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...
published the biography George Wallace Jones, by John Carl Parish
John Carl Parish
John Carl Parish was an American historian of American history.Parish was born in Des Moines, Iowa. He earned a degree from the Iowa State Normal School in 1902, and then from the University of Iowa in 1905...
.