George Wallace Jones

George Jones
United States Minister to New Granada
In office August 29, 1859 – November 4, 1861
President	James Buchanan Abraham Lincoln
Preceded by	James B. Bowlin
Succeeded by	Allan Burton(Colombia)
United States Senator fromIowa
In office December 7, 1848 – March 3, 1859
Preceded by	Seat established
Succeeded by	James W. Grimes
Delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives from theWisconsin Territory's at-largedistrict
In office December 5, 1836 – January 3, 1839
Preceded by	Constituency established
Succeeded by	James D. Doty
Delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives from theMichigan Territory's at-largedistrict
In office March 4, 1835 – June 15, 1836
Preceded by	Lucius Lyon
Succeeded by	Constituency abolished
Personal details
Born	(1804-04-12)April 12, 1804 Vincennes, Indiana,U.S.
Died	July 22, 1896(1896-07-22)(aged 92) Dubuque, Iowa,U.S.
Political party	Jacksonian(Before 1837) Democratic(1837–1896)
Education	Transylvania University(BA)
Signature

George Wallace Jones(April 12, 1804 – July 22, 1896) was an American frontiersman, entrepreneur, attorney, and judge, was among the first twoUnited States Senatorsto represent the state ofIowaafter it was admitted to the Union in 1846. ADemocratwho was elected before the birth of theRepublican Party,Jones served over ten years in the Senate, from December 7, 1848 to March 3, 1859. During theAmerican Civil War,he was arrested by Federal authorities and briefly jailed on suspicion of having pro-Confederate sympathies.

Early life

Jones was born inVincennes, Indiana.He was the son ofJohn Rice Jones,who became active in efforts directed toward the introduction of slavery to the country north of theOhio River.When George was six years old, his father moved the family toMissouri Territory,recently acquired from France as part of theLouisiana Purchase.As a child he served as a drummer for a volunteer company in theWar of 1812.He later moved toKentuckywhere he attendedTransylvania Universityin 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 atSinsinawa Mound,then inMichigan 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 theSaukandFox Indiansin theBlack Hawk War,in which his brother-in-lawFelix St. Vrainwas killed. Jones was a judge in the local county court.

Delegate to Congress from territories

Jones was a delegate to theU.S. House of Representativesfrom both Michigan Territory and Wisconsin Territory. Uncertainty over precisely when his terms began and ended led to a contested election that was settled by the House, in favor of his opponent, in 1839.

Election and service as delegate

Jones was elected to represent Michigan Territory as itsat-large delegatein the24th Congress.Part of the territory was in the process of becoming the state ofMichigan,and already had ade factostate government in place, so Jones helped push forward legislation to create a newTerritory of Wisconsincomprising what remained of Michigan Territory. That legislation became law on April 20, 1836, and Wisconsin Territory came into existence on July 4 of that year.

An election was held in October 1836 to choose the new territory's Congressional delegate, and Jones won.He took his seat at the opening of the next session of Congress on December 5, 1836, as the delegate from the Territory of Wisconsin.In that position he successfully persuaded voting members to support the designation of areas of Wisconsin Territory west of the Mississippi River asIowa Territory.In February 1838, he served as second toJonathan Cilley,a Congressman from Maine, in hisduelwithWilliam J. Graves,a Congressman from Kentucky, in which Cilley was fatally wounded. The outpouring of anger over four Congressmen being involved in a fatal duel led to a House committee recommending censure for Jones and expulsion for Graves, but no such action was taken before the end of the session.

Contested election

In September 1838, Jones lost an election toJames Duane Dotyto serve as the Wisconsin Territory's delegate to Congress. Jones went to Washington to take his seat for the session beginning that December, reasoning that his term through January 26, 1837, had been as the delegate from Michigan Territory, and thus he was entitled to a full two-year term beginning March 4, 1837, as the delegate from Wisconsin Territory. He believed Doty should not be seated until his own term expired on March 4, 1839.At the opening of the session,Isaac Craryof Michigan moved that Doty, also in attendance, be seated, and the matter was referred to the Committee on Elections. The committee determined that Michigan Territory had ceased to exist on June 15, 1836, and thus Jones had ceased to be its delegate at the same time, notwithstanding that Crary had not been seated as the new state of Michigan's representative until January 27, 1837, the day after statehood was officially granted.The committee reported in favor of Doty on December 21, and on January 3, 1839, the full House voted to seat Doty.Joshua Giddingsof Ohio attempted to deny Jones payment for his travel to Washington and the month of salary he had claimed, but the full House voted to honor his claim in spite of its determination that he was not entitled to the seat.

Other territorial offices

PresidentMartin Van Burenappointed him as Surveyor-General of the Wisconsin and Iowa Territories, where he served (most likely inDubuque,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 ofIowa Territory,one year before the southeastern eastern area of Iowa Territory became the State of Iowa.

George W. Jones in his elder years

U.S. Senate

Jones represented Iowa in theUnited States Senatefrom December 7, 1848 to March 3, 1859. For its first two years, theIowa General Assemblyfailed 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 theCommittee on Engrossed Bills,theCommittee on Pensions,and theCommittee 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 theKansas–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 newRepublican 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, afterGuy M. Gillettewas 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 Buchanan,gave for the adoption byKansas Territoryand Congress of the pro-slaveryLecompton 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 toNew Granada(encompassing modernColombiaandPanama), requiring his relocation toBogotá.

His service in Bogotá ended just as theCivil Warbroke out, as theAbraham Lincolnadministration succeeded the Buchanan administration. Jones' two sons joined theConfederate Army.Upon returning to the United States in 1861, Jones was arrested by order ofSecretary of StateWilliam H. Sewardon the charge of disloyalty,based upon correspondence with his friend, Confederate PresidentJefferson Davis.He was never indicted or placed on trial. Jones was held for 34 days, until he was released by order of President Lincoln.

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, GovernorFrank D. Jacksonand theIowa General Assemblygave Jones a public reception in recognition of his valuable services in the formative periods of the Territory and State.He died at his daughter's home in Dubuque on July 22, 1896.

Jones County, IowaandJones County, South Dakotawere named in his honor.In 1912, the State Historical Society ofIowapublished the biographyGeorge Wallace Jones,byJohn Carl Parish.

External links

• Digitized Augustus C. Dodge and George W. Jones letters, MSS 4046atL. Tom Perry Special Collections,Brigham Young University

• Transcription of above letters

• United States Congress."George Wallace Jones (id: J000221)".Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.RetrievedApril 14,2009.
• "George Wallace Jones".Find a Grave.RetrievedApril 14,2009.