John J. Pettus

Coordinates: 34°21′30.3″N 91°52′09.5″W / 34.358417°N 91.869306°W / 34.358417; -91.869306
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John J. Pettus
Portrait by Alexander Alaux, 1907 (Mississippi Department of Archives and History)
23rd Governor of Mississippi
In office
November 21, 1859 – November 16, 1863
Preceded byWilliam McWillie
Succeeded byCharles Clark
President of the Mississippi Senate
In office
1854–1857
Preceded byUnknown
Succeeded byUnknown
Governor of Mississippi
Acting
In office
January 5, 1854 – January 10, 1854
Preceded byHenry S. Foote
Succeeded byJohn J. McRae
Member of the Mississippi Senate
from Neshoba and Kemper counties
In office
1848–1857
Preceded byEmanuel Durr
Succeeded byIsaac Enloe
Member of the
Mississippi House of Representatives
from Kemper County
In office
1844–1847
Serving with Lewis Stovall 1844–1845
Preceded byVacant
Succeeded byOswell Neely,
Lumpkin Garrett
Personal details
Born
John Jones Pettus

(1813-10-09)October 9, 1813
Wilson County, Tennessee, United States
DiedJanuary 25, 1867(1867-01-25) (aged 53)
Pulaski County, Arkansas, United States
Cause of deathPneumonia
Resting placeFlat Bayou Cemetery,
Jefferson County, Arkansas
34°21′30.3″N 91°52′09.5″W / 34.358417°N 91.869306°W / 34.358417; -91.869306
Political partyDemocratic
Spouses
Permelia Virginia Winston
​
​
(m. 1837; died 1857)​
Susan Hewell
​
(m. 1861)​
RelationsEdmund Pettus (brother)
Military service
Allegiance Confederate States
Branch Mississippi Militia
Years of service1864–1865
Rank Colonel
WarsAmerican Civil War

John Jones Pettus (October 9, 1813 – January 25, 1867) was an American politician, lawyer, and slave owner who served as the 23rd Governor of Mississippi, from 1859 to 1863. Before being elected in his own right to full gubernatorial terms in 1859 and 1861, he served as acting governor from January 5 to 10, 1854, following the resignation of Henry S. Foote. A member of the Democratic Party, Pettus had previously been a Mississippi state representative, a member and president of the Mississippi State Senate. He strongly supported Mississippi's secession from the United States in 1861 and sought cooperation with the Confederate States of America.[1]

Early life[edit]

John Jones Pettus was born on October 9, 1813, in Wilson County, Tennessee, to John Jones, a farmer, and his wife Alice Taylor (née Winston) Pettus. He was the brother of Edmund Pettus. He was raised in Limestone County, Alabama, after his father moved the family from Tennessee. Only nine when his father died, Pettus helped with chores and was educated at home by his mother. Pettus settled in Mississippi in 1835. After a brief stay in Sumter County, Alabama, where he studied law, he opened a law practice in Scooba, Mississippi. In the 1840s, he married a cousin, Permelia Winston. He became a farmer and by 1850 owned 1,600 acres (647 ha) and enslaved twenty-four people.[1]

Political career[edit]

In 1844, Pettus represented Kemper County in the Mississippi House of Representatives. In 1848, he was elected to the Mississippi Senate.[2] In 1853, while Governor Henry S. Foote was waiting for the January 11 inauguration of John J. McRae, Foote grew bitter and angry, addressing the legislative session by announcing that he had considered resigning in protest once the election results came in.[3] At noon on January 5, 1854, Foote's resignation was received by the state senate.[3]

The Mississippi Constitution of 1832 had abolished the office of lieutenant governor. As President of the Mississippi Senate, Pettus was next in seniority and sworn in at noon on January 7, 1854.[3] He held the governorship until McRae was sworn in on January 10, 1854.[4] His only recorded act during these 120 hours was to order a special session in Noxubee County to fill the office of a deceased state representative, Francis Irby.[3] On January 11, McRae was inaugurated as governor, and Pettus returned as senate president.[3] During the 1850s, he became identified as "the Mississippi Fire-eater," a term referring to Southerners supporting secession.[2]

In 1859, he was elected governor. In his inaugural address, he said that the South's only way to maintain slavery was secession and called for a Southern Confederacy.[2] Following President Abraham Lincoln's election, on November 26, 1860, Pettus called for a Special Session of the Legislature and urged the legislature to call for a convention to withdraw Mississippi from the United States.[5] The Legislature called for a Secession Convention which convened in Jackson on January 7, 1861.[6] Two days later, Mississippi officially declared secession from the United States. On February 4, 1861, along with five other slave states, the Confederate States of America was established at Montgomery, Alabama, precipitating the American Civil War.[2] Pettus was re-elected in the fall of 1861.[4] Pettus was succeeded by Charles Clark.[6]

Later life[edit]

Ineligible under the Mississippi Constitution to run for a third term, Pettus became a colonel in the state militia.[7] In September 1865, he took the oath of allegiance to the United States but failed on three separate occasions to receive a presidential pardon. After the war, he relocated to Pulaski County (present-day Lonoke County, Arkansas). Pettus died on January 25, 1867, of pneumonia and is buried in the Flat Bayou Cemetery, Jefferson County, Arkansas.[1]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c Garraty, John A.; Carnes, Mark C., eds. (1999). American National Biography. Vol. 17. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 414–415 – via American Council of Learned Societies.
  2. ^ a b c d Sansing, David G. (December 2003). "John Jones Pettus: Twentieth and Twenty-third Governor of Mississippi: January 5, 1854 to January 10, 1854; 1859-1863". Mississippi Historical Society. Archived from the original on December 8, 2015. Retrieved September 25, 2016.
  3. ^ a b c d e Dubay, Robert W. (1975). John Jones Pettus, Mississippi fire-eater. Univ. Press of Mississippi. p. 16. ISBN 9781617033537.
  4. ^ a b John J. Pettus at the National Governors Association
  5. ^ Mississippi. Dept. of Archives and History (1904). The Official and Statistical Register of the State of Mississippi. p. 128. Retrieved June 8, 2014.
  6. ^ a b Lowry, Robert; McCardle, William H. (1891). A History of Mississippi: From the Discovery of the Great River by Hernando DeSoto, Including the Earliest Settlement Made by the French Under Iberville, to the Death of Jefferson Davis [1541-1889]. Mississippi: R.H. Henry & Company. p. 341. Retrieved June 8, 2014.
  7. ^ Rowland, Dunbar (1978) [1st pub. MDAH:1908]. Military History of Mississippi, 1803-1898: Taken From the Official and Statistical Register of the State of Mississippi, 1908. with a new index by H. Grady Howell, Jr. Spartanburg, S.C.: Reprint Co. p. 540. ISBN 978-0-87152-266-5. LCCN 78-2454.

Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]

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