Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 05.djvu/220

 HENDERSON

HENDERSON

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tives Dec. 4, 1899. Upper Iowa university con- ferred upon him the honorary degree of LL.D. in ISitT.

HENDERSON, James Pinckney, governor of Texas, was born in Lincohi county, N.C., March 31. 180S. He was educated in Lincolnton, studied law, and was admitted to tliebar in 18'28, before lie had reached his majority. In 1835 he removed to Missis- sippi and recruited a company for service in belialf of the re- pubUc of Texas. He preceded his com- pany to Texas in the spring of 1836 and reached Austin after the battle of San Ja- cinto. President Bur- net commissioned him brigadier-general and he returned to the United States to recruit volunteers. He raised a company at his own expense in his native state, with which he i-eached Galveston in November, 1836, just after Gen. Sam Houston had been inaugurated presi- dent of the republic. Houston made him at- torney-general and soon after secretary of state. Early in 1838 he was made envoy to England and France to secure recognition from those nations of the independence of Texas, and to effect treaties of amity and commerce. Lewis Cass was U.S. minister to France and greatly aided Envoy Henderson in his difficult mission. "While in Paris in 1839 he was married to Frances E. Cox, of Philadelphia, Pa. He returned to Texas in February, 1840, where he was accorded an ovation for his diplomatic service. He was appointed in 1844 Texan minister-extraordinary to the United States to join Resident Minister Van Zandt in negotiating a treaty of annexation. The treaty as prepared was rejected by the U.S. senate, but annexation was secured, March 1, 1843, by joint resolutions of the U.S. congress. He was a delegate to the convention which framed the state constitution in 1845 and in No- vember of that year was elected the first governor of Texas. He was inaugurated Feb. 19, 1846, and by May of that year he had four regiments in the field to take part in the war with Mexico. He was authorized by the legislature to lead the troops and was commissioned major-general in the U.S. army. He achieved distinction at the battle of :Monterey, Sept. 21-25, 1846, and was voted a sword and thanks of congress. He was, with Jefferson Davis and others, a commissioner to negotiate terms of capitulation with Ampudia,

the commander of the Mexican forces at Mon- terey. After six months' service he resumed his office as governor of Texas and completed his term of office, refusing re-election, his health being much broken. In December, 1857, the legislature of Texas elected him U.S. senator as successor to his law partner, Thomas J. Rusk, deceased. He went to Cuba for his health, then proceeded to Washington, where he took his seat in March, 1858, during the first session of the 35th congress. He served but a few days, and then went to Philadelphia for medical treatment. He died in Washington, D.C., June 4, 1858.

HENDERSON, John, senator, was born prob- ably in New York or Ohio in 1795. He was a friend and contemporary of John A. Quitman, and both these young lawyers appear in Missis- sippi the same j'ear, 1821. Henderson located in Woodville, the capital of Wilkinson county, while Quitman settled at Memphis, the capital of the adjacent county. Henderson was a representa- tive in the state legislature in 1835 and a U.S. senator, 1839-45. He favored the annexation of Texas and the conquest of Mexico and Cuba, and with Governor Quitman was complicated in the Lopez filibustering expedition. In 1851 the two men were arrested and tried before the U.S. dis- trict court in New Orleans for violating the neutrality laws of 1818, and were both acquitted. Henderson died at Pass Christian, Miss., in 1857.

HENDERSON, John Brooks, senator, was born in Pittsylvania county, Va., Nov. 16. 1826; son of James and Jane (Dawson) Henderson. His parents removed to Lincoln county, Mo., in 1832, and both died before he was ten years old. He gained a good educa- tion from the com- mon schools and fi-om classical teachers ; taught in the district school ; studied law and was admitted to the bar of Pike Coun- ty circuit court in 1848, beginning prac- tice in Louisiana, Mo., in 1849. He was a representative in the state legislature in 1849 and 1857, ori- ginating the state railroad and banking laws of 1857. He was a Buchanan and Breckin- ridge presidential elector in 1856. In 1860 he was a delegate to the Democratic national con- vention at Charleston, S.C, and Baltimore, Md., when he supported the candidacy of Senator Douglas. He was an elector on the Douglas and Johnson ticket in 1860 ; was defeated by James

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