American soldier and statesman, born in Buncombe County, NC, on the 14th of December 1801. He moved to Warwick County, IN, in 1816, and became a clerk in a mercantile house. In 1822 he was elected to the state legislature, which office he held until 1846, when he enlisted in a regiment of volunteers. He was commissioned colonel and afterward brigadier, and served throughout the Mexican War, gaining the brevet of major-general. He was appointed governor of Oregon in 1848, and was its delegate to Congress in 1851–57. When Oregon was admitted in 1859 he was elected to the Senate, serving until 1861. In 1860 he was nominated for Vice-President on the ticket with Breckinridge, and after his defeat took no more part in politics, and passed the rest of his life in obscurity and poverty, dying April 19, 1881, in Oregon.
