Alfred Iverson Sr.

Alfred Iverson Sr.
United States Senator from Georgia
In office March 4, 1855 – January 28, 1861
Preceded by	William C. Dawson
Succeeded by	Joshua Hill
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Georgia's 2nd district
In office March 4, 1847 – March 3, 1849
Preceded by	Seaborn Jones
Succeeded by	Marshall J. Wellborn
Member of the Georgia Senate
In office 1843-1844
Member of the Georgia House of Representatives
In office 1827-1830
Personal details
Born	December 3, 1798 Liberty County, Georgia
Died	March 4, 1873 (aged 74) Macon, Georgia
Political party	Democratic

Alfred Iverson Sr. (December 3, 1798 – March 4, 1873) was a United States Representative and Senator from Georgia.

Early life

Born in Liberty County, he attended private schools and graduated from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) in 1820. He studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1822 and commenced practice in Clinton, a community in Jones County, Georgia.

Political life

He was a member of the Georgia House of Representatives from 1827 to 1830, and moved to Columbus in 1830 and continued the practice of law. He was judge of the State superior court from 1835 to 1837, a member of the Georgia Senate in 1843-1844, and a presidential elector on the Democratic ticket in 1844.

Iverson was elected as a Democrat to the Thirtieth Congress (March 4, 1847 – March 3, 1849). From 1850 to 1854 he again served as judge of the State superior court, and was elected to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1855, to January 28, 1861, when he withdrew. While in the Senate he was chairman of the Committee on Claims (Thirty-fifth and Thirty-sixth Congresses). While a senator, he repudiated popular sovereignty.^[1] Iverson left the Senate shortly after Georgia passed an ordinance of secession from the United States and after making a defiant farewell speech, stating that Southerners would never return to the Union "short of a full and explicit recognition of the guarantee of the safety of their institution of domestic slavery."^[2][3]

Death and legacy

After leaving the Senate, he resumed the practice of law in Columbus until 1868, when he purchased a plantation in East Macon and engaged in agricultural pursuits until his death there in 1873; interment was in Linwood Cemetery.

His son Alfred Iverson Jr. was a Confederate general in the American Civil War.

References

1. Iverson, Alfred (1860). Speech of Hon. Alfred Iverson, of Georgia, on our territorial policy : delivered in the Senate of the United States, January 9, 1860. Washington: Congressional Globe Office. p. 3. Retrieved 28 October 2016.
2. Goodheart, Adam (Jan 27, 2011). "The South Rises Again – and Again, and Again". New York Times. Archived from the original on 1 February 2011. Retrieved 28 Jan 2011.
3. "A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774 - 1875". Congressional Globe, Senate, 36th Congress, 2nd Session. Library of Congress. 1861. p. 589. Retrieved 28 Jan 2011. (text of farewell speech)

Other sources

• United States Congress. "Alfred Iverson Sr. (id: I000049)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.