biography
| name: |
Benton, Thomas Hart
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| |
known as Old Bullion
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1782–1858)
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| biography:
| US senator, born in Hillsborough, North Carolina, USA. A true son of the frontier, he grew up in Tennessee, became a lawyer there, then served a term in the state senate (1809–11). After serving in the War of 1812, during which he got involved in a brawl with his commander Andrew Jackson, he moved to St Louis, MO, where he practised law and edited the Missouri Enquirer (1818–20). His editorials got him elected to the US Senate, where he served for 30 years (Democrat, Missouri, 1821–51). He opposed the national bank and championed ‘hard money’ for which he earned his nickname, and was a supporter of expansion and the small farmer. A moderate on the slavery issue, he lost popularity with his constituents. Denied re-election in 1850, he served in the US House of Representatives (1853–5) but lost again because of his opposition to slavery. He was such a loyal Democrat that he opposed his own son-in-law, John C Frémont, when he ran as a Republican for the presidency in 1886. |
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