Felix Grundy

thumb|Portrait by [[George Dury, c.1858–1859]]

Felix Grundy (September 11, 1777 – December 19, 1840) was an American attorney and politician who served as the 13th U.S. attorney general. He also had served several terms as a congressman and as a U.S. senator from Tennessee. He was known for his success as a criminal lawyer who attracted crowds when he served on the defense.

Biography

Early life

Born in Berkeley County, Virginia (now Berkeley County, West Virginia), Grundy moved with his parents to Brownsville, Pennsylvania, and then Kentucky. He was educated at home and at the Bardstown Academy in Bardstown, Kentucky. He read law as an apprentice with an established firm, was admitted to the Kentucky bar in 1799. That year he started practice in Springfield, Kentucky.

Career

In 1799, he was chosen to represent Washington County at the convention that drafted the second Kentucky Constitution. In addition, Nashville was growing rapidly as the chief city in the Middle District of Tennessee. While soon renowned as a criminal lawyer in Tennessee, Grundy maintained his political ambition.

Grundy was elected as a Democratic-Republican to the 12th and 13th Congresses and served from March 4, 1811, until his resignation in July 1814.

He was elected and served as a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives from 1819 to 1825. In 1820 he was a commissioner to settle the boundary line (state line) between Tennessee and Kentucky.

He was elected as a Jacksonian in 1829 to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy in the term ending March 4, 1833, caused by the resignation of John H. Eaton to join the Cabinet of President Andrew Jackson. Reelected in 1832, Grundy served from October 19, 1829, to July 4, 1838, when he resigned to accept a Cabinet position. During his period in Congress, Grundy served as chairman of the Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads (21st through 24th Congresses), U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary (24th and 25th Congresses).

Grundy was appointed as Attorney General of the United States by President Martin Van Buren in July 1838. He resigned the post in December 1839, having been elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate on November 19, 1839, to fill the vacancy in the term commencing March 4, 1839, caused by the resignation of Ephraim Foster.

He resolved the question of whether he was eligible to be elected as Senator while holding the office of Attorney General by resigning on December 14, 1839. He was reelected by the Tennessee legislature to the Senate the same day, serving from December 14, 1839, until his death in Nashville, a little over a year later. During this stint in the US Senate, Grundy served as chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Revolutionary Claims in the 26th Congress.

Death and honors

Grundy was buried at Nashville City Cemetery in Nashville, Tennessee. After his death, four American counties were named in his honor. The four counties are located in Illinois, Iowa, Missouri and Tennessee. The county seat of Buchanan County, Virginia, Grundy Virginia, was named for Felix Grundy. Grundy was founded in 1858.

Both Grundy Center, Iowa, and its location of Grundy County, Iowa are also named in his honor. Grundy Center's annual festival, called "Felix Grundy Days", are held each July. This marks the start to the annual Grundy County Fair, located in Grundy Center.

Legacy

Grundy was a mentor to future President James K. Polk. Polk purchased Grundy's home in Nashville called "Grundy Place" and changed the name to "Polk Place". He lived and died there after his presidency. It was demolished in 1901.

Notes

Bibliography

Heller, John Roderick. Democracy's Lawyer: Felix Grundy of the Old Southwest (LSU Press, 2010), scholarly biography.
Kanon, Tom. "'James Madison, Felix Grundy, and the Devil': A Western War Hawk in Congress." Filson History Quarterly 75 (2001): 433–68.