Henry S. Foote

Henry Stuart Foote (February 28, 1804May 19, 1880) was a United States Senator from Mississippi and the chairman of the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations from 1847 to 1852. He was the Unionist Governor of Mississippi from 1852 to 1854.

Later when he moved west to California, he became an American Party (Know Nothingist) supporter of the smaller minority independent third party) while in California and nation-wide, while he was living there during the late 1850s, the know Nothings were an anti-immigrant, anti-Roman Catholic movement in American political history, which led to several violent riots during elections in northeastern American big cities in the turbulent violent pre-Civil War era. They were especially strong in the border state of Maryland. During its short-lived existence, several of its American Party members / supporters were elected to local, state and national offices, and got their start in political and civic activities.

During the American Civil War (1861–1865), Foote was elected and served in the first and second sessions of the Confederate Congress as the representative of the 5th District.

A practicing attorney, he published two books of memoirs related to the Civil War years, then a book on the history of Texas before its 1845 annexation by the United States, the Texas Revolution of 1836 and brief war afterwards (which led to the Mexican-American War of 1846–1848), and its earlier historical / political period of 16th to 19th centuries in the previous Spanish Empire of the Americas / colonial Viceroyalty of New Spain and in subsequent independent Mexico after 1821. Plus he also authored a post-war book on the legal profession and courts of justice in the Southern United States in the 19th century.

Early life

Henry S. Foote was born on February 28, 1804, in Fauquier County, Virginia. He was the son of Richard Helm Foote and Catherine (Stuart) Foote. He pursued classical studies in 1819 and graduated from Washington College (now Washington and Lee University). He also visited the state of Texas and wrote a two-volume book about it, Texas and the Texans (1841)

Foote served as a Democrat Senator from 1847 to 1851. As other Senators tried to intervene, Benton bellowed "Let the assassin shoot!" However, the other Senators wrestled Foote to the floor, took the gun away, and locked it in a drawer. The incident created an uproar that prompted an investigation by a Senate committee. He practiced the law in San Francisco, and joined the American Party.

Early in 1865, Foote attempted to cross Union Army lines and travel to Washington, D.C. but was arrested by Confederates before he could do so. The Confederate House of Representatives voted to expel him on January 24, 1865, but the vote failed to garner the necessary two-thirds majority. Later, he was appointed a Mississippi Commissioner for Confederate POWs held by the U.S. Army (his son among them).

Foote resigned from office in 1865 and moved to Washington, where he sought a meeting with President Lincoln but was refused. Given the choice of leaving the United States or being sent back to the Confederacy, Foote fled to Canada and later to London. There he began writing a memoir of his war years. He was also a frequent visitor to Washington, D.C. His second wife Rachel died in 1882.

References

Notes

Bibliography

Texas and the Texans; or, Advance of the Anglo-Americans to the South-west; Including a History of Leading Events in Mexico, from the Conquest by Fernando Cortes to the Termination of the Texan Revolution (1841).
War of the Rebellion (1866).
Casket of Reminiscences (1874).
The Bench and Bar of the South and Southwest (1876).

External links

Works by Henry S. Foote on the Internet Archive
Henry Stuart Foote Family website