Arthur Pendleton Bagby (1794 – September 21, 1858) was a slave owner and the tenth Governor of the U.S. state of Alabama from 1837 to 1841. Born in

Louisa County, Virginia Louisa County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 37,596. The county seat is Louisa. History Prior to colonial settlement, the area comprising Louisa County was occupied by severa ...

, in 1794, he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1819, practicing in Claiborne, Alabama. He was a member of the

Alabama State House of Representatives The Alabama State House of Representatives is the lower house of the Alabama Legislature, the state legislature of state of Alabama. The House is composed of 105 members representing an equal number of districts, with each constituency contain ...

in 1821, 1822, 1824, and 1834–1836, serving as the youngest-ever speaker in 1822 and 1836, and he served in the Alabama State Senate in 1825. He served in the U.S. Senate from November 21, 1841, when he was elected to fill the vacancy caused by Clement C. Clay's resignation, to June 16, 1848, when he resigned to become Minister to Russia from 1848 to 1849. During his time in the Senate, he was chairman of the Committee on Territories, the

Committee on Claims The United States Senate Committee on Claims was among the first standing committees established in the Senate. It dealt generally with issues related to private bills and petitions. After reforms in the 1880s that created judicial and administra ...

, and the

Committee on Indian Affairs The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs is a committee of the United States Senate charged with oversight in matters related to the American Indian, Native Hawaiian, and Alaska Native peoples. A Committee on Indian Affairs existed from 1820 to 1 ...

. As a Senator, he supported the annexation of Texas. Bagby died in 1858 in

Mobile, Alabama Mobile ( , ) is a city and the county seat of Mobile County, Alabama, United States. The population within the city limits was 187,041 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, down from 195,111 at the 2010 United States census, 2010 cens ...

, and he is interred in Magnolia Cemetery there.

Panic of 1837

During Bagby's administration, the country was plagued by economic depression as a result of the

Panic of 1837 The Panic of 1837 was a financial crisis in the United States that touched off a major depression, which lasted until the mid-1840s. Profits, prices, and wages went down, westward expansion was stalled, unemployment went up, and pessimism abound ...

. Bagby introduced measures to assist the state banks but the state legislature rejected most measures. All the state banks were closed by Bagby's successor, Governor Benjamin Fitzpatrick.

Arthur P. Bagby, Jr

His son,

Arthur P. Bagby, Jr. Arthur Pendleton Bagby Jr. (May 17, 1833 – February 21, 1921) was an American lawyer, editor, and Confederate States Army colonel during the American Civil War. Confederate General E. Kirby Smith, commander of the Trans-Mississippi Departmen ...

, was a Confederate colonel in the Civil War, who was assigned to command as a brigadier general on April 13, 1864, to rank from March 17, 1864, and as a major general on May 16, 1865, to rank from May 10, 1865, by General Edmund Kirby Smith in the Trans-Mississippi Department. Neither appointment was confirmed by the Confederate Senate, which had held its final session before the major general assignment was made. Bagby's first wife, Emily Steele of Georgia, died in 1825, and is buried in Claiborne, Alabama.

References

Retrieved on 2008-08-10 * Eicher, John H., and David J. Eicher, ''Civil War High Commands.'' Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001. . p. 588. *

External links

*
Alabama Department of Archives and History

Address of His Excellency Governor Bagby, when inducting into office the president of the University of Alabama; together with the address of the president, Rev. Basil Manly. Delivered in the Rotunda, on commencement day, December 6, 1837
Tuscaloosa, Ala., Ferguson & Eaton, Printers, 1838. From the University Libraries Division of Special Collections, The University of Alabama. {{DEFAULTSORT:Bagby, Arthur Pendleton 1794 births 1858 deaths People from Louisa County, Virginia Democratic Party governors of Alabama Democratic Party members of the Alabama House of Representatives Democratic Party Alabama state senators Alabama lawyers Ambassadors of the United States to Russia Democratic Party United States senators from Alabama 19th-century American diplomats Speakers of the Alabama House of Representatives 19th-century American politicians 19th-century American lawyers