George Goldthwaite (December 10, 1809March 16, 1879) was an

Alabama Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Alabama is the highest court in the state of Alabama. The court consists of a chief justice and eight associate justices. Each justice is elected in partisan elections for staggered six-year terms. The Supreme Court is house ...

justice and

U.S. senator The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and powe ...

for

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...

. He served in the Senate from March 4, 1871, to March 3, 1877, and did not run for reelection. He was a native of Boston, Massachusetts. He succeeded William P. Chilton as Chief Justice of the

Supreme Court of Alabama The Supreme Court of Alabama is the highest court in the state of Alabama. The court consists of a chief justice and eight associate justices. Each justice is elected in partisan elections for staggered six-year terms. The Supreme Court is house ...

in 1856. State legislators from Alabama wrote to the U.S. Senate in protest of his election stating he did not receive a majority of the votes from state legislators and was therefore not elected legitimately. He was seated and remained in office. A great-grandson, George G. Siebels, Jr., was a 20th-century mayor of

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

and a member of the

Alabama 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 contai ...

. Another descendant, Alfred Goldthwaite, was a state representative from Montgomery and a state chairman of the

Alabama Republican Party The Alabama Republican Party is the state affiliate of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party in Alabama. It is the dominant political party in Alabama. The state party is governed by the Alabama Republican Executive Committee. T ...

. In 1853 he ruled that a freed woman in Ohio could be returned so slavery to satisfy the debts of her former owner but that her son could not.

References

External links

Alabama Department of Archives & History
* 1810 births 1879 deaths Chief Justices of the Supreme Court of Alabama Democratic Party United States senators from Alabama Politicians from Boston Politicians from Montgomery, Alabama Lawyers from Montgomery, Alabama 19th-century American politicians 19th-century American judges 19th-century American lawyers {{Alabama-state-judge-stub