Aaron V. Brown
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Aaron Venable Brown (August 15, 1795 – March 8, 1859) was an American politician. He served as the 11th
Governor of Tennessee The governor of Tennessee is the head of government of the U.S. state of Tennessee. The governor is the only official in Tennessee state government who is directly elected by the voters of the entire state. The current governor is Bill Lee, a ...
from 1845 to 1847, and as United States Postmaster General from 1857 until his death in 1859. He also served three terms in the United States House of Representatives, from 1839 to 1845. During the Mexican–American War, Brown's statewide call for 2,800 volunteers was answered by over 30,000, helping solidify the state's reputation as the "Volunteer State."Connie Lester,
Aaron V. Brown
" ''Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture'', 2009. Retrieved: September 26, 2012.


Early life

Brown was born in
Brunswick County, Virginia Brunswick County is a United States county located on the southern border of the Commonwealth of Virginia. This rural county is known as one of the claimants to be the namesake of Brunswick stew. Brunswick County was created in 1720 from parts ...
, one of eleven children of Aaron and Elizabeth Melton Brown. His father was a Methodist minister.Phillip Langsdon, ''Tennessee: A Political History'' (Franklin, Tenn.: Hillsboro Press, 2000), pp. 106, 114-115, 124. Brown attended Westrayville Academy in Nash County, North Carolina, and graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1814, where he was valedictorian of his class. He studied law with Judge James Trimble in Nashville, Tennessee, and was admitted to the bar in 1817. In 1818, he moved to
Giles County, Tennessee Giles County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 census, the population was 30,346. Its county seat is Pulaski. History Giles County is named after William Branch Giles, a Senator from Virginia who sponsored the ...
, and became the law partner of future president James K. Polk.


Career

Brown was a member of the Tennessee Senate from 1821 to 1825 and from 1827 to 1829. He also served two terms in the
Tennessee House of Representatives The Tennessee House of Representatives is the lower house of the Tennessee General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Tennessee. Constitutional requirements According to the state constitution of 1870, this body is to consis ...
, from 1831 to 1835. In 1839, he defeated incumbent
Ebenezer J. Shields Ebenezer J. Shields was an American politician that represented Tennessee's tenth district in the United States House of Representatives. Biography Shields was born in Georgia on December 22, 1778. He moved to Tennessee in 1809 and settled on Ro ...
for the 10th District congressional seat, and won reelection to this seat in 1841.Elbert Walker
Governor Aaron Venable Brown Papers
, Tennessee State Library and Archives, 1964. Retrieved: September 26, 2012.
In 1843, he was redistricted to the 6th District, which he represented in Congress for a single term. As a congressman, he lobbied for the annexation of Texas in 1843. After his third term in Congress, Brown initially planned to retire and focus on his business affairs, but he accepted the Democratic nomination for governor in 1845. The incumbent,
James C. Jones James ChamberlainJones's middle name is sometimes spelled "Chamberlayne." Jones (April 20, 1809 – October 29, 1859) was an American politician who served as the tenth governor of Tennessee from 1841 to 1845, and as a United States Senator from ...
, a popular Whig, was not seeking reelection, and the Whigs instead nominated Senator Ephraim H. Foster. In the general election, Brown lost
East Tennessee East Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee defined in state law. Geographically and socioculturally distinct, it comprises approximately the eastern third of the U.S. state of Tennessee. East Tennessee consists of 33 count ...
and West Tennessee, but won enough votes in populous Middle Tennessee to carry the election by 1,400 votes out of 115,000 cast. When the Mexican–American War began, largely through the actions of his friend and former law partner, Polk, who was now president, Brown issued a call for 2,800 volunteer soldiers for the war effort. Over 30,000 answered the call, solidifying the state's reputation as the "Volunteer State," a reputation that had been gained when Tennesseans answered a similar call during the War of 1812. While initially popular, support for the war gradually declined, and Brown was defeated in his reelection bid by
Neill S. Brown Neill Smith Brown (April 18, 1810January 30, 1886) was an American politician and diplomat who served as the 12th Governor of Tennessee from 1847 to 1849, and as the United States Minister to Russia from 1850 to 1853. He also served several term ...
(no relation) in 1847. Brown was a slaveholder. In 1850, He was a delegate to the
Nashville Convention {{Events leading to US Civil War The Nashville Convention was a political meeting held in Nashville, Tennessee, on June 3–11, 1850. Delegates from nine slave states met to consider secession, if the United States Congress decided to ban slavery i ...
, which was a gathering of delegates from slave-holding states to consider a course of action should the federal government attempt to ban slavery. Brown and his brother-in-law, Gideon Pillow, coauthored a resolution calling for the support of the Compromise of 1850. This motion was voted down, but the convention did put aside, at least temporarily, the issue of secession. Brown was a delegate to the
Democratic National Convention The Democratic National Convention (DNC) is a series of presidential nominating conventions held every four years since 1832 by the United States Democratic Party. They have been administered by the Democratic National Committee since the 1852 ...
in 1852 where
Franklin Pierce Franklin Pierce (November 23, 1804October 8, 1869) was the 14th president of the United States, serving from 1853 to 1857. He was a northern Democrat who believed that the abolitionist movement was a fundamental threat to the nation's unity ...
and
William R. King William Rufus DeVane King (April 7, 1786 – April 18, 1853) was an American politician and diplomat. He was the 13th vice president of the United States from March 4 until his death in April 1853. Earlier he had served as a U.S. represent ...
were nominated. In 1854, he delivered an address to the University of North Carolina's literary societies. Brown attended the 1856 Democratic National Convention, where he was considered a possible vice-presidential nominee. The following year, newly elected president
James Buchanan James Buchanan Jr. ( ; April 23, 1791June 1, 1868) was an American lawyer, diplomat and politician who served as the 15th president of the United States from 1857 to 1861. He previously served as secretary of state from 1845 to 1849 and repr ...
appointed him Postmaster General, a position in which he served until his death. Brown died on March 8, 1859, and is interred at Nashville's Mount Olivet Cemetery.


Family

Brown married his first wife, Sarah Burrus, at an undetermined date, and they had six children. Following her death, he married Cynthia Pillow Sanders, the sister of Gideon Pillow and widow of John W. Sanders, and they had one son. Hill McAlister, a great-grandson of Brown, served as Governor of Tennessee in the 1930s.


Recognition

USS Aaron V. Brown, a revenue cutter, was named after him.Aaron V. Brown, 1861
''United States Coast Guard''


References


External links

*
Speeches of Aaron V. Brown
from Google Books
Tennessee State Library & Archives, Papers of Governor Aaron Venable Brown, 1845-1847

The University of Richmond: Governor Aaron V. Brown of Tennessee and the Question of Slavery


, - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Aaron V. 1795 births 1859 deaths United States Postmasters General Democratic Party governors of Tennessee Democratic Party Tennessee state senators Democratic Party members of the Tennessee House of Representatives Tennessee lawyers University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni American people of the Mexican–American War People from Giles County, Tennessee People from Brunswick County, Virginia Buchanan administration cabinet members Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Tennessee 19th-century American politicians Burials at Mount Olivet Cemetery (Nashville)