George Washington Jones (March 15, 1806 – November 14, 1884) was an American politician who represented

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

's fifth district in the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

. He served in the

Confederate States Congress The Confederate States Congress was both the provisional and permanent legislative assembly of the Confederate States of America that existed from 1861 to 1865. Its actions were for the most part concerned with measures to establish a new nat ...

during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

Biography

Jones was born in

King and Queen County, Virginia King and Queen County is a county in the U.S. state of Virginia, located in the state's Middle Peninsula on the eastern edge of the Richmond, VA metropolitan area. As of the 2020 census, the population was 6,608. Its county seat is King and Qu ...

, on March 15, 1806. He moved to Tennessee with his parents, who settled in Fayetteville. He received a

common school A common school was a public school in the United States during the 19th century. Horace Mann (1796–1859) was a strong advocate for public education and the common school. In 1837, the state of Massachusetts appointed Mann as the first secretary ...

and academical education, also apprenticed to the saddler's trade. He owned slaves.

Career

Jones was a justice of the peace from 1832 to 1835. He was a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives from 1835 to 1839. He served in the

Tennessee Senate The Tennessee Senate is the upper house of the U.S. state of Tennessee's state legislature, which is known formally as the Tennessee General Assembly. The Tennessee Senate has the power to pass resolutions concerning essentially any issue rega ...

from 1839 to 1841. He was

Clerk A clerk is a white-collar worker who conducts general office tasks, or a worker who performs similar sales-related tasks in a retail environment. The responsibilities of clerical workers commonly include record keeping, filing, staffing service ...

of Lincoln County Court from 1840 to 1843. Elected as a

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (United States) (D) **Democratic ...

to the Twenty-eighth and to the seven succeeding Congresses, Jones served in the U.S. House of Representatives from March 4, 1843 to March 3, 1853 for the fifth district and from March 4, 1853 to March 4, 1859 for the sixth district. During the

Thirty-first Congress The 31st United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, consisting of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from March 4, 1849, ...

and the Thirty-second Congresses he was chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Rules, and during the Thirty-fifth Congress he was chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Roads and Canals. Jones represented the U.S. Congress at the swearing in of the terminally ill, newly elected Vice-President Willam Rufus deVane King in Matanzas, Cuba. With war impending, Jones was a delegate to the Peace Convention of 1861 held in Washington, D.C., in an effort to devise means to prevent the conflict, but he did not attend. He was elected from Tennessee as a member of the Confederate House of Representatives in the

First Confederate Congress The 1st Confederate States Congress, consisting of the Confederate States Senate and the Confederate States House of Representatives, met from February 18, 1862, to February 17, 1864, during the first two years of Jefferson Davis's presidency, a ...

and served from February 18, 1862, to February 18, 1864. He was not a candidate for re-election. Friend and former political ally President Andrew Johnson pardoned Jones for his Civil War activities in June 1865. Jones was a delegate to the State constitutional convention in 1870. Jones strongly opposed the Poll Tax provision of the 1870 Tennessee Constitution.

Death

Jones died in

Fayetteville, Tennessee Fayetteville is a city and the county seat of Lincoln County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 6,994 at the 2000 census, and 6,827 at the 2010 census. A census estimate from 2018 showed 7,017. History Fayetteville is the largest cit ...

, on November 14, 1884 (age 78 years, 244 days). He is

interred Burial, also known as interment or inhumation, is a method of final disposition whereby a dead body is placed into the ground, sometimes with objects. This is usually accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and objec ...

at Rose Hill Cemetery.

References

External links

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Find A Grave

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, George Washington 1806 births 1884 deaths People from King and Queen County, Virginia Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Tennessee Members of the Confederate House of Representatives from Tennessee Democratic Party members of the Tennessee House of Representatives Democratic Party Tennessee state senators American slave owners People from Fayetteville, Tennessee 19th-century American politicians