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Senate Years of Service: 1879-1879 Party: Democrat
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Library of Congress
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HOUSTON, George Smith, a Representative and a Senator from Alabama; born near Franklin, Williamson
County, Tenn., January 17, 1811; moved with his parents to Lauderdale County, Ala., and attended
an academy there; studied law in Florence, Ala., and Harrodsburg, Ky.; admitted to the bar in 1831;
commenced practice in Florence, Ala.; member, State house of representatives 1832; settled in
Athens, Ala., in 1835; States attorney for the Florence judicial district in 1836; elected as a
Democrat to the Twenty-seventh and to the three succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1841-March 3,
1849); declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1848; elected to the Thirty-second and to the
four succeeding Congresses and served from March 4, 1851, until January 21, 1861, when he
withdrew; chairman, Committee on Ways and Means (Thirty-second and Thirty-third Congresses),
Committee on Judiciary (Thirty-fifth Congress); presented credentials as a Senator-elect to the United
States Senate on February 9, 1866, for the term ending March 3, 1867, but was not permitted to take
his seat; Governor of Alabama 1874-1878; elected to the United States Senate and served from
March 4, 1879, until his death in Athens, Ala., December 31, 1879; interment in Athens City
Cemetery.
BibliographyAmerican National Biography; Dictionary of American Biography; Draughon, Ralph. George Smith Houston and Southern
Unity, 1846-1849. Alabama Review 19 (July 1966): 187-207; U.S. Congress. Memorial Addresses. 46th Cong., 2nd sess., 1879-1880. Washington, D.C.:
Government Printing Office, 1880.
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