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ter, the Legislature passed a special act authorizing his exam

HARALSON, HUGH ANDERSON,

WAS born in the county of Green, in the State of Georgia,

on the 13th day of November, 1805. He is the youngest son of Jonathan Haralson, who removed from North Carolina in 1783 to the place near Penfield, then a wilderness, where Hugh A. was born. Frugal and industrious, the father reared. his children to those habits which were most calculated to insure their usefulness and success. Having been denied the opportunity of education himself, he labored to secure its advantages to his son. The elementary education of the latter was obtained at the ordinary county schools of the neighborhood, at such time as his services could best be spared from the farm. He was then prepared for college, first under the instruction of the Reverend Hermon L. Vail, and afterward of the Reverend Carlisle P. Beman, both gentlemen of high qualifications. In the month of January, 1822, he was placed at Franklin College, Georgia, entering the freshman class. During his academic course, his vacations were spent on the farm with his father, where his labor contributed to supply the means for the prosecution of his studies.

In August, 1825, he graduated, and immediately applied himself to the study of the law. In Georgia there is no time fixed by law for study as a prerequisite to admission to the bar. It is only necessary that a person intending to claim admission should prepare himself for an examination. The limited means of Mr. Haralson rendered it necessary that he should be diligent, and qualify himself for business without delay. By constant application, he was ready in six months to take his place among the members of an honorable profession. He had not yet attained the age of twenty-one years, and, until that time, he could not, without legislative interposition, be admitted to practice. Taking into consideration his circumstances and character, the Legislature passed a special act authorizing his exam

ination, and granting him permission to enter upon the duties of his profession. Though young, and entering a bar already crowded, yet he very soon had the good fortune to enjoy a liberal share of the business of the courts. It was his good fortune to command the friendship and respect of his associates, while he won the favor of the people.

In the winter of 1828 he married Caroline M. Lewis, the daughter of Judge Nicholas Lewis, of Greensborough, Georgia, by whom he has, living, four daughters and one son.

After his marriage he removed from Monroe, Walton county, where he first entered upon his profession, to La Grange, Troup county, where he has since resided.

Continuing the practice of the law with great success, he nevertheless devoted part of his time to agriculture, in which pursuit he was equally fortunate. He took a deep interest, however, in the political movements of the day. From his early youth he had been devoted to the political doctrines taught by Jefferson and Madison, and had always opposed any exercise of power on the part of the general government which he thought threatened to infringe on the rights of the States. In 1831 and in 1832 he was elected a member of the Legisla. ture, where he maintained the principles he professed with abil ity and firmness.

For a few years he withdrew from public life, in order to devote more time and attention to his private affairs. He was, however, called from his retirement into the service of the state during the disastrous derangement of the monetary concerns of the country. His principles had always led him to oppose a Bank of the United States, and the wide-spread issues of paper money. In 1837, as the well-known advocate of these opinions, he was elected to the Senate of his state, an office, the duties of which were so discharged by him as to secure his return to the same body in 1838, without opposition.

He had always manifested some partiality for military life; and, during the Indian disturbances, was found, without being called, at the head of a company of citizen volunteers, affording relief and protection to the settlements. In the last year of his service in the Senate, he was elected, by the Legislature, to a major-general's command of militia, which command he still retains. In that character, immediately after the com

mencement of the Mexican war, he tendered his services to the governor of his state, and subsequently to the President of the United States.

In 1840, he exhibited the sincerity of his attachment to the political doctrines he professed, amid the denunciations of kindred and friends, whose love and respect he held but in little less estimation than his own character and honor. The expansion of paper money, the facility of credit, and a boundless rage for speculation, had involved the whole country in disasters, from which relief, in some shape, was anxiously sought. Without examining the causes of the prevailing distress, there were many persons who, concluding that no change could make the condition of things worse than it actually was, were prepared to adopt any expedient which might hold out even a hope of relief. Thousands upon thousands of former party-friends were clamorous for a new order of things. Old party-lines were broken down, and new party-names assumed. The State Rights party, with which General Haralson had hitherto acted, gave up the name of "State Rights," and assumed the name of "Whig." They soon became the friends and advocates of a Bank of the United States, a protective tariff, and other measures which, as State Rights men, it was said, they had always opposed. The general met with determined opposition this change of sentiment in his old associates and former political friends. The state, by an overwhelming vote, went in favor of the Whigs in 1840. In the campaign of 1842, the Democratic party selected their strongest men for the Congressional contest, and General Haralson was among them. The result was successful, and he was elected a representative of the state in the twenty-eighth Congress, by the general ticket system. In the controversy which followed [see title, HOWELL COBB], he took a prominent part in defending and vindicating what he conceived to be the clearly-defined rights of his state. Before the next succeeding Congressional election in 1844, the State of Georgia was divided into Congressional districts. The district in which General Haralson resides-known as the fourth-was organized with a Whig majority. He was, nevertheless, nominated by the Democratic party, and was elected by a large majority to the twenty-ninth Congress; and in 1816 he was elect ed for the third time.

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