Balie Peyton (November 26, 1803 – August 18, 1878) was an American lawyer and politician who representedTennessee's 6th congressional district in theUnited States House of Representatives.

Peyton was born nearGallatin, Tennessee, on November 26, 1803. After his preparatory studies, he studied law, was admitted to thebar, and commenced practicing in Gallatin in 1824. He married Anne Alexander Smith.

His grandfather, "old Mr. Peyton," was "killed by the Indians" nearBledsoe's Lick in the 1780s.^[1]

Elected as aJacksonian to theTwenty-third Congress and re-elected as aHugh Lawson WhiteAnti-Jacksonian supporter to theTwenty-fourth Congress, Peyton served from March 4, 1833, to March 3, 1837.^[2]

Peyton moved toNew Orleans in 1841, where in 1838 he had been elected to the governing board of theMetairie Race Course,^[3] having been appointed theU.S. Attorney for the District of Louisiana, a position he held for four years from 1841 to 1845. Family life for Peyton was shattered by the fatal illness of his thirty-four-year-old wife in New Orleans in 1845. Two years later, his youngest daughter, “Nan,” died at age seven when thrown from her pony. His oldest child and daughter, Emily, cared for her father from the time her mother died until Balie's death. She never married.

Nationally known for the fine racehorses bred on his farm, Peyton had promoted and staged the Peyton Stake, a futurity race for colts and fillies dropped in the spring of 1839. Held at Nashville in 1843, the race attracted international attention because the purse was the largest that had ever been offered in America or Europe.

Peyton then served as anaide-de-camp on the staff of GeneralWilliam J. Worth during theMexican–American War.^[4]

Peyton was appointed asEnvoy toChile by PresidentZachary Taylor, from August 9, 1849, to September 14, 1853, when he resigned. He moved toSan Francisco, where he wasthe City Attorney from 1855 to 1857.^[5]

Returning to Gallatin in 1859 and practicing law, Peyton resided on his Station Camp Creek farm. One of his first visits to Nashville in 1862 was to the Louisville and Nashville Railroad Station to receive the mortal remains of his son, Balie Jr., a Confederate infantry officer killed in theBattle of Mill Springs in Kentucky.^[6] He was a presidential elector on theConstitutional Union ticket ofJohn Bell andEdward Everett in 1860. In 1866, he was an unsuccessful candidate to theFortieth Congress. He was a member of theTennessee Senate between 1869 and 1871.

Peyton again resumed practicing law before dying on his farm near Gallatin on August 18, 1878 (age 74 years, 265 days). He is interred at the family burying ground on his estate. He was the brother of U.S. RepresentativeJoseph Hopkins Peyton.^[7]

• Durham, Walter T. (2004).Balie Peyton of Tennessee: Nineteenth Century Politics and Thoroughbreds. Franklin, Tennessee: Hillsboro Press.ISBN 9781577363231.OCLC 835774037.

• United States Congress."Balie Peyton (id: P000282)".Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• Tennessee Historical Society
• Balie Peyton atFind a Grave

• 1803 births
• 1878 deaths
• People from Sumner County, Tennessee
• Jacksonian members of the United States House of Representatives from Tennessee
• National Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Tennessee
• Tennessee Constitutional Unionists
• Tennessee state senators
• Ambassadors of the United States to Chile
• 19th-century American diplomats
• United States attorneys for the District of Louisiana
• 19th-century United States representatives
• 19th-century members of the Tennessee General Assembly
• San Francisco city attorneys

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use mdy dates from November 2020