Howell Cobb | |
|---|---|
 | |
| President of theConfederate States Provisional Congress | |
| In office February 4, 1861 – February 18, 1862 | |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Position abolished |
| 22ndUnited States Secretary of the Treasury | |
| In office March 7, 1857 – December 8, 1860 | |
| President | James Buchanan |
| Preceded by | James Guthrie |
| Succeeded by | Philip Thomas |
| 40thGovernor of Georgia | |
| In office November 5, 1851 – November 9, 1853 | |
| Preceded by | George Towns |
| Succeeded by | Herschel Johnson |
| 19thSpeaker of the United States House of Representatives | |
| In office December 22, 1849[a] – March 3, 1851 | |
| Preceded by | Robert Winthrop |
| Succeeded by | Linn Boyd |
| Leader of theHouse Democratic Caucus | |
| In office December 4, 1843 – March 4, 1845 | |
| Preceded by | John Winston Jones |
| Succeeded by | Linn Boyd |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromGeorgia's6th district | |
| In office March 4, 1855 – March 3, 1857 | |
| Preceded by | Junius Hillyer |
| Succeeded by | James Jackson |
| In office March 4, 1845 – March 3, 1851 | |
| Preceded by | Constituency established |
| Succeeded by | Junius Hillyer |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromGeorgia'sat-large district | |
| In office March 4, 1843 – March 3, 1845 Seat 5 | |
| Preceded by | James Meriwether |
| Succeeded by | Constituency abolished |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1815-09-07)September 7, 1815 Cherry Hill, Georgia, U.S. |
| Died | October 9, 1868(1868-10-09) (aged 53) New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic (Before 1851; 1853–1868) Constitutional Union (1851–1853)[b] |
| Relatives |
|
| Education | University of Georgia (BA) |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  Confederate States |
| Branch/service | Confederate States Army |
| Years of service | 1861–1865 |
| Rank | Major General |
| Unit | Army of Northern Virginia |
| Commands | Cobb's Brigade District of Georgia and Florida |
| Battles/wars | |
Howell Cobb (September 7, 1815 – October 9, 1868) was an American and later Confederate political figure. A southern Democrat, Cobb was a five-term member of theUnited States House of Representatives and thespeaker of the House from 1849 to 1851. He also served as the40th governor of Georgia (1851–1853) and as asecretary of the treasury underPresidentJames Buchanan (1857–1860).
Cobb is, however, best known as one of the founders of theConfederacy, having served as the President of theProvisional Congress of the Confederate States where delegates of the Southernslave states declared that they had seceded from theUnited States and created theConfederate States of America.
Born inJefferson County, Georgia in 1815, son of Sarah (née Rootes) and John A. Cobb.[c] Cobb was ofWelsh American ancestry.[2] He was raised inAthens and attended theUniversity of Georgia, where he was a member of thePhi Kappa Literary Society. He was admitted to the bar in 1836 and became solicitor general of the western judicial circuit ofGeorgia.[3]
Cobb was apresidential elector in the1836 presidential election.[4]
He married Mary Ann Lamar on May 26, 1835. She was a daughter of Colonel Zachariah Lamar, of Milledgeville, from a prominent family with broad connections in the South.[5] Her relatives includeTexas PresidentMirabeau B. Lamar and Georgia residentGazaway Bugg Lamar.[citation needed] They would have eleven children, the first in 1838 and the last in 1861. Several did not survive childhood, including their last, a son who was named after Howell's brother,Thomas Reade Rootes Cobb.
Cobb was elected asDemocrat to the28th,29th,30th and31st Congresses. He was chairman of theU.S. House Committee on Mileage during the 28th Congress, andSpeaker of the United States House of Representatives during the31st Congress.
He sided with PresidentAndrew Jackson on the question ofnullification (i.e. compromising on import tariffs), and was an effective supporter of PresidentJames K. Polk's administration during theMexican–American War. He was an ardent advocate of extendingslavery into theterritories, but when theCompromise of 1850 had been agreed upon, he became its staunch supporter as a Union Democrat.[3][6] He joined Georgia WhigsAlexander Stephens andRobert Toombs in a statewide campaign to elect delegates to a state convention that overwhelmingly affirmed, in theGeorgia Platform, that the state accepted the Compromise as the final resolution to the outstanding slavery issues. On that issue, Cobb was electedgovernor of Georgia by a large majority.
After 63 ballots,[7] he became Speaker of the House on December 22, 1849, at the age of 34.[8] In 1850—following the July 9 death ofZachary Taylor and the accession ofMillard Fillmore to thepresidency—Cobb, as Speaker, would have beennext in line to the presidency for two days due to the resultantvice presidential vacancy and apresident pro tempore of the Senate vacancy, except he did not meet the minimum eligibility for the presidency of being 35 years old. The Senate electedWilliam R. King as president pro tempore on July 11.
In 1851, Cobb left the House to serve as theGovernor of Georgia, holding that post until 1853. He publishedA Scriptural Examination of the Institution of Slavery in the United States: With its Objects and Purposes in 1856.
.jpg)
He was elected to the34th Congress before being appointed asSecretary of the Treasury inBuchanan's Cabinet. He served for three years, resigning in December 1860. At one time, Cobb was Buchanan's choice for his successor.[9]
In 1860, Cobb ceased to be aUnionist, and became a leader of thesecession movement,[3] not surprising since he once owned 1000 slaves.[10] He was president of a convention of the seceded states that assembled inMontgomery, Alabama, on February 4, 1861. Under Cobb's guidance, the delegates drafted a constitution for the new Confederacy. He served as president of several sessions of theConfederate Provisional Congress, and swore inJefferson Davis as president of the Confederacy before resigning to join the military when war erupted.[11]
.jpg)
Cobb joined theConfederate army and was commissioned ascolonel of the 16th Georgia Infantry. He was appointed abrigadier general on February 13, 1862, and assigned command of abrigade in what became theArmy of Northern Virginia. Between February and June 1862, he represented the Confederate authorities in negotiations with Union officers for an agreement on the exchange ofprisoners of war. His efforts in these discussions contributed to theDix-Hill Cartel accord reached in July 1862.[12]
Cobb saw combat during thePeninsula Campaign and theSeven Days Battles. Cobb's brigade played a key role in the fighting during theBattle of South Mountain, especially atCrampton's Gap, where it arrived at a critical time to delay a Union advance through the gap, but at a bloody cost. His men also fought at the subsequentBattle of Antietam.
In October 1862, Cobb was detached from theArmy of Northern Virginia and sent to the District of Middle Florida. He was promoted tomajor general on September 9, 1863, and placed in command of the District of Georgia and Florida. He suggested the construction of aprisoner-of-war camp in southern Georgia, a location thought to be safe from Union incursions. This idea led to the creation of the infamousAndersonville prison.
WhenWilliam T. Sherman's armies entered Georgia during the 1864Atlanta campaign and subsequentMarch to the Sea, Cobb commanded the Georgia Reserve Corps as a general. In the spring of 1865, with the Confederacy clearly waning, he and his troops were sent toColumbus, Georgia to help opposeWilson's Raid. He led the hopelessConfederate resistance in theBattle of Columbus, Georgia on Easter Sunday, April 16, 1865.
During Sherman's March to the Sea, the army camped one night near Cobb's plantation.[13] When Sherman discovered that the house he planned to stay in for the night belonged to Cobb, whom Sherman described in hisMemoirs as "one of the leading rebels of the South, then a general in the Southern army," he dined in Cobb's slave quarters,[14] confiscated Cobb's property and burned the plantation,[15] instructing his subordinates to "spare nothing."[16]
In the closing days of the war, Cobb fruitlessly opposed GeneralRobert E. Lee's eleventh hour proposal to enlist slaves into the Confederate Army. Fearing that such a move would completely discredit the Confederacy's fundamental justification of slavery, that black people were inferior, he said, "You cannot make soldiers of slaves, or slaves of soldiers. The day you make a soldier of them is the beginning of the end of the Revolution. And if slaves seem good soldiers, then our whole theory of slavery is wrong."[3]
Cobb surrendered to the U.S. atMacon, Georgia on April 20, 1865.
Following the end of the Civil War, Cobb returned home and resumed his law practice. Despite pressure from his former constituents and soldiers, he refused to make any public remarks onReconstruction policy until he received a presidential pardon, although he privately opposed the policy. Finally receiving the pardon in early 1868, he began to vigorously oppose theReconstruction Acts, making a series of speeches that summer that bitterly denounced the policies ofRadical Republicans in the U.S. Congress.
That autumn, Cobb vacationed in New York City, and died of a heart attack there. His body was returned toAthens, Georgia, for burial inOconee Hill Cemetery.[17]
As a former Speaker of the House, his portrait had been on display in the US Capitol. The portrait was removed from public display in the Speaker's Lobby outside the House Chamber after an order issued by the Speaker of the House,Nancy Pelosi on June 18, 2020, during theGeorge Floyd protests.[18][19]
The Cobb family included many prominent Georgians from both before and after the Civil War era. Cobb's uncle and namesake, alsoHowell Cobb, had been a U.S. Congressman from 1807 to 1812, and then served as an officer in theWar of 1812.
Cobb's younger brother,Thomas Reade Rootes Cobb, was also a politician and soldier and was killed in the Civil War.Thomas Willis Cobb, a member of the United States Congress and namesake of Georgia'sCobb County, was a cousin. His nieceMildred Lewis "Miss Millie" Rutherford was a prominent educator,white supremacy advocate, and leader in theUnited Daughters of the Confederacy. Howell Cobb's daughter, Mrs. Alexander S. (Mary Ann Lamar Cobb) Erwin, was responsible for creating theUnited Daughters of the Confederacy'sSouthern Cross of Honor in 1899, which was awarded to Confederate Veterans.[20] His son,Andrew J. Cobb, served as a justice of the Georgia Supreme Court.[21]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Cobb, Howell".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 6 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 606.
Media from Commons
Quotations from Wikiquote
Data from Wikidata| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
