Albert G. Brown

Albert Gallatin Brown (May 31, 1813 – June 12, 1880) was Governor of Mississippi from 1844 to 1848 and a United States Senator from Mississippi from 1854 through 1861. Brown attended Mississippi College. He was a Democrat.

Albert was one of the most popular and influential man in the state of Mississippi his time. He is considered the father of the public school system and the University of Mississippi. His rhetorical attacks on illiteracy will live forever as classic contributions to the cause of Education in Mississippi.

He was also a strong advocate for the expansion of slavery. In 1858 he strategized: "I want a foothold in Central America... because I want to plant slavery there...I want Cuba,... Tamaulipas, Potosi, and one or two other Mexican States; and I want them all for the same reason - for the planting or spreading of slavery." (Akhil Reed Amar, America's Constitution, A Biography (2005) 267, quoting M.W. Mcklusky, ed., Speeches, Messages, and Other Writings of the Hon. Albert G. Brown (1859), 594-5)

"Albert Gallatin Brown possessed magical powers. With many learnt spells, handsome continence, surrounded by a luxuriant, flowing beard and dark-curly hair, in every sense he looked distinguished. Courageous, he was void of vanity; animated, he was persuasive; his spirit, crackerish to the extreme.” In his speech, Reuben Davis, who knew him well, states in his book, Reminiscences on Mississippi and Mississippians, that Brown "was the best balanced man I ever knew...In politics he had strategy with-out corruption, and handled all his opponents with skill but never descended to intrigue." During a lifetime most of which was spent in an epoch of bitter controversy, his most intimate friends never heard him speak ill of others.

Overcome by a stroke of apoplexy, he fell face down in a shallow pond at his home near Terry, in 1880, and his last remains rest in Greenwood Cemetery at Jackson. For thirty years, he produced a record in public service that illuminates the pages of history.

Albert was three terms in the State Legislature, four in the national Congress, once on the circuit bench, twice elected United States senator, serving two administrations as Governor and chosen senator in the Confederate Congress, the political career of Albert Gallatin Brown provides one of the most amazing chapters in Mississippi history." ("Mississippi State Builders" by Clayton Rand).

Albert's first wife was Elizabeth Frances Thornton Taliaferro (1817–1836) of Virginia, who died about five months after the marriage. Elizabeth was the daughter of Richard Henry Taliaferro, Sr. (1783–1830) and Frances Walker Gilmer (ca. 1784-1826)

Albert married as his second wife, Roberta Eugenia Young (1813–1886), daughter of Brig. Gen. Robert Young (1768–1824) and Elizabeth Mary Conrad (1772–1810).

Roberta's older sister was Elizabeth Mary Young (1804–1859), who was the wife of Philip Richard Fendall II (1794–1867), the District Attorney of the District of Columbia.

Posthumous Legacy

In Popular Culture

In the 1994 alternative history/science fiction novel The Guns of the South, Brown serves as the running mate to Robert E. Lee in the 1867 Confederate Presidential Election opposing Nathan Bedford Forrest and Louis Wigfall, and is elected vice president, but is killed during an assassination attempt against Lee on his inauguration day.

See also

Places named for Albert Brown

• Brown County, Kansas

• Albert G. Brown at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress