Hugh Lawson White (30 October 1773 – 10 April 1840) was a US Senator from Tennessee (W) from 18 October 1825 to 13 January 1840, succeeding Andrew Jackson and preceding Alexander O. Anderson.
Biography[]
Hugh Lawson White was born in Rowan County, North Carolina in 1773, and his family moved to the Tennessee frontier in the 1780s. White worked as personal secretary to Southwest Territory governor William Blount and served in the territorial militia during the wars with the Cherokee in the 1790s before becoming a lawyer in 1796. After serving in several legislative and judicial posts since 1801, including service as a Tennessee Supreme Court justice, he was chosen to succeed President Andrew Jackson in the US Senate, and he served from 1825 to 1840. He was a supporter of strict adherence to the US Constitution and of states' rights, and, during the late 1820s and early 1830s, he was one of Jackson's most trusted allies. White fought against the national bank, tariffs, and the use of federal funds for internal improvements, and he led efforts in the Senate to pass the Indian Removal Act. However, he became suspicious over the growing powers of the presidency, and he realigned with Henry Clay and the American Whig Party in the mid-1830s. In 1840, Jacksonians in the Tennessee state legislature under James K. Polk demanded White's resignation, and he died months later.