James Silas Calhoun (1802-2 July 1852) was the Whig Governor of the New Mexico Territory from 3 March 1851 to 6 May 1852, succeeding John Munroe and preceding William Carr Lane.
Biography[]
James Silas Calhoun was born in Georgia in 1802, and he was elected to the state legislature in 1830, served as Mayor of Columbus from 1838 to 1839, served in the State Senate from 1838 to 1840 and in 1845, served as the US Consul in Havana from 1841 to 1842, served as a US Army lieutenant-colonel during the Mexican-American War, served as the first federal Indian agent for the New Mexico Territory (attempting to convince the Pueblo Indians to renounce their rights under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo as Mexican citizens, which would remove their land and water rights in the process), and served as Governor from 1851 to 1852 (restricting the rights of free African-Americans to move into the territory and winning the support of Mexican elites in the process). He died on 2 July 1852 while on his way home to Georgia, ironically carrying his own coffin with him.