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John Anthony Quitman (1 September 1798-17 July 1858) was the Whig Governor of Mississippi from 3 December 1835 to 7 January 1836 (succeeding Hiram Runnels and preceding Charles Lynch) and, as a Democrat, from 10 January 1850 to 3 February 1851 (succeeding Joseph W. Matthews and preceding John Isaac Guion); he also served in the US House of Representatives (D-MS 5) from 4 March 1855 to 17 July 1858 (preceding John J. McRae).

Biography[]

John Anthony Quitman was born in Rhinebeck, New York in 1798, and he became a lawyer in Chillicothe, Ohio in 1828 and in Natchez, Mississippi a year later. He became the owner of several plantations, and he was the protégé of John C. Calhoun during the Nullification Crisis. He served in the State House and State Senate before serving as acting Governor from 1835 to 1836, as a Major-General in the US Army during the Mexican-American War (distinguishing himself at the Battle of Chapultepec and as military governor of Mexico City), and as Governor from 1850 to 1851, when he was forced to resign for violating the Neutrality Act by supporting Narciso Lopez's filibustering expedition to Cuba. Quitman became a Democrat in 1850 and served in the US House of Representatives from 1855 until his death in 1858.

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