John Floyd (24 April 1783-17 August 1837) was a member of the US House of Representatives (D-VA 5) from 4 March 1817 to 4 March 1823 (succeeding James Breckinridge and preceding John Randolph) and from VA-20 from 4 March 1823 to 3 March 1829 (succeeding Arthur Smith and preceding Robert Craig) and the Democratic Governor of Virginia from 4 March 1830 to 31 March 1834 (succeeding William Branch Giles and preceding Littleton Waller Tazewell).
Biography[]
John Floyd was born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1783, the son of pioneer John Floyd, who was killed by Indians twelve days before his birth. He settled in Lexington and then Christiansburg after studying medicine in Philadelphia, and he served as a justice of the peace in 1807, in the state militia from 1807 to 1812, in the US Army during the War of 1812, in the House of Delegates from 1814 to 1815, in the US House of Representatives from 1817 to 1829, and as Governor from 1830 to 1834. Floyd was a staunch nationalist during the War of 1812, and he supported Andrew Jackson's expedition to Florida during the First Seminole War, the occupation of the disputed Oregon territory, the gradual abolition of slavery (in the aftermath of the Nat Turner Rebellion), and the formation of an alliance of political forces opposed to Jackson following the Nullification Crisis. He died in 1837, having returned to the Democratic fold after the crisis abated.