'Howell Cobb' (
September 7,
1815 –
October 9,
1868) was an
American political figure. He served as a five-term
Congressman and in the
Presidential Cabinet of
James Buchanan and then in the civic and military service of
Civil War-era
Georgia and the
Confederate States of America. Cobb is probably best know as the leader of the
Provisional Confederate Congress, which issued the Confederacy constitution.
Early life and career
Born in
Jefferson County, Georgia, Cobb was raised in
Athens, Georgia, and attended the
University of Georgia where he was a member of the
Phi Kappa Literary Society. He was admitted to the bar in 1836 and became solicitor general of the western judicial circuit of Georgia.
Congressman
He was elected as
Democrat to the
28th,
29th,
30th and
31st Congresses. He was chairman of the
U.S. House Committee on Mileage during the 28th Congress, and
Speaker of the United States House of Representatives during the
31st Congress.
He sided with President
Andrew Jackson on the question of
nullification; was an efficient supporter of President
James K. Polk's administration during the
Mexican-American War; and was an ardent advocate of
slavery extension into the
territories, but when the
Compromise of 1850 had been agreed upon, he became its staunch supporter as a Union Democrat. He joined Georgia Whigs
Alexander Stephens and
Robert Toombs in a statewide campaign to elect delegates to a state convention that overwhelmingly affirmed, in the
Georgia Platform, that the state accepted the Compromise as the final resolution to the outstanding slavery issues. On that issue, Cobb was elected governor of Georgia by a large majority.
Speaker of the House
In 1850, as Speaker he was next in line to the Presidency for two days due to
Vice Presidential vacancy and a
president pro tempore had not been appointed yet. When
Zachary Taylor died on July 9th,
Vice President Millard Fillmore became
President. The president pro tempore of the Senate was not appointed until July 11th when
William Rufus de Vane King took that position.
Governor of Georgia
In 1851, he left the House to serve as the
Governor of Georgia, holding that post until 1853. He published ''A Scriptural Examination of the Institution of Slavery'' (1856).
[1]
Return to Congress and Secretary of the Treasury
He was elected to the
34th Congress and then took the position of
Secretary of the Treasury in Buchanan's Cabinet. He served for three years, resigning in December 1860.
A Founder of the Confederacy
During that year, he had ceased to be a
Unionist, and became a leader of the
secession movement. He was president of a convention of the seceded states that assembled in
Montgomery, Alabama, on
February 24,
1861. Under Cobb's guidance, the delegates drafted a constitution for the new Confederacy. He served as Speaker and as President Pro Tempore of several sessions of the
Confederate Provisional Congress, before resigning to join the military when war erupted. He was one of those considered to be
President of the Confederate States.
Civil War
Cobb enlisted in the
Confederate Army and was named as
Colonel of the 16th Georgia Infantry. He was appointed a
brigadier general on
February 13,
1862, and assigned command of a
brigade in what became the
Army of Northern Virginia. He saw combat during the
Peninsula Campaign and the
Seven Days Battles. Cobb's brigade played a key role in the fighting at Crampton's Gap during the
Battle of South Mountain, where it arrived at a critical time to delay a Union advance through the gap. His men also fought at the subsequent
Battle of Antietam.
In October 1862, Cobb was detached from the
Army of Northern Virginia and sent to the District of Middle Florida. He was promoted to
major general on
September 9,
1863, and placed in command of the District of Georgia and Florida. He suggested the construction of a
prisoner-of-war camp in southern Georgia, a location thought to be safe from Union invaders. This idea led to the creation of
Andersonville prison. When
William T. Sherman's armies entered Georgia during the 1864
Atlanta Campaign and subsequent
March to the Sea, General Cobb commanded the Georgia reserve corps. In the spring of 1865, with the Confederacy clearly waning, he and his troops were sent to neighboring
Alabama to help oppose
Wilson's Raid.
In the closing days of the war, Cobb fruitlessly opposed General
Robert E. Lee's eleventh hour proposal of enlisting slaves into the army. Fearing this move would completely discredit the fundamental justification of slavery that blacks were inferior people, he said, "You cannot make soldiers of slaves, or slaves of soldiers. The day you make a soldier of them is the beginning of the end of the Revolution. And if slaves seem good soldiers, then our whole theory of slavery is wrong."
[2]
Howell Cobb in his postbellum.
He surrendered at
Macon, Georgia,
April 20,
1865.
Postbellum
Following the war, Cobb returned home and resumed his law practice, but despite pressure from his former constituents and soldiers, he refused to make any public remarks on
Reconstruction policy until he received a presidential pardon, although he privately opposed it. Finally receiving that document in early 1868, he then vigorously opposed the
Reconstruction Acts, making a series of speeches that summer that bitterly denounced the policies of the reigning
Radical Republicans in Congress.
Taking a break from his schedule of political speeches, Cobb decided to vacation in
New York City in the autumn. He died of a
heart attack in that city. His body was returned to
Athens, Georgia, for burial in
Oconee Hill Cemetery.
[3]
Thomas Willis Cobb was a cousin and
Thomas Reade Rootes Cobb a younger brother of Howell Cobb. His great uncle and namesake,
Howell Cobb, had been a U.S. Congressman from 1807–1812, and then served as an officer in the
War of 1812.
References
★
★
★
Notes
1. NIE
2. Encyclopedia Britanica
3. New Georgia Encyclopedia
External links
★
New Georgia Encyclopedia: Howell Cobb (1815-1868)
★
U.S. Treasury - Biography of Secretary Howell Cobb
★
Find-A-Grave profile for Howell Cobb
Further reading
★ Montgomery, Horace, ''Howell Cobb's Confederate Career.'' (Tuscaloosa, Alabama: Confederate Publishing, 1959).
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