Lemuel Benton

Lemuel Benton ( * 1754 in Granville County, North Carolina, † May 18, 1818 in Darlington, South Carolina ) was an American politician. Between 1793 and 1799 he represented the state of South Carolina in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Career

Lemuel Benton moved at a young age in the later Darlington County, South Carolina. There he was a successful planter and a large landowner. During the Revolutionary War he was in the Continental Army, in which he rose to colonel since 1777 soldier. After the war, Benton also began a political career. Between 1782 and 1788 he sat as an MP in the House of Representatives from South Carolina. In the years 1785 and 1791 Benton judge was in Darlington County. In 1788 he was a delegate to the Assembly, which ratified the Constitution of the United States for the state of South Carolina. From 1789 to 1791, he was sheriff in Cheraw District. He also participated in 1790 as a delegate to a meeting in part to revise the state constitution in Columbia.

Benton was a member of the Anti- Administration faction in opposition to the discussion of President George Washington federal government. Later he joined, founded by Thomas Jefferson Democratic- Republican Party. In the congressional elections of 1792, he was elected in the third constituency of South Carolina in the U.S. House of Representatives. There he met on March 4, 1793 the successor of Daniel Huger. After two re- election he was able to complete in 1799 three contiguous legislatures in Congress until March 3.

In the elections of 1798 Lemuel Benton lost to Benjamin Huger of the Federalist Party. In the following years he worked again in agriculture. He died on 18 May 1818 in Darlington. He was the great-grandfather of Congressman George W. Dargan ( 1841-1898 ).