Balie Peyton

Balie Peyton (* November 26, 1803 in Gallatin, Sumner County, Tennessee; † August 18, 1878 ) was an American politician. Between 1833 and 1837 he represented the state of Tennessee in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Career

Balie Peyton was the older brother of Joseph Hopkins Peyton (1808-1845), who also was a congressman for Tennessee 1843-1847. He attended preparatory schools. After a subsequent study of law and its made ​​in 1824 admitted to the bar he began in Gallatin to work in his new profession. Politically, Peyton graduated first in the movement to Andrew Jackson and became a member of the Democratic Party, founded by this.

In the congressional elections of 1832 Peyton was in the sixth electoral district of Tennessee in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington DC chosen, where he succeeded the later U.S. President James K. Polk on March 4, 1833. After a re-election he was able to complete in Congress until March 3, 1837 two legislative sessions. These were overshadowed by discussions on the policies of President Jackson. It was mainly about the implementation of the controversial Indian Removal Act, which Nullifikationskrise with the State of South Carolina and banking policy of the President. Balie Peyton also joined during his first term of opposition to Jackson. In his re-election in 1834 he was the candidate of the National Republican Party.

After his retirement from the U.S. House of Representatives Peyton again worked as a lawyer. After he was appointed in 1841 to the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana, he moved to New Orleans. This office he held for four years. During the Mexican-American War, he was a member of the staff of General William J. Worth. Between 1849 and 1853, served as U.S. ambassador to Chile Peyton. He then moved to San Francisco in California, where he was legally working again. From 1853 to 1859 he was a prosecutor in his new home. Then he returned to Gallatin, Tennessee, where he practiced as a lawyer.

In the presidential election of 1860 was Peyton elector for John Bell, the candidate of the Constitutional Union Party. In 1866, he unsuccessfully sought his return to Congress. From 1869 to 1871 he was a member of the Senate of Tennessee. In addition, he continued to practice as a lawyer. Balie Peyton died on August 18, 1878 on his farm in Gallatin, where he was also buried.