Felix Grundy

Felix Grundy (* September 11 1777 in Berkeley County, Virginia; † December 19, 1840 in Nashville, Tennessee) was an American lawyer and politician. He was a member of the cabinet of U.S. President Martin Van Buren as minister of justice and was a U.S. Senator for the state of Tennessee.

Study and career

After school he studied the law, which he ended with the admission to the bar in 1797 in Kentucky. He then settled in Bardstown practiced as a lawyer. In 1805 he was appointed to the Supreme Court of Appeals ( State Supreme Court of Errors and Appeals ) of Kentucky, whose president he was for some time in 1807. In 1807 he founded a law firm in Nashville. In his office later President James K. Polk studied law. At the same time Grundy became his political mentor. After Grundy's death Polk bought the house and lived there after his presidency.

Political career

Deputy in Kentucky, Tennessee and Washington

Grundy began his political career in 1799 with the election of a member of the Constituent Assembly of Kentucky. A year later he became a Member of the House of Representatives of the State to which he then belonged until 1805. After its establishment in Tennessee, he was born on March 4, 1811 as a member of the Democratic-Republican Party MP in the House of Representatives of the United States, where he remained until his retirement in 1814. From 1819 to 1825 he was a deputy in the House of Representatives from Tennessee. During this time he was also a commission in 1820 to define the border between Kentucky and Tennessee.

Senator and Minister of Justice under President Van Buren

As a member of the Jacksonians, the followers of Andrew Jackson, he was elected on October 19, 1829 U.S. Senator to first complete the lasting until March 4, 1833 term of John Henry Eaton, who was Minister of War in the Cabinet Jackson. Grundy was re-elected in 1832 and then belonged to the Congress until July 4, 1838. During this time, he was from 1829 to 1836 Chairman of the Postal Committee and then to the July 4, 1838 the Judiciary Committee.

On July 4, 1838, U.S. President Martin Van Buren appointed him as Minister of Justice ( Attorney General ) in his cabinet. From this office he resigned in December 1839, when he was elected as a member of the Democratic Party on November 19, 1839 again to U.S. Senator to time to complete the term of office of the retired Ephraim Hubbard Foster. When it came to a controversial discussion about the legality of the election of an incumbent Minister of Justice Senator, he finally resigned both as a minister and as a senator on December 14. That same day, he was then re-elected as senator, and remained in that office until his death the following year. During this time he was chairman of the Committee on Revolutionary Claims. In his honor, the Grundy County were named in Illinois, Iowa, Missouri and Tennessee.