Meredith Poindexter Gentry

Meredith Poindexter Gentry ( born September 15, 1809 Rockingham County, North Carolina; † November 2, 1866 in Nashville, Tennessee ) was an American politician. Between 1839 and 1853 he represented two times the state of Tennessee in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Career

In 1813 Meredith Gentry moved with his parents in the Williamson County, Tennessee, where he attended the public schools. After a subsequent study of law and qualifying as a lawyer, he started in Franklin to work in his new profession. At the same time he proposed as a member of the Whig Party launched a political career. Between 1835 and 1839 he was a delegate in the House of Representatives from Tennessee.

In the congressional elections of 1838, he was in the eighth election district of his state in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington DC chosen, where he became the successor of Abram Poindexter Maury on March 4, 1839. After a re-election he was able to complete in Congress until March 3, 1839 two legislative sessions. These were characterized by the discussions and arguments between his party and the incumbent since 1841 President John Tyler. After the death of his wife Gentry renounced in 1842 another candidacy. Two years later he was again elected as a Whig in the seventh district of Tennessee in Congress. After three re- elections, he was able to complete 1853 four other legislative periods until March 3. These were determined until 1848 by the events of the Mexican-American War. Between 1847 and 1849, Gentry was chairman of the Indian Committee.

In 1852 he gave up another Congress candidate. In 1855, he ran unsuccessfully against eventual President Andrew Johnson for the office of governor of Tennessee. He then retired to his plantation until 1861 in Tennessee back. In the years 1862 and 1863 he was a member of the House of Representatives of the Konföderiertenkongresses. The extent to which he has taken part in its meetings, is controversial in the sources. In 1864 he was arrested by troops of the Union. He was dismissed by President Abraham Lincoln due to illness early from prison. Meredith Gentry died on November 2, 1866 in Nashville, where he was also buried.