Andrew Pickens Butler
| Andrew Pickens Butler | |
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United States Senator from South Carolina |
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In office December 4, 1846 – May 25, 1857 |
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| Preceded by | George McDuffie |
| Succeeded by | James H. Hammond |
| Member of the South Carolina Senate from Edgefield District | |
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In office November 26, 1832 – December 5, 1833 |
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| Member of the South Carolina House of Representatives from Edgefield District | |
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In office November 22, 1824 – December 17, 1831 |
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| Personal details | |
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November 18, 1796 Edgefield, South Carolina, U.S. |
| Died | May 25, 1857 (aged 60) Edgefield, South Carolina, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | Susan Ann Simkins Rebecca Harriett Hayne |
| Profession | Politician, Lawyer, Judge |
Andrew Pickens Butler (November 18, 1796 – May 25, 1857) was a United States Senator from South Carolina who authored the Kansas-Nebraska Act with Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois.
Butler was a son of William Butler (1759–1821) and Behethland Butler (1764-1853), and was born in Edgefield County, South Carolina. His early education was at Moses Waddel's Willington Academy. He graduated from South Carolina College, now the University of South Carolina. He was admitted to the South Carolina bar in 1818.
Butler was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives as a young man, and in 1824 was elected to the South Carolina Senate. He served two terms and part of a third in the state senate before being appointed judge of the session court in 1833. In 1835, Butler was appointed judge of the South Carolina Court of Common Pleas.
Butler was appointed to the United States Senate in 1846 as a States' Rights Democrat and elected thereafter to finish the term ending in 1849. He was re-elected by the South Carolina legislature to a full term in 1848, and again re-elected in 1854. He served in the Senate for the remainder of his life and was the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee during much of that time.
Butler was an ardent advocate of slavery. He was co-author with Stephen A. Douglas of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. This act provided for westward expansion, but in order to gain Southern support, it repealed the Compromise of 1820 by allowing voting residents of new states the right to choose on allowing slavery.
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