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Andrew Pickens Butler

Andrew Pickens Butler
APButler.jpg
United States Senator
from South Carolina
In office
December 4, 1846 – May 25, 1857
Preceded by George McDuffie
Succeeded by James H. Hammond
Member of the South Carolina Senate from Edgefield District
In office
November 26, 1832 – December 5, 1833
Member of the South Carolina House of Representatives from Edgefield District
In office
November 22, 1824 – December 17, 1831
Personal details
Born (1796-11-18)November 18, 1796
Edgefield, South Carolina, U.S.
Died May 25, 1857(1857-05-25) (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 This act provided for westward expansion, but in order to gain Southern support, it repealed the Compromise of 1820 by allowing voting residents of new states the right to choose on allowing slavery.


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