US Congressman, US Senator, and US Attorney General. He served in the US House of Representatives from Tennessee as a Democrat-Republican from March 1811 until his resignation in 1814, the US Senate from Tennessee as a Jacksonian from October 1829 until July 1838 and again as a Democrat from December 1839 until his death in December 1840. Born in Berkeley County, Virginia (now West Virginia) he moved with his parents to Brownsville, Pennsylvania, and then Kentucky. He was educated at home and at the Bardstown Academy in Bardstown, Kentucky, after which he studied law and was admitted to the Kentucky bar and in 1799 began practicing law in Springfield, Kentucky. He was then chosen to represent Washington County at the convention which drafted the 2nd Kentucky Constitution. From 1800 to 1802, he represented Washington County in the Kentucky House of Representatives and then moved to Nelson County, which he represented in the Kentucky House from 1804 to 1806. In December 1806 he was commissioned an associate justice on the Kentucky Court of Appeals and in April 1807 he became the Chief Justice of the court. He resigned his post later that year and moved to Nashville, Tennessee, where he practiced law. In 1810 he was elected to the US House of Representatives and resigned during his 2nd term in 1814. From 1819 until 1825 he became a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives and in 1820 he served as commissioner to settle the state boundary line between Tennessee and Kentucky. In 1829 he was elected to the US Senate to fill the vacancy in the term ending in March 1833, caused by the resignation of John H. Eaton. He was re-elected in 1832 and served until July 1838 when he resigned to become the US Attorney General under President Martin Van Buren. In December 1839 he resigned that post, having been elected again to the US Senate, to fill the vacancy in the term commencing in March 1839, caused by the resignation of Ephraim Foster and he died at the age of 63 while serving in this position. During this term he served as chairman of the US Senate Committee on Revolutionary Claims. He was a mentor to future President James K. Polk.