Spencer Jarnagin
Spencer Jarnagin (
1792–
1853) was a
United States Senator from
Tennessee from
1843 to
1847.
Jarnagin was born in what was shortly to become
Grainger County, Tennessee. He graduated from Greenville College in
1813 and after the study of
law was admitted to the
bar in
1817. He served in the
Tennessee State Senate from
1833 to
1835. From
1836 to
1851 he served on the Board of Trustees for East Tennessee College, now the
University of Tennessee. He continued his practice of law after moving to
Athens, Tennessee in
1837. Jarnagin was an
elector for the
Whig ticket of
William Henry Harrison and
John Tyler in the
U.S. presidential election, 1840.
In
1841 he was nominated for U.S. Senator by the Whig
caucus in the
Tennessee General Assembly. However, some of the
Democrats in the legislature decided that no Senator would be preferable to a Whig. Known as the "Immortal Thirteen" by Tennessee Democrats, they refused to allow a quorum on the issue. By the time Jarnagin was eventually elected to the seat and sworn in, over two and half years, almost half of the term, had elapsed. Jarnagin finally assumed office on
October 17, 1843 and served until
March 3, 1847. During this time, he served as the Chairman of the Committee on Revolutionary Claims. The Whigs nominated him for a second term in 1847, but he was not elected, apparently the Democrats being more ammenable to
John Bell, another Whig who was eventually elected his successor; a subsequent campaign by Jarnagin for the
Tennessee Supreme Court was likewise unsuccessful. Jarnagin moved to
Memphis and continued his practice of law there; upon his death on
June 25, 1853 he was interred in that city's Elmwood Cemetery.
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Spencer Jarnagin on Find-A-Grave
