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Felix Grundy (September 11, 1775^[1] – December 19, 1840) was a U.S. Congressman and U.S. Senator from Tennessee who also served as the 13th Attorney General of the United States.

Biography

Born in Berkeley County, Virginia (now Berkeley County, West Virginia), he moved to Brownsville, Pennsylvania, and then Kentucky with his parents. He was educated at home and at the Bardstown Academy in Bardstown, Kentucky.^[2] He then studied law and was admitted to the Kentucky bar and commenced practice in Springfield, Kentucky in 1799.^[2]

In 1799, Grundy was chosen to represent Washington County at the convention which drafted the second Kentucky Constitution.^[2] From 1800 to 1802, he represented Washington County in the Kentucky House of Representatives.^[2] He then moved to Nelson County, which he represented in the Kentucky House from 1804 to 1806.^[2] On December 10, 1806, he was commissioned an associate justice on the Kentucky Court of Appeals.^[2] He was elevated to Chief Justice of the court on April 11, 1807.^[2] Later that year, he resigned and moved to Nashville, Tennessee, where he again took up the practice of law.^[2]

He was elected as a Republican to the 12th and 13th Congresses and served from March 4, 1811, until his resignation in 1814.

He then became a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives from 1819 to 1825, and in 1820 was commissioner to settle the boundary line (state line) between Tennessee and Kentucky. He was elected as a Jacksonian in 1829 to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy in the term ending March 4, 1833, caused by the resignation of John H. Eaton to join the Cabinet of President Andrew Jackson; reelected in 1832 and served from October 19, 1829, to July 4, 1838, when he resigned to accept a Cabinet position. During this time he served as chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads (21st through 24th Congresses), U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary (24th and 25th Congresses).

He entered the Cabinet when he was appointed Attorney General of the United States by President Martin Van Buren in July 1838. He resigned the post in December 1839, having been elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate on November 19, 1839, to fill the vacancy in the term commencing March 4, 1839, caused by the resignation of Ephraim Foster; the question of his eligibility to election as Senator while holding the office of Attorney General of the United States having been raised, he resigned from the Senate on December 14, 1839, and was reelected the same day, serving from December 14, 1839, until his death in Nashville, almost a year to the day later. During this stint in the upper house of the U.S. Congress he served as chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Revolutionary Claims in the 26th Congress.

He is interred in Mount Olivet Cemetery in Nashville, Tennessee. There are four Grundy Counties, including the one in Tennessee, named in his honor.

Grundy was a mentor to future President James K. Polk. Polk purchased Grundy's home called "Grundy Place" and changed the name to "Polk Place". He lived and died there after his presidency. It was demolished in 1901.

Further reading

• Baylor, Orville W. (April 1942). "Felix Grundy, 1777-1840". Filson Club Historical Quarterly 16 (2). http://connect1.ajaxdocumentviewer.com/viewerajax.php?tA99owdPovN0GssluoouqoP1a10IbfO7FqZndCR7LK5Elf2gz9aAElalZSi4hMcRq1zO%2FQBGk%2FlChFoAd4C9tYU5vchn3X03HrskdehD15zwt8KilzLO7MApxDb9lgLihn4Xt0lr47Mll%2F%2BOTE9OStpojs84B7YlIjlxvDg1LP7DU0RAeXawCpG%2FuApj1cagjIa9SFOcfX45d0VVgJ9QQTeB2mczdQP5Mj%2Fsu%2BSzrUGnKHcR5jdwx%2F9txCrB9YpXyJwqq1cjWkxxlbijsRWzj3ojzQq8q23y30%2FtLOrL1zu1xeTTnURlasyXUjaPnDYtttRFgzIRGILiRqpLSKjdixAypDTuddsFbKPZuvzgCVtovGISwkHfs1MN8E2IfB7mWHAiBTYWbhMH887r6smCSAytgi8BzMkWOP1lG7kpDOI%3D. Retrieved 2011-12-06. 
• Heller III, J. Roderick (2010). Democracy's Lawyer: Felix Grundy of the Old Southwest. Baton Rouge: LSU Press. ISBN 9780807135884. 

Notes

Bibliography

• Biographical Cyclopedia of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Chicago, Illinois: J.M. Gresham Company. 1896. http://www.archive.org/stream/cu31924028804122. 

External links

• Felix Grundy at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Allen, William B. (1872). A History of Kentucky: Embracing Gleanings, Reminiscences, Antiquities, Natural Curiosities, Statistics, and Biographical Sketches of Pioneers, Soldiers, Jurists, Lawyers, Statesmen, Divines, Mechanics, Farmers, Merchants, and Other Leading Men, of All Occupations and Pursuits. Bradley & Gilbert. pp. 351–352. http://books.google.com/books?id=s_wTAAAAYAAJ. Retrieved 2008-11-10. 

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United States Senators from Tennessee Class 1 Cocke A. Jackson Smith J. Anderson Campbell Eaton Grundy Foster Grundy Nicholson Foster Turney Jones Johnson Patterson Brownlow Johnson Key Bailey H. Jackson Whitthorne Bate Frazier Lea McKellar Gore, Sr. Brock III Sasser Frist Corker Class 2 Blount J. Anderson Cocke Smith Whiteside Campbell Wharton Williams A. Jackson White A. Anderson Jarnagin Bell Nicholson Fowler Cooper Harris Turley Carmack Taylor Sanders Webb Shields Tyson Brock I Hull Bachman Berry Stewart Kefauver Walters Bass Baker Gore, Jr. Mathews Thompson Alexander

Chairmen of the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary Chase • Crittenden • Burrill • Smith • Van Buren • Berrien • Rowan • Marcy • Wilkins • Clayton • Grundy • Wall • Berrien • Ashley • Butler • Bayard • Trumbull • Edmunds • Thurman • Edmunds • Hoar • Pugh • Hoar • Platt • Clark • Culberson • Nelson • Brandegee • Cummins • Norris • Ashurst • Van Nuys • McCarran • Wiley • McCarran • Langer • Kilgore • Eastland • Kennedy • Thurmond • Biden • Hatch • Leahy • Hatch • Leahy • Hatch • Specter • Leahy

Cabinet of President Martin Van Buren (1837–1841) Vice President Richard M. Johnson (1837–1841) Secretary of State John Forsyth (1837–1841) Secretary of the Treasury Levi Woodbury (1837–1841) Secretary of War Joel R. Poinsett (1837–1841) Attorney General Benjamin F. Butler (1837–1838) Felix Grundy (1838–1840) Henry D. Gilpin (1837–1841) Postmaster General Amos Kendall (1837–1840) John M. Niles (1840–1841) Secretary of the Navy Mahlon Dickerson (1837–1838) James K. Paulding (1838–1841)