HOWELL

See also:

• HOWELL COBB (1815–1868)

COBB (1815–1868)  , American political leader, was born at Cherry Hill, Jefferson county, Georgia, on the 7th of September 1815 . He graduated from Franklin College (University of Georgia) in 1834, and two years later was admitted to the bar . From 1837 to 1840 he was solicitor-general for the western circuit of his state; from 1843 to 1851 and from 1855 to 1857 he was a member of the National House of Representatives, becoming Democratic leader in that body in 1847, and serving as speaker in 1849–1851; from 1851 to 1853 he was governor of his state; and from March 1857 to December 186o he was secretary of the treasury in President Buchanan's cabinet . He was president of the convention of the seceded states which drafted a constitution for the Confederacy . In 1861 he was appointed colonel of a regiment and two years later was made a major-general . He died in New York on the 9th of October 1868 . He sided with President Jackson on the question of nullification; was an efficient supporter of President Polk's administration during the Mexican War; and was an ardent advocate of slavery extension into the Territories, but when the Compromise of 1850 had been agreed upon he became its staunch supporter as a Union Democrat, and on that issue was elected governor of Georgia by a large majority . In 186o, however, he ceased to be a Unionist, and became a leader of the secession movement . From the close of the war until his death he vigorously opposed the Reconstruction Acts .