Lucius Q. C. Lamar, 1888-1893

LUCIUS Q. C. LAMAR was born in Eatonton, Georgia, on September 17, 1825. He was graduated from Emory College in 1845 and read law in Macon, Georgia. After his admission to the bar in 1847, he moved to Oxford, Mississippi, to practice law. In 1852, Lamar returned to Georgia, established a law practice in Covington, and the next year won election to the Georgia Legislature. He returned to Mississippi in 1855, and in 1857 he was elected to the United States House of Representatives. Lamar resigned from Congress on the eve of the Civil War and served for two years as an officer in the Confederate Army. For the last two years of the War, Lamar served as a Judge Advocate for the Army of Northern Virginia under General Robert E. Lee. At the end of the War, Lamar returned to Mississippi to practice law. He received a pardon for his services to the Confederacy, and in 1872 he was re-elected to the United States House of Representatives. In 1877, he was elected to the United States Senate. Lamar resigned from the Senate during his second term to accept an appointment as Secretary of the Interior. President Cleveland nominated Lamar to the Supreme Court of the United States on December 6, 1887. The Senate confirmed the appointment on January 16, 1888. Lamar served five years on the Supreme Court and died on January 23, 1893, at the age of sixty-seven.