- George M. Bibb
Infobox US Cabinet official
name=George Mortimer Bibb
image_width=200px
order=17th
title=United States Secretary of the Treasury
term_start=July 4 ,1844
term_end=March 7 ,1845
predecessor=John C. Spencer
successor=Robert J. Walker
birth_date=birth date|1776|10|30|mf=y
birth_place=Prince Edward County, Virginia , U.S.
death_date=death date and age|1859|4|14|1776|10|30
death_place=Georgetown,Washington, D.C.
party=Democrat
spouse=
profession=Politician ,Lawyer
religion=George Mortimer Bibb (
October 30 ,1776 –April 14 ,1859 ) was an American politician.Bibb was born in
Prince Edward County, Virginia , graduated fromHampden-Sydney College and theCollege of William & Mary , then studied law. He was admitted to the bar and practiced law inVirginia andLexington, Kentucky . After making a permanent move to Kentucky he was elected to theKentucky House of Representatives in 1806, 1810 and again in 1817. He was appointed a judge of theKentucky Court of Appeals in 1808 and then chief justice through 1810.In 1811 he was elected to the
United States Senate fromKentucky and served until 1814 when he again returned to Lexington to work as a lawyer. He moved toFrankfort, Kentucky in 1816 and sided with the New Court faction in theOld Court-New Court controversy in the 1820s. He was again namedChief Justice of the Kentucky Court of Appeals in 1827, serving for a year.He was re-elected to the
United States Senate in 1829 and served as aJacksonian Democrat through 1835. During the21st Congress he was chairman of theU.S. Senate Committee on Post Office and Post Roads .He was chancellor of the
Louisville Chancery Court from 1835 through 1844 and in 1844 became PresidentJohn Tyler 's fourthUnited States Secretary of the Treasury serving through 1845.He was a very aged man when he assumed his Treasury position, dressing "in antique style, with kneebreeches." Bibb's "Annual Report on the State of the Finances" for 1844 consisted of an elaborate compilation of statistics detailing the financial history of the nation since 1789. In addition, he presented a solid argument for the establishment of a "sinking fund," accumulated through regular deposits and used to pay the interest and principal on the national debt. Bibb advocated using Treasury surplus revenue from customs and internal revenue collection to supply the sinking fund. Such a fund had been used effectively to reduce the deficit from 1789 to 1835, but Bibb was unable to revive it.
After this he was a lawyer in
Washington, D.C. , and an assistant in theU.S. Attorney General 's office.He died in
Georgetown, D.C. , in 1859, and is buried in Frankfort Cemetery.External links
* [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=7643522 Find A Grave profile for George Bibb]
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