Benjamin Harvey Hill

Benjamin Harvey Hill (September 14, 1823 – August 16, 1882) was a U.S. Representative, U.S. senator and a Confederate senator from the state of Georgia.

Hill was born September 14, 1823 in Hillsboro, Georgia in Jasper County. He attended the University of Georgia (UGA) in Athens, Georgia where he was a member of the Phi Kappa Literary Society and graduated in 1844 with first honors. He was then swiftly admitted to the Georgia bar later in 1844. He married Caroline E. Holt in Athens, GA in 1845.

His political life was full, and he ran under the aegis of a remarkable number of parties. He was elected to the state legislature of Georgia in 1851 as a member of the Whig Party. He then supported Millard Filmore running on the Know-Nothing ticket in 1856, and was an elector for that party in the Electoral College. In 1859, we was elected to the state senate as a Unionist. In 1860, he was again an elector, this time for John Bell and the Unionist party. He was a member of the Georgia secession convention on January 16, 1861, and spoke publicly against the dissolution of the Union there. However, he did later vote for secession. As the Confederate government was formed, he became a member of the Confederate Provisional Congress and was subsequently elected to the Confederate States Senate, a term which he held throughout its existence.

At one point in the Senate, Hill and fellow Sen. William Lowndes Yancey had to be separated by other members of that body after a bloody scuffle on the floor. [http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB115231052552401057.html] Ferguson, Stuart, "The Zealotry of the Convert: Slavery's Firebrand Defender," book review of Eric H. Walther's "William Lowndes Yancey and the Coming of the Civil War," in The Wall Street Journal
July 8, 2006; page P9; accessed on July 14, 2006]

At the end of the Civil War, he was arrested by the Union and confined in Fort Lafayette from May until July in 1865.

Unlike many Confederate politicians, he had a long and distinguished career as a "reconstructed" Southerner and U.S. politician. He spoke out passionately against Radical Reconstruction and in the summer of 1867 made a series of speeches in Atlanta, the most famous being the Davis House speech of July 16, 1867, denouncing the Reconstruction Acts of 1867. His courage and eloquence enhanced his regional fame and won him national recognition. In 1875 he was elected to the U. S. House of Representatives where he quickly won a reputation as a spokesman for the South. He was elected to the U.S. Senate on Jan. 26, 1877.

He served as a member of the U. S. House of Representatives from May 5, 1875 - March 3, 1877, and then as a member of the U. S. Senate from March 4, 1877, until his death August 16, 1882. His obituary was in the Atlanta Constitution, August 17, 1882, on the front page. He is buried in historic Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta, GA.

There is a ft to m|50 statue of Hill inside the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta, Georgia, as well as a larger than life portrait in the Capitol Rotunda. Ben Hill County, Georgia is named in his honor.

References

*CongBio|H000587

External links

* [http://www.sos.state.ga.us/onlinetour/2ndfloor/sculpture/72hill.html State of Georgia sculpture web site]
* [http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-2490 bio at New Georgia encyclopedia]