James Lawrence Orr

Infobox Officeholder
name =James Lawrence Orr

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order =26th
office =Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
term_start =December 7, 1857
term_end =March 4, 1859
president =James Buchanan
predecessor =Nathaniel P. Banks
successor =William Pennington
order2 =Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from South Carolina's 2nd district
term_start2 =March 4, 1849
term_end2 =March 3, 1853
predecessor2 =Richard F. Simpson
successor2 =William Aiken
order3 =Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from South Carolina's 5th district
term_start3 =March 4, 1853
term_end3 =March 4, 1859
predecessor3 =Armistead Burt
successor3 =John D. Ashmore
order4 =Representative to the Provisional Confederate Congress
from South Carolina
term4 =1862
order5 =Confederate States Senator
from South Carolina
term_start5 =February 18, 1862
term_end5 =May 10, 1865
order6 =73rd Governor of South Carolina
term_start6 =November 29, 1865
term_end6 =July 6, 1868
lieutenant6 =W.D. Porter
predecessor6 =Benjamin F. Perry
successor6 =Robert K. Scott
birth_date =May 12, 1822
birth_place =Anderson County, South Carolina
death_date =May 5, 1873 (aged 50)
death_place =Saint Petersburg, Russia
nationality =
party =Democratic
otherparty =
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relations =
children =
residence =
alma_mater =University of Virginia
occupation =
profession =Law
net worth =
religion =


website =
footnotes =

James Lawrence Orr (May 12, 1822ndash May 5, 1873) was an American politician who served as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives in the United States Congress. He later served in the Confederate Congress during the American Civil War and was a postbellum Governor of South Carolina.

Orr was born at Craytonville, South Carolina located in Anderson County, South Carolina.He graduated at the University of Virginia in 1841 and became an attorney. He served as a Democratic Congressman from South Carolina from 1849 to 1859, serving as the Speaker of the House from 1857 to 1859. Congressman Orr was an advocate of states' rights who used his position of power to assist those persons who promoted the continuation of slavery. He foresaw the dreadful consequences of the decision by South Carolina to attempt to secede from the Union, but he remained loyal to that State. He was one of the three commissioners sent to Washington, D.C. to effect the transfer of property to the State of South Carolina.

Afterward, he organized and commanded Orr's Regiment of South Carolina Rifles, which saw little action before he resigned in 1862 and entered the Confederate Senate. Ironically, the regiment continued to bear his name throughout the war and fought in some of the most prominent battles of the Army of Northern Virginia. In the Senate, he remained a strong proponent of states' rights.

At the end of the war, Orr was elected governor in 1865 of the state of South Carolina and served until 1868 with the passage of a new state constitution. He died in St. Petersburg, Russia shortly after being named Minister to Russia by President Ulysses S. Grant. He is interred in the First Presbyterian Church Cemetery in Anderson, SC.