Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar (II)

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:This article is about the Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court; for Justice Lamar's father of the same name who was a Georgia lawyer and state court judge, see Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar (I).

Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar (September 17, 1825 – January 23, 1893) was a politician and jurist from Mississippi. A United States Representative and Senator from, he also served as United States Secretary of the Interior in the first administration of President Grover Cleveland, as well as an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. He was a cousin of future associate justice Joseph Lamar, and nephew of Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar, second president of the Republic of Texas.

Lamar was born near Eatonton, Putnam County, Georgia. He graduated from Emory College (now Emory University), then located in Oxford, Georgia, in 1845, and married the daughter of Augustus Baldwin Longstreet, one of the school's early presidents. He was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity and later founded the fraternity's chapter at the University of Mississippi.

In 1849, Professor Longstreet moved to Oxford, Mississippi to take the position of Chancellor at the recently established University of Mississippi. His son-in-law followed him and took a position as a professor of mathematics for a single year. Lamar also practiced law in Oxford.

In 1852 Lamar moved to Covington, Georgia where he practiced law, and in 1853 he was elected to the Georgia State House of Representatives.

In 1855 he returned to Mississippi and was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1856, beginning his service in 1857. Lamar resigned from the House in December 1860 to participate in the Mississippi secession convention. When the American Civil War broke out he recived a commission as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Confederate Army under the command of his wife's cousin, General James Longstreet. He later resigned his commission to take a position in the Confederacy's diplomatic mission to France and Russia.

After having his civil rights restored following the war, Lamar returned to the House in 1873, serving there until 1877. Lamar would go on to represent Mississippi in the U.S. Senate from 1877 to 1885.

Lamar served as United States Secretary of the Interior under President Grover Cleveland from March 6, 1885 to January 10, 1888. As the first Democatic administration in 24 years, and as head of the corrupt Interior Department raft with political patronage, Lamar was besieged with visitors seeking jobs. One day a visitor came that was not seeking a job and, as the New York Times later reported:

In the outer room were several prominent Democrats, including a high judicial officer, several Senators, and any number of members of the House. Mr. Lamar waved his visitor to a chair without saying a word. . . . By and by his visitor said that he would go away and return at some other time, as he feared that he was keeping the people outside. "Pray sit still," requested Mr. Lamar. "You rest me. I can look at you, and you do not ask me for anything; and you keep those people out as long as you stay in."

As secretary, Lamar removed the Department's fleet of carriages for its officials and only used his personal one-horse rockaway.

President Cleveland appointed Lamar to the Supreme Court of the United States, and he was confirmed on January 16, 1888. He served on the court until his death on January 23, 1893. As of 2005, he is the only Mississippian to have served on the court.

Lamar was originally interred at Riverside Cemetery in Macon, Georgia, but was reinterred at St. Peter’s Cemetery in Oxford, Mississippi in 1894.

Three U.S. counties are named in his honor: Lamar County, Alabama; Lamar County, Georgia; and Lamar County, Mississippi. Lamar was also featured in John F. Kennedy's book, Profiles in Courage.

References

Edward Mayes, Lucius Q. C. Lamar: His Life, Times, and Speeches (Nashville, 1896)
[''The Department of Everything Else: Highlights of Interior History] (1989)
Congressional Biography http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=L000030
Senate summary of Profiles in Courage http://www.senate.gov/reference/common/generic/Profiles_LL.htm

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