Phillips, P. (Philip), 1807-1884

Philip Phillips (December 13, 1807 – January 14, 1884) was an American lawyer and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he represented Alabama's 1st congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1853 to 1855. He was the first Jewish American elected to the House from Alabama.

Born in Charleston, South Carolina and educated at the Middletown Military Academy in Middletown, Connecticut, he returned to Charleston in 1825, where he studied law. After being admitted to the South Carolina bar in 1829, he began his legal practice at the town of Cheraw, South Carolina. He was a member of the Nullification Convention in the Nullification Crisis of 1832 and continued to represent Chesterfield County in the South Carolina General Assembly in 1834/35. In 1835, Phillips began the practice of law at Mobile, Alabama. In 1840 and 1846, he published a digest of the decisions of the Supreme Court of Alabama, and in 1849, he was elected Chairman of the State Convention called for the purpose of promoting internal improvements. In 1852, Phillips was elected as U.S. Representative from Alabama's 1st congressional district to the 33rd U.S. Congress. There he was closely associated with Stephen A. Douglas and largely responsible for the final language of the portion of the notorious Kansas-Nebraska Act that specified that the Missouri Compromise of 1820 be "inoperative and void" for Kansas and Nebraska, but not technically repealed. In his memoirs Phillips recognized that this action probably "hastened the crises of 1861."

Phillips declined reelection to U.S. House, but remained at Washington, and continued his legal practice there. When the Civil War began he, being a Unionist, attempted to remain but was ultimately sent to New Orleans, later taking up residence in LaGrange, Georgia. After the war Phillips resumed his law practice, first in New Orleans and finally in 1867, after the Supreme Court voided the Test Oath of 1862, in Washington, D.C.. There he gradually became one of the leaders of the Bar, drawing most of his clients from the South. He generally practiced as a lawyer's lawyer, almost entirely before the U.S. Supreme Court, and appeared in over 400 cases.

Phillips died January 14, 1884, in Washington, D.C. and is buried in Laurel Grove Cemetery in Savannah, Georgia. He achieved a solid reputation as a thoughtful moderate among the leading national figures of his day.