Bouligny, John Edward, 1824-1864

John Edward Bouligny (February 5, 1824 – February 20, 1864) was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives representing the state of Louisiana. He served one term as a member of the Know Nothing movement's anti-immigrant American Party. During his term, Louisiana seceded from the Union, but Bouligny remained in Washington and refused to resign. He was the only member of Congress from Louisiana to not resign after the state seceded.

Bouligny, who went by his middle name Edward, was born in New Orleans. He was son of Louisiana state Representative Louis Bouligny and Elizabeth Virginie D'Hauterive. His uncle, Charles Dominique Joseph Bouligny, had served one term as U.S. Senator from Louisiana in the 1820s and his grandfather, Francisco Bouligny, was a high-ranking Spanish colonial official and military governor in the late 18th century in Spanish Louisiana. Bouligny attended public schools in New Orleans before studying law at Transylvania University and being admitted to the bar. In 1852, he was appointed "assistant-appraiser of merchandize" for the U.S. Custom House in New Orleans. by President Millard Fillmore.

Bouligny became involved with Know Nothing politics in the 1850s and by 1855 was a party secretary in the state. In contrast to the national party, the Louisiana American Party refused to adopt a religious test for membership, making it welcoming to pro-slavery, anti-immigrant former Whigs, including Catholic Creoles like Bouligny. Bouligny was elected recorder for the Fourth Municipal District of New Orleans in 1856, making him responsible for trying and sentencing cases involving public nuisances and petty crimes. In 1859, Bouligny narrowly won the American Party nomination as the candidate for Louisiana's 1st congressional district, winning the November election with a plurality of the vote. In the 1860 presidential election, Bouligny publicly supported the Democratic candidate Stephen A. Douglas. Bouligny was strongly opposed to Louisiana's secession to join the Confederate States of America, stating that he answered not to the Louisiana secession convention but to the people who elected him. He retained his seat in Congress after Louisiana withdrew from the Union on January 26, 1861, until the expiry of his term on March 3, 1861.

Bouligny returned to New Orleans and in November 1861 stood unsuccessfully for election as a justice of the peace. In 1862, he ran for reelection to his vacant seat but was handily defeated. Bouligny later returned to Washington where he died at his father-in-law's house in February 1864. He was interred at Congressional Cemetery.