Macon, Nathaniel, 1757-1837

<p>Nathaniel Macon (December 17, 1757 – June 29, 1837) was an American politician who represented North Carolina in both houses of Congress. He was the fifth Speaker of the House, serving from 1801 to 1807. He was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1791 to 1815 and a member of the United States Senate from 1815 to 1828. He opposed ratification of the United States Constitution and the Federalist economic policies of Alexander Hamilton. Thomas Jefferson dubbed him <i>"Ultimas Romanorum"</i>—“the last of the Romans”.</p>

<p>During his political career he was spokesman for the Old Republican faction of the Democratic-Republican Party that wanted to strictly limit the United States federal government. Along with fellow Old Republicans John Randolph and John Taylor, Macon frequently opposed various domestic policy proposals, and generally opposed the internal improvements promoted by Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun.</p>

<p>An earnest defender of slavery, Macon voted against the Missouri Compromise in 1820. In the 1824 presidential election, he received several electoral votes for vice president, despite declining to run, as the stand-in running-mate for William Harris Crawford. He also served as president of the 1835 North Carolina constitutional convention.</p>

<p>After leaving public office, he served as a trustee for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and protested President Andrew Jackson's threat to use force during the Nullification Crisis.</p>

MACON, NATHANIEL, (uncle of Willis Alston and Micajah Thomas Hawkins, and great-grandfather of Charles Henry Martin), a Representative and a Senator from North Carolina; born near Warrenton, Warren County, N.C., December 17, 1757; pursued classical studies and attended the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University); served in the Revolutionary War; elected to the State senate 1781, 1782, and 1784; moved to a plantation on the Roanoke River; elected in 1785 to the Continental Congress but declined to serve; elected to the Second and to the twelve succeeding Congresses and served from March 4, 1791, until December 13, 1815, when he resigned, having been elected Senator; Speaker of the House of Representatives (Seventh through Ninth Congresses); chairman, Committee on Revisal and Unfinished Business (Fifth Congress), Committee on Claims (Sixth Congress), Committee on Public Expenditures (Thirteenth Congress); elected as a Democratic Republican to the United States Senate on December 5, 1815, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Francis Locke; reelected in 1819 and 1825 and served from December 13, 1815, until his resignation on November 14, 1828; served as President pro tempore of the Senate during the Nineteenth Congress; chairman, Committee on Foreign Relations (Fifteenth, Nineteenth and Twentieth Congresses), Committee to Audit and Control the Contingent Expenses (Seventeenth Congress); unsuccessful candidate for vice president of the United States in 1825; president of the State constitutional convention in 1835; presidential elector on the Democratic ticket in 1836; died at 'Buck Spring,' near Macon, Warren County, N.C., June 29, 1837; interment at 'Buck Spring.'