US Congressman. He is best known for his loyalty to the Union before and during the Civil War. He attended the Somerville Academy in Morgan County and became a school teacher in northwest Alabama. On December 24, 1860, he was elected as a delegate to the Alabama secession convention by the citizens of Winston County. He sided with the so-called "cooperationists" who had no particular platform but rather a diverse spectrum of political, economic, and social ideologies. They believed that Alabama should not immediately secede and any ordinance of secession should be further ratified by the state's voters. He voted against the ordinance which was passed, and refused to sign it. He returned to Winston County and on July 4, 1861, he was the principal speaker at a public forum at Looney's Tavern in Double Springs, Alabama. In his speech he declared that Winston County should abstain from the war and be neutral to both the Confederacy and the Union, but the state of Alabama refused to recognize the declaration and argued the actions were unconstitutional. Later in 1861, he was elected to the Alabama state legislature but refused to attend because all representatives were required to swear an oath to the Confederacy. His continued support of the Union and opposition to the Confederacy finally forced him to leave his home and he took refuge in the mountains of north Alabama. In July 1862, he was caught and arrested by the Confederate Army for treason, to include the urging of Alabama men to enlist in the Union Army. He was expelled by the Alabama legislature and remained in Confederate custody, and at one point was sent to a prison in Salisbury, North Carolina. He was returned to Madison County, Alabama, released, and in mid-1863 was rearrested for advocating that Alabama should surrender to the Union and seek peace but he was never tried. He remained a political prisoner until the Confederacy surrendered in April 1865. In September 1865, he was elected to Alabama's constitutional convention. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1867 and practiced law in Decatur, Alabama. He served as a Republican elector in 1868 and 1872 when Ulysses S. Grant won the presidency. On May 31, 1869, President Grant appointed him to the US Consul at Elsinore, Denmark, and he served in that post until he was elected to Congress as a Republican in 1873, serving until 1875. He was then appointed Appraiser of Merchandise for the Port of Mobile and Alabama's Assistant Collector of Internal Revenue and worked in these political positions until 1884. He was also a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1884.