For the Congressional Elections of 1852, Mississippi gained one more seat in Congress because of an increase in population taken from the 1850 Census. That took us from four Congressmen to five. However the Legislature was unable to meet to draw up the districts in time for the election so the fifth Congressman ran at large across the whole state (Democrat-soon-to-be Confederate General William Barksdale of Columbus defeated the Whig nominee Alexander Bradford of Holly Springs 34,538 to 29,107). That was the last time we had a Congressman elected at large.
In the 1854 elections, under the district lines you can see on the above map I drew with my not-so-hot map making skills, were the five new districts. (I used one of my favorite resources Maps of US to draw on). The five Congressmen elected in their respective districts were: District One: Daniel B Wright (re-elected – see more below), District Two: Hendley Bennett, District Three: Barksdale was re-elected and “given” a district, District Four: William Lake, and District Five: Governor/Congressman John Anthony Quitman. There is plenty more to say about several of these characters.
The other four Congressmen (besides Barksdale) and their opponents who ran in 1852 shaped up like this:
- District One – Newcomer Democrat Daniel Boone Wright of then Tippah eventually Benton County defeated sitting Congressman Reverend Benjamin Nabers of Holly Springs 8,984 to 8,414. When Nabers ran in 1851 he was elected as a Unionist Democrat (meaning he was all Democrat but was NOT for secession) and in 1853 he ran as a Whig.
- District Two – Democrat William Taylor Sullivan Barry of Columbus defeated sitting Congressman Jonathan Wilcox of Pontotoc 7,039 to 6,837. Like Congressman Nabers, Wilcox was elected a Unionist Democrat in 1851 and ran as a Whig in 1853. Barry would only serve one term and chose to come home and run for his old State House seat (which he won) and returned to Jackson to be elected speaker in 1855. Wilcox moved to Texas after his defeat but was soon elected to the Confederate Congress from Texas and died while serving in Richmond.
- District Three – Democrat Otho Singleton of Canton (who would be elected, defeated by Lake in 1854 and elected again from several other districts) defeated the often famous Alexander McClung of Vicksburg who was running as a Whig for an open seat. The seat had been held by former two-time Mississippi Attorney General John Freeman. Freeman, like Nabers and Wilcox, had been elected as a Unionist Democrat but had all of Congress he wanted.
- District Four – Democrat Wiley P. Harris of Copiah County was elected without opposition because he was the hand-picked successor to Congressman/Governor/Congressman/Senator Albert Gallatin Brown. Brown had already served in Congress one term from 1839-41, been governor for two terms, went back to the US House from 1847-53, and would be in the US Senate from 1854-1861.
This is the map of the districts before the 1853 elections with the added congressional seat:
Freeman, Barksdale, Brown, and Harris are all buried in the amazing Greenwood Cemetery in Jackson.