James Jackson (Georgia politician)

James Jackson (September 21, 1757 – March 19, 1806) was an early Georgia politician of the Democratic-Republican Party. He was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1789 until 1791. He was also a U.S. Senator from Georgia from 1793 to 1795, and from 1801 until his death. In 1797 he was elected 23rd Governor of Georgia, serving from 1798 to 1801.

Jackson was born in Moretonhampstead, Devonshire, England. He immigrated at age 15 with his family to Savannah, Georgia in 1772. As a young man, Jackson became well known as a duelist with a fiery temper. In 1785, he married

Mary Charlotte Young, with whom he had five sons, four of whom later became prominent in the state's public affairs.

During the American Revolutionary War, he served in the Georgia Militia at the defense of Savannah, the Battle of Cowpens, and the recapture of Augusta and Savannah. When the British left Savannah in July 1782, General Anthony Wayne gave Jackson the privilege of receiving the keys to the city.

After the war, he built up his law practice in Savannah. Jackson was elected to the first Georgia state legislature. His interest in the military was rekindled when he joined the Georgia militia in the defense of Georgia frontier settlers against Indian inhabitants. In 1788, Jackson was elected governor of Georgia, but declined the position, citing his inexperience.

In 1789, Jackson was elected to the First United States Congress. As a Jeffersonian Republican, he vigorously opposed Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton's financial plans for federal assumption of the states' debts from the Revolutionary War. He was also strongly opposed to efforts to curtail slavery.

Defeated for reelection in 1791 by his former Revolutionary commander, Anthony Wayne (for whom Wayne County is named), in a campaign rife with charges of voting irregularities on the part of Wayne's supporters, Jackson contested the outcome. He was convinced that Wayne had not won his seat fairly, so he mounted a campaign against Wayne and his supporters, finally succeeding in removing Wayne from Congress. Making effective use of grand jury presentments and newspapers, Jackson secured a seat in the legislature and subsequently oversaw the ouster of Wayne's campaign manager from his state judgeship. Jackson then took his struggle for vindication to Congress, where, although he convinced the House that Wayne had not won fairly, he failed to regain his seat after the tie-breaking vote of the Federalist Speaker.

Meanwhile, the state of Georgia sold millions of acres of its western lands, called the Yazoo region, at extremely low prices to a group of investors. Jackson, believing that the sale was influenced by bribery of state legislatures, resigned his post in the Senate to run for a seat in the Georgia legislature in 1795. He won the election and began to lead a campaign to repeal the Yazoo land sale. In 1798, he won the election for governor of Georgia and proceeded to implement the legislation repealing the Yazoo land sale. Jackson placed blame for the Yazoo land fraud on his political enemies, including James Gunn and the Federalists. He built the Georgia Democratic-Republican party and led it to statewide dominance.

Jackson was re-elected to the Senate in 1801 and served until his death in 1806. He is buried in the Congressional Cemetery, a National Historic Landmark in Washington, DC.

Jackson was the patriarch of a political dynasty in Georgia. His son, Jabez Young Jackson, was elected Representative from Georgia in the Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth United States Congress. James Jackson's grandson, also named James Jackson, was a U.S. Representative from Georgia, a judge advocate on the staff of General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, and a trustee of the University of Georgia.

James Jackson is the namesake of Jackson County, Georgia, James Jackson Parkway Northwest in Atlanta, Georgia, and Fort James Jackson in Savannah.