James Ferdinand Izlar

James Ferdinand Izlar (November 25, 1832 – May 26, 1912) was an American lawyer, Confederate veteran of the Civil War, and Democratic politician who served part of one term as a U.S. Representative from South Carolina in 1894 and early 1895. He was also a slave owner. His congressional service occurred during a significant period in American history, when the post-Reconstruction South was consolidating Democratic control and federal policy toward the region was being reshaped, and he participated in the legislative process representing the interests of his South Carolina constituents.

Izlar was born near Orangeburg, Orangeburg County, South Carolina, on November 25, 1832. He attended the common schools in his native region, reflecting the educational opportunities available to white children in the antebellum South. As a young man he left South Carolina to pursue higher education in Georgia, an experience that placed him within the broader intellectual and political currents of the southern states in the decade preceding the Civil War.

He enrolled at Emory College in Oxford, Georgia, and graduated in 1855. Following his graduation, Izlar returned to South Carolina and undertook the study of law. He read law in the traditional manner of the period and was admitted to the bar in 1858. He then commenced the practice of law in Orangeburg, establishing himself as a member of the local legal profession in the years immediately before the outbreak of the Civil War.

During the Civil War, Izlar served as an officer in the Confederate States Army. His Confederate service placed him among the many southern professionals who joined the military effort of the seceded states. After the defeat of the Confederacy and the end of the war in 1865, he resumed the practice of law in Orangeburg, rebuilding his career in the altered political and social landscape of Reconstruction-era South Carolina.

Izlar became increasingly active in Democratic Party politics as white Democrats sought to regain and consolidate control of state government. He served as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1884, participating in the national deliberations of his party. In South Carolina, he was elected a member of the State Senate, serving from 1880 to 1890. During this decade in the Senate he took part in shaping state legislation in the post-Reconstruction period. In 1889, while still a state senator, he was elected by the South Carolina General Assembly to be judge of the first judicial circuit, reflecting the confidence placed in his legal abilities and his standing within the state’s Democratic establishment.

Izlar’s judicial and legislative experience led to his selection for national office. He was elected as a Democrat to the Fifty-third Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Representative William H. Brawley. Izlar took his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives on April 12, 1894, and served until March 3, 1895. His tenure in Congress thus comprised part of one term, during which he contributed to the legislative process as a member of the Democratic Party representing South Carolina. He was not a candidate for renomination in 1894, and his service in the House concluded at the expiration of that term.

After leaving Congress, Izlar returned once more to Orangeburg and again engaged in the practice of law. He continued his legal work there until 1907, when he retired from active professional life. He spent his later years in Orangeburg, where he had long been a prominent figure in legal and political circles. James Ferdinand Izlar died at his home in Orangeburg, South Carolina, on May 26, 1912. He was interred in the Episcopal Cemetery in Orangeburg, closing a life that spanned the antebellum, Civil War, Reconstruction, and early twentieth-century eras in South Carolina.