Jesse Franklin

Jesse Franklin (March 24, 1760 – August 31, 1823) was a Democratic-Republican member of the United States Senate from North Carolina, serving nonconsecutive terms between 1799 and 1805 and between 1807 and 1813, and later the 20th Governor of North Carolina from 1820 to 1821. He was born in Orange County in the Colony of Virginia on March 24, 1760, the son of Bernard and Mary Franklin and the third of seven sons. He was part of a politically active family; his brother Meshack Franklin also later served in the United States Congress.

Franklin moved with his father to North Carolina in 1774, settling in the backcountry frontier that would become the principal stage of his early public life. During the American Revolutionary War he served with distinction in the patriot forces, ultimately attaining the rank of major. He took part in some of the most significant engagements in the southern theater, including the Battle of Kings Mountain, where he served as adjutant to Colonel Benjamin Cleveland, a relative, in Cleveland’s battalion. He also fought at the Battle of Guilford Court House. During the conflict he was captured by Loyalist (Tory) forces but managed to escape, and he continued to engage in partisan warfare against Tories in North Carolina until the end of the war. His Revolutionary War service was later commemorated in Greensboro, North Carolina, where a monument honors soldiers Joseph Winston, Jesse Franklin, and Richard Taliaferro, a gift of Governor Thomas M. Holt.

Following the Revolution, Franklin entered public life in North Carolina. He was elected to the North Carolina state legislature, serving in the House of Commons in 1793–1794 and again in 1797–1798. His legislative work at the state level led to his election as a Republican (Democratic-Republican) to the national House of Representatives. Franklin represented North Carolina in the Fourth Congress, serving a single term from March 4, 1795, to March 4, 1797. In this capacity he participated in the legislative process during a formative period of the early republic, representing the interests of his North Carolina constituents as the new federal government’s institutions and policies were taking shape.

Franklin advanced to the United States Senate as a Democratic-Republican and served his first senatorial term from March 4, 1799, to March 4, 1805. During the Eighth Congress he was chosen by his colleagues to serve briefly as President pro tempore of the United States Senate in 1804, placing him in the line of succession to the presidency during his tenure in that role. When his term expired, the North Carolina legislature considered him for re-election in December 1804. However, divisions among Republicans over his candidacy and the low regard in which Federalists held him combined to deny him another consecutive term. After leaving the Senate, he returned to state service as a member of the North Carolina Senate in 1805–1806.

In 1806, Franklin was again elected by the North Carolina legislature as a Democratic-Republican to the United States Senate, beginning his second term on March 4, 1807, and serving until March 4, 1813. During this second period in the Senate he became known as a firm supporter of President James Madison’s war measures in the years leading up to and during the War of 1812. He was also recognized as an opponent of monopolies and central banks, positions consistent with the Jeffersonian and Madisonian wing of the Democratic-Republican Party that favored limited centralized financial power and greater diffusion of economic opportunity. Across three terms in Congress—one in the House of Representatives and two in the Senate—Franklin contributed to the legislative process at a time when the United States was consolidating its independence and expanding its institutions.

After leaving the Senate, Franklin continued to serve the federal government in a diplomatic and administrative capacity. In 1817 he was appointed a commissioner to negotiate with the Chickasaw Nation near the site of present-day Memphis, Tennessee, an appointment he accepted at the request of General Andrew Jackson. This commission formed part of the broader federal effort to negotiate land cessions and define relations with Native American nations in the expanding western and southwestern territories of the United States.

Franklin reached the pinnacle of his state political career when he was elected Governor of North Carolina, serving from 1820 to 1821 as the state’s 20th governor. As governor he was regarded as conscientious and practical in his administration. He advocated reforms in the treatment of criminals, notably supporting the abolition of ear cropping and other harsh corporal punishments, reflecting a growing reformist sentiment in early nineteenth-century penal policy. During his term, the celebrated Canova statue of George Washington, sculpted by Italian neoclassical artist Antonio Canova, was placed in the North Carolina State Capitol. A new addition to the Capitol, containing a rotunda considered an appropriate and dignified setting, was constructed to display the statue, symbolizing the state’s reverence for the nation’s founding figures and its aspirations in public art and architecture.

Jesse Franklin died in Surry County, North Carolina, on August 31, 1823. He was originally interred in Surry County. In 1906, in recognition of his Revolutionary War service and long public career, his remains were moved to Guilford Courthouse National Military Park near Greensboro, North Carolina, where he is buried among other patriots of the Revolutionary era.