Robert Huntington Adams

Robert Huntington Adams (1792 – July 2, 1830) was an American lawyer and politician from the state of Mississippi who briefly served as a member of the United States Senate. A Jacksonian senator representing Mississippi, he contributed to the legislative process during one term in office, serving during a significant period in American history and participating in the democratic process on behalf of his constituents. His national career was abruptly cut short when he died suddenly six months after his election to the Senate.

Adams was born in 1792 in Rockbridge County, Virginia. As was common in the late eighteenth century, the exact day and month of his birth were not recorded. In his youth he learned and practiced the trade of barrelmaking, working for several years as a cooper. Despite this humble beginning, he pursued formal education and, by 1806, had attained sufficient learning to graduate from Washington College (now Washington and Lee University) in Lexington, Virginia.

After completing his collegiate studies, Adams read law and was admitted to the bar. He began his legal practice in Knoxville, Tennessee, where he established himself as a young attorney. Following a brief residence in Nashville, he moved further southwest to Natchez, Mississippi. In Natchez he rose to prominence both as a lawyer and as a public figure, gaining a reputation that would soon carry him into elective office. Contemporaries, including future U.S. Senator Henry S. Foote, later recalled Adams as an able orator who, despite what was regarded as an inferior formal education, could speak compellingly on a wide range of subjects, giving listeners the impression that they were in the presence of “one of nature’s most wonderful productions.”

Adams entered state-level politics in Mississippi in 1828, when he was elected to the Mississippi House of Representatives, representing a district that included the city of Natchez. His service in the state legislature coincided with the ascendancy of Andrew Jackson and the consolidation of the Jacksonian movement in the South and West. As a member of what was then commonly called the Jackson Party, Adams aligned himself with the emerging Democratic forces that advocated for Jacksonian principles in state and national affairs.

In the early nineteenth century, United States senators were chosen by state legislatures, a system that sometimes produced rapid and unexpected political advancement. This was the case for Adams, who, scarcely a year after entering the Mississippi House of Representatives, was selected by the legislature to fill the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by the death of Senator Thomas B. Reed. In a four-man field, Adams narrowly won election to the Senate. A Jacksonian, he was sworn in as a United States senator from Mississippi on January 6, 1830, and took his seat in Washington, D.C. He served through the winter and spring session of Congress, participating in the legislative work of the Senate during a formative period in the Jacksonian era, before returning to Mississippi at the close of the session in May 1830.

Not long after his return to Natchez, Adams was suddenly taken ill. His promising career ended abruptly when he died on July 2, 1830, at the age of 38. He was interred in Natchez City Cemetery in Natchez, Mississippi. His death placed him among the early members of the United States Congress who died in office during the period from 1790 to 1899. Henry S. Foote later reflected that there was “no knowing what amount of fame he might have acquired, or what wonders he would have achieved upon the theatre of national affairs” had his life and Senate service not been prematurely cut short.