Sampson Hale Butler

Sampson Hale Butler (January 3, 1803 – March 16, 1848) was a nineteenth-century lawyer, state legislator, county official, and U.S. Representative from South Carolina. He was born near Ninety Six in the Edgefield District of South Carolina, a region that produced a number of prominent political figures in the antebellum period. Raised in a rural setting, he attended local country schools, receiving the basic classical and literary education typical of aspiring professionals in the early republic.

Butler pursued higher education at South Carolina College in Columbia, an institution that later became the University of South Carolina. His studies there prepared him for a legal career, and he subsequently read law in the customary manner of the time. He was admitted to the bar in 1825 and commenced the practice of law in Edgefield, South Carolina, building a professional reputation in a community that was both a legal and political center in the state.

After establishing himself in Edgefield, Butler moved to Barnwell, South Carolina, where he continued the practice of law. His standing in the community led to his election as sheriff of Barnwell County, a position he held from 1832 to 1839. During this same period, he entered state politics, serving as a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives from 1832 to 1835. In these roles he was involved in local administration and state legislative affairs at a time when South Carolina politics were dominated by debates over states’ rights and federal authority.

Butler advanced to national office as a member of the Democratic Party. He was elected as a Democrat to the Twenty-sixth and Twenty-seventh Congresses, representing South Carolina in the U.S. House of Representatives. His congressional service began on March 4, 1839, and continued until his resignation on September 27, 1842. During his tenure in Congress, he served in Washington, D.C., at a time marked by partisan conflict between Democrats and Whigs over economic policy, banking, and the scope of federal power, although the specific details of his committee assignments and legislative initiatives are not extensively documented in surviving records.

Following his resignation from Congress, Butler returned to private life and resumed the practice of law. He later left South Carolina and relocated to Florida, which had been admitted as a state in 1845 and was undergoing rapid development and political organization. Butler settled in Tallahassee, the state capital, where he continued his legal work until his death. He died in Tallahassee, Florida, on March 16, 1848, and was interred in a cemetery in that city, closing a career that had spanned local, state, and national public service in the antebellum South.