Spencer Darwin Pettis

Spencer Darwin Pettis (1802 – August 28, 1831) was an American attorney, state official, and Jacksonian member of the United States House of Representatives from Missouri, serving from 1828 until his death in 1831. He was the fourth secretary of state of Missouri and an early political ally of Senator Thomas Hart Benton and the Jacksonian Democratic movement in the West. Pettis is best known for his role in a fatal duel with Major Thomas Biddle in 1831, an event that dramatically underscored the intensity of political and personal conflicts in the Jacksonian era. In recognition of his prominence in early Missouri politics, Pettis County, Missouri, was later named in his honor.

Pettis was born in 1802 in Culpeper County, Virginia, to John Pettis and Martha (Reynolds) Pettis. His father was a veteran of the American Revolution, serving in the 1st Regiment, Virginia Line and seeing action at the Battle of Guilford Court House and other engagements, a background that placed the family within the patriotic traditions of the early republic. The exact date of Spencer Pettis’s birth and many details of his childhood are not known. Genealogical records indicate that he had at least two sisters, one of whom, Sally, became the mother of Thornton A. Jenkins, who later served as a naval officer during the American Civil War. Pettis received sufficient formal education to study law, and he qualified as a practicing attorney, a profession that provided a pathway into public life in the rapidly developing trans-Appalachian West.

In 1821 Pettis moved west to Missouri, part of the broader migration into the new state following its admission to the Union. He settled in the Boonslick region of central Missouri, an area of growing population and political influence, and opened a law practice in Fayette, the county seat of Howard County. His legal work and oratorical abilities quickly brought him to public attention. Despite his youth, and although he did not meet the minimum age of 24 required by the Missouri Constitution, Pettis was overwhelmingly elected to the Missouri General Assembly in 1824. His election reflected both the fluidity of political life on the frontier and the appeal of his strong Jacksonian views. He served less than a full term in the state legislature, but his brief tenure helped establish him as a rising figure in Missouri politics.

In July 1826 Missouri Governor John Miller appointed Pettis as the fourth secretary of state of Missouri. In this statewide office, Pettis became closely associated with U.S. Senator Thomas Hart Benton, one of the leading advocates of western interests and a principal architect of Jacksonian Democracy in the region. Under Benton’s influence, Pettis emerged as an ardent Jacksonian Democrat, aligning himself with the policies of Andrew Jackson on issues such as banking, federal internal improvements, and the expansion of political participation for white male citizens. Building on these connections and his growing reputation, Pettis sought federal office and, in 1828, was elected as Missouri’s sole member of the U.S. House of Representatives. At that time, most of Missouri’s population was concentrated along the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, and Pettis campaigned vigorously, printing and distributing large numbers of handbills across even the most remote parts of the state to secure support.

As a member of the Jackson Party representing Missouri in the Twenty-first Congress, Pettis contributed to the legislative process during a significant period in American history, participating in the democratic process and representing the interests of his frontier constituents. During his brief congressional career he cast several votes of historical interest. He voted in favor of a bill to continue work on the Cumberland Road, an important internal improvement intended to link the western territories more closely with the older states, and he supported a resolution urging the President of the United States to negotiate with other nations for the abolition of the African slave trade. These positions reflected both the Jacksonian emphasis on national development and the complex, evolving attitudes toward slavery and the slave trade in the early nineteenth century. Pettis was reelected in November 1830 to a second term in Congress, indicating sustained support among Missouri voters for his Jacksonian stance and his representation of their interests in Washington.

The events that led to Pettis’s death in office had their origins in the heated political climate of the 1830 congressional election season. Missouri’s Jacksonian Democrats, led by Senator Benton, engaged in intense debates over banking policy, currency stability, and the disposition of western lands. In the course of one such speech, Congressman Pettis sharply criticized Nicholas Biddle, president of the Second Bank of the United States, a central figure in the emerging “Bank War.” Major Thomas Biddle, a U.S. Army officer residing in the St. Louis area and Nicholas Biddle’s brother, took personal offense at Pettis’s remarks. A war of words soon unfolded in the St. Louis press through letters to the editor. In one letter, Major Biddle derided Pettis as “a dish of skimmed milk,” to which Pettis responded by questioning Biddle’s courage and manhood. Although Pettis secured reelection to Congress in November 1830, the personal and political feud between the two men did not subside.

Tensions escalated dramatically on July 9, 1831, when Major Biddle learned that Pettis, in poor health, was resting in a St. Louis hotel. Biddle entered Pettis’s room and assaulted him, beating him severely with a cowhide whip until other guests intervened to stop the attack. Fearing further violence while he recovered, Pettis had Biddle arrested on a peace warrant. During the ensuing court proceedings, Pettis attempted to draw a pistol with the apparent intention of shooting Biddle, but friends restrained him before he could fire. In response, Biddle declared that he would promptly accept any challenge that Pettis might issue. After recovering sufficiently from his injuries, Pettis formally challenged Biddle to a duel on August 21, 1831, and Biddle immediately accepted. As the challenged party, Biddle had the right to choose weapons and distance. Nearsighted and perhaps seeking to force Pettis to withdraw, Biddle selected pistols at the extraordinarily close range of five feet, a distance so short that the duel was widely regarded as suicidal and, by some observers and later historians, as a stratagem to induce Pettis to back down without bloodshed.

At five o’clock in the afternoon on August 27, 1831, Pettis and Biddle, accompanied by their respective seconds—Captain Martin Thomas for Pettis and Major Benjamin O’Fallon for Biddle—met on Bloody Island, a sandbar in the Mississippi River between St. Louis, Missouri, and the Illinois shore. Dueling was illegal in both Missouri and Illinois, but the island’s ambiguous jurisdiction made it a customary site for affairs of honor, and authorities often turned a blind eye to such encounters there. Large crowds gathered along the St. Louis riverfront to witness the confrontation. At the signal, the two men took the prescribed steps, turned, and fired at the nearly point-blank distance. When the smoke cleared, both Pettis and Biddle had fallen with mortal wounds. Before being carried from the field, they were reported to have exchanged words of mutual forgiveness. Congressman Spencer Darwin Pettis died in St. Louis the following day, August 28, 1831, while Major Biddle succumbed to his injuries on August 29. Both men were buried with full honors, and their funerals were said to be the largest held in St. Louis during the nineteenth century, reflecting the public fascination with the code of honor and the political passions of the era. Pettis never married and left no children. His death created a vacancy in Missouri’s representation in the House of Representatives, and William Henry Ashley was subsequently elected to complete Pettis’s term.