COLQUITT, Walter T., lawyer, born in Halifax county, Virginia, 27 December, 1799; died in Macon, Georgia, 7 May, 1855. He removed with his parents to Georgia, entered Princeton College, but was not graduated, studied law in Milledgeville, Georgia, and was admitted to the bar in 1820. He began practice at Sparta, and afterward removed to Cowpens. At the age of twenty-one he was elected by the legislature a brigadier-general of militia. He became prominent in 1826 by contesting the district as the Troup candidate for congress against Lumpkin, the Clark candidate, who was elected by thirty-two majority. The same year he was elected judge of the Chattahoochee circuit, and was re-elected in 1829. In 1834 and 1837 he was a state senator. In 1838 he was elected to congress as a state-rights Whig, and took his seat on 2 December, 1839, but, having left the party with two colleagues after the nomination of Harrison for president, he resigned on 21 July, 1840. He was again elected to congress as a Van Buren democrat, serving from 1 February, 1842, till 3 March, 1843. He was then elected to the United States senate, and served from 4 December, 1843, till he resigned in 1848. He supported the Polk administration in the controversy relative to Oregon, and throughout the Mexican war was a prominent opponent of the Wilmot proviso. He was one of the most earnest speakers in the Nashville convention in 1850 in defense of the rights of the south. He had been licensed as a Methodist preacher in 1827, and, during the turmoil of a most exciting political career, was in the habit of officiating at the Methodist churches. He was one of the most successful lawyers in the state, and in criminal practice had no rival.--His son, Alfred Holt, statesman, born in Walton county, Georgia, 20

April, 1824, was graduated at Princeton in 1844, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1845, served during the Mexican war as a staff officer, with the rank of major, and in 1852 was elected to congress as a democrat, and served one term. In 1859 he was a member of the legislature, and in 1860 a presidential elector on the Breckinridge ticket. He was a member of the secession convert-tion of Georgia, entered the Confederate army as captain, was chosen colonel of the 6th Georgia infantry, promoted a brigadier-general, and, after serving some time in that grade, was commissioned a major general. In 1876 he was elected governor of Georgia for four years, and after the expiration of his term re-elected for two years under the new constitution. In 1882 he was elected United States senator for the term expiring 3 March, 1889.