Stephen Adams (politician)

Stephen Adams (October 17, 1807 – May 1, 1857) was a United States Representative and Senator from Mississippi.

Biography

Born in Pendleton, South Carolina, he moved with his parents to Franklin County, Tennessee in 1812. He attended the public schools, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1829, and was a member of the Tennessee Senate in 1833-1834.

He moved to Aberdeen, Mississippi in 1834 and commenced the practice of law; he was circuit court judge from 1837 to 1845, and was elected as a Democrat to the Twenty-ninth Congress, serving from March 4, 1845 to March 3, 1847. He again became judge of the circuit court in 1848, was a member of the Mississippi House of Representatives in 1850, and was a delegate to the State constitutional convention in 1851.

Adams was elected to the U.S. Senate on February 19, 1852, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Jefferson Davis and served from March 17, 1852, to March 4, 1857; while in the Senate he was chairman of the Committee on Retrenchment (Thirty-third and Thirty-fourth Congresses).

He moved to Memphis, Tennessee and resumed the practice of law; he died there in 1857, and was interred in Elmwood Cemetery.