Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus (L.Q.C.) Lamar was born near Eatonton, in Putnam County, Georgia, in 1825. His father, a lawyer, committed suicide when Lucius was only 9 years old. He attended schools in Baldwin and Newton Counties, graduating from Emory College, Oxford, Georgia, in 1845. Like his father, Lamar studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1847. He married Virginia Longstreet, daughter of Judge Augustus Baldwin Longstreet, president of Emory College near Atlanta. When Judge Longstreet became president of the University of Mississippi, he hired his new son in law as a mathematics professor. In 1849, Lamar moved to Oxford, Mississippi, where he also practiced law. In 1857, Lamar won his first race for Congress. Mississippians developed a fondness for Lamar due to his courtly Southern manners, his devotion to duty, and his profound intelligence.
In 1862, Lamar was appointed by Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States of America, as Confederate minister to Russia, as well as special envoy to France and England. His skill as a speaker brought him great admiration in London. Lamar spent the late months of 1864 and the early months of 1865 as Judge Advocate for General A. P. Hill's Corps in the Army of Northern Virginia. The war cost the Lamar family. Both of his brothers were killed in battle, as well as his two law partners.
During the first years of Reconstruction, Lamar stayed out of the spotlight and painfully watched as Mississippi struggled under inadequate rule and military occupation. When he could stand it no longer, and believing he could make a difference, he ran for and won a seat in the U.S. Congress despite a ban on former Confederate officers holding federal office. Congress passed a special bill in December 1872 permitting him to take his seat in 1873, making Lamar the first Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives from Mississippi since the end of the Civil War.
Lamar's abilities to promote reconciliation and compromise played a pivotal role in the presidential election of 1876. Democrat Samuel Tilden lost to Republican Rutherford B. Hayes despite having more popular votes and seemingly more electoral votes. Mississippi voted overwhelmingly for Tilden. Congressman Lamar, soon to be Senator Lamar, helped to resolve the dispute by promoting the establishment of a nonpartisan Election Commission, which then chose Hayes as president. Mississippi voters became outraged over his supposed betrayal.
Lamar’s accomplishments are many, so take the time to research this dignified, fair-minded gentleman who represented Mississippi and America.
In January 1893, while still serving as a member of the U.S. Supreme Court, Lamar died of a heart attack while visiting family in Georgia. He was buried in Macon, Georgia, but his body was later moved to Oxford, Mississippi. He was buried with a copy of the U.S. Constitution in his right hand–the same copy he had carried with him for many years.
James L. Cummins is executive director of Wildlife Mississippi, a nonprofit conservation organization founded to conserve, restore, and enhance fish, wildlife, and plant resources throughout Mississippi. Their web site is www.wildlifemiss.org.
