14 Facts About Andrew Butler

Andrew Pickens Butler was an American lawyer, slaveholder, and United States senator from South Carolina who authored the Kansas-Nebraska Act with Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois.

Andrew Butler graduated from South Carolina College, now the University of South Carolina.

Andrew Butler was admitted to the South Carolina bar in 1818.

Andrew Butler had two wives; Susan Anne Sirr 1830 and Harriet Hayne who had his only child, Eloise.

Andrew Butler was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives as a young man, and in 1824 was elected to the South Carolina Senate.

Andrew Butler served two terms and part of a third in the state Senate before being appointed the judge of the session court in 1833.

In 1835, Andrew Butler was appointed the judge of the South Carolina Court of Common Pleas.

Andrew Butler was appointed to the United States Senate in 1846 as a States' Rights Democrat and elected thereafter to finish the term ending in 1849.

Andrew Butler was re-elected by the South Carolina legislature to a full term in 1848 and again re-elected in 1854.

Andrew Butler served in the Senate for the remainder of his life and was the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee during much of that time.

Andrew Butler was a co-author with Stephen A Douglas of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854.

South Carolina Congressman Preston Brooks, the first cousin once removed of Andrew Butler, considered Sumner's speech an attack on his family honor.

Andrew Butler later remarked that if present during the speech, he would have called Sumner to order, hoping to prevent further offense.

Andrew Butler was buried in the Butler Family Cemetery near Saluda.